ellylex

Spoke to Exec Plat desk yesterday. Again agent scolded me for asking to "complete itinerary" and that they don't do that anymore. Why are they lying?
At the same time, she mentioned - we don't have time to call Revenue Management and that she would be screamed at. Clear discrepancy. They noted my account 5 times so that other wouldn't assist.

zachary

I have an award reservation that had a schedule change. I called, trying to get booked on a non-stop flight instead of the connection that I was originally on. The agent put me on hold and came back and said that she asked RM if they would open award seats on the non-stop "even though we're not supposed to do that anymore." Alas, RM denied the request and I was rebooked on a different connecting flight where there was award availability.

JonNYC

Well, that part is true.

anabolism

I wouldn't say the agent was "lying" but rather over-simplifying. Things have changed dramatically for EXP (and even CK) agents with the new management. They are now recorded, closely monitored, and called to account for any favors or waivers. RM will indeed scream at them (or make passive/aggressive remarks in the PNR) if they try to request space. Their call times are measured and count. There are still some long-time agents who love their job and still go out of their way to help the customer, but they now do so in spite of everything AA does to stop it.

rrgg

Gosh for their sake I hope that's not the case. What kind of work environment is that? (It's also strange that AA would not favor an automated system that must be cheaper than a human one.)

anabolism

What AA favors is: RM analysts (with algorithms and data) decide how many award and upgrade seats are available, and RES books what's available. There is also an automated system (which Jon has described here and at TB) called QMax that RES can use to request additional seats under certain circumstances. I have on occasion been the recipient of additional award space made available by QMax, much to my RES agent's surprise. However, more often QMax denies the request, and then RES can queue it to an appeals queue, where a human will review it. Usually, those are also denied (optionally with passive/aggressive remarks), but sometimes they are granted. Sometimes, a RES agent will call a RM analysts to press an appeal, and that's where the screaming/scolding comes in.

rrgg

I'm aware of QMAX and benefited from it in the past. I was just saying 2 things, one that the scolding seems unprofessional and the other that it sounds like the new procedure involves more, not less, human involvement. Maybe I've misunderstood.

djibouti

Well, I'm not sure if it was hidden inventory or not, but I asked for a QMAX request to release 2 seats JFK-SFO to complete an itinerary (MLE-AUH-JFK-CLT-SFO originally) and the AAgent "got seats" within a minute. I didn't inquire if the reason was one or the other.

747kona

Had an agent actually offer to go ask Revenue Management to open a seat for me. I had an intra-Carribean award flight booked (no saver space available at the time of original booking to get back to the mainland US)... today 1 Saaver J seat popped up, but I needed two... so I asked to grab just the one and split the record locator, but she offered to go ask RM, and on top of that, she got them to open 2 Saaver Y seats (which I wanted, didn't need/want the J seats).

I'm either really lucky or it was some variation of the expanded EXP availability? Or is that space supposed to show on AA.com? Not sure what happened or what I did right but I got lucky and I'm happy.

JonNYC

Expanded EP availability does not show up on AA.com, it's agent-only, but this doesn't sound like that anyway, sounds like the thread's thrust-- asking RM for space TCP/TCI

anabolism

I agree that scolding (along with passive-agressive remarks in the PNR) seem unprofessional. As I understand it, the new procedure is that RES not ask for expanded space nor call RM. So, from the RM analyst's perspective, RES was not following procedure and hence the scolding/remarks.

That sounds like QMAX granted the request. If it was hidden availability, the agent would have immediately seen it and told you the space was available.

That's not expanded availability (which shows up when an agent looks for space with an EXP in the PNR; it won't show up online even when an EXP is logged in). Sounds like you got lucky. Congratulations!

dkc192

As a follow up, I've had two recent cases of an agent successfully asking RM to open up Z/U availability in light of an involuntary schedule change, both on the same itinerary:

(1) International flight out of DFW got moved up by two hours, resulting in a would-be missed connection. The auto rebooking process put me on a flight out of MIA instead, but I asked to move back to the DFW flight.

(2) I was originally booked on an ungodly early domestic connecting flight due to lack of Z availability on the later flights. A schedule change (original flight was removed from schedule) triggered an auto rebooking to the latest flight that would still be a legal connection. The resulting connection (an hour) was a little risky going to a once daily international flight, so I called under that pretense and got moved to a slightly earlier flight that was showing F2 A2 on EF. This was quite shocking, but I'm not complaining.

In both cases, I'm inclined to say that the phone agent actually spoke to an RM staffer instead of using QMAX. Both agents mentioned going to a "help desk," and the second agent also explicitly mentioned that she was going there because of the schedule change (in cases of previous voluntary changes, my explicit requests to try QMAX were denied). The second agent also mentioned "they [RM] are working on it as we speak" while I was on hold.

Long story short, I have no idea how AA RM works, but I'm glad it/they worked in my favor these two occasions!

zig2

Is this still available to EXPs? I want to change an award to better dates but unfortunately the domestic segment is not available on the day I want.

JonNYC

Process exists, chances of success for that kind of request close to zero.

zig2

I asked but got rejected due to "we don't do that any more" .