Award Booked in Biz, No Biz Seats & Thus No AC -- Suggestions?
Oct 3, 2009, 7:49 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: AA Plat, UAL Premier Exec, SPG and HH Gold
Posts: 498
Award Booked in Biz, No Biz Seats & Thus No AC -- Suggestions?
4 or 5 months ago we booked several biz MileSAAver awards for an international trip later this month. When we booked the tickets, the agent told us that even though biz seats weren't available for everyone on all of the legs, they would open up -- I just needed to keep calling. Well, I have. At first I called every other week. Then every week. Since about August 15 I've called EVERY DAY. Yes, as in EVERY. DAY. I also signed up for Expert Flyer so I'd get a notification if biz seats open in the miles saver category. But since Expert Flyer doesn't show two of the flights (they're code shares) I've kept calling.
The outbounds are now just days away. Currently none of the passengers are upgraded on the entire itinerary. 1 is upgraded on only one flight. Everyone else is upgraded on 50% of the flights. Questions:
(1) I've been told that even with an itinerary booked as a biz mileage ticket, unless the seat issued is in biz you can't use the AC. Any experience with this? (We have 2 PLTs traveling who each get one AC guest. But there is a 5th traveler.) We'd like to take everyone into the AC without buying a $50 guest pass, particularly given that we have used so many miles for seats we're not getting. Any other ideas?
(2) Anyone have experience with getting a partial refund of miles in this situation? We can't just cancel the biz itineraries and go back to economy because -- naturally! -- there are no economy award seats for some of the legs.
(3) Expertflyer shows there are seats open for AAnytime awards. Any idea when/if those seats are put into the biz MileSAAver inventory?
Thanks for any suggestions. And yes, I did searches.
The outbounds are now just days away. Currently none of the passengers are upgraded on the entire itinerary. 1 is upgraded on only one flight. Everyone else is upgraded on 50% of the flights. Questions:
(1) I've been told that even with an itinerary booked as a biz mileage ticket, unless the seat issued is in biz you can't use the AC. Any experience with this? (We have 2 PLTs traveling who each get one AC guest. But there is a 5th traveler.) We'd like to take everyone into the AC without buying a $50 guest pass, particularly given that we have used so many miles for seats we're not getting. Any other ideas?
(2) Anyone have experience with getting a partial refund of miles in this situation? We can't just cancel the biz itineraries and go back to economy because -- naturally! -- there are no economy award seats for some of the legs.
(3) Expertflyer shows there are seats open for AAnytime awards. Any idea when/if those seats are put into the biz MileSAAver inventory?
Thanks for any suggestions. And yes, I did searches.
Oct 3, 2009, 8:08 am
#2
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Your oneworld Sapphire / AA Platinum allows you the usual access to the AC - regardless of which class of service you are flying, or whether the trip is paid for with moolah or miles, as long as the other usual rules are accommodated. Whoever told you the contrary has their head light bulb plugged into their tail light socket.
The fifth traveler - that's a bit of a problem, and you will have to 1) make the fifth the one who has been upgraded when that occurs, 2) throw yourself at the mercy of the AAngels, 3) be brazen and ask another AC admit to guest in your fifth wheel, or 4) guest pass.
Partial refund? You gambled and accepted those conditions - and there is, as you know, no guarantee the seats will actually open. But you are a FlyerTalker, man, so you will try, valiantly.
And as to when the seats are put into the SAAver inventory, even HNL's proprietary predictive analytics algorithms sometimes drop the ball on this one - and RM isn't talking. (Hint: the day before, if you see seats available and for sale on EF, you can try asking an Agent to ask RM to open seats for you - but you are not seeing the entire picture and they seem to have no problem with saying "no" - unlike a couple of people I know. Good luck.
The fifth traveler - that's a bit of a problem, and you will have to 1) make the fifth the one who has been upgraded when that occurs, 2) throw yourself at the mercy of the AAngels, 3) be brazen and ask another AC admit to guest in your fifth wheel, or 4) guest pass.
