stillflatout

So I have done the round of email request and a phone call, so far no luck to get EQD by Distance. I also saw somewhere else the SWU changes special fare booking to normal fare and I did have SWU applied on my trip. So this could be why this time the method is by fare.
I did request another around of review and will report back if that changes.

HLCinCOU

Your report is extremely weird, enough so that I feel like we need to get the basic facts down:

1. How did you book your ticket? Did you intentionally do it in a manner you expected to be a special fare? What caused you to expect that?
2. Did you look at the fare rules before buying it? Any chance you still have access to those somehow?
3. Do you have any correspondence with AA in which they make this ridiculous claim that special fares earn by percent of spend? That is...um......incorrect, and suggests some pretty uninformed AA personnel.
4. What was actually credited!?!?!? Does the AA site show "Method: fare" or "Method: distance - data unavailable" or "Method: distance - special fare" and what EQD/EQM were actually given?

Asking for "another review" is probably not as useful without figuring out what happened and what you want to ask for. So let's figure out what the heck happened here...it sure ain't normal.

Oh...also this part: I also saw somewhere else the SWU changes special fare booking to normal fare... ...no, it's the reverse. Adding an SWU frequently makes flights that should be fare-based post as "distance - data unavailable" but doesn't do the reverse.

flyingeph12

I would double check what you actually booked. Not all AAVacations packages credit as Special Fare; in fact, my observation is that many (if not most) PE AAV packages are not Special Fares. You should have received a confirmation email with your package details, and that should list the fare code. For example, below are screenshots from a relatively recent package that I booked; you will notice that the fare code is (O*). The * indicates that it's a Special Fare.






I think what OP might be referring to is a known issue that PE tickets upgraded with SWUs often will credit as 1.0 EQM instead of 1.5 EQM (not what happened here). The issue seems to be that AA's systems appears to assume that a SWU upgrade into C is from an economy fare (since as of now SWUs are from Y directly into J).

nrr

I've a booked few AA Vacation "deals" where the fare code did not have an *, hence (initially) was $ based,I called AA and noted that I booked an AA Vac. package and the air portion was changed to distance for EQD.
PS: I booked a Delta Vacation package, these and several other "packages" are "special" fares the MQD (=AA EQD) are 1/5 of the distance flown (potentially higher for Medallion elites).

HLCinCOU

I'm aware of that issue. But it's not what he described. He said he read somewhere that special fares ended up credited by fare instead of distance after SWU application. I don't think we have any examples of that.

777lover

stillflatout

Here are my answers
1. I did thru an travel agent and so far all the booking thru it shows up in "my trip" section of aa.com with no price info. This is based on 5 bookings including this one. (I know this is not a 100% guarantee as booking thru aa vacation and confirming thru fare rules, but I assumed no fare listing on aa.com for a trip locator was good indicator it's a special fare)
2. the booking email I got does not list any fare rules in detail, so it's unknown
3. I don't have email correspondence and was told over the phone by one agent the special fare table was mislabeled. It's possible the agent is mistaken. Both agent by email and 2nd agent over the phone keep saying my record location indicate it was not special fare.
4. the AA site show "Method: fare" for this trip where as my past trips booked thru the travel agent show "method: distance special fare"

the info I saw about SWU reset a special fare was from this post
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/04/whe...special-fares/
"One big caveat: There are multiple consistent reports that a Special Fare booking may reclassify to a standard fare booking if an American Airlines systemwide upgradesuccessfully clears"
It's total possible I could be in the wrong and this booking was normal fare instead of special fare. I feel like the chance is pretty small given everytime before this trip it was always considered special fare.

My ticket booked was in fare code P and reclassified to C after clearing SWU, and I don't know if that changes the fare type. Have said that, that info should be all there in AA's system. My hope is review would be the only way to bottom out if my booking was normal or special fare.

JJeffrey

Just because you booked through a travel agent is no guarantee that you'll get credit as a special fare, even if you were able to get special fare credit for certain past trips booked this way. Every fare and vacation package is different. Who knows if upgrading has anything to do with it.

This is a prime example of the situation I mentioned a few pages back, i.e., unless you've booked an AA Vacations special fare (* fares clearly designated as special fares and spelled out at aa.com), it will be VERY difficult to get AAdvantage Customer Service to reverse a posting by fare if AA knows the fare. The rules are intentionally vague in AA's favor. Good luck!

flyingeph12

stillflatout

This is the first one I did as Premium Economy, all the prior one was economy.

HLCinCOU

The P fare is a really important part of this story. I agree with above that it's much less likely it was a special fare based on the premium econ class. But maybe more importantly, there's a huge known issue of P fares getting posted as regular econ after SWU upgrades. So, new question: once this posted by fare, did you get your 1.5x EQM multiplier like you should have?

HLCinCOU

Are there any you can point to? I've been paying attention to this issue for about 2 years, and I've read through the threads on the subject...I still have yet to see any credible data points for something that definitely was a bulk fare posting by fare for any reason. And from a technical standpoint it's hard to see how that would happen.

Edit: to be clear, I have seen people who thought that's what happened. But on further investigation, all the ones I've read appear to have simply been mistaken about whether the fare they purchased was bulk. I was even one of those people, shortly after AAV added the asterisks (before then it was just "all AAV fares are special" and I had missed the change). My point is that while there have been some reports of this behavior, it doesn't look to me like there have been any credible reports. Interested in any data points that go against that.

HLCinCOU

100% spot on. Basically stillflatout has no valid reason to think he bought a special fare, and probably did not.

I really wish you'd stop saying this...or at least stop saying it to people who probably didn't buy a special fare. The rules absolutely are not vague; bulk tickets earn as special fares, and the fare rules tell you if the tickets are bulk. The only ambiguity here is that people aren't actually looking at the fare rules and thus don't know if their fares are special. That's a lack of knowledge, not the rules being vague. You're acting like AA is screwing this guy over somehow, when it's waaaay more likely that he was simply mistaken about having purchased a special fare.

stillflatout

I got the 1.5 EQM once the email agent updated the fare code from C to P.

HLCinCOU

Ok, right, makes sense. So the followup then...was the fare-based earnings accurate to the P fare you actually paid? That is, they didn't try to give you way lower EQD (like the fare got switched to whatever the cheapest econ fare was at the time your SWU cleared) did they? I ask for a really specific reason: on the main thread about P->C EQM glitching there is a theory that when they rebook those they're just grabbing the lowest available fare off the list and applying that as the original fare. Something like that could be a reasonable technical explanation for how something might "stop being special" after SWU.