Stripe

Last week I was trying to book a OW domestic flight in F using miles. Only 3 of 16 F seats were empty. Called several times to see if there was any EXP "expanded availability". Nothing automatic but two agents did put me on hold for a few minutes but both came back and said they were rejected.

Z never opened up and most of the seats were filled with upgrades. I did end up booking the AAnytime award.

FlyerBeek

So sounds like the RM processes worked as advertised in this instance.

For what it's worth, I normally only request award inventory be opened up on flights that are completely empty in F - and even then I'm not always successful (even on flights that are empty a week out in F/J and will most certainly be predominantly filled with upgrades).

-FlyerBeek

747kona

I'm 2/2 now on these requests. My recent success a few days ago was a AEP-SCL-LAX-SEA SAAver Biz award where everything was available except for LAX-SEA. 1 SAAver J seat was available for LAX-SEA but I needed 2, so I said "any chance I could snag a second seat to complete the itinerary?" Seconds later "I was able to get a 2nd seat on that last segment for you!".

fotoflyer88

Can this still be done?
AA EXP - LAX-ORD is only available at 5am in Y connecting to international J 6+ hours later. That is a heck of a layover. I tried asking about to complete an itinerary but got nowhere and was told by EXP agent that was only for AAnytime. The award is already booked at the moment with that Y segment but would be nice to get it into domestic First or more importantly a shorter layover. What should I ask for here? Or just wait and see if a seat opens up?

andyr

An ExpertFlyer subscription with alerts may be your best friend. I had several flights booked with various bad connections, F award with domestic in Y, long layovers, etc. One night at 3am my phone went wild with text alerts because AA had dumped a whole ton of availability into the system (JFK/LAX, JFK/CDG, LAX/AKL and the always helpful BOS/PHL [for onwards TATL]). I fixed up 3 or 4 itineraries with the way it should have been in the first place in about an hour and now all my travel has decent routings and rational layovers.

That event was weird in that the availability was visible to EF but *not* on AA.com. But, agents could book it. Part of what allowed it to hang around for more than a day before everyone sucked up all the seats. It was a nice day.

Bottom line: book the crappy layover / connection, set some alerts, cross your fingers, but be prepared to live with what you have.

Thunderroad

Any updates on whether the policy on requesting upgrade availability (using SWUs or, domestically, miles and $$) is as restrictive as for award seats?

rrgg

I don't know how to help but want to mention I was in the same situation. A minor schedule eventually happened and without asking they moved me to the best possible connection. Maybe you'll get lucky.

fotoflyer88

Just had that happen. Only bummer was that my dad couldn't fly that day so back it went to a couple weeks later with another bad connection. Part of me hopes another system schedule change will happen and fix this mess.

fotoflyer88

Good to know. I have EF and just set up a bunch of alerts.

bmrisko

Has anyone been successful in getting AA to open up saaver availability on 1 leg of a 3-leg journey? To preface, I have HSV->ADL booked an a F Saaver award. I currently have a seat on my first leg from HSV to DFW, but it only gives me 60 minutes in DFW before my leg to Sydney. I'll be travelling with an infant, so obviously would feel a bit more comfortable with more than 60min in DFW. Just curious if anyone has gotten an agent to find a saaver seat on an earlier flight w/ tons of open seats, but no saaver availability.

JIMCHI

Yes, call and explain the situation. The agent can request the seats. I was recently successful.

bmrisko

Great, thanks for the vote of confidence...I'll give that a go this week. ^

susiesan

I was able to get saaver seats opened up on the last leg of a saaver J award EZE-SCL-MIA on LAN in J,MIA-DFW-MCI on AA in econ. I was missing the last leg DFW-MCI, and a phone call was able to get the seats released as saver econ to complete the return journey home. It does happen sometimes. This was back in April, so recent.

miles4sheli

I'm in a similar situation. Have an international trip on hold as Business MileSaaver, but my last leg home is only available as an AAnytime award. I'm holding that final leg as an Economy AAnytime and it will only add 20k miles to my 70k Business Saaver award. But I'd rather save the extra miles. Currently all seats in the first class cabin on that flight are available, and a good number in Economy.

Did a reservations agent put in a request to Revenue Management or was the request made by someone else? How long did it take to be granted? How were you notified?

Thanks!

susiesan

As there were segments on LAN I had to make the award booking over the phone. I initially booked the international segments EZE-SCL-MIA and put them on a 5 day hold. Then a day later the MIA-DFW segment became available so I called back to add it. At day 5 I called and requested the DFW-MCI segment be added even though it was not showing as saver space. I explained to the agent the situation, she put me on hold and went to ask revenue management about opening 2 seats for saver awards. She came back in 10 minutes and told me she got it approved. Good job, AA.