Questions and Answers

I was recently looking for a roundtrip ticket from DC to Honduras. I wanted to use my British Airways miles. I could have also used AA miles since it’s the same mileage cost (15000 each way). All flights are operated by American, but the taxes if I used BA miles were over twice as much as using AA miles. Any idea why? I mean beyond that they can?

My guess is that BA is charging you the fuel surcharges that AA doesn’t charge. If you look at the fare breakout in ITA matrix you should be able to see the different categories you are getting charged for.

I’ve used BA miles numerous times for AA flights though and have never seen this much of a discrepancy in the taxes before. Thought BA didn’t charge those fees for AA operated flights?

Really depends on how AA structures the ticket. Do you want to share your dates and flights?

For example, 6 Dec, TGU-MIA-DCA on AA 961/2662. Taxes on AA ($68.26). Taxes on BA ($186.31).

Flying DCA-MIA-TGU gives the expected $5.60 in taxes in both AA and BA.

Interesting. BA is applying the following charges:

[ATTACH=full]182[/ATTACH]

ITA reports $109.96

[ATTACH=full]183[/ATTACH]

and AA only charges $68.26. Not quite sure what is going on. Anyone else?

Well, that’s odd. The BA website has been [I]really[/I] screwy in displaying taxes and fees lately, (we suspect conversion rate issues), but they’re generally adjusted on click through.

But, there’s still something off here, so let me look at it a bit more. Very curious.

The difference in the taxes seems to be found in the Transportation Tax portion. In the AA fare breakdown, Transportation Tax is $23.90. In the BA fare breakdown, it’s $118.05, a difference of $94.15. As shown in ITA, it appears the total taxes should be $109.96. So AA charges too little, BA way too much. Now to figure out WHY.

I figured out why AA taxes total was only $68.26. The taxes did not include Honduras Transportation Tax ($23.90) nor the US Int’l Arrival Tax ($17.80). If you add those two taxes to the $68.26, you get the $109.96 that’s reflected in ITA matrix. Not going to complain about less taxes of course, but still makes no sense why BA is charging $186.31 for taxes on an AA operated award ticket.

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER], any luck with this? Does AA roll some taxes into the base fare?