Originally Posted by
Jm246
Hi all - I looked around for a relevant thread, but didn't find one...
My wife and I are going to Hawaii in August, and we want to fly on HA. She has HA miles, and I have AA miles. When I put the dates for our travel in on the HA website, there are several coach class awards flights available, for multiple travelers. When I call AA to book the flight for me however, the only award class available for them to book me on Hawaiian, for the same flight, is Business class (which is evidently Hawaiian's first class). So it would cost me 85k AA miles to book the flight, and my wife and I would be booked in different classes. I've called three times, and received the same response each time. I even changed the dates, and the response was the same.
When I spoke with a supervisor, they told me that they only have HA award flights/classes available based on what HA releases to them, and he placed the blame on HA.
Does anyone know how this works, or any tips on how to deal with this? I'm about ready to just cancel my Citi AAdvantage card and say forget it....
Much TIA for any help!
Jim
Hi Jim, and welcome to FlyerTalk.
First off, Hawaiian uses the term First Class and Business Class interchangeably. I've even seen at certain international locations where the Hawaiian Airlines check-in sign says First Class, but the HA boarding pass said Business Class.
Regarding your experience with redeeming miles with AA, keep in mind that one of the most sought after and desired awards is from the lower 48 states is to Hawaii. So finding sAAver inventory can be exceedingly difficult, especially in Premium Cabins on DFW-HNL, DFW-OGG, and the seasonal ORD-HNL on AA metal.
American is the only domestic carrier [besides HA] that lets you book mainland U.S.A. to Hawaii awards for travel on Hawaiian Airlines. Every other domestic carrier [with the exception of Hawaiian] only lets you redeem miles for interisland Hawaiian Airlines flights, or Hawaii-Australia/Asia flights on Hawaiian Airlines.
What the supervisor told you is correct--- American does not always have the same award inventory that you might find with saver inventory on Hawaiian Airlines website for awards booked with Hawaiian Airlines' own frequent flyer program. Hawaiian only releases a certain number of seats to American for AAdvantage redemptions. For example you may see 2 saver seats available using Hawaiian Miles on HawaiianMiles website, but only be able to book 1 seat using AAdvantage Miles on AA.com [or calling AA on the phone to try to book].
It's frustrating, but there's really nothing you can do because of the discrepancy in the awards that AA gets from Hawaiian for AAdvantage customers to redeem for travel on HA.
So it's not completely AA's fault with Hawaiian Airlines releasing fewer seats to AA than to its own frequent flyers. A somewhat similar thing happens with Qantas--- Qantas releases their award seats to their own frequent flyers first. Often times saver inventory gets gobbled up before the remaining award seats are released to AAdvantage and other OneWorld carriers.
Is it worth canceling your credit card? That's something you'll have to decide, but keep in mind amongst "The Big 3" carriers, when it comes to obtaining saver award seats to Hawaii, especially Premium Cabin saver awards, can be very difficult to get--- especially for flights to Hawaii that don't originate on the West Coast.