FlyTheFriendlyMonkey

Solved by calling in multiple times until I got a competent agent. 6 to be exact.

arlflyer

(Thinking this is the right thread for this...)

We all know the limitations of AA.com with respect to partner award searches, but I've always found it to be pretty good for the specific partners that it does include. However, last week I was booking an award through LHR (TATL JFK-LHR on AA metal) and noticed that AA.com would not tag on a perfectly legal, modest-connecting-time BA leg, which had availability, to get me to my final European destination. Phone agent had no issues. Is this anything new or have I just always been lucky? Generally, I search leg-by-leg with some combination of the AA and BA websites, but this piqued my curiosity.

FlightNurse

I had issue in that if I added a city before or after my TATL then the TATL flight would be in Y not J, but if I took the flights off and just flew the TATL then I would get booked into J, I just placed the flights on hold, called AA, and the agent was able to add the flights I wanted and everything was fine, back in J.

Flamenguista

The wiki above and several bloggers cite that Royal Jordanian award flights can be booked on AA.com. However, I've had the opposite experience. I see award availability on British Airways' website for the same flights that do not show up on American's search. Am I missing something? I can't remember ever seeing Royal Jordanian awards show on AA.com.

SFO777

I frequently see RJ award seats on AA.com. I recently flew AMM-CAI and both BA.com and AA.com offered the same RJ flights... although AA wanted nearly 3x the miles.

arlflyer

Yeah, in addition to what I noted earlier (not adding the 3rd leg to the flight on AA.com search) I also noticed that TATL legs in F/J were showing up only sporadically. For example I saw only one F seat on the JFK-LHR leg but the phone agent saw (and held) two. Just a lot of general weirdness going on. My original suspicion was that this must have something to do with what's going on with the married segments, right? In order to do married segments, they have to have a lot more dynamic ability to putting together itineraries in the system, which I imagine also means a lot more room for hiccups, no?

FlightNurse

On my example when I called in and the agent was able to make all the necessary changes, I asked if F was available since I couldn't see on the website, and she saw 2 F awards on the LAX-LHR-LAX flights.

lowfareair

Currently have PHL-BOS-HKG-HKT booked and listed as "On Request" with AA for about 12 hours now. I understand that it can take time to ticket, but given that I cannot find the routing available for cash on the CX website (they would be the overwater carrier), I'm fearing that it may not be considered a valid routing. If I put a less desirable alternate routing that I see available on hold (the only one available atm that is also on the CX website), will there be any issues with me already having the existing reservation being ticketed or would it risk being canceled? Any other recs?

EDIT: Looks like CX does publish a fare on this routing according to ITA, e.g. Cathay Pacific (CX) VLSPCLO PHL to HKT. I'm hopefully just worrying for naught.

arlflyer

Should be fine. 12 hours on request is nothing for a partner award and east coast US routings to HKT are commonplace.

Caveat: If it gets to be a day or two without it ticketing, call AA back. I've had a couple times recently where I've had something on request for a while, I call back, and the AAgent tells me that the previous AAgent "didn't finish the booking" (whatever that means; I don't know anything about their side of the system).

So, just keep an eye on it, but odds are it will go through without issue.

andersonCooper

Did you try to ask AA for CX record locator? Last time I requested I could immediately used the RL on CX website.

iadisgreat

Did the agent include your middle name when you booked? CX has been refusing to ticket awards from AA with no middle name given for some reason.

seawolf

Technically speaking, CX is not the party refusing ticketing. They supposedly provided guidance to AA that they would like passenger name to match travel document.

AA is the party that is holding up ticketing unless PNR has been documented that passenger middle name (if any) have been captured in AA first name field.

aktchi

After running into such snafus more than a few times, I have systematically made sure than I use my exact passport name everywhere. No nick names, no middle initial. It is easy enough when you get used to it.

Red259

Trying to look at JL website for flights in F from Seoul to NYC or even Tokyo to NYC using AA miles. When I use calendar feature there are some dates that look open but then when I click them it says waitlist for every single one. All the other flights say waitlist right on the calendar. I'm a bit confused are these flights on the calendar that do not say waitlist open or is it telling me they are open for me to try to waitlist them? I haven't seen anything that appears purely open.

JJeffrey

Who knows, but I would be using the BA site anyways as your first point of search for JL awards. It takes the guesswork out of the sometimes clunky JL calendar. It's unlikely that JL would make space available to AA that it wouldn't also to BA.