Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
If wanting to hold for a longer period, try a travel agent or perhaps speak to agent on phone
AA agents over the phone are subject to the same 24 hr as AA.com
One agent that tried to override this was issued a formal complaint by another agent when I went to finally ticket...then AA got involved.
Originally Posted by
Andriyko
But the fare rules are created with the very purpose of helping the agents understand how to sell tickets. When a reservation is made the system will set a ticketing deadline (unless it is an instant purchase fare), which will usually correspond to the amount of time allowed by the fare rules. If there is another airline's flight in the itinerary then such airline can issue its own (shorter) ticketing deadline or its segment will be cancelled.
Once the reservation is made and the fare is stored it won't go up or down. Say, we reserved LHR-JFK-LHR in 'I' class (I2LCJB fare), which has the following ticketing deadline: TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 3 DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE OR AT LEAST 14 DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE WHICHEVER IS EARLIER. The fare will remain the same for teh duration allowed by the reservation system - USD2551 but fees/taxes may change due to possible foreign exchange fluctuations.
Unfortunately, not many agents even know how to read the rules. And AA may well require its call centres to only allow 24 hour holds or not allow any holds as BA does with its UK call centres (but strangely enough BA's U.S. call centres are happy to set a ticketing deadline within the limits of the fare rules and do not require to buy the ticket outright). But the essence of these ticketing deadlines is rather straightforward - to lock the space and the fare (but just the fare not the fees and taxes) for as long as allowed by the rules. And the price of the ticket (its fare component) cannot go up until the ticketing deadline,
Bingo
Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
That it can be held does not guarantee that the fare will still be available when it comes to ticketing
If a fare is pulled or changed, then the fare at time of ticketing will apply
If the fare is removed, then all its rules disappear too
If the fare goes up/down then those rules will apply
other than the 24 hr guarantee offered by AA, anything beyond that is based on what is available at time of ticketing
You are stuck in the "here is what AA does therefore that must be the rule" mentaility...we are in the 'here are the rules, where does it say AA can do that?" mode.
AA says the FARE is "guaranteed" for 24 hours. Your argument is "when the fare code is pulled and the space released, reservation cancelled, that is the end of the guarantee"...
Guaranteeing a fare and guaranteeing a reservation/inventory are - arguably- two different things. You can hold space yet lose the published fare code
Originally Posted by
Andriyko
But that can't be possible as once you store the fare the airline will guarantee this specific fare until the ticketing deadline. If you have a confirmed reservation in 'A' for fare basis ABC123 with a ticketing deadline next Monday it does not mean that there need to be 'A' inventory on that Monday to issue the ticket as you'll already have a confirmed 'A' seat and the fare will be stored; the plane may already be sold out by Monday but you'll still have your 'A' seat in fare basis ABC123 (so, the product will be in stock until the ticketing deadline
). Even if the airline suddenly pulls the fare it will send notices to agents to ticket un-ticketed reservations.
Exactly- you reserve a seat, and a specific inventory- when ticketing occurs there is no need for new inventory as you already hold it.
Originally Posted by
Upgraded!
After looking at some int'l fare rules, I'm once again curious whether this is actually meant to describe the time limit between making and paying for a reservation. I plugged some random dates into EF for ORD-LHR r/t and saw the following:
From a heavily discounted business class ticket (I4NAJB) the advance purchase box reads as follows:
For a full-fare J ticket (J1NAJB) that same box reads:
Finally, a somewhat discounted D ticket (D2NAJB), with no advance purchase restrictions but a $250 change/cancellation fee, the box reads same as the J ticket above.
To me, this says that with the most restricted tickets you have a maximum of three days between making your reservation and paying for it, while less restricted/unrestricted tickets give you 28 days to pay. Again, I'm wondering if this language is a holdover from when reservations were made but not paid for immediately.
In this case, I read "ticketing" as synonymous with "remitting payment". I suppose that technically this can be considered a "hold" but I don't know of a situation where you are able to make the reservation but not pay for it at the same time today. If this were a reference to hold periods, one could theoretically place a month-long hold on a semi-restricted D ticket.
These are precisely the tickets I've been using....
Originally Posted by
Andriyko
Upgraded!, you are interpreting the rules correctly. Ticketing deadline means that a passenger has however many days to pay for the ticket and for the agent to issue the ticket.
Many people do place reservations on hold for a few days or for a week. There are fully flexible fares that do not have advance ticketing requirements at all and people pay for them and have the ticket processed a day or a few hours before the flight.
It is not possible to do it online though. Another thing to bear in mind that airlines may (and do) issue a new ticketing deadline prompting the agent to issue a ticket sooner (if the flight is filling up quickly, for example). With AA these deadlines usually correspond to the maximum term allowed by the fare rules. BA also always issues the longest possible deadline. For mixed itineraries each airline in the reservation may set its own deadline irrespective of the rules - for example, BA WTP fares book into 'H' or 'B' on AA domestic flights, but AA has no way of knowing that most BA's WTP fares allow up to a week to pay for the ticket and will issue its own deadline that must be honoured or it will cancel its segments. The work around is to book under a BA codeshare flight number but not all flights can be booked as codeshare.
Thanks. I still am working with AA to understand why they are not following the fare rules...
Originally Posted by
Upgraded!
That's what I originally thought, but FT made me second guess myself
(also, I think I phrased it in a way that could have been misinterpreted).
In the case of the OP, perhaps terminology was the confusing issue for the phone agent. Had s/he instead said "I want to make a reservation for X and I'll pay for it within three days, per the fare rules" I wonder if that would have been dealt with differently...
hardly!
I've made 5 RTs this year, another in a few days...I know this route, inventory and rules.
Had I said "I need 3 days" they will say "then you need a refundable fare"($$$)
Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
The airline will guarantee the fare for 24 hours , but it is not guaranteed beyond
I often hold for significant periods however the fare is not guaranteed. That the reservation can be held does not guarantee the fare
e.g. an airline has a 1st class fare on offer AEX123B and at the current time the fare is $1234 . If purchased today the fare will be $1234 plus taxes. This fare may only require that it is ticketed prior to departure, so can be held indefinitely.
If that fare goes up or down, then whatever the fare is at time of purchase is what will apply, not what it was at the time of holding it
s
In this situation (as the OP) I submit that fare AEX1234B has a rule that says "ticket within 3 days of booking reservation"...and AA says 'we only guarantee a fare for 24 hrs. this is the crux of my question. If AA was following the fare rules AND their "24 hr guarentee", this is what should happen at 71.9 hours I call in. I expect to be told one of three things:
1. I'll take your credit card now for $1234, that fare is valid.
2. The fare has changed, AEX1234B is now $1800, (which is OK)
3. Fare AEX1234B is no longer a published fare, but since you had 3 days to ticket we will honor the reserved booking.
The above scenario allows the AA "fare guaranteed for 24 hours" to coexist with the fare rule "3 days to ticket"
Im working with AA on this, will update if I get anywhere. Cost me $500 a few weeks back, so.....