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ARCHIVE: 2009-2015 MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability Help etc.

Old Jan 1, 2015, 8:43 pm
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This is the ARCHIVE through 2015 for older posts from the MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion (consolidated) thread.


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ARCHIVE: 2009-2015 MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability Help etc.

Old Mar 11, 2009, 8:48 am
  #1  
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ARCHIVE: 2009-2015 MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability Help etc.

I'm trying to get two "Business/First Mile Saaver" tickets to HNL in mid-June. I am checking AA.com every day for available dates.

Are there any rules of thumb about getting the dates I want? For example, does AA hold the "good" dates until it gets closer to the time of departure, or are they actually released way beforehand? Do they release different available dates daily, or every week on a certain day, or does no one know for sure?

Like I said, I've been checking every day for the last 6 weeks and was wondering if there is a more efficient method.

Thanks!

Last edited by dstan; Oct 26, 2012 at 5:56 pm Reason: moved mod note to wikipost
quartney is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2009, 11:35 am
  #2  
 
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Trying to get 2 F/C tickets to HNL this late will probably be a significant challenge.

You don't say where you are flying from. You should probably check availability segment by segment and possibly look at 2 stop options not just non-stop or 1 stop. I just looked at flights in June from LAX - HNL and there appears to be fair availability for the flight over. For the return, you might look at HNL - SFO as it appears to have better availability. Key is being creative with the routings.

Depending on what you find, and where you are flying from, you might want to purchase tickets from your home airport to LAX, SFO etc., and then have the award from LAX to HNL.

Bottom line is that you are somewhat late in looking for flights and will have a hard time finding something. You will need to be creative in routings etc to find the flights and class that you want.
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 12:50 pm
  #3  
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We are flying from SC, either CAE or CHS. The flights that AA is offering in June as Mile Saaver are 2 stops, in Dallas and then in LAX or SFO. That's okay with us. But I don't have the FF miles to get separate tickets to another airport before continuing to HNL.

I will look into perhaps buying tickets into another city.

I have no idea how this worked, so I didn't know if more tickets would become available later, if paying seats aren't sold.
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 12:56 pm
  #4  
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The problem was/is that I want to arrive in HNL sometime around June 12, but don't want to depart later than the 22nd. For a while, seats to HNL on the 9th or 10th and from HNL on the 24th were available, but that made the trip's duration too long.
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 2:58 pm
  #5  
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Quartney,

Welcome to Flyertalk. I'm going to move your thread to the dedicated American Airlines forum automatically, to allow for additional "eyeballs".
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 4:16 pm
  #6  
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Hi, Quartney. Welcome to Flyertalk.

What often happens on these is that AA will only check what they consider reasonable connections. Further, to get to HNL in one day, you have to start out pretty early in the day from CAE or CHS, and if there is no availability on that flight, then it shows no availability for that day.

Perhaps an example will demonstrate. If I plug in CAE to DFW for June 12 (One-way, award), it offers me two flights, arriving at 12:50 P.M. and 7:30 P.M. There is an early morning flight, arriving at 7:45 A.M., but no award availability on that. If I plug in DFW to LAX for June 12, I get departures with MilesAAver availability from DFW of 7:35 AM and 10:05 AM, and you can't leave South Carolina in time to get either of those.

What to do? Well, you can leave CAE June 11 at 5:50 P.M., arriving in DFW at 7:30 P.M., and on June 12 leave DFW at 11:15A.M. arriving Honolulu 2:20 P.M. (nonstop). AA.com will never show you this, because it is a 15 hour 45 minute connection, but you can see T availability on AA.com by breaking the flights down into segments and checking as one-way awards. You would have to book this on the phone, but it could be done as one award, you would not need two. When you call in, have the flight numbers, dates, times, departure and arrival locations written down and just ask for those flights. Coming back can be done the same way. Leave HNL 5:45 P.M. June 21 nonstop to DFW, arrive 6:10 A.M. June 22 (flight 8), leave DFW 7:30 A.M., arrive CAE 10:55 A.M. (AA 3411). The problem on June 12th is what keeps the return from showing, if you check for a one-way on June 21 you will be offered those flights. Also on June 22.

So you can do the whole thing on the dates you want, but you have to leave the evening before and overnight in DFW instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to leave South Carolina. In DFW you would have two choices - Priceline a hotel at DFW (probably about $50) or sleep overnight in the terminal.
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 5:38 pm
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Welcome, quartney. gemac's post is what Flyertalk is all about. ^
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 7:33 pm
  #8  
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Thanks for the welcome, everyone

Gemac, your post was very helpful. I didn't know that I could combine options and then call for the award.

