arkangel

Recently I wanted to book a one way XXX-DFW-XXX and saw that both segments had low award availability. The problem was that the first flight was the last departure of the day, the connecting flight was the first departure the next morning and the website wanted to price it as two separate one ways.

So I called the PLT desk and asked if it was possible to ticket this as a completely low level award based on "last in, first out" flights. After a considerable amount of time on hold, I was told that it was. More time, and additional supervisor intervention finally got the job done, and the reservation was put on 24hr. hold, some 45 min. later.

When I called the next day to book it, I was told I'd have to pay the $30 phone booking fee. When I objected, since I couldn't do this on line, I was told that I should have made the reservation on line, even thought the first agent told me I couldn't do that, put it on hold, and then called to have it changed.

More supervisor intervention finally got the fee waived, as a one time favor, and the ticket issued. Additional time for this: 30 min.

But it's done, so I can't complain too much. Just thought I'd post my experience to, perhaps, save others time if in a similar situation.

JonNYC

At least you were forearmed with the knowledge of the 2 issues from information provided here on FT so that you were able to get it done at all.

Phoenixtinct

Generally, in cases like these where AA's engine doesn't produce the results you want, I recommend using the Multi City feature and put in the segments you want, i. e. AAA-DFW on Day 1 and DFW-BBB on Day 2. Once you piece the itinerary together, which you may have attempted to do - put it on Hold anyway and call in to talk to someone who understands this needs to be priced as one connecting journey and not 2 one-ways. I've been in that situation a few times and the agent informed me they had to "refresh" the reservation and then it prices out correctly. In that case, you could have avoided the 2nd call and having to go through explaining why you shouldn't be charged any extra fees.

guv1976

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+1.

That's exactly the way to avoid the agita the OP experienced. And if, after re-pricing the itinerary as a single award, the agent is not willing to ticket it without fee, one can just go back to the held reservation at aa.com, and ticket it there at the correct price in miles.

sjpmurph01

Congrats to OP for navigating calls correctly.

Gurus, please help educate me...

Would this same logic work for paid tickets as well? Multi-city search individual segments if trying to split last-in/first-out, put on hold, then call in to refresh/reprice the itinerary as a connection?

arkangel

I believe so as I was able to get this itinerary to price out as the sum of the two one way fares. Actually, come to think of it, the DFW outbound on the next day was not the first flight out but the second one.

guv1976

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On domestic awards between the Mainland and Hawaii, AA now permits up to 18 hours to connect, as long as all flights are on AA/US (not AS).

MADPhil

I have had good results using multi-city searches for overnights. And, in one case, for a direct connection where I assume it bypassed some married segment restriction. It is also useful for narrowing down the choices if there are too many routes.

JDiver

Yes. I've done this several times.

sjpmurph01

Thanks, all!

bsyah

Not sure if I should do a new post for this but it seemed relevant to this post.

I am trying to do something very similar. How should it work if the first leg (last night flight) only has Aanytime awards and the second leg (next day) has Saver awards? If I use the Multi city option I end up with 20k+17.5k = 37.5k. Is that the way it would have to be if both legs don't have saver awards available?

Thanks

guv1976

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Yes, unless the AAnytime award rate from your origin to your destination is lower.

bsyah

The AAnytime award rate from origin to destination is 50k. That is why I started looking at this option.

Thanks

guv1976

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Is SAAver available in Business/First on both segments? If so, that might price out the same (or lower) than a combination of SAAver Coach and AAnytime Coach.

bsyah

No. There was no Business/First SAAver award for either segment.

Further question: In order to price the 2 legs as one 17500 Award ticket does it have to be last flight out, first flight in? I found another itinerary the previous night where I can leave evening flight (not last) at 9pm and then second leg leaves 9 am but is not the first flight. Each leg is available as a saaver award (17.5 + 12.5 = 30k). Seems like this could be instead priced as a single flight for 17.5k?