Partial refund? You gambled and accepted those conditions - and there is, as you know, no guarantee the seats will actually open. But you are a FlyerTalker, man, so you will try, valiantly.
And as to when the seats are put into the SAAver inventory, even HNL's proprietary predictive analytics algorithms sometimes drop the ball on this one - and RM isn't talking. (Hint: the day before, if you see seats available and for sale on EF, you can try asking an Agent to ask RM to open seats for you - but you are not seeing the entire picture and they seem to have no problem with saying "no" - unlike a couple of people I know. Good luck.
Last edited by JDiver; Oct 3, 2009 at 8:15 am
Oct 3, 2009, 9:55 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: AA Plat, UAL Premier Exec, SPG and HH Gold
Posts: 498
Your oneworld Sapphire / AA Platinum allows you the usual access to the AC - regardless of which class of service you are flying, or whether the trip is paid for with moolah or miles, as long as the other usual rules are accommodated. Whoever told you the contrary has their head light bulb plugged into their tail light socket.
The fifth traveler - that's a bit of a problem, and you will have to 1) make the fifth the one who has been upgraded when that occurs, 2) throw yourself at the mercy of the AAngels, 3) be brazen and ask another AC admit to guest in your fifth wheel, or 4) guest pass.
Partial refund? You gambled and accepted those conditions - and there is, as you know, no guarantee the seats will actually open. But you are a FlyerTalker, man, so you will try, valiantly. And as to when the seats are put into the SAAver inventory, even HNL's proprietary predictive analytics algorithms sometimes drop the ball on this one - and RM isn't talking. (Hint: the day before, if you see seats available and for sale on EF, you can try asking an Agent to ask RM to open seats for you - but you are not seeing the entire picture and they seem to have no problem with saying "no" - unlike a couple of people I know. Good luck.
The fifth traveler - that's a bit of a problem, and you will have to 1) make the fifth the one who has been upgraded when that occurs, 2) throw yourself at the mercy of the AAngels, 3) be brazen and ask another AC admit to guest in your fifth wheel, or 4) guest pass.
Partial refund? You gambled and accepted those conditions - and there is, as you know, no guarantee the seats will actually open. But you are a FlyerTalker, man, so you will try, valiantly.
And as to when the seats are put into the SAAver inventory, even HNL's proprietary predictive analytics algorithms sometimes drop the ball on this one - and RM isn't talking. (Hint: the day before, if you see seats available and for sale on EF, you can try asking an Agent to ask RM to open seats for you - but you are not seeing the entire picture and they seem to have no problem with saying "no" - unlike a couple of people I know. Good luck.If we had accepted a gamble, then yes, I would agree. But we didn't accept those conditions -- the agent told us seats "would" open up -- not that they might. In my daily call (without prompting or asking) the agent today said we should ask for them to at least downgrade one ticket to full economy and thus give us a refund of a bunch of the miles if nothing else opens up 3 days out. So we may try that. Otherwise we'll definitely try out your suggestion and see how it goes.
Oct 3, 2009, 10:08 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EP 3MM, UA Silver, Bonvoy LT TIT, Hyatt Explorist, HH Silver, Caesars PLT
Posts: 7,259
Unfortunately, the agent gave you bad advice. It may open up, but it is far from a sure thing.
Oct 3, 2009, 10:23 am
#5
Join Date: May 2006
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,137
Any other flights to same destinatons / same legs with available milesaver bus that you could switch to? Could you split your group?
I've been in your situation before but luckily was able to upgrade my group's domestic portion to 1st class at the airport (since a short flight and the cabin was wide-open).
I've been in your situation before but luckily was able to upgrade my group's domestic portion to 1st class at the airport (since a short flight and the cabin was wide-open).
Oct 3, 2009, 10:59 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
This should be easy.
The Admiral's Club agent can see that you are on Business Class Awards, and a business class segment isn't available. I suspect that would be sufficient for entrance. Imagine if you were connecting from a flight that had no business class.
The Admiral's Club agent can see that you are on Business Class Awards, and a business class segment isn't available. I suspect that would be sufficient for entrance. Imagine if you were connecting from a flight that had no business class.