Java Cool Dude

We flew that route in Business class a few weeks ago and while the seats were "ok", the flight attendant we ended up with had MAJOR attitude, downright nasty!
She was the one and only repulsive Japanese person we have ever interacted with. Lucky for us we had exceptional service on NGO to BKK a few days later.

uecsome

I finally got what I wanted.... but agent booked one ticket with "wrong month" (even though I told the date with day (Sunday)), and I called again to EXP line and fixed it. Well I saw my email with "TELEPHONE TICKETING SERVICE $40".
I am not sure I have a right to dispute as I did not get charged for the initial bookings...

JJeffrey

An award on JAL should never be charged the phone ticketing fee (especially for an EXP) since these can't be booked online. I would check your credit card statement, definitely give AA a call if you were charged to get that refunded.

pitflyer

A data point for those interested; used britishairways.com to find availability between JFK-NRT-MNL on JAL -- there was one day with two business class seats available. Called in to AA and they confirmed those were actually available, and I added on my connecting flight (which had to be the night before) on AA which was also available on AA.com in First. Only $25 in fees for each ticket and all booked; haven't yet received confirmation email but noticed that britishairways.com no longers shows that flight as available for business class.

Spent longer on hold for an agent (5 minutes) than the actual booking process.

uecsome

Thanks for your suggestion! I will watch my credit card statement!! You (will) save me $40!

pitflyer

While the charges are still just pending on my account, all I have is a $25 charge per ticket (for taxes, etc) .. no booking fee for my JAL ticket.
I knew enough to ask for my JAL locator when I booked the reservation -- so AA gave it to me at that time. About an hour later I got the ticketing email and went to JAL.com and selected my business class seats there.

sriirvine

Hello,

We'd like 4 J seats from NRT->LAX. I've been eyeing the JL J inventory and no matter when I look, it seems like only 2 J seats are available. Under what circumstances do 4 J seats open up? Do I only see 2 seats because I'm looking relatively close to the holidays? If I can only get 2 J to begin with, is there a reasonable chance of being upgrading 2 Y seats to J closer in? I'm looking at the mid-to-late January timeframe (I know that's not available yet, just trying to plan).

Thanks!

jch636

I just cancelled two J award seats from SFO to HND (because I need to book three seats), and now award availability (according to JL , BA, AS websites) appears to be high - there appears to be at least four or more seats available, and there's no number signifying limited availability (e.g. "only 2 left") in J. However, when I call AA to rebook, they tell me that they can only see two available award seats. Does anyone know how this works? I thought AA would see the same award availability as other partners such as BA or Alaska, but there seems to be some lower limit in their system.

jch636

coconutzhu

Hi hivemind, I have a quick question regarding redeeming AA miles on JL business class. I searched it first using BA and found that there were available tickets on Apr 30/May 1 for both business and first class, from ORD to NRT. But when I called AA, the agent said she could not find any first class tickets for these days with JL. Additionally, she said she could only see 120k/person business tickets rather than 60k. Do you have any experience maneuver in situations like this? Thank you very much!

(And also this is my first post here in the community, apologize if I post in the wrong section.)

JJeffrey

Welcome to FT. Many of AA's basic phone AAgents (and even EXP AAgents these days) are downright terrible at anything other than the most basic of requests, including searching for awards on partner carriers. The issue of "I see partner award space on BA but the AA rep can't find it" comes up a lot. The best thing to do is simply HUCA (Hang up & call again...).

coconutzhu

Thanks Jeff! It is very frustrating that sometimes you get less information from agents, who are supposed to the domain experts, than from peers. I guess at least I can make this fun by turning this into a drinking game (every time I need to call another agent I take a drink). :P

Mwenenzi

Have a look in this AA forum thread [this thread].

mvoight

That could end up being a lot of drinking. But, AA (Pardon, the pun) is not alone in customer service problems
After issues with TXU (Electric service issue with autopay discount) and Virgin Mobile (unlocking and rebate issue) customer service issues that spanned weeks, I filed complaints with the state utilities commission (for TXU) and FCC (For Virgin Mobile)
Within a couple of days, I was contacted by representatives from both companies and the issues were both resolved as I had wanted. The TXU representative even apologized for the agents comments in the phone recording and gave me an additional $25.
The issue is these companies would probably be better off in providing accurate information in the first place, rather than waiting until someone is disappointed enough to contact government agencies. As a result, this will affect my future dealings with these 2 companies.

On the other hand, I made an error on tickets for 2 Las Vegas shows, because I went backwards in my browser and didn't realize I was booking for 4 weeks earlier than I had planned. A day later I read the email confirmation, which clearly stated non-refundable and non-changeable.
I called customer service for MGM shows and got someone who called the box office to cancel the incorrect tickets (which I already had pdf tickets for) and booked me the correct show dates. And, this was with a mistake I had made. My issues with the other 2 companies were due to their errors, and they were least interested in correcting them, until I after I had contacted the government agencies. So, AA please do better................... I am AA PLT, but I have started booking other carriers, due to this kind of nonsense with AA employees who should be in another occupation

Karuizawa

I have 60,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Living in Redding, California, I want to fly round-trip from Sacramento or San Francisco to Japan (Tokyo, preferably) during the month of June. Is it possible to do this, say using partner airlines or such? Any help you can offer would be much appreciated!