Award seat availability disappears minutes after partially completing online booking
Jun 25, 2017, 3:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: American; Southwest
Posts: 5
Award seat availability disappears minutes after partially completing online booking
This has happened to me twice now so I'm curious if others have had the same experience.
I wanted to find out what Advantage award types were available for specific flights to determine how many seats I could book with my miles. I logged in to AA.com and selected my dates and flights for four passengers. I had enough miles for two roundtrip tickets, because the MileSAAver (22.5K miles) award was available for the outbound flight (the return was AAnytime/50K miles). I decided I would buy two tickets, then call AA to book my kids on the same itinerary using my miles. I promptly restarted the online booking session and reserved paid tickets for my wife and me. I immediately called AA to book the two additional tickets using miles. What did the rep tell me?
AA: "You will need 100,000 miles for each of those tickets, 50K each way."
Me: "But two minutes ago AA.com showed at least two MileSAAver outbound seats were available on those flights.”
AA: “Sorry sir, our system shows no MileSAAver outbound seats available on any flights that day. Award seats go fast, you know.”
Me: “Sure, but two minutes after I queried your system? Seems kind of coincidental, don’t you think?”
The first time this happened in early 2016, the AAdvantage phone agent became really irate and accused me of calling him a liar. I said I wasn’t, but he wasn’t easily placated.
Today, I went through nearly the identical scenario--except for the don’t-you-call-me-a-liar bit, which I headed off by immediately assuring the agent I had no doubt that’s exactly what her system was showing her. She then said the same outbound flight was available at the MileSAAver level the day before and the day after the flight I had booked. So I grabbed those seats while they were still “available,” changed the paid seats to the same date, and called the hotel to change that reservation, which I had made only 20 minutes before. (And surprise, surprise, the Hyatt booking agent said the rate I had booked was no longer available. . .but he would be happy to re-book me for $160 more. They must use the same algorithm for their reservation system.)
While it’s conceivable that other people decided, at nearly the exact same time as me, to book award travel on the same flights I was interested in—it’s an incredible coincidence to see award seat availability for a specific flight on a specific date mysteriously evaporate within minutes of an online query of the AA.com booking system. Twice.
Am I the only one who thinks this is more than just a little suspicious? I understand that AA can change the terms and conditions of award availability, but to do it apparently in real time, based on customer inquiries, doesn’t seem like a fair business practice.
Jun 25, 2017, 3:53 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
Looks like u went far enough in the booking process to take the seats out of inventory. Then u called and tried to book the same seats, but they were already taken out of inventor by u. I'll bet a temporary PNR was created which would expire about 15 minutes later. Agents can actually pull up ur reservations and see this temporary pnr
This has happened to me twice now so I'm curious if others have had the same experience.
I wanted to find out what Advantage award types were available for specific flights to determine how many seats I could book with my miles. I logged in to AA.com and selected my dates and flights for four passengers. I had enough miles for two roundtrip tickets, because the MileSAAver (22.5K miles) award was available for the outbound flight (the return was AAnytime/50K miles). I decided I would buy two tickets, then call AA to book my kids on the same itinerary using my miles. I promptly restarted the online booking session and reserved paid tickets for my wife and me. I immediately called AA to book the two additional tickets using miles. What did the rep tell me?
AA: "You will need 100,000 miles for each of those tickets, 50K each way."
Me: "But two minutes ago AA.com showed at least two MileSAAver outbound seats were available on those flights.”
AA: “Sorry sir, our system shows no MileSAAver outbound seats available on any flights that day. Award seats go fast, you know.”
Me: “Sure, but two minutes after I queried your system? Seems kind of coincidental, don’t you think?”
The first time this happened in early 2016, the AAdvantage phone agent became really irate and accused me of calling him a liar. I said I wasn’t, but he wasn’t easily placated.
Today, I went through nearly the identical scenario--except for the don’t-you-call-me-a-liar bit, which I headed off by immediately assuring the agent I had no doubt that’s exactly what her system was showing her. She then said the same outbound flight was available at the MileSAAver level the day before and the day after the flight I had booked. So I grabbed those seats while they were still “available,” changed the paid seats to the same date, and called the hotel to change that reservation, which I had made only 20 minutes before. (And surprise, surprise, the Hyatt booking agent said the rate I had booked was no longer available. . .but he would be happy to re-book me for $160 more. They must use the same algorithm for their reservation system.)
While it’s conceivable that other people decided, at nearly the exact same as me, to book award travel on the same flight I was interested in—it’s an incredible coincidence to see award seat availability for a specific flight on a specific date mysteriously evaporate within minutes of an online query of the AA.com booking system. Twice.
Am I the only one who thinks this is more than just a little suspicious? I understand that AA can change the terms and conditions of award availability, but to do it apparently in real time, based on customer inquiries, doesn’t seem like a fair business practice.
Jun 25, 2017, 4:32 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 31,007
There are multiple explanations for this. Why is "big bad airline sc&$%ing the passengers" your preference?
Jun 25, 2017, 5:46 pm
#4
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: AAdvantage (Platinum)
Posts: 470
It just sounds to me that the bookings were executed in the wrong order, as the mile seats should have been booked or held before buying seats. Buying seats causes increased demand that can cause saaver seats to disappear.
Jun 25, 2017, 6:08 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: American; Southwest
Posts: 5
"Big bad airline sc&$%ing the passengers" isn't my preference, it's reality. At least a large cross-section of airline passengers and Congress seem to think so. I would very much like to hear alternative explanations for the remarkable coincidences.
