RTW ticketing and TAs
 

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can advise me on how TAs price up these tickets? Do they have to queue the bookings to the airline they're issuing through for final approval, or can they simply charge any price willy nilly?

Currently I am dealing with a TA for an LLGLOB26 because AA will only hold seats for no longer than 21 days. Availability on some segments is tight and so I was keen to book it asap, but I can't afford to pay for it till at least JAN next year - hence the TA.

The itinerary:
MEL-SYD QF
xSYD-HNL AA codeshare op by QF
HNL-DFW AA
xDFW-JFK AA
JFK-LHR AA
xLHR-TXL BA
TXL-LHR BA
xLHR-HKG BA
HKG-MEL QF

I insisted that the TA issue the ticket through AA for the lower fuel fines and so I can EVIP the AA operated segments, to which he agreed. The total tax and surcharges come up to A$647 per the TA's ticketing dept.

For context I had a DONE4 ex-NRT which was also issued with AA, it was issued with 16 segments, had one hit of UK premium APD (so 80 quid or approximately A$200), and of course had far more stopovers. The tax came up to about JPY71 900 (approx A$680).

So I was thinking that the TA got the tax wrong or perhaps used the wrong airline's tax calculation as A$647 sounds a little excessive? There's no UK APD, only 4 stopovers (HNL, JFK, TXL, HKG), and 9 segments. And as far as I know AA only levies fuel fines for its own oceanic segments, and no fines at all for AA domestic segments nor the QF/BA segments.

So is there any way I could make sure that they've verified the pricing with AA? Or could I simply ring up AA and have them verify the charges myself?

Cheers. :)

It depends....

TAs do have to send the entire itinerary to the issuing airline's ticketing dept to get taxes and surcharges etc. So if they are issuing it on AA document they have to send it to AA for pricing. But some TAs send it to whoever they can get, ie QF as there may not be a AA ticketing dept in Australia. Or that AA will insist that TAs send their itins to QF. So QF may in the end price the itin and the TA will issue the ticket on AA document.

Why not? It's just another quote and who knows, they might even extend the ticketing deadline. I know they usually don't, but they have done it for me, on request, right up to the date of departure.

Thanks.
Well there are AA ticketing people in SYD, so I hope the TA will queue the booking there eventually.

In the event that the TA prices up the itinerary with QF but issues it on AA document, wouldn't that mean the pricing is complete with QF fuel surcharges etc? :eek:

But from the way things are happening it looks like the TA is doing everything through an internal ticketing dept.

I actually spoke to the ATW desk prior to going to the TA. There's no way they'd budge on the 21 day thing. Apparently it can be extended but only up to a max of 46 days. :(

As I already have a booking held with the TA, I don't think I can get AA to make a duplicate booking just to verify the tax though? It'd result in auto-cancellation wouldnt it?

Only if the second booking is in the same name as the first.

Well I managed to get the AA tariffs desk to price out my existing itinerary by giving them the AA record locator and having them complete the bits they can't see with info segments.

I knew it... the TA is overcharging me by approximately A$200! :mad:

Well, the TA does have to put quite a bunch of work into a RTW trip, so maybe they already included their service charge in their quote.

Where? Where? What's the number!?

Unfortunately, I suspect you're referring to the old North Sydney AA office which, as far as I know, was closed a year or so ago .... :(

.... which, I would have to suggest, is pretty good service from AA ....

They list the 'service charge' separately from the 'taxes and surcharges.' What I meant to say was they've miscalculated the taxes and fuel surcharges by an extra A$200.

AA SYD still exists; they've moved to Mascot. And they don't deal directly with pax these days. You get routed to IndiAA to book flights, and your records get sent to the AA office at Mascot for ticketing.

Number is 1 800 673 486.

IME IndiAA is quite ok at straightforward round trips. I've done a couple of ex-MEL itineraries with them thus far, and some domestic USA flights since AA.com doesn't accept Aussie credit cards. I've yet to try redeeming an AAward through them. But don't even think about setting up an ATW with them unless you've got LOTS of time and patience.

Good grief, the TA's ticketing dept insisted that they're correct and that they've used AA's "template" to charge tax/fuel fines.

AA's tax/fuel = A$473.75 (which already includes A$218.65 of YQ)
TA's tax/fuel = A$647 (excluding service charge)

AA's amount also tallied with what was worked out by a TA on another travel forum.

Any idea how I could convince the TA to reconcile the figures with AA?

Unfortunately I can't cancel the itin and book with AA due to reasons cited above and also availability has gone down to L0 on some of the crucial segments.

Get a hard copy of AA's fare construction and show it to the TA?

Find out which segments are creating the extra fuel charges and amend the itinerary to work around them? Even if you have to reissue right after you take off, you might end up saving money overall.

Neither the ATW desk nor the UK office would help me with this.

The only way you are going to be able to do that is by showing the TA exactly where they have gone wrong. Is the TA willing to give you a breakdown of taxes? If yes, you can probably check the line items yourself and discover where the discrepancy lies. If the TA will not give you a breakdown you are up the creek.