AGS

Thanks, this is very helpful, exactly what I needed to know about pulling the miles from the kids' accounts.

AGS

hindukid

generally credit card names do not actually matter. If you put your kids name instead of yours the charge will still go through just fine. What actually matters is CC number, security code, exp. date and zip code. If one of those is wrong the charge will be denied.

ckpeter

You may not necessarily need to have the adult be on the same PNR. I have heard that you can book the kid's ticket as adult, book your own adult ticket, and call in after the booking to link and notate both tickets.

Happy

I do not know you could use DIFFERENT NAME that does not agree with the name on the CC and AA payment process system would not check the name, but only the rest of the stuff.

I was NOT able to use my own CC to pay for the award tickets just few days ago when I tried to ticketed it online. I wanted the miles to pull from husband's account but wanted the taxes paid from my CC which he is not an authorized user therefore does not have a card of that account number.

I was not able to do it so I called Web Support who in turn told me I cannot pay with a CC in different name from the AAdvantage Account Owner's Name. Since I am on the PNR, I can pull up the reservation under my own AAdvantage number and pay with my CC but the miles would be out from my account instead of his. If I want my original way I have to call to book and PAY the $20 x 2 ticketing fee.

Of course had I known that the CC name does not matter, I would just put in his name but the info from my own card and see if it would go through fine...

At the end I ticketed them under my account and let the miles pulled from my account instead. I just want to use His miles instead of mine. Besides Mine has a bigger balance and I always feel it is better to keep at least one account has good balance and keep using the one with less balance to keep a big chunk for big tickets.


I dont have any actual experience in booking Kiddo tickets that is why I suggest OP to call AAdvantage desk to find out for sure.

OP has 2 adults and 2 kiddos, so unlike those who have 1 adult and 1 kiddo, he can easily book 2 PNRs with 1 adult 1 kiddo each PNR.

AGS

This turned out to be very helpful, there were no MileSAAver awards from Kona but I was able to get four from HNL to DFW this morning. They are on hold.

So, I believe now I have to wait until the DFW to DAY inventory is loaded into the system, call AA and ask them to add that leg, and then book the tickets, correct? Is there a fee associated with this?

Thanks,
AGS

AGS

This was very useful advice, as I got award seats on HNL-DFW this morning. Is there a fee to have the agent add the DFW-DAY leg to the HNL-DFW award reservation over the phone?

AGS

Happy

What you can do is ask agent to add the DAY segment if it is available during your Hold period. But do not ticket it, tell the agent to still put it on hold as you need to finalize it with wify or whatever.

Then ticket it online before the hold expires. This way you do not incur phone ticketing fee.

You have to ticket them online in order to avoid the phone booking fee which is $20 per ticket.

tdfxman

So I am reading about the 5 day hold.

I have Hawaii outbound that I booked at 5am in Chicago the first day they where possible to get. We got 3 17.5 and 2 37.5 F. So that was perfect.

Now when the return comes open we won't have miles left. When a CC cycles, we will be getting the bonus miles. That will be enough to book.

Is is that day plus 5 more days to book it? So when I make the reservation you click hold not purchase? So at 6am on say Friday when does the hold expire? Is it possible to extent the hold if you call in, or is that hard and fast?

Thanks

RChavez

So this is probably not useful to the OP as their last post was from early Feb, but my advice in looking for award seats is just get the thing ticketed first and foremost. For instance, for the OP's route back from HNL-DAY on 31 Dec, most agents aren't going to find any availability. T0 across the non-stops and 1-stop connections. But just pulling up options on the 31st, I see the following route from DFW-DAY:

AA 3264 DFW-XNA 31 Dec 0815a 0915a T5
AA 4348 XNA-ORD 31 Dec 1055a 1235p T4
AA 3990 ORD-DAY 31 Dec 0200p 0409p T5

This is why EF is so vital for searching for award seats during peak demand periods. An agent is never even going to bother looking for that combination.

Also, booking such a convoluted routing does not mean you will ultimately fly on it. Remember routing changes (provided you don't change the origin or destination airports) are free with awards. So book whatever you can find, and monitor like a hawk. The second a non-stop opens up, grab it.

Finally, two more tips that are useful:

1. Make yourself familiar with LIFO options. AA does not marry segments that involve an overnight connection domestically (and possibly internationally too). This means that you will often have luck booking yourself on the last flight into a hub, and the first flight out the next morning.

2. For this many people, sometimes it might be better to divide and conquer. Don't be afraid to split the PNRs up. I doubt 4 or 5 seats would open up on a non-stop all at once, especially for a peak day. But keep your eye out for 2 seats. If 2 open up, split and grab them. Chances are more likely that another 2 will open up later.

dcv2002

OK, I wish I read this thread yesterday. Planning to go to Hawai'i next Feb. Got 4 JFK-KOA for Feb 16 about a week or so ago. Was trying to get 4 OGG-JFK for 2/25 or 2/26, but failed to realize that the flights from say LAX-JFK are on the next day and aren't available, so it wouldn't show any availability for the latter OGG flights. EF shows the 2:05pm flight is all full for T-class awards.

I called up and they basically said what was said before. Book the OGG-XXX mainland trip first. Then the next day book the XXX-NYC leg and merge them together.

I managed to snag 4 HNL-NYC for a return on 2/26 and have them on hold. What interesting is that on EF if you check 2/26 OGG-NYC, the OGG-DFW/OGG-LAX flights have T-7 seats open, but if you check 2/26 OGG-LAX/OGG-DFW there are little to no seats open....

Well I might just have to extend my stay and extra day in Hawai'i, hopefully the kids won't be expelled from school....

I'm trying to avoid inter-island flights at all cost. They aren't $29/pp anymore....