Posted this on FT after a commenter on DD mentioned possible fuel surcharges to latin america...reposting here as it probably affects many here as well...I was comparing AA taxes to BA taxes to see if BA tries collecting fuel surcharges for any flights that are wholly within the western hemisphere (appears that they don't) and noticed that BA charges exactly $32.60 more than AA on award tickets between the US and Latin America.
This is true for every flight I checked, including:
-SJU ($5 on AA, $37.60 on BA)
-CUN ($63.30 on AA, $95.90 on BA)
-EZE ($61.50 on AA, $94.10 on BA)
-MEX ($64.61 on AA, $97.21 on BA)
Breaking it down it seems that BA is charging a USA International Facilities Tax on these awards as follows:
Transportation Tax(Departure) - USA USD16.30
Transportation Tax(Arrival) - USA USD16.30
No other US airline collects those fees on award tickets. In fact
] the IRS says,"As a general rule, all amounts paid for the air transportation of persons are subject to tax. Where no amount is paid for air transportation, such as when the transportation is obtained by the redemption of frequent flyer miles, the transaction is not subject to the percentage tax, the domestic segment tax, or international facilities tax. Cite: Rev. Rul. 84-12, 1984-1 C.B. 211."