International Transaction Fee

Following up on Karyen's series of posts about bank fees :(

Recently, when I bought my air ticket home, Bank of America charged me $35 ''International Transaction Fee'' even though the transaction was in US Dollars and I bought it through the US website of Singapore Airlines. I called up Customer Service and the reason is that the $1100 for my air ticket was routed out of the US so they charge a fee for processing. Neither the bank's customer service nor I can do anything about it because once the transaction costs leave the US, the bank will automatically charge for that :(

Conclusion: Either fly US airlines or book through US-based travel agent if you want to avoid that 2% fee.