Weird AS/Partner Award Availability
Apr 16, 2017, 1:48 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Land of 10,000 Upgrades
Posts: 9,465
Weird AS/Partner Award Availability
I needed a one-way F seat on AS from MSP to SFO. I have no status on AS if that makes a difference.
AA wanted 25k miles.
DL wanted 30k miles.
AS wanted 50k miles.
All for the same AS flight.
Thoughts?
AA wanted 25k miles.
DL wanted 30k miles.
AS wanted 50k miles.
All for the same AS flight.
Thoughts?
Apr 16, 2017, 2:11 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
OP: did you actually try and book the flight on AA/DL? Would not shock me if you couldn't complete the booking due to "phantom" availability...
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Apr 16, 2017 at 4:20 pm
Apr 16, 2017, 2:13 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: LAX/FAO
Posts: 355
Do you have access to expert flyer? In my experience, the seats that airlines make available for partner redemptions are only the ones available at the saver (or lowest) level, and not their "anytime " level. If AS has made that seat available to AA and DL, I would expect it to be available to their mileage plan members at the lowest level and would be puzzled by this as well. Perhaps systems haven't synced and if you tried to redeem on AA or DL it wouldn't actually go through.
Apr 16, 2017, 3:20 pm
#5
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: SEA, ORD, SFO
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, AA PLT, DL GM, SPG GLD, Hyatt GLD, SPG GLD
Posts: 202
It's certainly upside-down in terms of the respective FF miles valuation...
AA - 25K *1.5 -> $375.00
DL - 30K *1.2 -> $360.00
AS - 50K *1.9 -> $950.00
(from PointsGuy April valuations)
AA - 25K *1.5 -> $375.00
DL - 30K *1.2 -> $360.00
AS - 50K *1.9 -> $950.00
(from PointsGuy April valuations)
Apr 16, 2017, 3:42 pm
#6
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Sunny Seattle
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, HH Diamond
Posts: 539
I would guess you were looking at a DL flight available through AS, which charges the full round-trip price for a one-way, and is the only domestic F award that comes in at 50k miles one-way.
Last edited by Kieron; Apr 16, 2017 at 4:55 pm Reason: per below
Apr 16, 2017, 4:18 pm
#7
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Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
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Apr 16, 2017, 4:59 pm
#8
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Sunny Seattle
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, HH Diamond
Posts: 539
Since when does aa.com show DL award availability?
Apr 16, 2017, 5:35 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Land of 10,000 Upgrades
Posts: 9,465
Apr 16, 2017, 6:37 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Sunny Seattle
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, HH Diamond
Posts: 539
Excellent catch. ^
Low level availability normally matches between aa.com and alaskaair.com, plus or minus some temporary offsets when inventory changes don't sync up immediately - and that's where it's more likely to fail when proceeding with a booking. Perhaps that's what happened for your search? Getting it to ticket through is a nice piece of luck.
Low level availability normally matches between aa.com and alaskaair.com, plus or minus some temporary offsets when inventory changes don't sync up immediately - and that's where it's more likely to fail when proceeding with a booking. Perhaps that's what happened for your search? Getting it to ticket through is a nice piece of luck.
Apr 16, 2017, 8:12 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,934
AS has no 50k one-way redemption on its own metal domestically:
but it certainly has 25k and 2x25k=50k.
Apr 17, 2017, 6:57 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Land of 10,000 Upgrades
Posts: 9,465
I stand corrected to the extent that AS was 60k rather than 50k. But AS does show DL metal for 50k.
FWIW, and as of this morning:
AS 60k
DL 30k (and I went all the way to the payment page)
AA unavailable
Makes yesterday's 25k look even that much better.
FWIW, and as of this morning:
AS 60k
DL 30k (and I went all the way to the payment page)
AA unavailable
Makes yesterday's 25k look even that much better.
Apr 17, 2017, 6:59 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Sound like AA is gone because there is no saver and 30K seems way too low for a DL award (of course they don't publish their chart anymore so its impossible to tell) but if 25K AA award is not available, i dont know how DL is selling it since they have the exact same inventory access as AA
Apr 17, 2017, 9:00 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,067
From/to, routing and date ?
Sound like AA is gone because there is no saver and 30K seems way too low for a DL award (of course they don't publish their chart anymore so its impossible to tell) but if 25K AA award is not available, i dont know how DL is selling it since they have the exact same inventory access as AA
Sound like AA is gone because there is no saver and 30K seems way too low for a DL award (of course they don't publish their chart anymore so its impossible to tell) but if 25K AA award is not available, i dont know how DL is selling it since they have the exact same inventory access as AA
Contrary to popular myth, DL still has award levels and despite the lack of an award chart, a number of us have been able to document the different levels. DL metal domestic F one-way awards start at 25K and go up to 60K. Here are the DL levels for domestic F. Note that the D1 transcon routes have different levels (unsurprisingly).
FSM250 25K
FSL325 32.5K
FSD375 37.5K
FSS450 45K
FSK550 55K
FSKP600 60K
The 30K pricing that OP is seeing is for partner metal domestic F one-way tickets. There is only one such level and it's fare code is FSM300.
Last edited by xliioper; Apr 17, 2017 at 9:11 am
Apr 17, 2017, 9:08 am
#15
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Plat
Posts: 11,500
Not to hijack the thread but I have had some weird reward partner availability as well.
I am booked PDX-LHR/AMS-PDX (all DL) and was searching for a return out of LHR. I found LHR-SLC-PDX on DL using the AS website with the last segment in Y. Since I already have the reward booked, I called AS. They could not find the SLC-PDX DL flight even though the website was showing it to me. My only option was to spend the night in SLC and fly Horizon the next morning. I ended up just booking LHR-SLC to at least hold that seat.
This has happened on other searches recently as well. I am not sure why the phone agent's view of availability is so much different than the website.
I am booked PDX-LHR/AMS-PDX (all DL) and was searching for a return out of LHR. I found LHR-SLC-PDX on DL using the AS website with the last segment in Y. Since I already have the reward booked, I called AS. They could not find the SLC-PDX DL flight even though the website was showing it to me. My only option was to spend the night in SLC and fly Horizon the next morning. I ended up just booking LHR-SLC to at least hold that seat.
This has happened on other searches recently as well. I am not sure why the phone agent's view of availability is so much different than the website.
Last edited by Hartmann; Apr 17, 2017 at 10:05 am