Eujeanie

Very complicated F itin involving AA/AS.

Last segment was SJC/EUG which did NOT have an F cabin, therefore were not able to be booked into F. Horizon flight, Y only.

Since that routing will be discontinued, we now have to fly SJC/SEA then SEA/EUG. They are telling me we can NOT be in F for SJC/SEA because we are in a coach award bucket...even though it was AS's schedule change. Even though the entire itin is an F award. And the only reason we were in a Y bucket for the SJC/EUG discontinued segment was BECAUSE ON HORIZON THAT IS ALL THERE WAS!

Flying for Fun

There would need to be Saver F award space on the SJC-SEA segment. Did you check on your flight date to see what award space is available? Is this an AA or AS award? Not clear from your details. You say, "they are telling me!" Who is they?

James

Mwenenzi

Who is They?
If this is an AA award AA with have "bought" you a Y seat for SJC-EUG (now SJC-SEA-EUG). For any changes you will need to go back to AA for F.

Eujeanie

"they" is the AS rep on the Gold line in Phoenix.

The only itin changes are AS changes...from non-stop SJC/EUG in F to now SJC/SEA connecting to SEA/EUG. SJC/EUG we were Y because it was a Horizon flight and that was all there was. Now, because of AS's discontinuing that routing, we have to fly SJC/SEA (which has an F cabin which we were told we can't be in). And then the SEA/EUG flight on Horizon, which we are of course fine with.

The whole shebang was booked on the Alaska website, using Alaska miles.

Mwenenzi

Phone AS again.
Is F award space available?

Eujeanie

Yes it is. U Gold space is available. They are saying that since our SJC flight was booked in Y (on QX, which is all there is) we have to stay in Y. And they said since we were booked in a "W" bucket we have to stay in Y.

eponymous_coward

U isn't what you need. There needs to be A (Saver First award, assuming that you are in AA F in segments prior to SJC-SEA-EUG). You can't get an instant upgrade because of U availability because that only applies if you booked Z on an award (fully refundable coach award). Can't do that on a mixed AS/AA itinerary. You CAN waitlist for F on a coach award in W, and wait for U to be open at your upgrade window (definitely push back if the rep won't let you do that).




Look on your dates for SJC-EUG with "using miles", see if the F award is 25k (Saver first A) or 60k (full award F). If it's 60k you can't get it on an AA F award. 25k should work.

Eujeanie

You are correct. Only the 60,000 mile option is available on that flight. But since it was THEIR (AS) schedule change/cancellation of route, can't they be flexible? I know with (paid) schedule changes that have happened to us quite often, they did not care if the new flights we wanted were now a much higher price - they just put us on them. Why is it different with award tickets?

Often1

It's not a question of price, it's a question of cabin. I suspect that your new routing costs more than your old routing. That should not be and is not an issue. But, you want AS to force award space in F and that is a horse of a different color. More importantly, phone agents can waive all kinds of things, but they can't change inventory.

jsguyrus

I don't think this should have anything to do with inventory. As long as there are open F seats you should get them. AS changed schedules so AS needs to fix it, which is putting you in F. It costs them nothing. I think I would escalate to a supervisor.

Bretmd

I understand the frustration, but don’t get why you would be entitled to F. Saver F award availability is increasingly hard to find. I’ve found myself booking coach saver connections on AS more regularly when connecting to partner awards in J/F because that is all that is available. I understand that coach was all that is available on your original flight, but that doesn’t change that you were booked in coach and not F in that segment.

Finkface

But even if this (the routing via SEA) was the only routing available at the time of booking, the OP would still have only been booked in coach for this segment as no saver F award space is available. It would still have been coach for this segment because no A is available.

