Bergy Bits

I think your situation is similar to one I had a few weeks ago trying to book Egyptair flights using United miles. ANA showed availability, when I called United to make the reservation, they showed availability & processed my request, but within 24 hours after my request was submitted it would be "rejected" by Egyptair. This happened multiple times. Finally I called Egyptair myself & was also told there was availability so I tried again with United - yet when the computers talked to each other the same thing kept happening. I fortunately was able to get United to call Egyptair directly while I was on hold & the two humans both acknowledged there was availability but the computer said there wasn't. Finally they put their heads together & decided on their own to change the dates of both flights by a day - just to see what happened - and the computer liked the new flights. It was a rare occurrence that I didn't care if we had to modify our trip by a day on either end, so I accepted the change & all was well. No one could explain why everyone could physically see availability but it really was not there.

FWIW, if you haven't phoned LAN yourself, you might want to try it. When I reported to United that I had spoken myself to Egyptair, that seemed to strike a chord. Good luck - I feel your pain - it was soooo frustrating!

aussieflyer

If you do manage to get it done, please post how you did it/who you spoke to?
Thanks

metzgersdog26

Just tried to book an all partner AA award from NY to New Zealand in November - got the flights going out just fine, but returning the American agent said there was no qantas inventory available. I had already confirmed the qantas award flights as available through the qantas site (they still are), so why would American be blocking them? As far as I knew United were the only people known to block partner inventory.

The specifics of the return trip were CHC-SYD-HNL-SFO-JFK, starting on Tues Nov 30th.

ckpeter

Hard to say; AA is not generally known to block partner redemption.

What is your specific segment and class of service?

Also, have you checked either BA or JL (under partner airline search) to see if those QF seats that you found are available to other Oneworld partners?

JJeffrey

Checking the partner sites (QF, BA, CX, etc.) for partner award availability will generally give you a good idea of what you'll find with AA, but it's no guarantee. Just because QF will release an award seat to one of it's own members doesn't mean it will release it to AA.

Have you called back and tried again with a different agent? One time I was trying to book a CX award which the CX website was showing available. The first agent I spoke with couldn't see it. I called back about an hour later and the 2nd agent was able to grab it for whatever the reason.

UA Fan

QF has the right to release seats to its own members and not to others. Go to ba.com and see if its available, then call AA. Sometime the usual hang up and call again also works.

formeraa

Be aware that this would be a QF problem, not an AA problem. If AA is not able to see the award seat, then QF hasn't released it to AA. That being said, availability can lag by several hours or even a day. It's always better to keep trying to see if the seat becomes available.

i_fly_AA

As someone already said, this is most likely not an issue of AA blocking a QF seat, but rather that of QF not releasing its seats to AA.

sts603

+1

The same works in reverse. AA members have access to AA award seats that other partner airline's members don't have.

metzgersdog26

Thanks for the prompt answers, everyone. The specific problem segments were CHC-SYD on Nov 30th (flight QF208) and SYD-HNL (flight QF283). Coach unfortunately; best I can tell availability for premium cabins is very difficult on US-NZ routings. Checking on BA those specific segments did not show up, although some earlier ones did. Strangely the AA agent insisted there were no flights to any North American gateway for a week in either direction. Qantas releasing seats to BA but not American?

Definitely sounds like a call back is in order tomorrow. If they still don’t show available to a NA gateway I’ll probably “buy” a ticket from CHC-HNL with Travelocity points, and then use a one way award to return from HNL-NYC a week later.

aaupgrade

FWIW, QF 283 is a codeshare flight operated by JQ (Jetstar) which most likely is why it is not available. Qantas has flights from SYD to HNL on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Whether there is availability is another issue.

BTW you can buy a oneway CHC-HNL Y ticket on JQ for about $524 or business class on UA for $715.

i_fly_AA

That's a good point. If it's a Jetstar flight, then I, too, think that you can't redeem AA miles. If you look at aa.com, you'll see that Jetstar is NOT listed as one of the affiliates of QF.

In addition to the suggestion above, you can try and route via Asia (such as HGK or NRT) but that will require extra miles.

aaupgrade

Correction: No UA J oneway for $715. ITA was giving me the price for Y since J was sold out.

ITA Software lists lower prices flights for Jetstar ($5xx for Y and $12xx for J), but when I go to Jetstar's website nothing comes up for CHC-HNL. But due to some thinking outside the box one can actually book it for less than that by booking each leg separately on JetStar's web site.

billgrates3

not true, AA blocks BA availability all the time

tt7

What evidence is there to support that assertion?