will_give_tp_for_miles

Will you get refunded the miles if you drop a segment? For example if I added HND->BKK to an existing LAX->HND leg and paid the 5k miles but later decide to drop the HND->BKK leg will I get those 5k miles back?

skimthetrees

It is not just you. Alaska is blocking the web search from showing the seats. JAL has the seats there and available for Alaska to book as you can see from the reverse round-trip workaround. AS just has bugs that prevent JL availability from showing when searching for a one-way near the end of schedule. I actually do not think this intentional on Alaska's part, it is just buggy kludgy IT (there are some other bugs I totally blame on AS - QF J availability, for example).

There is a calendar trick that sometimes allows you to workaround the one-way bug window. I have been digging into the calendar workaround quite a bit lately since a friend wants to use it for an upcoming flight. I think have made sense of some of the bugs but others don't make any sense. For JL flights, even using the calendar trick, I think JL flights may only show up if there is at least one other flight with the same exact origin and destination. For SFO-HND, usually JL flights will not show up unless another carrier has availability SFO-HND (if you search TYO then NRT may show up but not HND or vv). The two main gatekeeper's for this route are CX which rarely has anything, and AA LAX-HND with a connection from SFO. You would think KE might do it but KE flights only show to NRT from SFO (HND flights require a land transfer from ICN to GMP but AS does not show those connections) AND, There is another bug with AA in that AA availability does not show in the last two days of the calendar - how suckish is that? On top of that there seems to be some very strange bug that hits when the calendar crosses a new month (like your Nov. 2 date when end of schedule is Nov. 4). Maybe something to do with the 7 day calendar crossing months shuts down the calendar trick. It almost unbelievable how broken it is.

Anyway, the short version of the story is bank extra miles and use the reverse round-trip workaround if the calendar trick fails. If you wait long enough (6 days or so from end-of schedule?) then your date will eventually move outside the bug window and you can book normally (if space is still available).

eponymous_coward

The ticket will reprice and refund the 5K miles and HND departure/BKK arrival taxes. Note that because of exchange rates you may not get an exact refund of USD as to what you paid.

olouie

I generally agree that its mostly bugs, but the fact that Alaska agents basically have same bug is so bad. At least with other airlines when there is a website / app bug but the space is there agents can usually book it, however with AS agents just see what you see and don't really have any other options to help. So not only is it an end user website bug but something more in how they handle awards redemptions overall.

After learning about the reverse RT trick I called in and asked the agent to try and book a OW, she said no seats available. Then I asked her to check using the trick and I think her mind was blown. She had no idea what to do and was shocked the system showed that for a reverse RT but now for the exact same OW flight. Unfortunately they still couldn't book my desired flight without booking the RT first so had to go through the whole song and dance to book RT, cancel one leg, get refund, etc. All that wasted time and effort that could have been avoided if they fixed the bugs.

eponymous_coward

AS agents are using the website now instead of direct booking through SABRE. I would imagine it's faster than teaching them how to do a bunch of native SABRE commands in a CLI.

w000t

does anyone have any insights on vanishing availability? I'm trying to book for multiple people and I would see 5-7 J seats on the AS + BA site but once one person tickets, availability would zero out. when I did a date change, the space would come back and would show multiple seats available again.

should I just blame phantom availability or is there a way to actually book?

skimthetrees

That is strange. If 5 seats are shown available on AS the way to book it would be to book all 5 in one reservation.

Are you sure this is not a case of connecting flights limiting availability? Are you searching a non-stop? Are you booking near end of schedule?

w000t

sadly I have to book using 4 different accounts. I tried calling to see if i can snag it but the international desk was not able to get it confirmed even after consulting with a JAL liasion (or so I'm told?)

I searched it segment by segment, traveling end of Sept 2023. the flight in question is SGN-NRT

olouie

Once you book one ticket it will update the system and right now likely zero out available inventory. It’s likely a bug but now on Alaska is fixing anytime soon. Sadly you likely have to wait around a week for it to come back.

Arcadio

I would be obliged for advice as I am looking for my first flight with AS. I am planning to buy J for HND-NYC with the three days stopover at LAX. Is it better to book HND-LAX as soon as it becomes available and add/change my itinerary later (is it possible online, how much does it cost) or shall I wait and book the whole flight all together? I am worried the J ticket might be snatched by someone else by that time….

dayone

@Arcadio Welcome to FlyerTalk.

skimthetrees

You should book TYO-LAX as soon as it becomes available. You can call to add an LAX-NYC flight on AS later.. You might also be able to do it online but I have not tried that. It will not cost any more miles to add the stopover but the taxes will be slightly different. How long is your stopover? There were reports recently of AS limiting the max stopover on CX (IIRC) to 14 days or something like that.

skimthetrees

I doubt the AS system is zeroing out the availability. Much more likely is that you are running into a married segment issue. Are you only booking the non-stop SGN-NRT, or is there another segment going to the US? If you are continuing to the US without a stopver you need to also search end to end, SGN-US, to see what the married segment availability is.

If you are continuing to the US without a stopover and running into married segment limits then the workaround would be to stopover in Tokyo for more than 24 hours. You can book this with the multi-city search.

olouie

Earlier this year I would have agreed but I’ve tried simple lax-Tyo or Tyo-Sfo bookings where it shows multiple seats and as I book the first seat from my account the inventory disappears when trying to book second from another account. Even if it had been loaded up already on the second account it errors out. Doesn’t happen all the time but enough that Im pretty sure it’s AS system “bug”. These aren’t super in demand flights as they’ve been open for a while too so I doubt someone else just happened to book the minute after I did randomly. Then if I wait a few days to a week it pops back up and I can book on AS, or just book using other airline miles.

But yes also agree that married segment is a big issue as well.

Arcadio

Many thanks. I appreciate the advice.