abk

One thing to watch on the re ticketing is to make sure when taxes are refunded they are refunded in the correct amount. If you see a mistake point it out as it may affect your ticket. In my case I made multiple changes which involved eliminating stops and somewhere along the way an agent refunded a slightly incorrect amount which when discovered made the ticket such that I could not have flown on it. It took a subsequent change to discover it and was not simple to correct.

geclub1

So making dummy booking to speed up ticketing is a no go.

Thanks to abk for pointing out another potential danger.

Another consideration to make dummy booking in my mind is to hedge against AA award chart change. People are saying that they will not do it while accounts are bring merged. I wonder how big a risk this is.

susiesan

Making multiple dummy bookings is very selfish. You are tying up award seats for the same trip on multiple days until you make up your mind which flight you actually will go on thereby denying those seats to the rest of us who might want or need to travel on one of those dates. Just because you don't have to pay redeposit fees on award tickets doesn't mean you aren't abusing the Aadvantage program.

geclub1

Good point of tying up the space.

I am merely a Gold, so I do pay redeposit fees.

jamienbaker

Disagree on back ups/dupe bookings. For example, CX and AA may not EVER offer award seats at the same time, meaning you can either book a long haul OR book a domestic positioning flight but never at the same time. I've held LAXHKG tickets when no flights to LAX are available on AA, and vice versa. I've also held LGAORDHKG with the intent of taking it unless JFKHKG becomes available. Expecting all segments in a multi-segment itin to be available at once is foolish. Grab what you can, as you go, and hopefully you get everything you need. I'm a fan of backups even when it exposes me to re deposit fees.

susiesan

So would utilizing the dummy bookings be the strategy for this scenario:

I will be trying for award seats MCI-CMB via HKG. I want to travel there after Feb. 15, 2016 and stay around 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. I want 2 F seats but will take J if that's all there is. I have no plans for what to do in Sri Lanka yet and am very flexible as to travel dates.

Should I book a dummy trip for sometime in January 2016 at 330 days for whatever I can get and just keep changing it every day until I get to the desired dates?

Should I book the return first at 330 days and then backup to the outbound?
or should I book the outbound at 330 days and hope that 2 weeks later I can find a return. I'd hate to book an outbound, use the miles, and have to cancel and redeposit because I cannot get a return flight. I don't think AA will hold an award reservation for 2 weeks while waiting for the booking window for return flights to open up.

So what's the current trick to getting RT award tix in J or F? It used to be easy with loads of avaiability to HKG. How do some of you get all these award flights booked?

dagaetch

how do you know what's correct? I made a timing change to an award booking and received a small refund...is there some way to 'confirm' that all is okay?

jamienbaker

I would book as soon as a window you can actually travel in opens up. The sooner the better. I got burned recently by the 30 extra days CX and BA can ticket. I lost DPSHKG in J during the window when BA could book and AA could not. I pressed, got greedy, and lost.

jamienbaker

Just another point in defense of dupes (not trying to pick a fight, I just randomly replied to Susaisan's post).

1. Wife may go back to work, but doesn't officially have position yet. If she gets it, will probably have to cut Aug vaca short. Hence, I've already booked dupes for her (solo) while retaining the family of four's booking (we would take the full 3 weeks).

2. London or New York. A year ago, it was 50/50 where I'd finish up before vaca, hence didn't know where I'd be starting vaca from. Dupes are the answer. Found out week prior it would be NYC.

3. Indecision - we booked Asia with the intent of going, but are also holding Turkey for next summer if other family members can join. They haven't made up their minds yet.

4. IRROPs - I'll often book a backup on a rival airline in case my original flight goes tech.

5. Upgrades - as discussed, have booked domestic segments to LAX and SFO in hopes CX F opens up inside of T-14. AA rarely releases inventory this close in, hence dupes are your friend.

Long story short, if you have the currency and you are immune to fees (either due income bracket or status), it is wise to have contingency plans in place.

JonNYC

We know you're big on those

AA777

Tia is for the tip, much appreciated. I am good at buying and used to be great at working the system booking on AA, but not with CX and others since availability became so scarce and with the increase in miles needed on AA. I book so many trips in J and F, I got all these miles to burn and really appreciate feedback like yours.

Thanks for taking the time.

Cheers,
AA777

AA777

I don't have an Avios account.....don't you need one to look on BA?

Cheers,
AA777

callmedtop

Just open one...jeez. Takes all of 60 seconds. I hate to be a jerk but come on. All of your posts in this thread have been answered dozens and dozens of times already.

JonNYC

You really can't get a handle on this??

stephem

I just jumped and used Avios to get 5x YVR-HKG for 355 days out (next Christmas vaca). It seems increasingly that 1-2 of the 5 seats that Cathay releases as J awards were gone by the time that AA can book them. Since we wanted to fly on the daytime flight, which has no F, we couldn't do some in J and some in F.