Fees for Award Travel on AA

[euro]

I'm curious to see whether my expectations are just out of date, or this is an unusual circumstance:

I used to be charged a small fee ($20 maybe?) for booking award travel on American Airlines. Yesterday, I tried to book a couple of tickets for DW and I for a trip to Europe and was confronted with the following:
Cost for the return trip (this is in July, so top of the season - therefore higher than minimum number of miles required per ticket) is 190'000 miles for two tickets, plus $862 in cash!
I'm fine with the 190k miles, but $432 for each ticket in "fees and taxes"? That seems incredible! Is this really the going rate? Is it because international is different from domestic? What am I missing? This massive fee makes using air miles a very dubious value.

 

[Fedup]

If you go through London, that's the charge. Just don't go through London. I remember paying something similar for my kid's ticket. $300 for a one way ticket to London with about 20,000 miles.

 

[euro]

Thanks! Well, I do go through London, but the UK specific "security charge" that is listed is only $35. The biggest portion seems to be "carrier imposed fees" or some such (working from memory here as I'm not on my computer right now).
I will definitely check out non-London routes - do you know if that is a fee imposed by the airport or by the UK in general?



[Edit]

Here is the breakdown (though today, it seems a little bit different form yesterday)

Base fare, taxes and carrier-imposed fees


Adult fare, taxes and carrier-imposed fees

Base fare $0.00 USD
Per person
CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES $288.00 USD
PASSENGER AND SECURITY CHARGE (SWITZERLAND) $34.90 USD
PASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE (UNITED KINGDOM) $23.40 USD
US APHIS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $3.96 USD
TRANSPORTATION TAX (UNITED STATES) $36.00 USD
PASSENGER FACILITY CHARGE (UNITED STATES) $13.50 USD
US FEDERAL INSPECTION FEE (UNITED STATES) $7.00 USD
US SECURITY FEE (UNITED STATES) $11.20 USD
US CUSTOMS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $5.50 USD
Total Adult taxes and carrier-imposed fees $423.46 USD
Per person

 

[Fedup]

I've read go to Dublin is better way to avoid the charge. I'm not sure it's London or U.K. Specific. But maybe Edinburgh is cheaper, but there is still tax. Lots of blogs discussing this, I just forgot which one.

 

[Red Badger]

I think AA is a ripoff. When I book FF flights with Delta, I pay <$12. AA wants miles plus $80 for a domestic flight.

I also just changed dates on my DW's return flight (FF miles, not $)) from Asia on Delta. Only cost $150 change fee (+25K additional miles - higher priced flight).

I know a lot of folks hate on Delta. I have had a few dust ups over the years, but they were my go to road warrior carrier back in the day. Overall, we got along fine...

 

[euro]

Fedup, you are absolutely right, most of this is London specific. It turns out that of the 50+ routes available for 30'000 miles outbound, ALL of them go through London (so that seems to be how AA recovers the cost of the cheaper ticket?). Non-London routes are only available for 65k miles. If I go for one of those, then the "Taxes and Fees" are reduced to $62. So, my choice is to use 70k more miles (2 tickets), or pay an extra $720 in fees. Hmm.

[Edit]

Here is the breakdown for the non-London route. Even some of the US imposed fees seem to change/disappear. Hmm again! Transparency in air travel....


Adult fare, taxes and carrier-imposed fees

Base fare $0.00 USD
Per person
PASSENGER AND SECURITY CHARGE (SWITZERLAND) $34.90 USD
US APHIS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $3.96 USD
US FEDERAL INSPECTION FEE (UNITED STATES) $7.00 USD
US SECURITY FEE (UNITED STATES) $11.20 USD
US CUSTOMS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $5.50 USD
Total Adult taxes and carrier-imposed fees $62.56 USD
Per person

 

[Fedup]

I think AA is a ripoff. When I book FF flights with Delta, I pay <$12. AA wants miles plus $80 for a domestic flight.

I also just changed dates on my DW's return flight (FF miles, not $)) from Asia on Delta. Only cost $150 change fee (+25K additional miles - higher priced flight).

I know a lot of folks hate on Delta. I have had a few dust ups over the years, but they were my go to road warrior carrier back in the day. Overall, we got along fine...

British Airways doesn't charge for changing international flight. This is how I use Avios. Plus cheap flight from London to Euro. I used Delta miles to book on Virgin Atlantic, I believe I paid less than $10 for a one way ticket.