enviroian

There is a bunch of saver J award showing available from mia and jfk to mad on 11/26. It is not available and when I called the exp line Latisha tells me "this is a known AA IT problem, sorry".

Really? When I hear "known" it means it has been going on for a long time.

FYI to those who get initially excited about seeing over the pond saver J....it's non existent.

fotographer

or it will be on BA with those huge $$$ surchargers

JJeffrey

Well known issue that seems to come and go.

Phantom / false AA award availability with AA partners (master thd)

CNMAZ

I have been looking at PHX-MAD award availability for some time with no luck for the dates we needed in May. Sure enough, a few days ago it looks wide open using IB. We selected our route and was ready to book but of course, it was the phantom inventory you describe with almost daily availability.

Flyingyooper

I have experienced the phantom awards shown on the AA website but today I experienced how broke the AA booking website is. A couple of days ago, I reserved a Biz class flight for my wife to Finland. A code share (AA/AY) flight it was. After looking at her record locator which stated (requested) I was wondering what the issue was knowing that such confirmation normally never takes such an amount of time. Called the Plat line and after a 45 minute delay, I learned that the fare had increased by $1,700. The agent told me that the class of cabin was no longer available and if I wanted the same routing a substantial increase in the fare would need to be made. This never would have been known unless I called...I was attempting to tag myself along on the same flight but wanted to ensure it was confirmed.

I explained that the fare quoted that AA marketed and I booked was what I would pay and nothing more and even gave her the flexibility to change the days, if needed. She told me that the increased fare (approx. $5,500) was what she saw even though I could see several fares at the original price of approx. $3,700. After a lively exchange of "thoughts" I told her to delete out my record locator and told her that I will make my own reservations (to include status match if needed). I asked her if AA is treating all their plat members in this fashion and she abruptly replied that she did not see where I was plat. If not, this supervisor is quite incompetent or AA has another challenging IT issue. Oh, BTW she mentioned that after I booked the original flight Finnair responded back almost instantaneously that such a price for such a routing was not available. AA never notified me. Better yet she alluded to that the quoted price on AA website is not necessarily the price until the code share partner confirms this price.

So after taking a deep breath I decided to rebook with Oneworld Alliance (i.e. my wife is very fond of Finnair) and sure enough I confirmed a flight (on the same dates) at the original price of $3,700. Confirmation of the flight booked happened within 5 minutes.

davewho??

I can confirm this is still the case. 3 days now, multiple calls, and still showing available, but not confirm-able with the IB long haul sectors. SFO - MAD Very frustrating. Will report back tomorrow with any progress.

globetraveler

davewho??

The problem appears to lie with IB.

All IB phantom availability has now been removed from AA's site. Which ironically leaves almost no saver award availability to Europe without incurring the BA fee.

FLYDCA

Phantom IB availability has NOT been removed from AA's site. It's still there

enviroian

aa.com just let me book a mad-ord-dfw flight in J saver. EF showed it wasn't available but AA.com did. It just booked. I'm waiting for my error message. If it does go through I'll be amazed. I'm coming from LHR so I'll just tack on that leg as it's always available in saver J.

Depart Madrid, Spain to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Monday, December 30, 2019
Flight Depart Arrive Travel time Aircraft Class Seats
6275 Iberia
11:35 AM
MAD
2:25 PM
ORD
9h 50m 330 Business
— —
Stop: Chicago (ORD)
2501 American Airlines Wi-Fi on-board Power on-board
4:55 PM
ORD
7:23 PM
DFW
2h 28m 738 First
3E

guv1976

If by "tack(ing) on" LHR-MAD you mean incorporating it into the rest of the itinerary to make a single award, be aware that doing so will dramatically increase the taxes on your award, because of the UK APD. If you have BA Avios, I would consider booking LHR-MAD as a separate Reward Flight Saver award -- allowing plenty of time to ensure that you don't miss your IB flight ex-MAD.

And J on BA's short-haul product is no great shakes. I would book the LHR-MAD award in Y, unless you really want lounge access at LHR.

enviroian

Thanks. Yes I agree I will book saver Y via lhr or lgw on IB to Madrid. No APD.

enviroian

It ticketed. Wow.

Seat confirmed and have IB record locator.

What does this say about EF? Apparently there was no phantom absolutely

enviroian

I'm not concerned about lounge access as I already get that (emerald or diamond whatever one world calls it). As long as I"m getting saver J for the latter two flights it will carry over to the lhr-mad flight so it's a no brainer but the early flights aren't available in saver J so I will take the early morning saver Y. Y on BA sounds so miserable I can't even fathom it. Ugh.

enviroian

So I called AA tonight to add a business saver lhr-mad the night before on the 29th of december. I will spend a night at the MAD hilton. After trying to add the flight to my res (mad-ord-dfw) she couldn't so called IB. They (IB) told the agent they can't add this leg to the reservation (although allowed within 24 hours and is available) because the mad-ord leg is sold out in saver J and since the AA agent would need to redeposit all miles and then re-ticket (just to add the lhr-mad leg) and they can't do that until another saver J seat opens on the IB mad-ord leg. What a joke.

So now they put a hold on the lhr-mad ticket and she told me to call back in 5 days to see if another seat in saver J opened up on the mad-ord leg so I can complete the re-issue.

Is IB that 3rd world or should I HUCA?