One thing, though, is that I'm trying to do the long part of the trip (to HNL) first class, and the 1st class availability "from the mainland" is what I'm not seeing. Am I missing something?

Leave HNL 5:45 P.M. June 21 nonstop to DFW, arrive 6:10 A.M. June 22 (flight 8)
That flight doesn't seem to be available for frequent flyer point redemption. Right?
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 8:31 pm
  #9  
 
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If you do find the segments available separately, you can hold them in separate itineraries an then call to ask for the itineraries to be combined before booking.

If the length of the trip is longer than you want but still acceptable, you can book and hope that availablility comes up later. Then you can change the date of travel (as long as the routing remains the same) at no charge. However, the chances that availability will increase is low IMO.
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Old Mar 11, 2009, 11:06 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by quartney
Thanks for the welcome, everyone

Gemac, your post was very helpful. I didn't know that I could combine options and then call for the award.

One thing, though, is that I'm trying to do the long part of the trip (to HNL) first class, and the 1st class availability "from the mainland" is what I'm not seeing. Am I missing something?

That flight doesn't seem to be available for frequent flyer point redemption. Right?
Sorry - I missed the fact that you wanted to go First. Best bet is to fly to SFO on the 12th, then SFO-HNL on the 13th. For example, you could fly CAE-DFW on AA 3826 departing at 5:50 P.M., then DFW-SFO on AA 1035 arriving SFO at 10:09 P.M. The next day, the 13th, you can fly SFO-HNL on AA 39, departing 9:00 A.M. arriving 11:20 A.M.

The return is a problem - there are no MilesAAver F seats on any AA flight out of the state of Hawaii on June 22. You have to book a later date - the 23rd or 24th - and hope that the 22nd comes open as it gets closer. It probably will. F seats are harder to get returning from Hawaii, as most of the flights are redeyes and people want to sleep coming back. There is one daylight flight from HNL to LAX, one from HNL to SFO, and one from OGG to LAX. If your main concern is trip duration, as you get closer you can always try to move the outbound back a couple of days.
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Old Mar 15, 2009, 5:40 pm
  #11  
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If I do a search for only 1 passenger, there are flights available out of HNL ... and if I look at the seating availability, 90%+ are available. But if I do a search for 2 tickets, there's nothing.
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Old Mar 15, 2009, 5:57 pm
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Originally Posted by quartney
If I do a search for only 1 passenger, there are flights available out of HNL ... and if I look at the seating availability, 90%+ are available. But if I do a search for 2 tickets, there's nothing.
You are observing this behavior because while 90%+ of the seats might be available in First class, i.e., F bucket, only one seat is available for the MilesAAver (Z) bucket. Any of those seats could be booked for a AAnytime award since that uses the F bucket, but that will cost you twice as many miles of course.
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Old Mar 15, 2009, 7:38 pm
  #13  
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ah, that makes sense. thanks for the explanation.
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Old Mar 15, 2009, 11:48 pm
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Originally Posted by quartney
If I do a search for only 1 passenger, there are flights available out of HNL ... and if I look at the seating availability, 90%+ are available. But if I do a search for 2 tickets, there's nothing.
Originally Posted by beerup
You are observing this behavior because while 90%+ of the seats might be available in First class, i.e., F bucket, only one seat is available for the MilesAAver (Z) bucket. Any of those seats could be booked for a AAnytime award since that uses the F bucket, but that will cost you twice as many miles of course.
He's exactly right, quartney. I spent the last two months looking for two I class tix DFW-DUB. (MilesAAver business) Never once did I find two seats on the same dates, always one seat. This even tho not a single seat had been booked on any of the flights. AA is simply holding back MilesAAver award inventory because they'd rather sell those seats than give them as reduced award tix.

Keep looking as long as you have time, award inventory changes on a daily basis, IME. FWIW, I finally ended up booking one ticket as MilesAAver business, and the second as Y with a miles/copay upgrade.
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Old Apr 1, 2009, 10:07 am
  #15  
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many thanks

Thanks to everyone who responded, especially gemac and beerup!!! You told me about options that I didn't know about.

I checked daily, and used your advice to book a flight with the ideal return date and a too-early departure date. Then, I found a departure with an overnight in DFW and changed the tickets. First class to Hawaii, yay!!!
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