Originally Posted by
solomita
Yes. The specific dates were 9/10 SFO-CDG-CPH, 9/20 TXL-CDG, 9/26 CDG-SFO. If you know my home address, I'm now in deep trouble. 8-) The booking was made back in February. And like I say, they couldn't price that itinerary at all.
I'm actually frustrated also because I have no status with AF, so I'm flying paid P TATL, yet I've got this one leg in coach without status. Not going to be much fun.
Were you solely booking online? Apparently when you choose "First Class" on most online booking sites (including OTAs), and have a "J" segment before or after a stopover in First Class, the online travel sites kick it out. This is because these sites tend to build complete itineraries before presenting them to you. If the flight component involves F connecting to J or J connecting to F, the algorithm would automatically choose the next lowest class if F is not available. However when it encounters a standalone "J" segment (stopover), it doesn't find "F" and kicks out the itinerary with a response "no flights available".
You need to call a live human travel agent such as AMEX PTS/CTS to book "F", "J", "J", "F" by choosing the flights one by one in order for it to price.
Also, some airline call centers now use a graphical interface (to reduce agent training time) that is similar to that of the online booking sites and kick out the itinerary (with one of the segments in "J" has a stopover before or after an "F" segment) if you specify "First Class".