sethMCOflyer

Still waiting on my two different itineraries, 2.5 and 1.5 weeks of waiting so far... Hopefully I'll see some action soon!

Scoob72

Firstly, thank you for bothering to read this - I greatly appreciate it!

Could anyone advise me as to which geographical AA call center might be the best for making JAL redemptions -- no matter whether in or outside of the US (e.g. in a similar vein to the Australian AA call center being known for being able to see Etihad space when other geo call centers appear not to be able to see the same space, is there a preferred AA call center for JAL redemptions)?

It's just that I have read a few horror stories on FT about AA agents routinely not being able to see JAL space even if it is appearing on JAL/BA/Alaska sites and even if you tell them to look for revenue space and using Z for F space.

As such, and being 5 days away from my own +330 booking window, I just wondered if any FTers had identified any particular AA call center, home or abroad, that tends to be better than others in terms of their agents and with regard to them being able to see JAL space when it had already be 'verified' on BA and JAL sites?

Any help or pointers would be hugely appreciated!

All the best

Brooke.E

I had absolutely no trouble with the US call center immediately finding the JAL availability that I wanted. This was true the 4 times that I called last year- 4 of 4 agents knew how to do this.

krakendown

There's a whole thread/wiki dedicated to JAL award space livability. Might I suggest searching there.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...aster-thd.html

Beltway2A

Any call center is more than adequate for finding Z space.

Much like any job in the world, training your staff on changes takes time. I'd suggest not drawing conclusions of current status based on anecdotes from a year ago.

Scoob72

Brooke.E - many thanks for sharing your experience: that's extremely reassuring to learn.

Scoob72

krakendown - many thanks for this. I have read this pretty thoroughly, but I appreciate the link in any case. Thank you.

Scoob72

Beltway2A - thanks for the above and you make a fair point. I would say that my concern over agents was initially drawn from comments in August this year rather than a year ago, but, as you and others say, perhaps things have improved since then; of course, too, a la YMMV, then some people's experiences with AA agents may always have been very positive.

Like everyone here, I imagine, I'm just keen, having taken ages to build up a sufficient mileage pool, that I glean the right information from fellow FTers about this particular redemption and how to execute it, no more so as the other ticket is for my elderly mother, whose dementia has recently onset, and, as such, this may be my one and only shot at this.

Beltway2A

Best of luck securing a ticket for your mother, I hope she has an excellent journey. As a point of reference, I called the regular Aadvantage reservation number earlier this month promptly at 9pm and was able to secure multiple first and business class awards on JAL without issue. The agents know what they're doing.

JDiver

I’ve not had any extraordinary difficulties booking awards on JL merely calling AA (though iirc I’ve always used AA awards on JL for gifts to others, including two awards in F to abc from Asia, though not for myself).

The reason I think calling the Mindpearl call center in Suva, dba AA call centers Australia and New Zealand, is that Mindpearl has access to more than Sabre as their GDS.

JL has recently (March 2018) renewed their partnership with Sabre (and iirc still is involved with AXESS), so I’m not sure Mindpearl would be any better than AA agents at securing AA awards on JL. But note the information in the Wikipost about JL releases of award space.

Scoob72

Beltway2A - thank you for your kind words, I genuinely appreciate it. Thank you, too, for the reference point -- I think I'll follow this to the T, especially given the success you had doing this yourself earlier in the month (well done, by the way!). All the best.

Scoob72

JDiver -- many thanks for this, too. All invaluable information and I greatly appreciate it. That's also interesting about Mindpearl, and then AA agents stateside likely having no less ability to secure JAL awards. Thank you.

GWFan

I had no problems getting an award changed to a JAL availability routing when I, a lowly gold, called the gold AA desk last week.

flyaxa

No status. Called the regular US reservations number.
Made two award changes recently for two of us, one was adjusting some J flights for better schedule through Tokyo, and the most recent was a change from J to F at 14 days out. Both changes ticketed within an hour.
On a side note, FWIW I'm noticing 8pm ET for inventory updates. which would be 9am in Tokyo.

touristtrap

After placing 2 JAL (J/F) tickets SIN_NRT_JFK on hold 5 days ago I finalized booking 3 days ago (71 hours ago) and still no ticketing confirmation email.
Called AA yesterday evening and rep reassured me that the request was made and it might take some time to get ticketed.
AA web page displays "On Request"
Should I be concerned or it usually takes this long for ticketing.