Originally Posted by
Bernoulli 777
Wierd. But to answer your question, changes on the front end of a ticket, like not getting on that first segment, usually mess up the whole tix.
Yea, I know if I miss the first flight it voids the whole itinerary but I was wondering if AM would have the ability to change the reservation within their system if they wanted to since CO can't or wont change the ticket. Certainly in the case of IROPS the day of travel they would be able to reroute me any way they saw fit regardless of the ticketed route.
Coming back it doesn't really mater to me. I just won’t check any bags and get off in TIJ and abandon the rest of the itinerary. In fact I imagine even if I did check a bag as ticketed on the return, NRT-TIJ-MEX-TIJ, they would almost certainly pull the baggage off the plane the first time it landed in TIJ anyway. It's bad for AM though since they will have me reserved in seats they might have otherwise sold.
I've spent quite a bit of time with CO on the phone with three different agents at the international reward desk. One told me she showed AM58 as a non-stop flight MEX-NRT and that TIJ is invalid as an origin city. She could however book it TIJ-NRT as a revenue ticket. Another agent said there was no routing information in her computer (?) when she put TIJ as the origin only MEX. The third just kind of quickly explained to me the general rule that just because AM has a flight does not automatically mean they make it available to CO for rewards. Plausible, but she rolled that one off really quick without actually checking anything specific so I consider that explanation non-authoritative. On nwa.com I could book it on-line as a NW reward and although NW is not CO they do both draw Skyteam rewards on AM from the same fare buckets.
If I have to I'll actually make the trip to MEX and back because I'm really curious to try this relatively new and somewhat unique flight. Being in SAN, TIJ is actually a very easy place for me to depart from. I'll take the US-Mexico border and TIJ over the 405 and LAX any day. TIJ is a pretty decent little airport and AM has a nice Skyteam lounge there. In fact if I fly as ticketed I will get to hang out in the TIJ AM lounge twice the same day
Best of all, departing from TIJ rather than LAX scored me standard business class reward tickets to Asia, late in the game, on a US holiday weekend when there basically isn't a chance in hell of getting a reward flight ex-usa. The US holiday weekend is of no special interest to Mexico
But this whole reservation nonsense really has me pulling my hair out. I'm certain CO just does not have the flight loaded in their system correctly but I can't seem to get anywhere with them. I’ll be calling them again in the next day or so but I’m trying to figure out any good way I can proactively help guide the solution. Maybe I just have to call again and again until I get the right agent. It certainly has happened before where I have some convoluted itinerary that an agent claims will not ticket but I call back and the next agent sighs, mumbles to herself “why does it always do that?” types 4 or 5 magic keystrokes and everything is fine.
Originally Posted by
ElkeNorEast
This may sound like a silly question, but are your departure & return dates in line with the new TIJ-NRT service? If you're trying to depart on Monday, and TIJ-NRT only goes on Tuesday and Friday, their systems may be forcing them to fly you to MEX and then go on to NRT the next day.
Just a wild theory though
Yea, I wondered that myself since it does depart from MEX on a Thursday at 11:45pm lands in TIJ 12:55am Friday and then departs TIJ at 3:00am Friday all under the same flight number. Carefully going over that with the agents didn't produce any results. They still say they cannot see it out of TIJ.