veeRob

I'm having another issue with AA again and hopefully a smart FT'er can explain.

Two days ago, I was shopping for flights on the current LAX-GRU/GIG sale and discovered the free stopover rule. I routed myself LAX-NYC-GIG/GRU-JFK/JFK-LAX (Nov 13/Dec 3/Dec 14) on my phone and saw the same price as a straight roundtrip. I even scheduled an overnight stopover in PHX on the way back to make it make it JFK-PHX-LAX. That priced correctly as $692.

I was going to hold the flight, except the last flight was a US Airways flight and so apparently there's no Hold option. I was on my phone so I figured I'd book it when I got home.

When I got home, it was after midnight, and now it wasn't pricing the same. With the same itinerary, I'm now getting $827. I checked the fare rules and it still says 1 free stopover, so what is going on?

I'm currently on the phone with AA for over an hour. The first agent went to the rate desk and came back saying the price is correct, not understanding the problem. The second agent went to the rate desk and came back and said it was the open jaw that was causing it. I showed her that a non-open jaw prices out >$800 as well.

One more time off to the rate desk, and she came back with the explanation that the stopover causes the price to change based on that location, and GRU-NYC is a higher fare than GRU-LAX. This makes no sense to me, as I have surely had stopovers before where the price from that city to my destination is higher. I asked her to show me which stopovers would be "free" and she failed to find any.

Very confused, hoping someone can set me straight. Thanks!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Why didn't you book it when you could? When a 24-hour hold is not offered, a free 24-hour cancellation option must be given (unless the first flight is in the near future).

Only some fares -- not all -- offer a free stopover.

SJC AA

Matrix still prices this at $693, but only if the GRU-JFK is under the US Airways flight number. I don't know why. Using the AA flight number for that leg adds about $150.

The fare includes these restrictions:
THE FARE COMPONENT MUST INCLUDE TRAVEL VIA INTERNATIONAL
SECTORS ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY US FLIGHT OPERATED BY AA
ANY US FLIGHT OPERATED BY US.

Note that AA flights operated by AA are not allowed.

Maybe the fare is in the process of being removed, and has not been removed by US yet?

If you don't care about upgrading, try booking with US.

veeRob

Because I'm a big dummy.

Actually just didn't have my preferred credit card in front of me and was going to be home a few hours later.

Interesting. I'm not seeing this, can you help? Just PM'ed you.

SJC AA

No need for PM. I didn't do anything special. Just normal multi-city search.

Flight 1 LAX-GIG 11/13
Flight 2 GRU-JFK 12/3
Flight 3 JFK-LAX 12/14
(I didn't do anything to stop at PHX, and didn't check that part)

I don't know if it's actually bookable with US, but it does price out on Matrix with US (and not with AA for that one leg).

veeRob

Ahh, that's great. I couldn't see it with the PHX leg in there. Looks like I have to give that overnight up if I want to try to book this now. I can get it to pull up at $675 on Priceline, thanks so much!!!

Love that ITA script. Don't think I could have made this happen without it. Got it to price as $661 on united.com, which is such great irony.

SJC AA

The fare rules say stopover is only allowed at the USA gateway city, so it makes sense that PHX would cause problems.

veeRob

Well I had it priced out on my phone with the PHX overnight layover before, so not sure why that's affecting things.

Have had the browser page open since last night, here's a screenshot of the original pricing:

SJC AA

Dunno, I would not expect the PHX-LAX in "O" class to combine with the rest of the flights in "Q" class. It might have been a fluke, or the availability or fare rules might have changed.

Also, that's EWR-LAX, so obviously my JFK-LAX query (based on what you wrote in your initial post) would not have picked it up.

veeRob

Yes, I just realized this as well when I posted it. I was at a concert when I pulled the itinerary up. It was actually last night, not two nights ago. Coming off a fever, so even more reason why I didn't want to book anything on my phone.

Either way, thanks for the help, SJC. You really saved the day!

Ahhh, this is such a beautiful thing:

SJC AA

Congrats, and good job maximizing the connection time in PHX (24 hours are allowed without it becoming an impermissible stopover; you're 6 minutes short of that!).

veeRob

Yeah, we might HCT at PHX, might not. Worth the $8.50 in tax to keep my options open.

Again, thanks so much for the help!

I wish I would have recorded my conversation with AA. After getting nowhere with the agent I spoke with, her supervisor talked to the rate desk a 4th time and came back with "it's only a free stopover if it's less than 18 hours." Amazed that both a rate desk agent and a supervisor don't understand the difference between a layover and a stopover. Kind of a disgrace for a supervisor to not even have a cursory understanding of travel language.

SJC AA

HCT??

veeRob

Fair enough, I guess it's not an often used abbreviation. Hidden City Ticketing. Meaning I might skip the last leg and end my trip in PHX.