Originally Posted by
mathprof
Might have just gotten lucky today, booked HNL-LAS over Thanksgiving using companion certificate at $591 but before clicking on the final button, I opened another browser and checked the non-certificate fare. $591 was for basic economy and main cabin was $60 more. Might have thought that E fares were certificate eligible but I was able to choose seats when I booked.
Yes, I've seen this too. The fares that Amex certs book into are often priced similar to BE. I only get one example per year, but my experience is the same. The seventh character of the fare code was "E" in my case.