fanger

I had a trip booked via AA Vacations earlier this year, to which I applied SWUs. The outbound cleared some time prior to travel, and posted as expected via the "Distance-data unavailable" method. The returns cleared ~2hrs prior to check-in and at check-in (two different pax). A flight cancellation required a call-in and re-routing, and C1 was available at the time, and when checking in at the airport a second became available. In both cases, the process took a substantial amount of time (25-35 min on the phone for the first, ~15 minutes for the second) because, they said, they needed to find the fare to apply to the ticket before they could reissue. It did seem to be a very manual process. So in this case, the EQD and RDM posting still says "Distance-data unavailable", but the RDM and EQD credit is based on the fictitious EQD value that they assigned to the segment, which appeared to be disconnected from anything that could have derived from the original ticket. The outbound SWU upgrade was assigned EQD based on 10% of EQM and RDM based on 50% of EQM, as expected. Same segments, in opposite directions, on same trip with different outcomes.

Based on this, I am guessing that some people are doing it "wrong", whatever that might mean.

EDIT: Wanted to add that my second AAVacations trip, to which no SWUs were applied, has posted all as expected and were marked "Distance-special fare" as opposed to "Distance-data unavailable". Also, for the "Distance-data unavailable" earlier trip, both the outbound and return were affected by IRROPS, possibly what triggered the conversion from special fare to data unavailable, but the outbound, which cleared ahead of time, posted as expected (equivalent to the fare component or EQD assigned as 10% of distance rounded up to nearest dollar) whereas the return posted with some arbitrary value assigned to EQD (clearly not 10% of distance, my impression is they got the number from elsewhere, perhaps an average segment cost or day's segment value).

FobbyFlyer

I recently flew on an AA vacations package and everything posted as distance - special fare (as orignally expected)
However, my return segments were on JL (AA codeshare flights) and I purchased a paid upgrade during my layover in NRT with JAL from econ to PE for my final segment. If I look at my reservation for my AA PNR, it even shows my Class as Premium Economy.
I called AA Customer service and was told the posting was correct and based on the original booking codes (O in my case), yet she confirms I flew W for my last segment.
Were they right? or should I call back and ask for the correct calculation for W class for that last segment?

AAExecPlatFlier

Generally what u pay for on ur ticket is what u get credit for. Plus it is what JL sends through.

uscjeff

How does the Chase UR portal generally post? Is it as solid as the Citi TY portal is in offering bulk/special fares?

SamOF

IME it's pretty solid, but you have to check the fare rules (which Chase actually allows you to see during the booking process). Just control F for "bulk" or "wholesale."

brewdog11

Anyone have any success with booking through the Chase UR portal and getting a special fare even with no mention of "bulk" or "special" in the fare rules?

Found a good PE fare that I would love to book.

CloudCoder

Can anyone offer advice on how to CHANGE an AAVacations airline ticket? I spent 75 minutes on the phone today with AA Exec Plat agent, AA Vacations agent, and the "Ticketing Department", and it was still unresolved. Surely there's a way to change the ticket (at a cost, of course)? They were completely mystified as to whether it could even be changed.

Details:

• AA Vacations DSM-ORD-LHR and return for two passengers, booked as AA flight number on BA metal in Premium Economy
• Outbound remains the same
• One passenger will fly the inbound as ticketed.
• The other passenger needs to change the date AND the destination city. The flight we need is LHR-IAH on a different date.

The best they could do was LHR-ORD in coach on AA (not Prem Econ on BA), for a $200 change fee, plus huge fare difference. It's literally cheaper to just abandon the ticket and buy a brand-new one.

They advised me to call back Monday thru Friday, as "we have a skeleton crew on weekends".

So ... advice is welcome ... what's the secret to changing an AAVacations airline ticket? (Preferably in less than 75 minutes)

nrr

I exceeded $12K EQD before the trip posted below, but for future reference (like travel in 2018), I'm trying to see how my EQD was computed; the itn was booked with Citibank TYP travel
JFK - LAS
Dec 1, 2017 • AA 1263 • Economy (G)
Posted: Dec 2, 2017
Method: Distance - special fare 2,248 1 225 1,124 1,349
Elite : 1,349 2,473

LAS - CLT
Dec 3, 2017 • AA 0507 • Economy (V)
Posted: Dec 5, 2017
Method: Distance - special fare 1,916 1 288 1,437 1,725
Elite : 1,725 3,162

CLT - JFK
Dec 4, 2017 • AA 0338 • Economy (V)
Posted: Dec 5, 2017
Method: Distance - special fare 541 1 82 406 488
Elite : 488 894
For JFK-LAS 10% of 2248 is 225 (the way it should be)
For the return 228 EQD is 11,9% of 1916 and 82 EQD is 15.2% of 541--why the higher %s?

wolfeman27

Fare code V earns 15% of miles flown as EQD and G only earns 10%

See this site: https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...cial-fares.jsp

nrr

Then on LAS-CLT in V, I only got 11.9%, shouldn't that also have been 15%? While CLT-JFK at 15.2% was too high.
As I noted in my OP I'm interested in tweaking NEXT years EQD.

Dave Noble

LAS-CLT is shown there as 1916 mi.
15% of 1916 is 287.4
this was rounded up to 288


CLT-JFK is listed there as 541 mi.
15% is 81.15 which was rounded up to 82

AA only awards integer amounts and awards up to the next whole number

For the remaining flight in G class of distance 2248 mi. , at 10% earning that is 224.8 which awards 225

fanger

Thanks for posting this. Did you actually spend any points on the booking? Or just use the portal?

I guess you're thinking about using the Portal for all your booking going forward?

It would be great to hear from others using Amex Travel portal and Chase Ultimate Rewards... especially with respect to the consistency of "Special Fare"

fanger

Special fares are back this morning... haven't been searching regularly so not sure when they returned.

TravelLawyer

No. Just did this and it posted as normal fare. Emailed CR to challenge determination as a special fare on Chase UR portal, but they declined.

SamOF

It’s not determined by portal, it’s determined by fare. Did you actually book a wholesale fare per the UR site fare rules?