Originally Posted by
Au4882
This is normal from my experience. Do the following:
- Put a 24-hour hold on your itinerary at the lower fare class (it's a payment option for all reservations outside 7 days prior)
- Call in to AA and request for the fare to be re-priced to a V fare, or whatever
- Don't ticket on the phone - ask to keep it on hold
- Ticket reservation online
That should do the trick.
Edit: after reading your post more carefully, it looks like this is exactly what you do... and I think that's what you'll continue to have to do. I wish AA's site had a feature similar to UA's that allows one to search a particular fare class.
So, this is what I tried doing, but when I try to do step 4 and buy the altered reservation on the website, it tries to be smart and say "oh, there is a lower fare available, I'll save you some money!" and won't let me buy it except at an N or S fare. Then the ticketing agents sometimes tell me (when I call back) that my inability to ticket online is not justification to waive the ticketing fee of $25 or whatever it is. Very annoying.
I'm still unclear as to why G fares are being sold but V fares are not. I've never seen this on other airlines, it always seems to be linear i.e. if a certain fare is available then there is at least one seat open at every higher fare class as well.