38,000feet

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Just called the EXP desk. They said that there are seats available in all classes GRU-JFK tonight. Said that I had a good chance of clearing. Seems to me that the problem is on the AA side specifically its website (and how that links with google flights). To review: aa.com is not selling seats in any classes on 950 tonight, neither is google flights, EF shows availability, and the EXP desk said that there were still "several" seats in J available for sale. Your comment about the phone rep above confuses me. I hadn't previously talked to a phone rep.

rjw242

I was referring to the case in the other thread. In that situation, AA.com and the EXP line both said there was no availability, even though it showed on ExpertFlyer.

If AA.com shows no inventory but EF and the phone agents both see it, then it seems much more likely to be some sort of cache issue with AA.com.

Mark_T

You should be looking for C inventory using EF, anything else is just second-guessing AA revenue management.

38,000feet

You're of course technically correct on J vs. C . That said, though I'm not a betting man, I'd be willing to wager that if GRU-JFK is J7 at T<24 AA will eventually process all listed upgrade on this route (in this economy).

Still, I think the bigger story here is that it appears that a bug in AA's systems is causing AA to fail to use the internet to sell available, lucrative last minute seats. I noticed this same issue on recent JFK-LAX and BOS-LAX flights too. Multiple seats open in J/F not for sale on the internet and relatedly a delay in the processing of upgrades.

upinsmoke

The flight is today and the SWU is already waitlisted. The upgrade will probably be processed before any C inventory shows up in EF.

daron4000

I have seen the same issue with AA.com for JFK-LAX flights in mid-September. Many of the mid-day flights are surprisingly already sold out in F / J (maybe there was a frequency reduction causing re-booking?) but a few seats in F according to EF. AA.com couldn't sell me a seat but I could buy a seat in F on those flights via OTA.

38,000feet

update: Got a C availability email at T=4. Called but couldn't snag the space in time. I'm not sure how many slots opened. Thankfully, I got upgraded Y->J along 12 with others. All occurred with T<2. Seems like a lot of seats to not be selling on the web.

gcsmith

Just happened to me. Expertflyer showing C1 tomorrow (9/9) flight 98. Agent says there is no availability. I'm on one of AA's dumb 'direct' flights - 98 TUS-ORD, 5 hour layover, then ORD-LHR. These have caused upgrade problems in the past.

When I force Expertflyer to show the direct flight it is J0. Looking at individual segments A4, J7, C1.

Dave Noble

If you are booked TUS-LHR as a single sector, then the individual segment availability is irrelevent, what is needed is through availability. It does not sound like there is any discrepency between EF and AA in this case

gcsmith

You are kind of correct, it wasn't an Expertflyer problem. I didn't think it was when I posted, but if others find this thread I want them to be aware of what else could cause this. But it is an AA problem. It is not possible to have through availability in business from Tucson to London. Domestic on 99% of routes doesn't have J/C. And 772 doesn't have F/A.

In any case, I called back a couple hours later when I had more time, explained to the agent that the flight number was the same, and he had the fare department move this through. I had to pay another $4.50 in TSA fees as they manipulated the ticket to seem like a stopover.

AA needs to stop the fake direct flight manipulation. I knew when I booked the ticket this was likely to happen. I also was not able to list for a complimentary EXP upgrade on TUS-ORD when booking the flight. 5 hour layover and equipment change in no way = direct flight. I guess they've run out of flight numbers or something. I suspect my first agent was legacy US as I specifically asked her to check just the ORD-LHR segment and when she said no C I politely disengaged.

SFOBayFlyer

I was checking availability on EF and saw something very strange:

AA 31 from LAX to HNL on 9/24 shows F5. Seat map also shows 5 empty F seats.

However, AS6311 (codeshare for AA 31) shows F7.

Has anyone else seen this?

What would happen in the scenario that all F pax show?

phlwookie

I doubt it would ticket if AS is showing phantom availability, which could be due to a delay in their systems updating if AA recently sold seats to bring the flight down to F5 availability.

GNRMatt

If someone is willing and has time, and has ExpertFlyer access, can you let me know how many Business-Class seats remain today for the PHL-CDG flight? (AA754)

Thanks in advance!
-Matt

JJeffrey

Right now it's J2.

You can figure this out without ExpertFlyer, just make a dummy booking for PHL-CDG at aa.com. Start with the max 6 passengers, and work your way down until it show's availability.

CNMAZ

AA754 - J2