I was helping a friend to get a ticket SVO-HEL-ORD-SEA (one way) for next day travel. There was a good M-class fare published by AY which included AY flights SVO-HEL-ORD and AA (non codeshare) ORD-SEA. I found it on Google flights and on matrix.itasoftware and verified availability on expertflyer on all flights - M class was wide open.

AY website was not even giving me this route. Expedia was offering slightly more exensive connection to Alaska instead of American with no option to force American for the last segment even on multi-city booking.

Call #1 to AY in Finland, English speaking agent. Agent starts conversation with "sir, did you check our website?". I say yes and explain the problem. She goes on saying that she can only book on the website and if I do not see it there, it's not available. I ask agent if she can build ticket with specific flights and she can not do it and again refers me to website.

There is no point to continue, so I hang up and call AY phone in Russia.

Call # 2 to AY on Russia, Russian speaking agent. Similar story , i.e. "agent has the same information as website" but this time the agent is nicer and she makes effort to research per-flight availability. It turns out that she can not book ORD-SEA as AA, only as AY code share which is sold out with AY flight number. I give her fare code which is published airfare by AY and it allows connection to non-codeshare AA flight and its wide open in the required booking class. She checks with the supervisor and comes back that they absolutely can not book connection as AA, because their systems do not allow it. She did check the fare rules which I gave her and she agrees that AA should be allowed but their systems can not book it. Wow!

Why do you have phone agenets if they can not do things beyond website?

It's not just plain stupid but it's borderline fraud to publish an airfare, have availability and refuse to sell it.

I had bad experiences with reservationss of some low coast airlines or airlines from third world countries, but it's the first time when agents of a major airline, part of OneWorld are left without any tools beyond website and can not book a perfectly valid fare which includes one partner flight.

Eventually Expedia pone support was able to piece together itinerary with required flights, although the price went slightly up because availability changed after all the time spent on the phone and online, but still kudos to Expedia for getting the flights together.