Star Alliance - taxes charged?
 

I just booked 3 saver tickets to Europe on Air Canada with my dividend miles. I was told on the phone by the operator that I would be charged a 15$ fee for making the reservation and 98$ in taxes for the 3 seats. When they tried my credit card I was told there was something wrong with the system and it would be best to call back ofter 24 hours and my card would be charged then. So I called back to pay, assuming the fees wouldn't be changing and my credit card was charged. I finally got my confirmation email, and I was charged $242.04! It was itemized as $80.68 per passenger and I was not charged the $15 reservation fee. What's going on? Has this happened to anyone else? Which operator was right?

$80 - $90 in taxes for each seat sounds right for a trip to Europe. The first agent was incorrect or you misheard that it would be ~$90 total.

You always have to pay tax per seat for *A and other award tickets. It's nice that they didn't charge you the $15 phone booking free.

Welcome to FT!

Thanks! I wanted make sure before I called back, again, to deal with it. I thought the first one was low and even asked the agent if it was 98$ for all three together, and he confirmed that. But if what I was charged is correct I'll take it, minus the 15$ fee!

Well, there is no way that the initial operator was correct regarding the taxes. The last europe award ticket I booked (on usair) incurred taxes of 117.82 (PIT-LGW-PIT)

Last month, used US miles to booke TG from TPE-BKK-CNX (open jaw) HKT-BKK-TPE. Taxes were only $9.80, but I had to pay a rush fee and FedEx express fee b/c I was leaving for Asia in 5 days....

Similar thing happened to me. I wanted to use a voucher (voluntarily bumped from previous flight) to get a "free" RT ticket to Costa Rica. So I called to reserve on the phone -- although I'd have to go to the airport to redeem the voucher. I was told on the phone that there were no fees, taxes, etc. When I got to the airport, I was charged the appropriate taxes/fees. The agent on the phone didn't have the correct info.

To be for sure, we'd need to know where you are going in Europe. I'm paying approx $58 a ticket in fees and taxes for MUC-WRO-LHR. The $15 booking fee was waived due to the fiasco I had. (but hey I finally got my paper ticket on LH! Thank God for FT and its angels!!) Sounds about right to me and maybe you did get hit with the $15 fee.

And was your agent in Manilla, Mexico or the States? Cause the Manilla agents frequently are wrong, wrong, WRONG when it comes to reward travel. And are you on US Air metal or any Star Alliance metal?

Is the $ 15 fee supposed to apply for international partner awards? I was just told that it does, which seems unfair because they can't be booked online.

But that's normal isn't it? I don't understand the relevance of your post, forgive me.... there is no irregularity there...

On the confirmation email, under each passenger it itemized the taxes as follows:

USD FARE 00
TAX-USD 5.00 YC
TAX-USD 75.68 XT
USD TTL 80.68


Now it gets even stranger, when I checked the reservation online yesterday it had total taxes paid as $161. I just double checked again this morning and the total was back to the $242.04. It hasn't appeared on my credit card yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be for the more expensive amount.

Oh and it's three of us flying BOS-YUL-CDG

Here is a breakdown for award charges BOS-PHL-CDG, so by routing through Canada, the charge seems right.

I booked PHL to Heathrow via Toronto on AirCanada with a $50K award (4 seats) and for each ticket was charged about $90 in taxes/fees.

I thought it was because we were going through Canada.

It is high, but still a bargain considering the regular price of a ticket.