bigshooter

This just happened to me the other day on JAL J tickets. Ticket I booked for myself had the phone fee, one for my buddy just had taxes. Called in and had it refunded without issue within a week.

scottinaz

My wife and I are travelling from TLV to PHX via DFW on a Milesaver business award ticket. When we booked the tickets business was available from TLV to LHR and from LHR to DFW but not from DFW to PHX. I just noticed that one seat has become available in first on our DFW to PHX leg but AA tells me that I cannot have this seat since there are two people on my reservation and only one seat available. They say they will have to separate my wife and I onto separate records to give one of us this seat.
Can this really be true or should I HUACA?

FlightNurse

It's true...

JJeffrey

Just split the records and grab the one seat, it's not a big deal at all.

scoonee

I have a coach saaver award from DCA to JFK to LHR on Friday, all on AA. There haven't been any business class saaver awards available for the transatlantic leg. Is it possible to go on the standby list to upgrade to business if it becomes available? If so, when can I do that? (I feel like the answer to this must be obvious, but my searching hasn't found it). Thanks!

JJeffrey

There are no standby lists or waitlists for awards. The only thing you can do is monitor availability at aa.com (or set an EF alert) then call a if/when you see availability pop up.

scoonee

Thanks!

mipaho

I booked a first class award at the SAAver level. The first leg only had economy available, so I booked it mixed class. Both legs are on AA. The first leg now has multiple 1st class seats available at SAAver level, so I called in to swap the first leg from economy to first. At this point, 6 agents have been unable to make the switch. Every time, it's the same story: they don't see the first class space available (even looking at just that leg), despite the fact that I can see it on AA, ba.com, and ExpertFlyer. I can book the leg and with a 5-day hold while I'm on the phone with them (which shocks them every time), and they've even tried to use this held reservation to swap out my first leg, but can't make it work.

I've frequently done this sort of maneuver in the past, and I've now wasted so much time over the last week trying to do this, and it's driving me crazy. Any advice?

serfty

It may be married segment logic.

e.g. You are flying AAA-CCC via BBB and are seeing 1st availability AAA-BBB.

Does 1st class show up for AAA-BBB when you search on expert flyer using AAA-BBB-CCC?

mipaho

No. The availability disappears in ExpertFlyer when searching AAA-BBB-CCC. However, I see 1st class availability on that same leg when booking to many other cities (i.e. AAA-BBB-DDD). I would try to book one of those and then call in to try to change the last leg, but there's no availability left from BBB-CCC. It's a weird sort of married segment logic, where that leg can be booked direct or booked as a connecting segment, but not via the specific routing I'd like. I have 2 other SAAver tickets that have 1st class all the way through from AAA-BBB-CCC, which is why I'm trying to change this one to match.

flyingeph12

What if you don't give the agent your record locater but ask them to search for that particular segment as if starting a new record? Can they see the award space then?

Like you, I've made this type of change many times, so I'm not sure what's going on. It doesn't seem like it would be a married segment issue if you can see availability on the individual segment.

The only explanation that makes sense is that somehow the system is requiring availability on both segments to reissue the ticket.

mipaho

If they search for the leg as an individual segment, they can find it. Interestingly, they can also use it as part of a trip where the 2nd leg is on Alaska Airlines (once again, between my original cities. When they try to swap out the leg for the economy leg in my original reservation, they can only see the option at a higher level (45k level), which isn't even a level that exists on that day. AAnytime awards for both economy and first are higher than 45k on that day, as it's a high travel one.

shimps1

deleted

JJeffrey

Inventory can be extremely dynamic in the 24-48 hrs before a flight, aa.com generally doesn't show phantom availability on AA metal, it's highly likely that someone else grabbed the seat and/or the inventory changed as such that the award inventory went away. In the future just put the flight on hold, you can still do this even when close in like that.

Rowyourboat

Hello,

Can someone help me understand AA award availability vs. ExpertFlyer. I'm seeing a lot of AA J flights bookable US -> LHR at the saver level, while ExpertFlyer and Alaska doesn't show the inventory.

For example, RDU -> LHR or ORD -> LHR on Oct 14th.







When I click through, both are bookable. What is going on here? I've never seen this much TATL J award space on AA metal before.