JohnAx

I'd like to use Mindpearl in CPT and pinged them at the email posted here some time ago, [email protected] Friday; No answer well into Monday in California.

RTW4 mentioned a friend there but his mailbox is too full to accept another PM, not a particularly hopeful sign.

Anyone have anything more recent on them?

mindpearl.com itself appears to be a very multi-functional organization, and the only email contact on that site is at a high level. AA GSE isn't obvious on the site, though that's not a surprise if it's essentially insignificant to their business.

Dr. HFH

If you're looking to ticket an xONEx, have you tried the online tool?

jerry a. laska

See this post:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20465377-post227.html
and the posts following.

Plane Crazy

I recently booked two DGLOB34 and a AONE5 departing JNB through the JNB AA office which was priced at ex-South Africa prices despite using an overseas credit card. I just did the usual of contacting the AA RTW Desk in DFW (+18002473247) to make a reservation then called AA in South Africa (+27214406440) who priced and ticketed the reservation in a matter of days. Note that they will charge you in USD despite the quote being based on SA rand prices.

I too had emailed mindpearl who I have used in the past and was told they no longer ticket reservations.

JohnAx

Many thanks - if that's still viable, it sounds like the way to go. Did you happen to compare their exchange rate with xe.com (or your favorite benchmark)? I'd guess it's probably a quirky, arcane number that's close enough.

Unimportant, I'm curious about the nature of AA's presence in JNB. Company staff or another agent?

I presume that an advantage of dealing "directly" with AA is that pricing will reflect AA's philosophy about surcharges and should let me book the AA codeshare out of JNB. Presumably they'd add in their YR instead of BA's higher YQ.

Thanks again the the very useful good news.

John

henry999

Well ... according to American Airlines / about us / where we fly / international tickets / South Africa

http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/where...outhAfrica.jsp

the 'AA in South Africa' number you rang (+27214406440) is Mindpearl.

> Ticket Sales Centers - South Africa

> For all Reservations/Ticketing/Sales and Marketing, please contact:

> Cape Town

> Mindpearl Reservations
> Phone 002721-440 6440 CPT Monday - Friday
> 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
> (Except Public Holidays)

And, really, what sense would it make for a company to have its own presence in a place and have a GSA there too?

cheers,

Henry

JohnAx

As I noted above I was also surprised that AA would have its own people there, but corporations have their reasons and sometimes they even make sense. For example AA could regularly originate a lot of premium revenue there, enough to support a local warm handshake and personal-attention-giver. More likely another GSE, I thought.

Hopefully the contradiction boils down to Mindpearl no longer has an AA GSE desk in CPT, but does have one in JNB, and the original CPT contact may not even know it. Their web site descibes a large diverse company of which GSE'ing for an airline isn't even mentioned. I ran into a similar situation in dealing with BA's GSE in MRU a few years ago.

I'm about to find out.

John

henry999

Sorry ... what do you mean by GSE? Mindpearl is AA's General Sales Agent, GSA. I'm not familiar with 'GSE' in this context.

cheers,

Henry

Plane Crazy

Henry999, from your link it does indeed indicate that I contacted mind pearl. From the AA link that I used to find the number this information wasn't shown:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/inter...oneContact.jsp

Also, when I rang the number they introduced themselves as American, so I had no idea I was dealing with anyone else.

As an aside, this was the exact response from mindpearl when I last emailed them:

Please note this email is no longer used for AA - South Africa. You may contact +27 21 440 6440 or email [email protected] for more
assistance and they'll be happy to assist.

But bottom line, the method I outline in my last post works if the OP wants to make a booking at ex-SA prices. However, they do charge a $30 (or so) booking fee over the phone. Exchange rate and taxes seemed pretty reasonable too from memory.

stuartm

Hi there,

I booked a DONE4 the other day with mindperl.

Called up on the number, made the booking. Had to call back the following day after it had been priced and paid by card.

All super efficient!

Cheers

JohnAx

Thanks, I'm about to do that. Presume you'd talked to the RTW desk at DFW first? And you spoke with them in JNB, not CPT? Base fare exactly as stated by e.g. EF?

stuartm

Hi there - I just called the number on the AA website for South Africa if I recall, then give them the flights, the fare bucket etc and they sent it off for checking and pricing.

Yes - everything was as expected.

Regards
Stuart

JohnAx

As suggested above, I called the AA number (see upthread - ultimately learned they were in Capetown, rumors suggesting JNB notwithstanding). They do answer "American Airlines" and seem to have a very competent, responsive staff.

I hadn't contacted AA in the U.S. to set anything up. I told the agent I wanted to book 4-continent first-class OneWorld Explorer trips for 3 pax; from his easy reponse it sounded like he did that every day. He took down my flights, probably verified availability, got our Aadvantage numbers, gave me the PNRs (two different routings) and said he'd call back in a few minutes.

That didn't happen but I didn't really expect that kind of response so forgave them. When I checked aa.com later, they did have the records, no pricing information, itinerary on hold until the travel date (4 months hence). I of course was anxious to ticket lest the last place on earth I could afford the tickets vanished.

I called the next day, got an agent who looked at the records and said 'no pricing yet, call later in the day'. Since their day is 9 hours ahead of mine (the biggest drawback of this interface, imo) I gave them another full day and called to learn that the rate desk still hadn't done its job. The agent said "I'll do it myself; call me in half an hour." Try getting that kind of service domestically. So I waited an hour, called, asked for him; he was on a call and the agent on the line asked if he could help. Yes, please. And sure enough the tickets had been priced.

The rest was routine c/c activity. The e-tickets appeared in my email within an hour or so, much sooner that I expect from AA domestically. And pricing was within USD50 of what I'd calculated. Billing was not in USD in my case - even aa.com shows the fare in rand (with a dollar sign in front, boy am I the big spender. Not a worry since my c/c would surely have collapsed under that kind of load if it hadn't been divided by 9.something.)

FWIW I was anxious to book and ticket and didn't have the trip anywhere near firmly arranged anyway so I booked a 5-segment trip pending a future very-modest change fee. That meant I could simply type the thing into ITA multi-city, click the flights I was planning to book, and presumably know exactly what the taxes and fuel fines were going to be. As noted the actuals were about $50 more. Plus a $40 booking fee; "is that okay?" asked the aagent. No, way too much to spend on an $8k ticket.

Full Score

I dropped into the Cape Town Mindpearl office the other day hoping to book an AONE4 ticket, but couldn't get past the security guard. A phone call ascertained that they consider themselves purely a corporate office and won't deal with individuals. I never did see anyone in the office. They explained that I must phone the AA South African call centre to get it issued - they did confirm that this is also based in Cape Town.

anabolism

How had you calculated?

Where was the office you dropped in at? The V-A Waterfront or elsewhere?