badgersfly

I am in the process of booking my Explorer award. According to Award Nexus, there is inventory on all of my flights (at least economy, if not business) except for my last leg. The last leg is AA from EZE-DFW or EZE-MIA. I would then go from either of those cities back to my home destination of STL. What are my options? Can I not book this ticket at all until the inventory shows up?

Thanks!

guv1976

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1. You can put what is currently available on a five-day hold (unless you have one or more segments on LAN).

2. You can try a different routing. Have you checked LAN flights out of EZE co-terminal AEP?

3. You can request that AA Revenue Management make a SAAver seat available out of EZE, and you can "appeal" if Revenue Management initially declines to do so.

ebaniaga

How far in advance should one be planning to book an around the world trip??? I'm planning on the following itinerary for after graduation

NYC > LHR > DXB > CAI > DAR > CPT > RIO > UIO > BOG > HNL (Possibly DCA)

2millionquest

The sooner, the better.

guv1976

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I suggest that you try working out your actual routing first. You are limited to 16 segments (and a maximum of one open jaw), but some of your city pairs do not have direct service on oneworld carriers. You may find that you will run out of segments before the end of your desired itinerary.

beofotch

So I am on the phone right now with the AAdvantage desk trying to book an award. Many of my segments are on LAN.

They are saying that right now they cannot book/hold any LAN segments for awards due to the glitch going on with the LAN system conversion. This is making my booking pretty tricky, since I have to snap up segments 331 days out as they become available on the return. They gave no ETA when this would be up and running.

Could this possibly be a reason to get a hold, or to be able to add segments after the hold time and have the change fees waived?

badgersfly

I am continuing to work on my itinerary. I have booked my fiance on the following in business:
STL-LAX AA
LAX-HKG CX
HKG-JNB CX
JNB-SYD QF
SYD-HKG CX
HKG-CDG CX
MAD-EZE IB
EZE-DFW AA (10/6/13)
DFW-STL AA

My itinerary looks the same until we get to EZE. There was no inventory (coach or business) available on the same EZE-DFW flight (I have already gone to Revenue Management with no success). I only have the itineraries on hold until tomorrow evening. In the meantime I have booked myself EZE-MIA, then onward to STL. The good thing is that they leave EZE around the same times, the bad thing is we would be on different flights. If I read the first post in the thread correctly, I could book EZE-DFW on 10/7 for myself and then hope that inventory opens up at some point and change myself back to her 10/6 flight, therefore avoiding any change fees. But if I stick with my current plan through MIA, there is no way for me to change to her flight should inventory open up without a change fee. Correct? If so, does anyone have thoughts on which option I should take? Maybe I am missing something?
Thanks

2millionquest

If the inventory is available, couldn't you both take the 10/7 flight?

Also, I don't see anything CDG-MAD. Are you doing that overland or with a non-OW carrier?

badgersfly

10/7 doesn't work as our 3 weeks of vacation from work will be up by then, in addition to the fact that there is only 1 seat in inventory on that flight as well. It would just be an insurance policy on my part to hope that the 10/6 inventory opens up for me to switch. That's the risk.
I realize it's AA's choice to do what they want with award seats, but it's a little frustrating that I was able to get two business award seats on almost all of the partner airlines for our flights, but when it came to AA they only had one seat per flight available (all classes).

As for CDG-MAD, that's an open jaw we are doing via train.

guv1976

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"As for CDG-MAD, that's an open jaw we are doing via train."

Note that IB does fly ORY-MAD, in case you would rather not take the train.

badgersfly

Thanks for the idea, but a stop in Bordeaux is on the agenda!

guv1976

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OK. Iberia's Air Nostrum affiliate flies BOD-MAD, in case you'd like to fly that leg on your Explorer award.

2millionquest

From everything I've heard and read, AA often opens only one seat at a time. You're talking almost a year out. I think you have an excellent chance of having another seat open up between now and your trip.

I'm a very risk-averse person and wouldn't take the gamble, but if you're more comfortable with it (and many here on FT are), I think it's probably a relatively safe gamble to book yourself on the other date and then move to the date you want when the seat opens up. If you don't already have a subscription to EF, now would probably be a good time to get one.

badgersfly

Great idea, didn't even think about that! It's easy to get a train to Bordeaux, but not nearly as easy for me to figure out how to get from Bordeaux to Madrid...plus it saves some cash!! Thanks

I'm pretty risk averse as well, but I like your thought about the fact that something "has" to open up between now and then. I was going to use Award Nexus over EF, as I am also looking to upgrade one segment on QF too. Do you recommend that I do EF over Award Nexus?
Thanks!

2millionquest

Unfortunately, I've never used Award Nexus, so I can't compare the two; however, I have had extremely good results with EF.