A few months ago, someone on FT pointed out that AA.com now guarantees fares when you put a reservation on hold. Here is the exact text from the Hold/Purchase screen:

"If you are not ready to purchase your ticket now, you may select HOLD to GUARANTEE your reservation and fare for up to 24 hours."

So... last night I went online to book one of those $138 SFO-PHL fares. This is not a mileage run for me -- I am visiting family in Philly -- so I wanted to double-check with my family to make sure the weekend in question was OK. In the past, I would've gone ahead and booked the fare to make sure I didn't lose it, but this time, I figured I'd put it on hold, since the fare would be guaranteed.

I went back tonight to purchase the ticket. The reservation page clearly said I needed to purchase by 10/15/2005 11:59 PM PDT. It was about 11:38 PM PDT when I clicked the "Purchase" button.

A screen came up informing me that the fare had gone up to $179.00 per person! I thought my fare was guaranteed...

A quick call to the EXP desk fixed the problem -- the rep gave me the ticket at the original $138 price. But I'll miss out on the AA.com booking bonus, and if I had not been EXP, I also would have had to pay the phone ticketing fee.

Has anyone else experienced this, or was mine just an isolated occurrence?