Originally Posted by
yoyo
My guess sometimes AA CSR were simply not willing to help or their systems were really just screwy. I found 3 biz seats on CX for Dec travel on BA site and when I called AA I was told they were not available. I found it hard to believe since the agent was so quick with the response and seemed he simply didn't check. When I said I saw the availability on BA website I was given a lecture about that I should only check CX availability on aa.com unless I want to book my CX tickets with BA miles/points. I insisted that he check again then he came back in 2 minutes said no there were only 2 biz seats available. I had my wife called aa on the second phone line while I had the first agent check other partners and she was able to locate the 3 biz seats (JFK->HKG->HGH) so I hung up my line and booked with the second AA CSR. No idea what was going on with the first CSR.
The second day I decided to save my AA points and use up my BA points for the return trip but when I did a search on BA.com for CX, the HGH->JFK via HKG was just not available at all. What was strange was that the individual segments were, however, available. I called BA but they could not tell me why or how to proceed with the booking so I ended up with two booking HGH->HKG and then HKG->JFK instead of HGH->HKG->JFK on one record locator. Does anyone know why that is the case with BA? Did I ended up paying more BA points or surcharge (I think I ended about $300 fuel surcharge and 85K BA points for each biz ticket on CX).
Economics sound right (85k). How long is the layover? I used to routinely book JFKHKG/HKGDPS using BA. But BA charges by segment, and their system doesn't seem to like building connections that require long layovers (particularly overnight). So I always end up with two PNRs. AA can book as a single ticket as long as connection is under 24 hrs. Since the devaluation of Avios, I've shifted my currency earn to AA as it is easier to spent on CX, notwithstanding the curious examples cited here about agents not finding space. I've never been confronted with anything other than exactly the same inventory between AA and BA.