krn012

Fam wants to go to SAN for summer. Spouse prefers cabin up front. I searched a span of days for departure July 14-16 and return July 19-21. I plan to burn 90k miles for our two children and pay A fare for spouse and myself. Following directions from aa.com FAQ- I researched the AAward travel first for the kids until I was sure I could book spouse and I on same flight. Got decent AAward flights, great times - no MDs and a 777 from DFW to MIA. However, when I went to hold revenue fares for us, the price jumped from $919 + taxes each to $1609 + taxes each. That's a big difference. I called customer service and she cold transferred me aa.com Help Desk saying it was an "internet thing". AA.com couldn't explain either.

So I tried something; I cancelled my kids' AAward ticket and then went back to re-book the revenue A ticket same dates, same times, same flights, etc. and guess what??? I was able to hold the $919 fare. Now I tried to re-book the AAward ticket on the same itinerary I just cancelled a minute earlier- and those AAward flight were not available anymore!!!! What gives??? Any suggestions? I am willing to pay somewhat more for the revenue tickets since the hotel and the car are going to be on spg and Hertz points; therefore, the biggest expense is going to be the revenue fare for us, but I'm not willing to pay $1500 more.

millionmiler

You are competing with yourself for the same 2 seats. AA inventory management has 2 seats in F that they will either allow to be booked as an award or sold at a discount. This kind of thing happens on every flight although we don't usually have the opportunity to see it work in real time. You did.