Mixed booking class on *A
 

Anyone have any success booking mixed cabin? I tried to book with the agent but he said I need to book as 2 separate awards. My flight is CDG-NRT-NGO. However the NRT to NGO on NH only have one cabin.

Yes,

multi-class award has somewhen been confirmed somwhere in the www . HUACA.

I'm curious about this too. Anyone else managed to get success with mixed class? i.e. how many times must you HUACA before it worked?

I wonder if A3 will ever change the policy to allow this, cause it makes no sense to need extra mileage for booking a lower class segment

I suppose the thing that prevents this is - how would they price it?

In the original example - CDG-NRT-NGO, that award would be the same 'price' as a simple CDG-NRT anyway, so they're effectively giving you the NRT-NGO leg for 'free'. So how much reduction should they offer for that leg being in Y?

I suppose the fairest way would be to consider the proportions of the distances of the two flights but that would be way too complicated, especially in a system where all awards are fixed amounts based on a zone system.

For example:

CDG-NRT 6048 miles
NRT-NGO 212 miles
Total distance 6260 miles

Award miles required for whole trip in C 110,000
Award miles required for whole trip in Y 80,000

Award miles required for mixed-class:
(6048/6260*110000)+(212/6260*80000) = 106,247 + 2709 = 108,956 miles

Is it really worth it?

I realise the difference would be more if the flights were of similar length, but still, this could only really work in a totally distance-based redemption system.

Or just do what every other *A program does and apply the mileage of the highest class of service to the whole thing?

Which is what they do. And I apologise because I assumed the OP was complaining about having to pay the full amount of miles for the trip. Were they saying they cannot book the award AT ALL?

Let me hijack this thread since it's a closely related question.

I am looking at redeeming AKL-BKK-CPH, and up until the week before the travel dates I need J/J award seats are available consistently at least 4 days a week (as shown in UA and AC).

Obviously for the week I need, only mixed Y/J awards are available.

I would be ready to pay full price for the award, but what happens if AKL-BKK in J opens later? Can I just switch to the new seat, or would I have to cancel the whole award and rebook, hoping that the BKK-CPH seat goes back in the availability pool?

I reckon it's the latter, but no harm in asking.

Thank you for any insight.

Just got off the phone with the call centre. What an amazing operation A3 has!

A very kind agent looked up the flights I was interested in and offered me a Y/Y itinerary. I asked about a mixed ticket, and she apologetically said that it's no problem but I have to pay the J/J miles. No problem for that, and she issued the mixed Y/J ticket.

I then asked what would happen should "I" class open up for the first segment, and she confirmed that it is not possible to switch to the higher class without cancelling the ticket.

The usual good experience with A3's customer service!

Cancelling the existing ticket an re-issue a new one is no problem, as long they keep the original booking and just modify the flight, where I-cl becomes avalble... I'd try it if the class becomes available, just clearly communicate that they don't touche the existing I-cl leg ;)

Well that's what I originally asked, and the agent told me that would have worked. However she called me back a few minutes later (when was the last time a call center agent called you back to correct a mistake!) to tell me I'd have to cancel and rebook.

I'll see, AKL-BKK availability on the direct flight completely disappeared for the date I need. It's a day flight, I can survive it in Y!

I'm trying to book a *A award BOG-FRA-ARN in F/J and they price this as two seperate awards. It will be one ticket, but 75+25=100k miles.
If it's Y/Y, they only take the economy miles.
Is that correct or is the agent just incompetent? It sounds absolutely horrible.

What's different from what was discussed up-thread (other than the airports involved, of course ;)) and what is horrible about it?

I understood the discussion above to be about whether it’s even possible to book a multi-cabin award.
It’s perfectly bookable, just not worth it.

Just to doublecheck: so you only paid the J-amount for the full itinerary, correct; not J+Y?
If you go through the online interface, it will price it J+Y as far as I understand.

Yes, I paid for a J booking. This was before online award booking was available so I'd call and insist.