Originally Posted by
crazyMRer
Bad assumption.
I have a habit of booking hard to find awards at the low level the airline agent initially says 'nothing available" for. The key is understanding the rules, having the time and skill/knowledge to do the research yourself, then calling until you get an agent who can/knows how to book the available flights.
An airline call center's knowledge of how you can/cannot check availability yourself is nearly always flawed/incorrect.
Well I sure would like to know what I am doing wrong then.
I search AAs site and Alaska's site for available flights for the lowest awards. I find them, and in AAs case, make sure that another non-BA partner is not doing any of the legs, then call BAEC only to be told there is no availability. I even tried doing it leg by leg to see if it makes a difference. If I go to BAs site and search for AA availability, it is never listed. If I call in, I get the same story. I've tried calling in about a half dozen times now.