justageek

I have a travel voucher that I'd like to use to buy a ticket where all flights are Alaska Airlines-marketed only (none are codeshares with AA). Is there any disadvantage to using the voucher to buy the ticket for the AS flights, versus buying the AS ticket through Alaska's web site and using the voucher some other time for a trip on AA metal?

nako

I'd book the ticket on alaskaair.com, for a couple of reasons:

1) I don't know if AA will allow you to use one of their vouchers to purchase an AS-coded ticket. While AS is a partner, they are not part of oneworld.

2) If you sign up for a MyAlaskaAir account, you get a $10 discount on certain tickets purchased through alaskaair.com. Plus, you can set your account to select between any of your FF accounts that are AS partners - I don't believe they force you to credit the miles to AS to get your discount.

While number 2 is, IMO, enough of a reason to buy the ticket from AS themselves, number 1 may be the reason why buying the ticket from AS is your only option.

Mike

moondog

i'll add a third reason: alaska's change fee is only $50 if you book through them.

moondog

...it's always a good rule to use vouchers when nice opportunities arise.

andrzej

We could debate the aadvantages and disaadvantages of purchasing AS ticket on aa.com all day long, but one thing is certain, the debate whether using AA voucher to purchase AS ticket is a good/bad idea would be a very short debate, because of the simple fact that AA voucher cannot be used to purchase AS ticket, regardless where it's bought.

justageek

Just to be perfectly clear, it is an AA voucher, not an AS voucher.

justageek

That stinks. Just out of curiosity, can you use an AA travel voucher to buy an AA-coded codeshare that is operated by another airline?

andrzej

Yes!

EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING:

Actually I'm not so sure. Others may give you a more definite answer.

pauleeepaul

More than once I have found better DL fares on AA.com than anywhere else, including Delta.com. Makes no sense but shopping around never hurt.

keithguy

The change fee will also only be $50 if you buy on aa.com. AS coded flights means an AS fare with AS fare rules, regardless of where you bought them.

If they are AA coded, then it's different.

One disadvantage for buying OA tickets on aa.com is reduced flexiblities for rebookings due to schedule changes. If you bought through AS, they'd be more flexible to reroute you on their flights in a schedule change. AA might give you more limited options.

A second disadvantage might be that it might void online/kiosk check-in.

One advantage of booking OA tickets on aa.com is that if you get rebooked/rerouted on to an AA flight, you would get the AA.com booking bonus.

A second advantage is that in case of weather waivers, AA will have little trouble rebooking you away from AS flights and on to AA flights (assuming AA serves these markets). There will probably be a reluctance for AS to put you on other airlines if you booked through AS.

And yes, you can use AA travel vouchers for AA coded, AS operated flights.

PresRDC

I just did this the other day.

My travel plans for President's Day weekend have bene a a sag, but I finally settled on Montevideo, Uruguay, because I haven't been and it is a chance to add a fifth new country to my travel list in 2005. I was actually able to find a $784 fare routing MIA-MVD and then SCL-DFW-LGA. This was good because I was already holding upgrade seats on SCL-DFW-LGA and the MIA-MVD flight was the only AA flight to S. America on 2/18 that had C class availability. I would be able to get a cheap-enough ticket on LAN for the roughly 800 miles MVD-SCL flight. The problem was getting myself from LGA to MIA on the Friday before President's Day weekend. Everything was sold-out on AA with the exception of a connection through TPA that would getme into MIA some 11 hours before the MVD flight. JetBlue (to FLL) and AirTran were booked solid. Delta.com was showing nothing but a connection (on NW metal) through MEM that would arrive in MIA too late for the MVD flight. Interestingly, AA.com was showing First Class availability on Delta with an ATL connection that Delta itself was not showing. It was reasonably priced and my best option so I booked it. I confirmed with Delta, so it all went through.

I ahve also bought EI, LA and BA tickets on AA.com. The advantage to me is being able to see all my reservations in one place.

justageek

Talked to an AAgent this morning who sounded like she knew what she was doing.

The rule for using vouchers, according to her, is that there must be at least one segment on the ticket you are purchasing (using the voucher) that is on AA metal.

This means you cannot (for example) buy a pure-Delta ticket through AA and use am AA voucher to pay for it. You cannot even buy a ticket with all AA-marketed codeshare flights, using the AA flight number, if the flights are not on AA metal. But as long as there is one flight segment on AA metal, you can use the voucher. (In that case I do not know whether you can only apply the voucher to the AA metal part of the ticket price or to the whole thing... didn't bother to ask since I can't use the voucher in my situation anyway.)

This matches up more or less with what andrzej said.

Kneel

Your thread title and message are inconsistent.

In answer to your thread title, one disadvantage is that if you lose your aa.com ticket you can only replace it through an AA ticket office. This cost me about $500 when I lost an Emirates DME-DXB ticket in Switzerland. Emirates would have replaced it for $50 had it been on Emirates stock, but because it was on AA ticket stock wouldn't/couldn't do anything. Because of my journey's timing i couldn't make it to the AA offices in ZRH,. MLN, or MOW, and ended up having to get a new one-way ticket for about $500.

ExecDeskRep

Just posting for clarification regarding which itineraries are valid for voucher use.

This is straight from the horse's mouth...

1. All transportation vouchers issued by American Airlines (AA) or American Eagle are acceptable for the purchase of airfare provided the transportation is on American Airlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection or a oneworld carrier flight.

2. The purchased itinerary must have AA or AA* as the international carrier.

3. Valid on codeshares - AA marketed flight number series 4000 and above.

The agent who stated that a voucher was acceptable if one leg was on AA metal was mistaken.

ExecDeskRep

elCheapoDeluxe

I bought SJC-PDX-SJC using an AA voucher on AA code share (AS metal). No problem whatsoever. Obviously no AA metal in that itinerary.