miles4sheli

Yes, it is. Nice to hear that. I thought those days were gone, but I am definitely going to try it. Appreciate the advice!

fotoflyer88

EF paid off at least for getting a better flight time in Y after inventory opened up. Now to wait for a J seat to open.

miles4sheli

Hi, I wanted to ask another question about the reservations agent contacting revenue management. When I called, the reservations agent had never heard of this and had never requested it (I remember the old days when this was common practice), which made me hesitant, so I decided to hang up and will call again. Just wanted any tips or advice on what I should say on the next call or if there's someone else I need to ask for, etc..

THANKS!

JIMCHI

It's an automated system they use. They refer to it as "shopping" for an award seat. They don't actually call anyone. They usually get an automated response within a couple of minutes. Just call again. They will normally only do this to complete an award itinerary, not to just get seats from scratch.

JonNYC

usually referenced as QMAX (TCP and TCI.) It's far more limited than the posts in this thread might leave as an impression. In fact it was reported as "dead" a few years ago. That report was erroneous, but -is- very, very limited.

Requests for MileSAAver inventory from RM / QMAX limitations

elsenor

Would you say it's very limited due to reps knowing about it/getting reps to make the request or the chances that the seats are actually released once the request is made?

I called this am, day 4 of a held reservation on JL for 2 pax in J, to make a request for our final leg (ORD-CVG). After mentioning the above about rev mgmt and QMAX, the rep stated she had no ability to request seats that aren't there. I explained a bit of my frustration that looking at almost any month prior to May '18 and you see almost full saaver availability Tue-Sun and likely would see the same for our date in the coming months. Nada

JonNYC

A combination of both, IMO. For the most part, this ability has been all but eliminated and, yes, many agents you'd get on the phone weren't around at such time as it was more common, so, some will literally think you're just making it up, while others are simply trying to say "they don't want me to do that, so I won't, and it wouldn't work anyway" (and they know the chances of success are very low anyway.)

You'll see people post success stories every now and then, so it happens. But more likely to succeed within a (very) few days of the flight.

anabolism

Likely you reached a LUS agent (or a fairly new agent), who is unfamiliar with QMAX. when I get an agent who says it doesn't exist, I say "Oh, sorry, thanks" and politely end the call, then call back.

circusboy

Back in 2014 I was booking awards for the family fly LHR-LAS-HKG-ADL-SIN-LHR in business.

Getting 4 seats on any flight was impossible but I had it all planned with 2 + 2, we all left on the same day, just on different flights. One of the flights I had booked was LHR-DEN-???-LAS however the last flight only had one first seat so I asked if another could be opened. She put me on hold, then came back and said someone would call me back.

A few hours later someone from the EXP desk called back and had changed all my planned flights and got us all together on all flights. The LHR-DEN-???-LAS, changed to LHR-DFW-LAS all on AA metal, in the new J seats. Through their liaison they'd also got us 4 seats on the HKG-ADL CX flight, only two had been available for awards.

miles4sheli

When I called again, the new agent had never heard of it, but she put me on hold and tried. Although the request was denied, she thanked me because she learned something new.

bmrisko

To follow-up to my early question, I'm trying to complete a HSV to ADL trip and all legs are available at the Saaver level, except for DFW to LAX. I was shot down multiple times when trying to get them to put in a request to have a seat made available at the Saaver level on DFW to LAX. Very surprising there are absolutely no lower level awards since there are so many daily flights between that city pair and all are at the Anytime level.

These AA miles are getting harder and harder to use...

JonNYC

I would say at this point it's revolting, disillusioning, angering and depressing-- but, again, at this point in history, not surprising, per se, IMO.

As far as your experience with them not being able to secure additional award seats via QMAX request, as I posted above-- trust me-- despite a few reports in this thread, it's very uncommon and failure is by FAR the majority experience.

miles4sheli

Hi,

We have 2 international Business Class MileSAAver tickets for an upcoming trip. The domestic portion was originally only available in Economy and today one First Class seat opened up. We were able to get one of our tickets changed to the First Class seat.

When I inquired, the agent had never heard of QMAX, but said she'd ask her Help Desk if she could request another First Class seat to complete a party. The Help Desk told her QMAX is only done now for Economy MileSAAvers. Is that correct, or should I call back?

THANKS!

JonNYC

Always a sign to not continue the process with said agent.

aaflyer5555

An agent with a good deal of seniority on the AA side noted today that effective March, 2017 QMAX will simply not respond back to requests for inventory in premium classes so those agent requests won't actually return anything (not even remarks) while coach cabin requests will continue to be processed within the current request type parameters (i.e. TCP/TC). Apparently "qualified" premium cabin award space requests are to be channeled via RSD but it's unclear what that qualified means in that context unless it's to fix an error or something along those lines.

Couldn't find anything more substantial to back this up but in the past two attempts in recent months, it could why an answer never came back for premium inventory requests of any kind via the Q system (neither in the affirmative nor in the negative). If it is accurate, it might be worth updating the Wiki.