FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

I ran into the problem of prices changing all over the place when booking flights through NRT and continuing onward on JL in August also.

In the end, I just kept hitting higher and higher prices until one was bookable, and I purchased. It was very frustrating.

eliteone

yes I am still having the problem. On ITA I tried RT DFW - SGN on AA+ for 10-14 days oct/nov. I seem to be unable to force the same flights

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Yeah. The final ticket I purchased was based on AA.com's wonderful search.

For this trip, ITA didn't help, but only teased me with flights I could not purchase. I tried both round-trip and multi-city, and they couldn't find the prices that ITA was returning. I think this might have to do with discrepancies between how ITA looks for availability on AA and JL, and how JL reports availability to AA.com.

eliteone

I finally found the flights. I did a 1-way search. Price was +$600 over the previous RT

Pinned

Question about points and status:

On AA, as far as I can tell, the 1.5x mileage multiplier for First class counts towards elite status. IE: 2000 mile flight in first earns 3000 EQP, right?

What about the 25% bonus for Gold and the 100% bonus for PLT/EXP? If so would a PLT only need to fly 25k miles per year to retain PLT?

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

The 25% bonus for GLD and 100% bonus for PLT/EXP are RDM, or redeemable miles. They don't count towards elite qualification, but redemption of awards or magazines.

AA has three counters: RDM, EQM, and EQP. Well, and also the million miler miles. The FAQ explains this all in more detail.

Pinned

Thanks for the explanation.

mjrodge

can someone help me figure out how to put together a mileage run? i see on the mileage run forums where people are talking about booking crazy routing which AA.com would never spit out on its own.

can someone help me figure out how i can add in stops on a paid ticket?

JDiver

Well, the MR forum is a good place to learn some of this. But one example using aa.com is to use the multi-city function, aa oneworld partners for your airline choices, and then use city pairs that do not exist - e.g. SMF-ORD can only be served by flying SMF-DFW-ORD or SMF-LAX-ORD, etc. so using SMF-ORD in one city pair will by necessity add one (or two) segments / stops.

LtKernelPanic

Wasn't sure if I should post this here since my flight is on AA or over in the general TB forum.

I feel like I should know the answer to this but here goes anyhow. I have a RT coming up next week that's booked as a multi-city trip. I know on my outbound flight my checked bag will be transferred no problem at ORD since it's booked as SUX-ORD-PHX. My return is booked as PHX-ORD and ORD-SUX because it was $75 cheaper than a standard RT ticket and so I could have ~8.5 hours between flights so I can make a side trip to the Sears Tower (yeah I know) that I've wanted to do for a long time.

That all said will my bag be checked through to my final destination or am I going to have go claim it, recheck it, and then head into the city? The extra baggage fee would be annoying but I really don't want to waste anymore time in the airport than needed so I could have as much time in the city as possible.

Apieinthesky

This is indeed the proper place because your flight is on AA and your question is specific to AA.

You will have no problem checking your bag through. Make sure the AAgent knows your final destination is SUX.

Bags can be checked through on far more complicated itineraries (partner airlines booked on separate PNRs, etc)

LtKernelPanic

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I was 99% sure they would check it through since they're on the same PNR but was't sure if the multi-city thing would cause any issues or not. I'll make sure to tell them in PHX that I want it checked all the through to my final destination. Learn something new here all the time.

Thanks again!

Stripy

Not strictly an AA specific question but I've searched the other forums had come up blank so I'm trying here:

I'm trying to learn how to use the IATA Matrix search for multi city itineraries to allow me to find those elusive good deals on AA as well as pricing RTW tickets. I tried out a very simple multi city trip (LAX-DFW-LHR-LAX) with the LAX-DFW and DFW-LHR portions on the same day but IATA came up with a price that was about $500 more than the price I can find on AA.com...what am I doing wrong? I'm choosing the exact same flights and I'm not knowingly selecting as particular fare bucket on IATA (I'm choosing "cheapest available" cabin) so I was expecting to see then same price. Is there a tutorial anywhere on all this (the help pages on IATA didn't shed any light) or is this just something simple that I'm doing wrong? TIA

MrJBoy

I came from UA and I'm still learning AAdvantage system...

I want to book P fare (First class) on AA.
That doesn't mean I get 150% EQM like MileagePlus PQM, correct?
Is EQM always the same as base mile flown except EP's minimum 500EQM guarantee?

Apieinthesky

Yes, EQM is the same as base miles, or BIS miles. If you are an elite, you get at least 500 EQM per flight.

EQP is calculated from the EQM based on the fare paid. If you are elite, you earn at least 250 EQP per flight (if booked in discount coach and flight was 500 miles or under). A "P" fare will earn 1.5 EQP per base mile. EQM and EQP are separate counters, and you may qualify for status using either one (or using segments).