zdfld

Thanks for the reply. When searching on BA, Qantas and Alaska, I've looked up just DEL-NRT. But when calling AA, I've tried DEL-PUS, as well as just DEL-NRT. There is availability on the three websites for DEL-NRT and NRT-PUS as separate, I also already have a booking with a J seat on the NRT-PUS segment, Y for the DEL-NRT.

Considering the AA reps can see availability for the day before and the day after while keeping the rest the same, it seems weird. I've tried HUCA about 5 times in all so far, about to try some more, but was wondering if there was some info I didn't know about that could be affecting this.

skimthetrees

Try searching online for DEL-PUS (not separately). I think BA and QF will search for married segment availability this way. If you see that available ask the AA agent to search for a new itinerary DEL-PUS in J (not mentioning your existing reservation) and if they find it ask them to upgrade your current reservation and if they cannot then get them to book the new reservation (if you do not have enough miles have them hold it), cancel the old one, and waive the fees.

Edit:
millionmiler points out BA does not show results for married segment awards on AA. Based on that you should check QF for DEL-PUS as one journey (not searching for separate segments) to see if married segments are coming into play here.

millionmiler

I don't know what the general rule on this is but I can say that I've personally seen dozens of counter examples in which BA does not show married logic awards otherwise available on AA.com. I've seen these differences as recently as an hour ago.

skimthetrees

Thanks for the report. I double checked right now and you are correct, BA is not showing married logic AA awards. I do not know if they do for JL (or if JL has any) but given the results BA should not be the primary tool for checking partner awards if the partner uses married segment logic. QF does show the AA married segment award I just looked up so QF seems to be most accurate to check partner space on AA. My recollection is that BA and QF did show CX married segment awards but I have not confirmed recently. Given that BA is proven to not take into account AA married segments and QF does I would start my partner searches with QF and use BA as an extra check.

skimthetrees

Even without knowing zdfld's dates I am able to replicate his issue. It is a married segment issue. QF shows availability DEL-PUS. BA shows nothing DEL-PUS but does show DEL-NRT and NRT-PUS separately, just not together.

I am beginning to suspect this has something to do with JAL's new award rules for their own program where you cannot stop or even connect in Japan on their own awards so they probably forced married award availability to be none and AA is searching for married award availability (which is normally better). QF seems to do the right thing and return availability if there is married segment availability OR if there is availability on both segments individually but not on the married segments. Go QF!

Since AA still allows connecting awards through Japan even though JAL itself does not you will need to get the agent to break the award into two segments to get availability and not search for entire journey availability at once. If the agent doesn't know what you are talking about when you request this then they probably are not going to be able to make it happen. Maybe you can escalate to a supervisor to help get this done?

Sizook

Up date. After speaking to six agents it seems to be marred segment issue. I was trying sfo-nrt-hkg. All showing availability. They however could not add the nrt-hkg segment for me. They spoke to their "help desk" and two claimed they were trying to contact the JAL liason. No dice. They could see the space but could not add it to my previous segments. I also tried the international numbers. Finally, I had to book it separately using avios. Now finding intra Asia from HKG is seeming impossible! Have not seen anything like this before. I usually travel this same time every year.

zdfld

Thanks for the help so far, and apologies for my late reply, I've been a bit busy.

So here are the details as of now.

JAL has one flight from DEL-NRT, and has two flights from NRT-PUS, a 10 am and a 6pm flight. The 6 pm flight was my ideal choice, as two others I'm joining will be on that flight and they'll need my assistance at PUS. In my first post the issue was we got the flights I wanted, except the DEL-NRT segment was in Y, and they could not make it J.

Ater calling again a few more times, eventually it turned out even though they could find availability, they could not add the flight to my reservation. So instead, they gave me a new reservation with J for DEL-NRT and J for NRT-PUS, but on the 10 am flight. There is availability on the 6pm flight, and AA can see it. However, they cannot add it to my itinerary, in Y or J. Qantas doesn't show availability in J either if you search DEL-PUS, so it seems there is something going on with JAL. At this point, I might consider just booking a separate NRT-PUS ticket if I want to be on the same flight.

zdfld

Availability on Cathay should open 7-10 days before departure pretty consistently. As for JAL, last year I had to wait it out to get a HKG-NRT flight about 3 days before departure IIRC.

Tarhee1

If i am seeing business availability on Qantas but not on BA or Alaska, is this most likely phantom availability? The specific flights I am referencing is HND>SFO and NRT > JFK on February 19th.

JJeffrey

Who knows, you have to call anyways to book JL awards, so why not just give AA a call and see what they see.

McSam18

I know that JAL initially releases awards at 330 days out at 10:00 am JST / 18:00 PDT / 17:00 PST time. When does AA see these as bookable? I keep thinking this might be a silly question, but the initial release at 10AM JST would really be 331 days out for the US.

Beltway2A

I've had no trouble getting agents to see them at 10am on the dot. AA can see awards 331 days out.

AboutTreeFiddy

This is great to hear. Can you please share the Caribbean number you used?

IMH

My answer probably won't help, as it was luck rather than skill that got me a great AAgent. I called AA's German reservations number (+49 69 2999 3234) and selected English. It was early morning in Germany, night time in the US.

McSam18

Thanks, super helpful!