Yep. It's been bad on and off for months. Every 3-4 searches I get the "access denied". It comes and goes in batches and clearing cookies makes little difference.

The last 3-4 days, the new added twist of five day holds not working on my award flights. The hold appears to not go through, get a message that says "we're having trouble with our site, try again later". However shortly after that the flight might show up in my summary with a "hold", but on closer inspection it's either a same day hold only or expires the next day. I say "might" because ~ 50% have followed this pattern and 50% have just disappeared.

These are flights three weeks out so normal 5 day hold procedures should still apply. Fortunately I had enough available miles to purchase the "maybes" for what I need - (purchases always went through fine) - and sort them out later, but not everyone will be able to do that. It's been exasperating not understanding if there's changes in work or just glitches at aa.