AAExecPlatFlier's suggestion about a temporary PNR code is interesting. I don't know how that works. Next time maybe we should try my wife's AA account and see if the reservations system/agent gives the same unavailability info. Or maybe we should wait 15 minutes and try again with mine. Either way, I'd really like to know if there's a passenger-sc&$%ing algorithm to blame.
AAExecPlatFlier's suggestion about a temporary PNR code is interesting. I don't know how that works. Next time maybe we should try my wife's AA account and see if the reservations system/agent gives the same unavailability info. Or maybe we should wait 15 minutes and try again with mine. Either way, I'd really like to know if there's a passenger-sc&$%ing algorithm to blame.
Jun 25, 2017, 6:13 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: American; Southwest
Posts: 5
The AAdvantage awards agent said I needed to book the revenue seat first, because my kids are under 14, and the system wouldn't let me book their seats alone. And you can't combine award and $ purchases in one transaction on AA.com.
Jun 25, 2017, 6:57 pm
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
You can just put in the number of passengers and the system would show you whether award seats are available for 1, 2, 3, 4 or whatever number based on what you put in. This way there is no danger of accidentally taking out the seats without knowing it.
You might have gone far enough in the booking process to actually take out the available award seats. That is the reason why the agent could not see any because they are indeed gone - taken by you.
Being under 14 your kids need to travel with an adult on the same itinerary, else they would go with the Unaccompanied children.
Jun 25, 2017, 7:21 pm
#8
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: TUL
Programs: AA EXP 2MM; Marriott Titanium; Hilton Diamond; Hyatt Explorist; Vistana 5* Elite; Nat'l Exec Elite
Posts: 6,177
You could have booked one adult and one child on the same PNR as an award and then repeated the same process on revenue tickets. That solves the issue of booking the children's seats alone. But you definitely want to book the award tickets first so as to grab that available inventory.
Jun 25, 2017, 10:28 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SNA
Programs: AA EXP, UA 1K (until it expires then never again), *wood Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 9,239
I also think you may have taken the seats out of inventory, you might try using a tool like ExpertFlyer to check award availability rather than going through the booking process in the future
Jun 25, 2017, 11:47 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,908
Book your kids as adults first, you can change age later after booking your flights - agent will note PNRs
Jun 26, 2017, 5:58 am
#11
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: USA
Programs: Chase Sapphire Reserve, WFBF
Posts: 1,573
A bit long and overly dramatic... reading carefully it's pretty obvious what happened. OP booked the 2 revenue tickets first, then tried to book 2 award tickets. Unfortunately, booking the two revenue tickets removed inventory.
Remember that saver award tickets are usually available only when the demand for that flight is expected to be light. Buying tickets shows demand to AA, which means it could be totally logical for them to remove the award availability.
Phantom PNR is also a possibility but less likely IMO. The simplest explanation is above. Lesson learned the hard way for OP
Remember that saver award tickets are usually available only when the demand for that flight is expected to be light. Buying tickets shows demand to AA, which means it could be totally logical for them to remove the award availability.
Phantom PNR is also a possibility but less likely IMO. The simplest explanation is above. Lesson learned the hard way for OP
Jun 26, 2017, 9:25 am
#12
Suspended
Join Date: May 2017
Location: In the Swiss amoeba's head
Programs: Lowest level possible
Posts: 2,829
Looks like u went far enough in the booking process to take the seats out of inventory. Then u called and tried to book the same seats, but they were already taken out of inventor by u. I'll bet a temporary PNR was created which would expire about 15 minutes later. Agents can actually pull up ur reservations and see this temporary pnr
Jun 26, 2017, 10:17 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: American; Southwest
Posts: 5
You dont need to log in to see available award seats.
You can just put in the number of passengers and the system would show you whether award seats are available for 1, 2, 3, 4 or whatever number based on what you put in. This way there is no danger of accidentally taking out the seats without knowing it.
You might have gone far enough in the booking process to actually take out the available award seats. That is the reason why the agent could not see any because they are indeed gone - taken by you.
Being under 14 your kids need to travel with an adult on the same itinerary, else they would go with the Unaccompanied children.
You can just put in the number of passengers and the system would show you whether award seats are available for 1, 2, 3, 4 or whatever number based on what you put in. This way there is no danger of accidentally taking out the seats without knowing it.
You might have gone far enough in the booking process to actually take out the available award seats. That is the reason why the agent could not see any because they are indeed gone - taken by you.
Being under 14 your kids need to travel with an adult on the same itinerary, else they would go with the Unaccompanied children.
I didn't know that. Duh. I will be sure and try it that way next time. Thanks.
Jun 26, 2017, 10:18 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2017
Programs: American; Southwest
Posts: 5
Jun 26, 2017, 4:03 pm
#15
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 24
Something I AM aware of however, award availability changes frequently, and not only due to people reserving award tickets. Every ticket purchase on that flight has the potential to adjust the fares of all of the remaining tickets, and I would presume the award availability as well. So while it's unlikely someone snagged that exact award you were shooting for, it's far more likely that someone purchased a seat on the same plane in that time
period. For that matter, the purchase of a seat on another flight on the same day could affect the cost of all seats on all flights that day. There is really no way to know for sure.
Therefore, my own advice (which I far too often don't follow religiously enough), is if you see the saver awards you want, BOOK THEM FIRST. The ability to purchase extra tickets with cash isn't going to disappear quickly, but award seats can.