Happy

Ticket number or price never shows up on the summary of My Trip. You need to go into the Print Receipt and Itinerary to see that.

The button of Print Receipt and Itinerary would not show up UNLESS the itinerary is ticketed. You should see this button on AA site if you have received your e-ticket email.

I were you I would print a PDF file of the Receipt for record keeping. 4 longhauls in voluntary downgraded to coach... Ouch. Good luck in getting back to where you have paid for.

Just make sure you have a NEW ticket reissued after EACH change. Again, the Print Receipt and Itinerary button is the tell-tale. Without it, your itinerary is NOT ticketed.

desi

Reymont,

Your experience is not that unusual with so many airlines and complex rule verification into play, ticketing a complex trip like yoyurs does take time.

Earlier this year a relatively simpler ticketting took much longer. In once instance, one of my segment was taken away by partner airline while things sat with rate desk for approval.

It seems that calling during US late evening/night hours causes more challenge than calling during US afternoon hours. (YMMV)

Hope you do get business class eventually for those very long flights.
Good luck and enjoy the trip(s) (is it 2 or 3 trips?)

Reymont

Well, I see both buttons, and I just saved a pdf of the receipt...but it says I paid $0 and 0 miles for the ticket....

Wait - there it is, way down at the bottom of the ticket, showing the $925 I paid in taxes. And it also gives the ticket number there, so I'm just going to hope it's all good.

My dates weren't very flexible, unfortunately, so I had to take the four downgrades. But I *earned* the miles by flying in Economy, so I'm not too scared of those flights - I've only flown in Business once, so it still seems like a treat.

I just threw the entire itinerary into rtw.oneworld.com to see what they would have charged me if I'd just paid cash. With all the same flights, it would have been $14,202. So I got about 6 cents per mile, on my trade in miles? I don't think that's too shabby.

Reymont

Thanks! Just one trip - I'm sure looking forward to it. I'm in the process of adding side trips to Sydney, Fiji, Kathmandu, Tallin, Santiago, and Cusco, to that list.

meecal

Hi all,

My fiance and I just had our AA credit card signup miles bonus post so we're ready to book our honeymoon flights.

My plan was HNL-NRT-MNL-HKG-JNB in August of next year in biz class (just under 14k air miles). Looks like there's availability on reasonable days for all but the first leg. Is it way too risky to find availability for the HNL-NRT on an earlier day, book the trip and then monitor availability and hope that 2 biz class seats for HNL-NRT on the days we want open up before our trip starts? If that doesn't happen and we miss that first leg the whole itinerary is canceled, right? Just afraid that while waiting for availability to open up on first leg the availability for the other legs will disappear.

shihyin

If you are not flexible on the date at all, consider taking a downgrade to economy (if available) and monitor the business class. Better than missing out the entire trip if no J available.

meecal

I should have mentioned there is no economy availability for that flight either right now.

3Cforme

Don't book a date you're not willing to fly. There's no guarantee that saver business or coach awards will open up - and I use a lot of ExpertFlyer alerts.

meecal

Thanks. Even though that's not the answer I was hoping for it certainly helps to know that.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Have you checked availability for HNL-HND? Or HNL-NGO-TYO, or HNL-KIX-TYO? And remember that, if there is Coach award space available now on your desired travel dates, you can take a voluntary downgrade for purposes of ticketing the award, and later upgrade to Business (free of charge) if it should become available.

Happy

It is ticketed.

Just make sure EACH and EVERY TIME you have a change on your itinerary even just the time, the ticket must be REISSUED. Failing the re-issuance of ticket could cause A Lot of Trouble down the road.

Make sure the reissuance is done and you get a Fresh Receipt. It cannot be emphasized enough to make sure you have a new e-ticket after each change no matter how minor it seems.

Reymont

Okay, I hear you. But MAN, it was so hard to get it ticketed in the first place...they had to escalate to a lot of different people to get it processed manually. If I get it reissued, will I have to fight through all that again?

Happy

Get used to it. It is the nature of the beast because most Explorer awards are complicated. Plus the partner airlines can often change schedules especially if you booked months ahead.

In rare chances, yes, you would need to fight thru it again if an exception has been made in prior ticketing occasion(s).

I once had JL changed airport from ICN to GMP on me. Tickets were reissued to make exceptional accommodation (because airport can NOT be changed on Explorer award once ticketed). THREE reissuances later, the 4th one was hung up at rate desk because someone saw the ICN to GMP being "illegal" even though it was an involuntary change - by JL, not by me. It took a very nice AAgent to take it upon herself to straighten this up with the rate desk when the reissuance hung up for a week.

That ticket had like 14 reissuances with 11 of them involuntary and the 3 that were voluntary being induced by the involuntary ones so we had to juggle the schedules. On top of JL changed airport, QF canceled our flight, and a myriad of schedule changes, thanks to the financial crisis in 2008/2009 that brought about drastic capacity cut among all airlines. It was a miracle that when we actually traveled, there was not a single hiccup on the whole trip which was only 11 segments by the way.

So yeah, be prepared.

meecal

Yes, I have tried those. No luck so far. The date of travel for Honolulu to Tokyo is Aug 4th. I've been checking on the British Airways site. Is that the best free site to use to check for this leg (and NRT-MNL-HKG-JNB)? I believe my only real airline option for an Explorer award leg between these two spots is Japan Airlines. Is that correct? Thank you for the help!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Yes, JL is your only option, unless you want to fly HNL-LAX on AA, which will significantly increase the flown mileage on the award.

The ba.com website is not always good with displaying award availability on itineraries requiring connecting flights on partner carriers. So, instead of just searching for HNL-NRT, I would search for HNL-KIX, and then KIX-HND/NRT separately; or HNL-NGO, and then NGO-HND/NRT separately.