upsidedown

I hope this is the write forum / thread. Couldn't find anything with search.

Planning to travel economy:

BOS - VIE 4/12/18, returning 4/22/18.

Want to avoid BA and found flights on IB both with AA search and Award Nexus. However, when I try to book it on AA, it says flights no longer available. When I called the agent said they are having trouble with IB and to keep trying. Is this related to the AB issue? Any help is appreciated.

IB 6166
Depart:BOS @ 17:35 (Apr 12)
Arrive:MAD @ 06:25 (Apr 13)6.8 hour flight
1 x QF Economy award
2.4 hours layover
IB 3120
Depart:MAD @ 08:50 (Apr 13)board with coffee
Arrive:VIE @ 11:45 (Apr 13)2.9 hour flight
1 x QF Economy award

SpammersAreScum

"Phantom availability" of award space, especially on IB flights, is an issue which gets a lot of discussion. Take a look at the IB thread and the MileSAAver scarcity thread.

lobo411

Read the thread. It's cathartic. However, nobody really has any answers, since it's an AA problem. You just have to suffer through it and keep trying. Be as flexible as possible, try every option, especially when it comes to dates and carriers, try a million times even if 5 seconds ago it said that flight was "no longer available. You don't know when it might work.

That's how I got my seat for 2018. It didn't work dozens of times, and then one time, it worked for no apparent reason. Then I tried a few more times on other days that showed as "available" just to see if I got lucky or if the bug was fixed. It didn't work.

Start by trying to book the hardest part first: the TATL portion. If you manage to get that part on hold, then call and try to tack on the rest of the itin. In my case:

I was able to get LAX-MAD on hold. Then I called and had AA add MAD-MRS to the itin, so my trip was now LAX-MAD-MRS.