Originally Posted by
jamienbaker
True. Though there have been plenty of examples at various APs. I've returned awards inside of 2 days of departure, and they go back into the award bucket. Today's example was for June travel. I agree it is risky, and they may be running an algorithm...but it sure doesnt seem to be working
Glad to hear that CX is generally good about returning award space to inventory ^
By the way, I wasn't suggesting that if they did use a revenue management algorithm that it wasn't working; the algorithm might determine they
do wish to return the award seat to available award inventory. It would seem to me that getting whatever they get for an award is better than getting nothing if the seat goes out empty, so if they predict that they won't sell the seat, making it available for an award seems smart. I don't know why AA, for example, doesn't routinely make empty seats available for an award close-in. Maybe AA thinks they will need the seats to roll people forward? Just a guess.
Originally Posted by
jenae
I called CX Tuesday to make the res, and they said they'd hold it for 24 hours. I wasn't ready to pull the trigger, figured it cancelled. I just today got my voicemail where CX CALLED me Friday late afternoon, to ask if I still wanted to book it, and saying they'd hold until Sat morning. I just bought it -- from a delightfully professional, courteous thorough agent.
I'm not the flyer many of you are, but never heard of an airline calling back before cancelling a res!
CX is very nice about that. I've had them call me when I had an award waitlisted that became available.
Sorry you had a bad experience with AA.