NoLaGent

^ since AA currently has no seats, the question seems moot, but the reply you got last week still stands, in my opinion.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33382015-post1834.html

skimthetrees

That is interesting that AS shows the seats before AA. You may be right about the connecting flight being on the next day. When you check the AA website for flights that initially have no availability when AS shows availability, does AA then open availability for the flight the next day? If so you know what the situation is. You then have to make the decision of how to book.

Your options seem to be:

1) Book all 4 with AS. Once you book you know you have the seats. You do not get to use your AA miles. Possibly if more seats open up later you can book 2 with AA miles and then cancel two of the AS awards. For bonus points do a test ahead of time by booking a seat on CX on a day you are not flying then see if the availability goes back into inventory when you cancel the seat a day or so later. If it goes back you may be able to use an AS booking to hold the seats, then release them later for pickup with AA. You would be on the hook for the partner booking fee for the test.

2) Book 2 with AS. Wait a day (or a few hours or whatever) until AA opens availability and then book the remaining 2 seats with AA miles. Perfect if the seats are still availabile but some risk involved that someone else may book the seats while you are waiting for AA to open availability. You will have to weigh the risk to reward ratio and compare to your risk tolerance to decide if this is a strategy you are willing to pursue.

kayexalate

I have been calling AS daily (sometimes 2-3x/day) to see when those CX seats are released. Strangely, up until today, it seemed like they would have the same inventory as BA and AA would show 331 days out. but today, they claim to see nothing in Business (they can see PE and Economy seats) for at least 320 days out. Every day when I called there were 4 Biz seats on 330 days out. so not sure what's going on or if the agents are not able to search properly? (I called 3x today and got the same answer from all of them, nothing in Business for 320-331 days out even though yesterday and every day before there was).

When I check BA and AA, it shows 4 Business seats on CX for almost every date leading up to 331 days out. Not sure why all of a sudden the discrepancy. I even fed the agents the specific CX flights showing availability when I check AA and BA.

TravelingZoomer

This happens sometimes. I would just HUCA later

kayexalate

I tried 3x today, all the same response (nothing for T-320 to 331 days). do you think they're not checking correctly or somehow the inventory vaporized?
Again the Economy/PE award seats are showing, just not business

TravelingZoomer

I just confirmed several dates for ex - HKG t+320-330 with J/F space perhaps you got unlucky

kayexalate

WTH? How many times do I have to HUCA to get an agent who can access the inventory? I tried 4x today, (call centers Boise, Seattle, Phoenix), all with the same results. The last week I've been calling and up until today each agent could access all the CX business inventory no problem and it was matching with the BA website inventory. Now nothing. bizarre & frustrating.

TravelingZoomer

I tried the “maybe try entering a search time of 1AM” and the agent (very kind) said she wasn’t trained on it and transferred me to a CX specialist as well

TravelingZoomer

Just booked 4 J, 1F (me) HKG - LAX for next June . Hands down best deal in the game with a stopover included which I will add on later.

but yes muh lay flat B6 FFP is better

eponymous_coward

I’m sure you’re disappointed you didn’t get to spend 110k AA miles for that F redemption to HKG, and 280k instead of 200k,
plus extra for the stopover. What’s an extra six digit sum in miles when it’s so easy to accrue them in a spend-based program?

TravelingZoomer

So I think I understand the problem. Contrary to what usually happens, the married segment is not available, but both the intra Asian and TP segments are on their own. I confirmed this because I tried to add the connecting flight after I booked the TP yesterday and they said it will take AS about two weeks to book the connecting flight. I would book your HKG - xxxx flight on its own ASAP.

hope this helps!

kayexalate

So today was 331 days before my departure from BKK-HKG-SFO next June. I called AS at 5AM and got an agent who was able to see the flights on CX that were showing availability when I checked BA's website. Interestingly, because the Intra Asia portion (BKK-HKG) was 331 days BUT the TP portion (HKG-SFO) was 332 days, AA did not yet show the availability (it will likely show up tonight at midnight). However I can confirm that the AS agent could see both legs and was able to successfully book both legs of my flight. I don't know why the other agents struggled so much to see any availability. I actually asked the agent who booked my itinerary and he said since AS joined OW, it actually made it HARDER for them to search CX inventory than previously and some agents aren't yet accustomed to the new way of searching.

So it seems like, the CX inventory on AS does match what BA shows (and AA), BUT when having a connecting flight , AS may have access to inventory 1 day earlier than AA. Also you may need to HUCA multiple times like I did to get an agent who was able to get the flights that BA shows as available on CX. Hope this helps someone else.

jamienbaker

I've encountered this. So just pay the price for two awards. I had to price JFKHNDSIN as two separate awards, but it was still a single itinerary/PNR. I kept calling back every week or so to see if married-segment inventory had become available, once it did they re-priced it and gave me a refund. So much better than running the risk of losing ALL award inventory.

Jamie

TravelingZoomer

Just curious, they couldn’t have just priced it as a “stop over”?

TravelingZoomer

Called in today to try to add a connecting flight for HKG - LAX to make it NRT - HKG - LAX instead.

Luckily it sounded like I got a veteran CS agent who knew what she was doing booking CX. All AS agents are super nice and helpful but it sounded like CX takes a bit more work on their end to book, it’s not as simple as other carriers. She was also very talkative and narrated her steps so I have a pretty good understanding of what she did haha.

1. First confirmed space on NRT - HKG segment by itself in J, which itself sounded like a hassle. But she confirmed with me the space is the same as I found on BA.

2. She then had to take back control of the ticket from CX. Unlike other carriers, CX takes control of the ticket for award bookings even when booked through partners after the partner books the tickets.

3. She had to manually release back the J space on the long haul but immediately got it back with a married segment from NRT.

4. Even then, the award space was reserved but CX was being difficult, so she had to transfer to their partner liaison to confirm the ticket. After a few minutes the ticket got confirmed (all on one PNR/confirmation code) with a few more dollars to pay for taxes and fee ex-NRT.

CS agent if you happen to read FT, you’re an absolute allstar! Alaska is the best US program, hands down.