KVS Tool now searches CX awards!

Old Sep 9, 2010, 8:09 am
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by ma91pmh
Have you asked them to check with CX ticketing? I had a situation where KVS was showing FS+ on two seats, AAEXP could only see one, I politely asked them to check with CX. They were insisting that CS keep seats for their own fliers, I said I truly believe that is not the case. They made the call and came back and said all good
Just called AA EXP and still no availability. I asked if they could call CX Ticketing and she said she had no idea who to call about them releasing award seats. She says their system shows availability the next day so it's not a problem with system not working, just no award seats on the day I need them (25Jan2011).

I guess I don't have any other choice but to buy my own tickets. I just checked and those went up $100 today.
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Old Sep 9, 2010, 11:25 am
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I am wondering if KVS is getting it right on this case?

I just checked BA.com and it is showing no availability either. Is KVS showing YS+ for that date?
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Old Sep 9, 2010, 11:39 am
  #63  
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Originally Posted by ma91pmh
Have you asked them to check with CX ticketing? I had a situation where KVS was showing FS+ on two seats, AAEXP could only see one, I politely asked them to check with CX. They were insisting that CS keep seats for their own fliers, I said I truly believe that is not the case. They made the call and came back and said all good
That sounds more like it!

Originally Posted by rmc1
Just called AA EXP and still no availability. I asked if they could call CX Ticketing and she said she had no idea who to call about them releasing award seats. She says their system shows availability the next day so it's not a problem with system not working, just no award seats on the day I need them (25Jan2011).
They don't need CX to release any seats; CX just needs to confirm to AA that those seats are available (since AA is not taking your word for it).

Originally Posted by ma91pmh
I am wondering if KVS is getting it right on this case?

I just checked BA.com and it is showing no availability either. Is KVS showing YS+ for that date?
BA.com is extremely unreliable when it comes to OneWorld award availability, so that does not really mean anything.

Also, does BA.com even support KA?
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Old Sep 9, 2010, 12:49 pm
  #64  
 
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Yep ba.com does support KA. The initial hit says no availability, do you want to include partners, and the only partner listed is Dragon Air

In terms of talking to the EXP agent, ask them to ask revenue management to clear it with CX. For sure they will know who to call. I can understand the EXP agent themselves not knowing who to call, but RM should.

I am still inclined that KVS is right, though surprised ba.com is wrong. I have found it to be pretty accurate in the past (that's why I asked is kvs still showing availability?)
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Old Sep 9, 2010, 1:29 pm
  #65  
 
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Yes, still showing YS+ and YA+ in KVS. Pulling teeth with EXP desk now. They have no idea who to contact as AA Revenue Management doesn't have any say in CX releasing awards. She said that CX decides what to release to partners so even if CX shows they have seats it doesn't matter as they have not released them to AA.

After several minutes of back and forth, rep finally put me on hold to go ask someone about it. After about 10 minutes she came back and said that she found out there is a group (not revenue management) and they will get in touch with CX and to call back in about 24 hours to check.

That's all that I can really ask for but I guess I should have gotten that group's name. I was busy debugging code while on hold so was only 1/2 thinking. I'll update everyone tomorrow. Thanks for all the help.
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Old Sep 22, 2010, 10:20 pm
  #66  
 
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Originally Posted by rmc1
Yes, still showing YS+ and YA+ in KVS. Pulling teeth with EXP desk now. They have no idea who to contact as AA Revenue Management doesn't have any say in CX releasing awards. She said that CX decides what to release to partners so even if CX shows they have seats it doesn't matter as they have not released them to AA.

After several minutes of back and forth, rep finally put me on hold to go ask someone about it. After about 10 minutes she came back and said that she found out there is a group (not revenue management) and they will get in touch with CX and to call back in about 24 hours to check.

That's all that I can really ask for but I guess I should have gotten that group's name. I was busy debugging code while on hold so was only 1/2 thinking. I'll update everyone tomorrow. Thanks for all the help.
I had a similar experience today for two C seats on a flight out of SFO. Ill try again tomorrow and hope for the best I guess. Also is it common to find more F availability than C?
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Old Nov 5, 2010, 3:11 pm
  #67  
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Does anyone know the name of the group in AA call center (not Revenue Management) to check with CX to release the seats?

I saw there are F seats available under Awards/CX but when I switch to Awards/One World, these seats are not available under KVStool???

I called AA but the agent didn't have any clues who can call CX from AA.
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Old Nov 5, 2010, 5:16 pm
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Originally Posted by thebluejean
Does anyone know the name of the group in AA call center (not Revenue Management) to check with CX to release the seats?

I saw there are F seats available under Awards/CX but when I switch to Awards/One World, these seats are not available under KVStool???

I called AA but the agent didn't have any clues who can call CX from AA.
Searching KVS under Awards/CX shows availability for CX members, not partner availability. Awards/One World will accurately show availability for partner awards on CX. If there is availability for CX but not partners, that's just the way it is. You cannot call AA and ask them to contact CX to "release" award seats.
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Old Nov 6, 2010, 12:48 am
  #69  
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Ok, this is getting really interesting in term of award availability.

