brp

[QUOTE=sushanna1;33407605My only criticism of AA vacations is the fact that after the initial purchase, everything has to be done through calling AAvacations. Lengthy hold times, and a couple of hours wait to receive a call back plus a couple of less than stellar agents means that it will be a while before I book another package. That said, I was delighted with the hotel and was pleased to be able to use up some of my miles.[/QUOTE]

For the lengthy hold times, I actually blame us Sorta seriously, really. I've spoken with enough agents during thus time to believe that they're pretty much at full strength and are getting slammed because we're calling in record volumes to go places.

With that said, my last couple of calls have been few minutes to no wait. Fingers crossed.

No excuse for bad agents. I've had mostly good luck, including getting repeat agents who remember dealing with me (same with AB Holidays)

Cheers.

TravelerMSY

A mixed-cabin international AA ticket recently purchased via Amex “insider fares” posted normally rather than as special. This despite the fare not displaying properly on the receipt, and AA staff claiming it’s special, i’m not complaining, because the accrual was fairly close either way. Fewer eqd but more rdm.

It seems that anything with an agency discount designator appended to a normal published fare blows up the way it’s displayed on aa.com. Like F21XXWN/yyyy. But it gets read correctly as far as Aadvantage is concerned.

SamOF

Did any fare display on the receipt? IME, fare displaying with a weird number always leads to regular fare based posting, but fare not displaying at all leads to special.

coleslaw

Is there any way to tell if a ticket will post as a special fare after multiple changes/reissuances? I've had it happen in the past but it seems unpredictable.

brp

Best way to know is to hold onto the original email that would have had the asterisk. In cases where an agent works on it from the beginning, even that won’t work, though. If the initial listing had the asterisk, I’ve never had it fail to post properly, although I seem to recall having to call maybe once or twice more than 5 years, and many AA Vacations packages ago.

Cheers.

dvs7310

Much to my surprise, I had some flights around New Year that posted as 'Special Fares' I bought them through the Chase Travel Portal (didn't use points, just bought that way for the 5x UR points on travel purchases via the portal).

My outbound flights, I actually didn't think much about because we had to be rebooked at the airport and they rebooked us into paid D/C fares even though I had upgraded the ticket previously. However the inbound flight was flown as planned, booked in O. All 4 segments posted as special fares. In the case of the 2 returning on the O booking class, it actually didn't benefit me at all since the ticket wasn't really cheap, but REALLY good to know that the current version of Chase Travel does count as a special fare. Was totally unexpected since there was no * next to them on the site. This will alleviate my main gripe of booking AA fares from Asia since you can't use VAacations originating outside of North America. I'd been booking JL fares but the earning rate for I and E are both punitive on JL codes.

**Just a note on the tickets bought via Chase, there were one-way tickets in each direction and no hotel/car package. Just straight up one-way tickets.

Carolina2Cali

This is making me feel better about a booking I just completed... via phone agent. Calmed my nerves for sleeping tonight anyway, but need to investigate more in the morning. Not much room to fix this error if I land in Colombia and my EQD are not what I suspected. Oy.

But thanks! Whew.

P.S. NYC Flyer are you able to book flights just like AA Vacations does and they'll also count as special fare? I don't know if I can cancel my current situation I booked tonight but happy to send any future AA Vacation type requirements your way in the future. I suppose they still have some value if you find a cheap flight to South America at a minimum, even with the new LP scheme.

Cheers.

NYC Flyer

Don't cancel what you have, but feel free to reach out in the future.

Travel agents abolutely sell AAVacations, with some limitations (no fly/drive option--must include 2nt+ hotel stay) and some perks (low upfront deposit with payment due 45 days before travel). Air is 100% bulk fares.

As far as air-only, there would have to be a consolidator fare on the routing (primarily longhaul international).

Neither option is that valuable for LPs unless you are booking premium economy cabin or higher.

SkyTeam777

I actually didn't realize that paid tickets booked through Chase Travel would post as special fares. I booked an expensive $6k business class tickets and lost out on a lot of miles and EQD this way. Has anyone had success contacting AA to see if they would adjust the mileage to the normal way? For what it's worth, my itinerary shows the full cash cost of the ticket and there was no asterisk next to the I fare when I booked it. Didn't know if anyone had success with AAdvantage Customer Service adjusting these kinds of tickets since this was a cash booking (no points used) and not a bulk fare.

coleslaw

They don't consistently post as special fares. Most of mine have posted based on spend.

You can try contacting them to ask them to adjust, but it's very unlikely that you would have success.

lmagnott

Does anyone have more recent experience booking a flight with UR points through the Chase travel portal? I'm wondering about a few things:

1) Is there any way to know at the time of booking how many loyalty points I'll get, i.e., will the flights be credited on distance vs. price?
2) What happens if I need to make a change, either because of a schedule change on American's end or a decision on my end? Does that all have to go through Chase?
3) Is there any option to re-book for fewer points if the price drops (as I regularly do on aa.com)?

I would also welcome any other advice/caveats that anyone has to share. I have a ton of UR points and would love to use them on an upcoming trip, but not if it's going to be more trouble than it's worth.

CMTinPHL

1] You should be able to determine the number of loyalty points by deducting the gov’t imposed taxes from the total, and then multiplying the fare by the number of LPs you earn depending on status, i.e. 5 LPs per dollar if you have no status. That is for flights on AA. If you booking flights on another airline but crediting to AA, you would need to check the partner’s LP earning on AA.com.

2] When AA has had changes to a flight purchased through the Chase portal, I’ve been able to make changes to the flight through the AA app. I enter my AA FF# number when purchasing through Chase. If a flight is cancelled, I’m guessing you have to go through Chase to rebook.

3] No. You are effectively using your UR points as cash when you book a flight through the Chase portal.