PacNWFlyer

Double open-jaws are essentially two one-way awards, so you'd just need to book them in separate reservations. That drives up the redemption rate if Delta's involved, but otherwise it doesn't impact the trip's cost at all.

EIPremier

Yeah, turns out issue was just that the avail disappeared on the outbound DL leg. But, once I put in different dates, I was able to find an open-jaw award on DL using the multi-city feature on AS.com, and it was the same amount of miles. Open-jaw seemed to work fine also for AA-alone itin, or AA out, DL back.

Really liking the new partner award search options!

jackal

They're actually using alaskaair.com (or an intranet interface that looks almost identical)? So res agents don't have the ability anymore to scan lots of different date combinations quickly or see the raw inventory buckets for individual segments so they can help piece together an itinerary segment-by-segment and then ticket it? That seems like a downgrade, as that's part of what made the Partner Desk so amazing to work with...

missydarlin

So having the sytem piece together a whole months worth of available segments at once, instead of them having to look individually, day by day, segment by segment is a downgrade? To who?

baliktad

I think he's pointing out that segment-by-segment searching can be valuable for people who have certain requirements like specific dates, departure cities, or carriers. Some people may be willing to make compromises like traveling to a connection city on their own if it's only the domestic segment that's not available. Others may prefer to just fly on a different date, or accept a lower class of service.

The one-size-fits-all approach of the calendar is good for purchased tickets because there's always availability (just maybe not at a price you like). But for award tickets, a more advanced searching method is still desirable.

jackal

If the Partner Desk is now limited to only being able to plug an origin and a destination in (just like us) and they can't play around with things like routings and individual segments (just like we can't really) or see availability on individual segments (like we can't, at least not without tools like ExpertFlyer), then it's a downgrade.

But if they can do all that and be able to search for and auto-ticket an itinerary with relative ease, then it is indeed an upgrade. ^

ETA: Yes, baliktad understood and clarified my point correctly. Thanks.

missydarlin

i still don't see how you can't plug in individual segments to look at availability?

If you're trying to get a SEA ORD CDG routing and it doesn't pull up with SEA-CDG, I'm still not sure what is preventing you from pulling up SEA-ORD, and ORD-CDG separately to see where the holdup is, or what dates each of those are available?

CDKing

Not being able to specify class of service is annoying. The calendar only shows the lowest point amount for the date, If you want F you have to look at every date to see if its available. I swear the option was there before but i canot find it

I do notice when i put in SEA-LHR it comes up with a ton of flight options. I wonder if its considering all possible routings or just the most logical ones. i know over at UA i can search segment by segment and piece together much better itineraries that Uniteds own website cannot find by entering origin and destination

missydarlin

I just did a search and on the left side of the calendars is an option to filter results. Do you not see it?

missydarlin

It considers all of them, and then displays the most logical. The less option that are available, the more likely you will see less logical connections.

alphaeagle

On the left hand side you can choose to display coach, business or first when looking at the award calendar.

I really like how it comes up with flight options. It's accurate and pieces together a huge variety of available routing options. The only thing I'd like to see improved is it telling you which class of service you would be booked in on the schedule page. As it is right now you have to add it to your cart to see if all flights will actually be in first/business class.

CDKing

I missed it, for some reason i was looking at the wrong page. Now if only the airline selector was also on the calendar page and a fare class filter on the available flights page.

Same here,. In regards to routings i just looked at one for a few days from now SEA-LHR and almost any connection city came up two of them were YYC, LAS which i didnt even think about

PacNWFlyer

Yes, they're using alaskaair.com (the browser is pulled in to the application they use). They don't see the page's header, footer, or the survey tool, but otherwise it's the exact same shopping experience. And for the record, agents never had the ability to scan lots of date combinations 'quickly' (not how I'd define 'quick' anyway). Now, they do and so do you.

Agents don't see it as a downgrade and they're thrilled with the new tool and how it simplifies and shortens shopping time. You (and they) can use multi-city to search for specific connection cities or stopovers. For most customers who don't need that, a simple origin to destination search does the trick.

The partner desk is amazing. It was fascinating for me to watch them spend 30-45 minutes on a single phone call and their patience was impressive. Fortunately, we've made their jobs (and most importantly our customer's shopping experience at as.com) much faster and easier.

PacNWFlyer

Well, hang tight - it's coming very soon. You'll be able to tell from the matrix display when you're looking at mixed-cabin results, so you won't have to click to the cart to find out which leg is in which cabin.

randapex

That would be nice. It's really annoying to have to click through to the next page after selecting "First" to find 2 out of 3 legs are in coach.