More award availability restricted by married segments / connections
 

Had to book a JFK-SFO-LAX flight for next week, low and behold if my destination was SFO,LAS,SAN there were a min of 7 JFK-LAX non-stops I could have chosen but since LAX was my final destination, No Saver for you!

The csr tells me Im in luck she can book me an Anytime Tkt for 25k for a non-stop I told her what she could do with herself.

It wouldnt have bothered me had there been no JFK-LAX non-stops showing at all for Saver (connecting onwards) but seeing 7 at all times of the day and being told well you have over 1 Mil miles why not get an Anytime Tkt, I lost it

Looks like B6 is now my new home and if I can help it AA has seen the last cent it ever will from me,I'll use up my miles and never purchase another rev tkt as long as I can help it. Wonder how long till B6 starts to follow suit.

The US3 have the <...> to talk about The ME3,

This or the limited availability has been discussed on https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...iscussion.html

Not sure how the conclusion at the end was drawn to.

Can't you book the ticket JFK-LAX-SFO and drop the LAX-SFO later?
........maybe not.. Maybe I read that for international trips. I know I remember it from somewhere
I do agree though. If the flight is there for JFK-LAX-SFO, it should be there if you just want to fly JFK-LAX

Tried doing then drop a few times over a few days, always the same answer the computer wont allow it drops both

I think the suggestion was to book the connection and then simply walk of at LAX and not fly the last part. Since awards are one way there is no return to consider. If you have luggage there maybe an issue AA not letting you short check to LAX, booking the ticket with an overnight at LAX will avoid this. Doing this is against the conditions of carriage with AA

Married segment logic is now in effect for AA awards. Gary had a post on this a few days ago.

Very true, but since I will have 2 checked bags , I cant take the risk of being told 'no short check" and have my bags end up in LAS or CX everything and end up having to pay top top dollar to get to LA. No question if only carry-on its a slam dunk. No overnight was offered, when I booked

Not sure you will find better JFK-LAX mileage redemption opportunities at B6. I fly B6 Mint as well as AA Transcon; I find the products similar, but AA gives better mileage earnings/redemption opportunities as well as better service on the ground.

What day in particular are you looking? Just a quick search of the whole week showed decent availability most days. Decent availability in 3-class First as well. Why go coach when you can go first ;)

The trick is to find XXX-JFK-LAX availability, book it, and then call in to drop the initial segment, right? But it could take a lot of time to find an XXX that works (if there even is one).

Well low and behold I had to call up about another tkt and mentioned to the csr about the stuff AA was puling with LAX and Im sure many other routes. She checked and said there were now a few Non-stops available. wasnt the best time wise but at least I dont have to get up at 4am. yet if I was heading to LAS or SFO the 10 or 11am flight to LAX was being offered as long as I was connecting onward. Too bad I wasnt going next Weds seems every flight opened up now

On my days no Biz or 1st on the non-stops and Im very happy in Y in MCE, plenty with connections but not worth 2x to sit in a reg domestic 1st seat,IMO

I want to repeat I am AOK if AA or any carrier withholds seats for any flight, what gets to me is that they will allow a flight such as JFK-LAX non-stop to be flown as long as LAX isnt your destination, this is solely in regards to award tkts and not rev tkts which is a whole other ballgame. With award tkts they arent competing against anyone else

i never even thought of it from that side, but thats maybe why they wouldnt allow LAX-LAS to be dropped, since it was a change in Destination not that that should matter. Could be it wont allow it either if the Origin changes. My gut says it wont allow any dumping that changes the O or D of a tkt.

A bunch of csrs I spoke with admitted it was dumb to allow it if going to LAS,SFO or SAN but not if I wasnt connecting onward. Thats after they gave me the speech how not every flight is available for Saver, then when I asked them to book instead a JFK-LAX-LAS and bingo they saw the non-stops I was hoping to book but only to LA. Their attitude changed once they saw it for themselves and werent happy about it either and were speechless

And for the other direction, check to see if the LAX-JFK, if not available by itself, is available as LAX-JFK-BUF, LAX-JFK-PVD, LAX-JFK-whatever.

Me, for one, is happy that they're doing this. If i were going to fly just LAX-JFK in Y, I'd simply pay for that. It's for LAX-JFK-Europe that I want the award availability, and in fact that's what I did find the other day.

Married Segment AA Awards Make No Sense
 

I was looking for RT travel to CDG around Memorial Day and came across the following which infuriated me as it shows that AA is trying to make using awards unpleasant for no good reason. I eliminated the extra legs and narrowed it down to display the issue. Looking for a one-way ticket CDG-MIA. My options are all connections, with one through CLT. However, if I look for CDG-CLT, I also only see connections, but one connection is through MIA! So, if I live near MIA, I have to connect through CLT. But if I live in CLT, I have to connect through MIA. This is just spiteful on AA's part and I can see no good reason for this other than to annoy travelers. Married segment logic doesn't make sense since the flights the traveler in MIA/CLT want are available for the same price, just not direct.

Time to follow Gary's instructions and get what I want direct.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f47e572d99.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...94b07e1a6b.jpg

AA apparently started married segment logic on their awards too. Couple other threads have people asking about it too.