I think (correct me if I am wrong, Eujeanie) that you are looking for a favor from AS (booking you into the F cabin) as a service recovery for cancelling your original, direct flight. I don’t think they are going to go for it as you were never in F (and would not ever have been regardless as there is no saver F award space even with a connection) on that segment. If there were A space available, there is no doubt they would put you into it. You can always HUCA, but I think this might be a tough sell.

eponymous_coward

Because what you are asking for is the equivalent of "because you changed my schedule due to a flight cancellation, I want you to rebook my cheap coach ticket as a paid and fully refundable first class ticket". (Award full fare @ 60k domestic is D class, note that it is refundable, A is not- just like how F is refundable and most cheap coach is not).

Pretty sure AS doesn't do that on a regular basis, for flight cancellations that are WAY in advance (so it's not like you can't find other options if you just want to cancel), especially if they can and did accommodate you in coach (which was the cabin you were booked in as part of your original itinerary). If A had been available you would have gotten it (I scored it on an AS/AA redemption- it seems pretty rare on a lot of routes right now, which is unfortunate I suppose, but it's a 90 minute flight so not exactly the end of the world).

And again, you should be able to stand by for PC/F on your W award ticket, just like when you fly on paid coach tickets. You'll be the last MVPGs picked since W is at the bottom of fare classes, but you'll be ahead of MVPs or paid F upgrades. (Probably not great odds for F since SJC is pretty tough, decent ones for PC, but who knows.)

I don't see how you have been "screwed" out of anything at all, except for a nonstop home, to which I would say "them's the breaks"- AS specifically doesn't guarantee this in their contract of carriage.

AS has "fixed it" by putting OP on a schedule OP thinks is acceptable, in the same cabin of service they were seated in originally. What's in dispute is OP thinks they deserve F seats that AS doesn't want to sell at a price acceptable to OP (and there IS a cost to putting seats in the A bucket, if there wasn't don't you think A buckets would be wide open?). Are you saying that everyone who experiences a flight schedule change deserves a full F booking (not an upgrade, but an F ticket) because of the inconvenience?

Eujeanie

No, maybe I wasn't clear. I NEVER HAD a coach ticket. I had an All-F award ticket, and the ONLY reason the last segment, SJC/EUG was in coach was because it is a Horizon flight where there was no F. Not no F available, no F, period.

Alaska is cancelling that routing (we're flying in October), so now have routed us SJC/SEA/EUG, with the SJC/SEA segment now being on a plane with 2 classes of service. If that was going to be my original routing, my ticket would have included an F seat on that plane because it was an F award.

eponymous_coward

I understand this perfectly fine. Alaska first class awards allow you to be seated in coach if there is no availability in first for a segment. There are however multiple causes for this:

- the plane doesn't have a first class cabin
- the cabin does not have the required inventory available

That's not how it works. There are two kinds of F award inventories (A and D): your booking in A does not include the opportunity to book last-seat availability in the first class cabin. That is D (60k, not available if you book an AA partner award- you would actually be booking a separate award to gain access to D inventory if you desired F on SJC-SEA-EUG). Your AA/AS award booking requires a specific inventory to be available (A) to be seated in the F cabin. It's quite possible (in fact, highly likely) that you would have been "screwed" in coach for 90 minutes on a SJC-SEA-EUG itinerary had the SJC-EUG flight never existed (assuming you didn't get upgraded on your award) because A inventory doesn't exist on your current flight, and may not have existed when you booked.

Let me see if I can explain this... I am also booked on an AA/AS award like you are. I have booked MEX-DFW-SEA as well as SEA-LAX-PHX on some segments of that award. MEX-DFW and LAX-PHX are in Y on AA, because AA has not made any F seats available to my award type on those segments. I haven't been "screwed" out of an F seat even though I am not in the F cabin on those segments, because I'm in F on other segments (DFW-SEA and SEA-LAX). The award I have booked does not entitle me to any F seat I desire should there be a wide open cabin (there are NO F seats booked on the AA flights I am in Y on, for the record). It entitles me to F seats IF a certain inventory type is available... which was the case on DFW-SEA-LAX but not the other segments.