I know that this thread was started 2 or 3 months ago, so I am a little bit late, here. I have retired and am now living in Costa Rica, so I don't know if Delta is still showing this charge as a "Sierra Leone Immigration Fee." Just in case there is still a question about this...
Before I retired and moved to Costa Rica, I worked in a major U.S. Airline's "Pricing Department." This fee is, in fact, a component of the exit tax in Costa Rica, which has been rolled into the airline ticket prices. Why does it show up as a "Sierra Leone Immigration Fee?" Quite simply, that charge was already in the system and it was much more convenient to use it than to re-code the software. I could post an entire novel about antiquated code running side-by-side with cutting-edge software on a ridiculous mis-match of multiple computer hardware systems.
I also noticed a lot of discussion on this board about the "best time" to buy airline tickets. That's not unusual. Pretty much any message board that is related to any kind of travel ends up having the same discussion. Ticket pricing was my department. Very little is known by the public about airline ticket pricing, and practically all of the information that is published by travel-related websites or that is broadcast on the major news networks is complete nonsense. I can tell you that my bosses laughed their asses off every time that someone said "about 2 months before your flight is the best time to buy your ticket", or other such nonsense.
Our department is one of the most strictly-controlled, tightest-security, most carefully-guarded secrets in the airline industry. Even retired, I can't disclose the details of what goes on in that room. I wasn't even allowed to take my key home. I had to turn it in every day when I finished my shift.
One of our many tasks was actually to follow those news channels. The more respected and trusted the channel was, the more we used their info to our advantage. If CNN broadcast that airfare was the best at 60 days prior to the flight date, the very next day we coded in an up-bump of about 15% for 50 - 70 days prior. We don't drop or raise prices on Monday because that's when the big bosses come back from their weekend. That old bit has been outdated since the late 1980s.
Here's what really happens... We have some of the brightest analytical minds on the planet working in very small teams, trying to outwit the consumers to maximize total gross income, on a very real-time basis. We then send our orders to the IT unit, which puts the information into the system. I've seen a ticket price fluctuate in over a $200 range within a 2-minute period. Whatever advice you get from the "35 days prior" people, I can guarantee you that we have already coded to make that information work against you. Quite simply, as I stated before, our job is to maximize gross income. Using the combination of human analysts and sophisticated software, ticket prices are evaluated, and if necessary, adjusted, several times every hour, every day of the year.
Actually, ticket prices never really "change", you're just seeing different tickets with different rules and restrictions, being sold from different buckets. It's just that, if we're selling too many seats too quickly, we pull the $300 tickets off the shelf, so that you have to buy the $400 ticket if you want a seat.
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)-- the split is 1%, 1%, 97.9%, and 0.1%, respectively; and $2 (customs and baggage services fee)--word on the street is that this fee was started after a negotiation between airport authorities and the baggage handler union where baggage handlers promised to stop stealing from suitcases if they get a cut. But that's just the word on the street.