Originally Posted by
Lizie
And I booked it through the Amex website for protection if anything went wrong! I understand now I should have gone through another online travel agency using my amex card. Another agency would ticket immediately. Thanks CDKing that's really helpful.
I booked with Amex travel for the same reason and Amex did issue the ticket. I think it is a hit or miss because Amex travel takes an hour or so before the "actual ticket is purchased". I suspect you got caught in that unfortunate timing whereby before Amex could fulfil the purchase, AZ pulled this fare and accordingly Amex was unable to complete the sale.
I thought about this risk as well but still decided to go with Amex travel for two reasons 1) History with AZ and how long AZ took to refund in the past 2) Being an Amex Platinum member, Amex (should at least in theory) treat this situation better in issuing refund should things go belly up as my contract of purchase is with Amex and not with AZ or any other third party OTA.
With these fares, you win some and you lose some. I'm keeping fingers crossed with this fare but AZ has a terrible history with such deals and the odds of this fare being honoured is rather slim as it did not involve AZ alone but also flights on Delta and AF which were marketed by AZ. In that case, the financial implication could be a bit more brutal than if it involved AZ alone I would suspect.
Best way with these fares is to book them and fly asap before the airline could cancel because you have commenced your journey then the airline has to let you complete the journey and cannot unilaterally downgrade you or cancel the ticket.