UKtravelbear

Perfectly normal to have muti PNRs for a mix of AA and BA flights been that way for a long time though it does confuse those that aren't used to it and wonder where their flights have gone!

You should see one of my upcimgn AA/BA bookings that have had multiple flight cancellations and schedule changes - it's not pretty!

skunker

Right, but the two PNRs are both Sabre. Neither work on BA even though in the past AA PNRs would bring it up on BA.com. I can't remove it from the "my trips" list as the remove link isn't there even though AA says its cancelled. And the cancel trip link in the PNR detail page doesn't work.

Ok, I've never seen it. But in the past couple years my mix of carrier itineraries were for RTW tickets, not a straight round trip.

Enigma368

Yesterday I put two domestic business class flights on American Airlines on a free hold until midnight tonight using miles. I had until midnight PST tonight to book (in about 3 hours). When I went to book the flight earlier tonight, it said the hold was cancelled. I just spoke to American Airlines Reservations and they said my hold was cancelled by the system because because my OH had previously made a mileage booking under his AAdvantage account for us to fly (on a completely different route but on the same day).

I knew that my partner a while back had reserved economy flights for us to go to a different destination but when we saw the business class special, we decided that the new destination and price was a much better option. Since AA now don't charge for cancelling mileage flights, we figured my partner could cancel his previously booked flights on his account later.

AA were fairly sympathetic but said there was nothing we could do because the biz flights I had on hold until midnight tonight were a web special. And they cannot do anything to reinstate a web special. And of course, the flights are now almost double the price =/

I had no idea that there was a risk my hold might not be honored because my OH had previously booked different flights on his account for him and me on the same day. I only put it on hold because I was heading out and it said I had until today to complete the reservation.

I am guessing I am out of luck but does anyone know any department that might be able to fix it for me?

mikelat

nothing can be done. The system will cancel duplicate reservations, as you discovered. sucks, but it can't be fixed or changed.

JJeffrey

Depending on how far out the flights are I wouldn't stress too much, decent probability the web specials will come back at the good rate. Just check again today and over the next few days.

This time, make sure to cancel your other reservations before booking the web specials . You can cancel your other reservation online, no need to call AA.

USFlyerUS

I also think you only had until midnight CST, not PST, if I remember correctly.

Djokison

That would be dependent on where OP is originating from. The hold is valid till midnight in the departure time zone.

Often1

Your contract with AA expressly prohibits you from duplicate or "impossible" trips (see below). AA's system will auto-cancel one or both e-tickets and reservations when an "impossible" overlap is discovered. The intent is to stop people from holding space which they do not intend to use. While there is nothing you can do to recover your cancelled space right now, do cancel your other e-tickets immediately so that if something pops up, you will not suffer the same fate again.

Prohibited booking practices

Reservations made to exploit or circumvent fare and ticket rules are prohibited.

Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Purchasing a ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares (hidden city ticketing)
• Buying a ticket without intending to travel, including to gain access to our airport lounges or other facilities
• Combining 2 or more roundtrip excursion fares end-to-end to circumvent minimum stay requirements (back-to-back ticketing)
• Booking a ticket in someone's name without the person's consent (which is illegal)
• Holding reservations for reasons like securing upgrades, blocking seats or obtaining lower fares
• Booking duplicate or impossible trips, for example multiple trips for the same passenger around the same time (trips a passenger physically could not complete)

javabytes

As others have stated, AA systems are programmed to actively look for this and cancel duplicate/overlapping/impossible bookings for the same passengers.

If you want to do something like this - i.e. book a new reservation but don’t cancel the existing one until you have the new one confirmed - my suggestion is to do it quickly and with the help of a phone agent. They can temporarily prohibit the new booking from getting cancelled but you have to be actively working on canceling the old one.

fly747first

That's definitely great advise but for now, the OP should consider alternative flights

Enigma368

Interesting, so this applies to booked tickets vs just holds. e.g. if I had completed booking the second reservation and paid for the taxes etc. it still would have been cancelled? What if someone wanted to pay cash for two flights one hour apart because they were not sure which flight they wanted to take, and they were happy to eat the cost of paying twice? That is just not allowed?

I can understand the logic behind the rules, especially now that cancellation rules are much more flexible. Not fair to AA other passengers to hold space you don't intend to use or pay for. Just wish I'd known beforehand.

All very useful to know. Thanks.

USFlyerUS

That is a pretty odd scenario, if someone really wanted to throw money away like that. Regardless, aa.com would likely catch this before you even got to the point of paying. I've tried several times to price and book new flights before I cancelled my old ones, yet AA.com stops me before I get to the payment screen. If/when I do this, I use a TA for one of the tickets and then immediately cancel the other ticket I don't intend to use. However, while using a TA would likely "allow" you to do this, AA's systems would likely catch it eventually, especially if the FF # was in both reservations and/or there was a clear match on name, address, credit card, trusted traveler #, etc. (I don't think anyone knows for sure exactly what logic AA uses to detect duplicates and/or impossible routings.)

JJeffrey

AA's systems will not cancel overlapping bookings as long as both flights are fully ticketed and not on hold. That's not to say you might not get a call from AA asking about them, however the system will not arbitrarily cancel one or the other like it will if one is on hold.

Often1

Even in ordinary times when one is most typically tossing a ticket if it can't be flown or at least paying a significant fee to use any credit, this issue most often arises when one has travel booked and then plans change. Simply changing a ticket A-B-C to A-B-D may be vastly more expensive than tossing the B-C segment and purchasing a ticket B-D. But, it may not work on the same carrier. I don't know of a carrier which permits this. It is simply that not all carriers are vigilant.

Blumie

I have never heard of an instance of a carrier claiming that purchasing a separate ticket violates the terms of another ticket, except perhaps in the case of nested tickets where the goal is to evade a minimum-stay requirement. I can't imagine a carrier saying you can't purchase a one-way ticket and instead you have to pay the change fee and fare difference on a ticket you already have. I have done this many times, and will continue to do it without the least worry.