patrickf3

I have a flight MLE-AUH-LHR 30k in business. There is availability from AUH-LHR in first (x2) and the agent confirms it. Agent can book this separately but when I ask them (tried 5 different agents) they say the seats disappear.
The layover is only 4 hours but I do land in AUH from MLE at around 10pm and take off 2:55am the next morning. Does this day change have anything to do with it?

Any suggestions on what I can tell the agent to get this through? I am calling AU and USA agents. I haven't tried NZ. Thanks!

CodeAdam10

When this happens, the only solution I personally know of is to:

1) place the new award itinerary on hold
2) ask the agent to cancel the existing award and reinstate miles
3) book the new award

Of course, for this to work, there must be available Business 'Guest' availability on EY's site for the flight you need MLE>AUH

Also...unless the award(s) were booked from a EXP account, you will incur an award cancellation fee of $150 for the first passenger + $25 for any additional passengers under the same PNR.

patrickf3

While talking to them for the 5th time they said the seats are now gone. Cannot even see them outside of my reservations. Pretty frustrating. Also they are no longer showing up on Etihad search

CodeAdam10

It is. Whatever is causing all these 'glitches' is also, for some, preventing AA agents (even the ones in Aussie) to be able to change existing award reservations. Like you experienced, they will 'see' the availability when they search for it but it will disappear as soon as they load your preexisting reservation and try to change it. This doesn't seem to be affecting everyone's reservations, but it certainly did for me and for you as well it sounds like.

patrickf3

Guess I will have to settle my honeymoon in Business .... I was super excited about the possibility of having 2 connecting first apartments. Will probably still end up searching every day for 200+ days!

Cheers- thanks for the suggestions.

edy4eva

If let's say 10 minutes are spent per day to check for availability including around the intended dates, and nothing came of it, that'll be 2000 minutes of wasted time. 2000 minutes are 33 hours, or almost a work week. That's vastly more than the actual travel duration. And to top off, you could probably earn 2 paid first class tickets -assuming you're a professional, in that same period of time. No need to worry all this time about flights opening up then battling with AA agents.

Just a thought.

Dave Noble

The thought is only valid if spending an extra 10 minutes a day doing so. If able to perform a check whilst in a telephone conference, that is 10 minutes that is already being paid for

jamienbaker

Very reasonable. But keep in mind the 10 minutes can be easily spent multi-tasking (let's say if you're on a conference call that doesn't require 100% attention) plus there's the competitive element. Somebody else likely wants the same wasting asset. I completely agree with your point, but for many of us the competitive element is also a driving factour. If I know an airline is going to release awards (particularly close-in like Cathay) you can rest assured nobody is going to get those without a fight. One of my best redemptions ever was a First award on CX which I later found out I ticketed while another FTer was on hold trying to snag the same seat. Passing him on my way to First made the caviar taste all that much better.

It's a battle.

Dave Noble

It's just a flight booking

jamienbaker

...said no road warrior ever.

patrickf3

The dates are set, I already have the flights booked in business. If I spend 10 minutes for the next 200 days to make the trip even more memorable by snagging 2 better seats, then I will consider that priceless. I did say it was my honeymoon right ?

And now you'll say I should have just paid for it, and for that I say: touché

Dave Noble

There are plenty of people who view travel as a way to get from A-B . Look at schedule, price , conveniance and treat FF aspects as a nice add on

Booking an award flight is no more interesting nor exciting than any other booking, just often more work

And what if after 2000 minutes spent checking, you do not find anything?

jamienbaker

For those about to rock, we salute you. Good luck with the upgrade, and be grateful for those that aren't up for the battle. They make our lives easier.

edy4eva

Still 33 hours of lost productivity isn't something one would want to carry over going into a honeymoon (or any holiday).

This whole miles game is overblown. When the period of time needed to plan and book a trip exceeds the trip length, the value of scoring a higher class of travel becomes questionable. Even if this is done using low cost miles, one has to factor in the cost of that extra time to assess the value.

I'm not suggesting that all that extra time WILL be spent, it's just doesn't make much sense to waste it in the hope of an upgrade.

AA charges 80k miles pp that typically cost ~1.8k GBP. A paid J fare can be had for that much, a F fare is 3.2k (both through a TA). Now sure 1.4k GBP is a substantial saving, but this saving shrinks in proportion with the time spent/wasted (whichever way one looks at it).

jamienbaker

And there are those that shrug when flights get cancelled, those that shrug when their seats are given away, those that shrug when upgrades aren't processed correctly, those that are content standing in long lines hoping the airlines take care of them. I'm not saying you're one of those people. Just that I'm not. Schedule, price and convenience? How about equipment types, tracking tail numbers, and ensuring contingency plans are in place? And an award booking IS more exciting, given the near certain knowledge somebody else is trying to get the same award.

I respect the blissful tranquility of the non-warriors. But I particularly respect the sleep-deprived warrior that's going to get his F upgrade for his honeymoon.

Jamie