jbruer

I think the reason this doesn't happen is because the "Economy Saver" fares are refundable while you can still have a 1EQP/mi fare that is non-refundable. Those are the 1EQP/mi fares that show up under "Economy Super Saver".

Nighthawk168

science guy- my point exactly!

jbruer, economy super saver can go either way - thus my pain.

ijgordon

I love a good rant as much as anyone, but I'm extraordinarily by yours. Your "mystery" is no mystery at all. And I'm as to why you even think it's a mystery based on what you write in the second paragraph above. You're asking what booking class you get, but then you say you know that the Flight Details shows the fare class. News flash: booking class = fare class. Just look it up in the EQP table and you'll know exactly how many EQPs you'll earn.



It is transparent. See above.

I understand the complaint that AA.com does not let you choose a (minimum) booking class, like delta.com and continental.com do. And I sort of get why AA isn't putting the resources into adding that functionality given the archaic nature of their underlying systems. But I don't think it's rant-worthy. Particularly since others have posted workarounds. I'm pretty sure it's also outlined in the Challenge wiki/FAQ thread. @:-)

NauticalWheeler

You can say that going from Q to F for $1,200 is reasonable without even knowing the route? Seems to me revenue management should be leading the airline out of bankruptcy...of course in reality revenue management is not perfect. If it were, upgrades to first would not be offered for $150 at check in (or offered to frequent economy fliers) as revenue management would have sold all of the first seats.

brenc3

You'll find plenty of rants on AA.com on this forum, but lack of transparency on fare class isn't usually one of them. I actually find AA.com to be one of the easiest airline websites to use for finding or booking a particular fare. If searching by Price & Schedule (a very useful innovation from the AA IT folks within the past few years) you can see fare class before you even select flights. On many other airlines it's the luck of the draw until you get to the itinerary summary screen - or worse, you don't find out until after ticketing. Plenty of airlines have general fare categories (e.g. "Super Saver") that don't always correspond to a single fare class or a set of fare classes with uniform earning rules.

It's true that airlines may offer 20+ fare buckets on any given flight, but I don't know of any airline website that lets the traveler choose among all of these. Doing so, and coming up with a UI that is easy to use, would be a huge investment of resources for something that so few travelers would actually use.

I guess I fail to see any of the OP's point. If you search by Price & Schedule, you can see what fare ANY given itinerary will book into before you even select them. If your goal is a multi-city itinerary, you can usually first glean enough information from Price & Schedule searches to get your multi-city selections to book into the fares you want. I do this often, and aa.com works fine for me. There are plenty of other things I'd rather AA IT be spending their time on.

jbruer

Also, I think this feature is more necessary with DL and CO because of fare restrictions on the use of SWUs.

Nighthawk168

gordon,

thanks for your post. I only learned to click on the flight details to get the booking code after i had booked the flight. I got curious about doing a challenge and what my eqp rate was. This a total suprise to me because last time i booked economy super saver- upon reviewing that ticket it is V inventory. I have learned a lot about watching what you are booking. and learned that i can place it on hold and make a phone call to get the class i want/need.

it is a little cheap of aa to put these 1/2 eqp fares among the 1/1 eqp fares and call both by the same category name. a consumer really has to have a lot of knowledge IF they cared about EQP's. thanks to FT the knowledge was provided to me free of charge with just one disappointment from AA customer service. They even acknowledged to me that the booking experience is inconsistent. their words. so my issues are
1. consistency (customer follows the same booking procedure but gets 2 different outcomes)

2. transparency for an average customer (your post addresses this detail ) i didn't like that i had to click on "flight details" to ensure i didn't get stuck with a 1/2 eqp fare class. imagine if someone just didn't click on the detail section. they'd think they ordered identical products thanks to the color scheme and category names. only a full on nerd alert could help you avoid this.

my definition of a rant is when an OP posts anything that made them sour, consumed some emotional shelf space and needs to be vented. I disclaim my thread as a rant because frankly i dont like complaining and some people have better things to do on this forum than investing time in my minor issue. I thank you again for your points and examples given. I think some folks might learn from my situation and hope it helps at least one FT'er get to their EQP goal faster all the while allowing me to blow the steam off : )

VickiSoCal

Qualifying via EQP over EQM is something that AA offers as an incentive to high value travellers who buy expensive tickets but maybe don't fly the BIS miles that some of us do. EQP is irrelevant for most people booking the kinds of tickets you are worrrying about.

oklAAhoma

Great reply. I curtsy to the queen.


Too late to disclaim it. It's already been hung out in all its glory.

Nighthawk168

i mean look at the title of the thread it starts with Rant. i dont disclaim crap after i start it.

vicki what about eqp for a challenge?

oklAAhoma

Sorry. Apparently I misunderstood.

Challenges are calculated on EQP.

berlinflyer83

It's not like you do a challenge very often. And it's ONE click to see the fare codes for a flight. I agree aa.com has a LOT of problems, but this isn't one of them. This should be merged into the "what's the least substantive thing you can complain about" thread.

carlosdca

OP:

You assumed that because in one instance you got 1EQP/mile on a fare in the "Economy Super Saver" column then any fare under that column always gives you 1EQP/mile?

That was YOUR mistake.

AA hasn't labeled the lightest green column "1EQP/mile" column. IT is the "Economy Super Saver" column.

And really all you have to do is click on flight details, OR review your itinerary on the last screen with the "PURCHASE" button. The booking code is RIGHT THERE on that last screen, no need to do additional clicks. That is VERY TRANSPARENT.
Didn't you review that last screen before clicking purchase?

The points earning rules are very clear in that the points earned depend on the fare (G, Q, N, etc). Points/mile earned do not depend on the names "economy super saver", etc. So again, it seems that you purchased a ticket based on the wrong assumption that "Economy Super Saver" are 1EQP/mile fares. Your mistake.

Your complaint is as valid as that of someone ranting about buying a British Airways metal ticket with BA flight number on AA.com for a AA challenge and ranting that AA.com was not "transparent" that BA points don't count for a AA challenge (misunderstanding or not reading clearly the rules)

Seat 1F

I agree with the others that a solution to the issue is to hold the fare displayed and then call-in to AA to up-fare. Problem solved. Having said that, I also agree that AA makes this process more difficult than DL and CO. Seems to be a waste of AA employee time to have intervene in the process when on some competitor airlines you can do everything the OP wants to achieve directly on the website without talking with anyone. Why this added hassle?

My conclusion is that this is indeed something that AA needs to fix. In the meantime, there is indeed a "go around" that works.

george 3

As JDiver noted in his post, it "depends on the flight". I would upfare $1,200 from Biz to F on any flight originating in the US to Asia. Definitely worth it.