Another " I can't get AC to take my money" thread
It seems like I post one of these rants every couple of years...
I like to travel to Asia on AC P fares, and to squeeze as much value as I can from them I usually book YYZ - BKK, with stop-overs in PVG one way and ICN the other way. This lets me get to three of my business stops on the main ticket, and I can book separate tickets to my other stops ( CGK, SIN, XMN, etc) from one of those 3 cities. Today I was checking the P fare rules on Expert Flyer, and noted that YYZ-BKK only allowed stop-overs in PVG or TYO. This seems like a restrictive change, so I called in. 40 minutes wait to get to an agent - he says he cannot see stop-over rules. OK, I tell him lets book a ticket. YYZ-PVG, we find a date with a P fare. Next PVG-BKK. I tell him it has to be on MU, and TG is not permitted on P fares, and the FM flights, even if coded MU, are also not permitted. He says he cannot find any flight, on any day, from PVG-BKK.. We can't even get to try to book BKK -ICN-YYZ. Meanwhile I have my browser open on CX website, with a nice I fare YYZ-HKG-SIN//BKK-HKG-YYZ of CAD 4500. After 30 minutes on the phone with AC, telling me he cannot book a very simple multi-city, I say thank you and pull the plug on the CX fare. Sigh. I'll never get to 2MM like this. |
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31870248)
I like to travel to Asia on AC P fares, and to squeeze as much value as I can from them
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Man, if I had $1,500 for every time I couldn't get AC to take my money I'd have top tier status on another airline as well...... oh wait..... I do.
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Originally Posted by jjclancy
(Post 31872638)
AC changed its rules to limit how much you can squeeze out of a discount fare, in this case the OAL options permitted on their published fares. I’m not sure why you equate this to “AC won’t take my money” — they were probably running out of appetite to pay other airlines for your carriage to BKK.
How can they then not have access to any flights between PVG and BKK? ( By the way, MU, FM, and TG all fly this route. TG is excluded from P fares, but I have used MU many times on this fare/route. The AC agent said his system does not show ANY MU flights between the 2 cities - there are 2 daily. Maybe it's another Amadeus issue?). |
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31873847)
But they do have a P fare YYZ-BKK, and it specifically only allows connections in PVG or TYO.
How can they then not have access to any flights between PVG and BKK? |
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31870248)
It seems like I post one of these rants every couple of years...
I like to travel to Asia on AC P fares, and to squeeze as much value as I can from them I usually book YYZ - BKK, with stop-overs in PVG one way and ICN the other way. This lets me get to three of my business stops on the main ticket, and I can book separate tickets to my other stops ( CGK, SIN, XMN, etc) from one of those 3 cities. Today I was checking the P fare rules on Expert Flyer, and noted that YYZ-BKK only allowed stop-overs in PVG or TYO. This seems like a restrictive change, so I called in. 40 minutes wait to get to an agent - he says he cannot see stop-over rules. OK, I tell him lets book a ticket. YYZ-PVG, we find a date with a P fare. Next PVG-BKK. I tell him it has to be on MU, and TG is not permitted on P fares, and the FM flights, even if coded MU, are also not permitted. He says he cannot find any flight, on any day, from PVG-BKK.. We can't even get to try to book BKK -ICN-YYZ. Meanwhile I have my browser open on CX website, with a nice I fare YYZ-HKG-SIN//BKK-HKG-YYZ of CAD 4500. After 30 minutes on the phone with AC, telling me he cannot book a very simple multi-city, I say thank you and pull the plug on the CX fare. Sigh. I'll never get to 2MM like this. Pulling up a random AC P fare from YYZ-BKK on the GDS and displaying the routing rules gives me 224 possible combinations!! Code:
V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG Also, it appears that MU no longer participates in the AC P fare as they no longer have an RBD (booking class) associated with the fare: Code:
CXR FARE CLASS MARKET TICKET DATE TRAVEL DATE |
Originally Posted by daniellam
(Post 31876798)
Just out of curiosity, what were your exact travel dates and fare basis you were looking at?
Pulling up a random AC P fare from YYZ-BKK on the GDS and displaying the routing rules gives me 224 possible combinations!! 1 STOPOVER PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION AT CAD 150.00 1 IN SHA/TYO IN EACH DIRECTION. |
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31877170)
Yes, I have seen these routing rules, but those would be for transit - for stop-overs the fare rules now state:
1 STOPOVER PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION AT CAD 150.00 1 IN SHA/TYO IN EACH DIRECTION. I've tried booking this fare with an actual GDS and so far haven't been successful. I keep having availability issues (mostly "Journey Data" I presume) where downline availability is zeroed out once the preceding segment is added. Note that TG flights require "Z" inventory on AC P fares and MU no longer participates in AC P fares. Seems like what some carriers are now doing is they now publish many fares (even within the same booking class) for a specific Origin/Destination. Each with different restrictions and routings. With so many fares, it makes even the most saavy travel agent get to the point where they don't even want to bother reading the rules for each of them (the incentive to do so is even less as a lot of carriers don't even pay commission!) so that they can get "that price". Instead, they encourage people to book according to the schedule they want to fly and then if they are lucky, they get the low price, if they are unlucky, they get the high price. |
Originally Posted by daniellam
(Post 31879188)
You might want to also read the "DAY/TIME", "FLIGHT APPLICATION" and "TRANSFERS" section of the fare rules.
I've tried booking this fare with an actual GDS and so far haven't been successful. I keep having availability issues (mostly "Journey Data" I presume) where downline availability is zeroed out once the preceding segment is added. Note that TG flights require "Z" inventory on AC P fares and MU no longer participates in AC P fares. . |
The historical P fares I can find for YYZ-BKK on AC had rules like this:
Code:
V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG Code:
V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31880144)
TG never was eligible for AC P fares - they had to be Z or higher to use TG.
Code:
CXR FARE CLASS MARKET TICKET DATE TRAVEL DATE |
Actually, in the flight application section of the P fares, both present and historical, the following always appears ( appeared):
IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL WITHIN AREA 3 THEN THAT TRAVEL MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING ANY TG FLIGHT |
Originally Posted by IluvSQ
(Post 31883262)
Actually, in the flight application section of the P fares, both present and historical, the following always appears ( appeared):
IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL WITHIN AREA 3 THEN THAT TRAVEL MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING ANY TG FLIGHT |
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