1. Checking Awards/CX on 11/17 from SFO to HKG shows CX873 is available for F seats but not CX879.

2. Switch to Awards/OW on 11/17 from SFO to HKG and KVS shows CX879 is available for F seats ONLY but not CX873.

3. Try ba.com and it shows F seats are available on CX873 on 11/17.

Does anybody know why sometimes the award availability is not consistent even within the KVS tool?

And I believe someone in this thread has mentioned able to get an AA agent to call CX to get these seats when they are not available to OW but are available to CX. Or maybe it's just regular sites, not award seats.

Last edited by thebluejean; Nov 6, 2010 at 12:56 am
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Old Nov 6, 2010, 6:54 am
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Originally Posted by thebluejean
Ok, this is getting really interesting in term of award availability.

1. Checking Awards/CX on 11/17 from SFO to HKG shows CX873 is available for F seats but not CX879.

2. Switch to Awards/OW on 11/17 from SFO to HKG and KVS shows CX879 is available for F seats ONLY but not CX873.

3. Try ba.com and it shows F seats are available on CX873 on 11/17.

Does anybody know why sometimes the award availability is not consistent even within the KVS tool?

And I believe someone in this thread has mentioned able to get an AA agent to call CX to get these seats when they are not available to OW but are available to CX. Or maybe it's just regular sites, not award seats.
I ignore the OW availability on KVS. If it shows available under CX, you can book it on AA. You may have to try some different agents, get them to call CX, whatever, but the seat is available. CX DOES NOT hold back inventory for it's own elites, though it can make awards available at higher redemption levels, but these don't show on KVS

I find BA web site to be quite consistent with KVS CX
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Old Nov 6, 2010, 8:50 am
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That is correct. CX does not hold back award inventory for own members, i.e.. any partner's inventory should be the same as CX's. However:
* Asia Miles members can call to waitlist and some MPC members may be able to call to get seats released. If the CX member does not make any special request, he/she will see the same inventory as any partner's member.
* CX's inventory may not always be correct too. It happened before that it showed availability and allowed the passenger to book, and then ... could not confirm
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Old Nov 6, 2010, 7:38 pm
  #72  
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Thanks for the response. I called AA last night and the agent confirmed that reward seats availability matched the one from Award/CX. But getting the agent to call CX seems very challenge because not everyone knows who to call.

By the way, does anyone know what make a flight to release the seats for reward seating? I have been tracking the F seat map to see if there is a pattern. It looks like when there are more than 5 empty seats out of 9 seats in the F, that flight will release the seats for reward. But this is not always the case.

And why A4 and K4 seats are always not available in F? Even if I look at dates an year ahead.
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Old Nov 7, 2010, 1:02 am
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Originally Posted by thebluejean
Thanks for the response. I called AA last night and the agent confirmed that reward seats availability matched the one from Award/CX. But getting the agent to call CX seems very challenge because not everyone knows who to call.

By the way, does anyone know what make a flight to release the seats for reward seating? I have been tracking the F seat map to see if there is a pattern. It looks like when there are more than 5 empty seats out of 9 seats in the F, that flight will release the seats for reward. But this is not always the case.

And why A4 and K4 seats are always not available in F? Even if I look at dates an year ahead.
* 5 empty seats mean five seats not assigned, but not 5 seats available.
* Airlines always want to get revenue. If they expect a good chance, or if they have no visibility, of booking a $$ passenger, they will not release seats. Unfortunateky, F seats generate good revenue and many F (not A) passengers book last minute.
* "A" revenue is worse then "J". CX may limit seats for "A" for certain route from start. Each "A" booking will take away a potential "F" booking. "K" is economy, not first.
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Old Jan 15, 2011, 11:37 am
  #74  
 
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Anybody have any recent luck with getting AA to call CX?

Trying to book:

CX873 3/13/11 SFO to HKG
CX785 3/14/11 HKG to DPS

Both KVS and BA.com show F availability on the SFO-HKG and J availability on HKG-DPS. AA can't see the availability. Have called AA 3 times now and had one of the agents talk with her supervisor and she came back and said they can't call CX. What's the magic trick? Keep calling back until someone calls them? Should I just ask for a supervisor to start with? They seem highly argumentative about even making the phone call to CX. Thanks.

Last edited by jjwjjw; Jan 15, 2011 at 4:19 pm Reason: Meant to say J not F on the HKG-DPS flight
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Old Jan 15, 2011, 1:10 pm
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Originally Posted by jjwjjw
Anybody have any recent luck with getting AA to call CX?

Trying to book:

CX873 3/13/11 SFO to HKG
CX785 3/14/11 HKG to DPS

Both flights show 2 F available on KVS and BA. AA can't see the availability. Have called AA 3 times now and had one of the agents talk with her supervisor and she came back and said they can't call CX. What's the magic trick? Keep calling back until someone calls them? Should I just ask for a supervisor to start with? They seem highly argumentative about even making the phone call to CX. Thanks.
Not sure if you've tried this ---- but I would call and ask just for the 2 SFO - HKG seats. Put them on a 5 day hold, thank them and hang up. Then call back, have them pull up the record, and then go about adding the Mar 14 HKG - DPS segment. My experience with AA is that only some of the agents know how to query and book a multi-class partner itinerary (the HKG - DPS flight offers only J, no F), and getting the trans-Pacific F seats is definitely what you need to accomplish first. Good luck!
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