matrixwalker2012

seriously, how hard can that glitch be to fix? I've worked in IT before and I've already lost count of the times I've had to facepalm when I hear things are hard to fix. Nothing is that hard to fix. It's more that AA doesn't care to fix their infrastructure.

Dave Noble

I believe that is not a glitch but is deliberate due to the additional taxes that would have to be calculated and charged if AA was to take payment for the flight.

MVP gold does not seem to be the equivalent of AA Gold, but more equivalent to AA Platinum

AS MVP seems to the the equivalent of AA Gold

AA Platinum members do get MCE for no charge on economy class redemption bookings

JonNYC

It's somewhere in-between; it's not a "glitch" in the way that I think of the word being correctly used, but it's not "deliberate" either-- it's something they want to fix, intend to fix and -will- fix, just that their IT isn't up to it at present. So, it's a technical limitation of their current technology, I wouldn't call that a glitch, but not something they don't very much want to fix either-- they do and they will, just a matter of when.

thegrailer

Quick clarification: Is this for the elite passenger alone or does status "transfer" to the person who is flying the award flight? In other words, can I as an AA Ex Plt send my no AA status mom on an award in an MCE seat? (apologies for nooby-type Q)

Thanks

Cheers

Dave Noble

One of the passengers in the booking has to have OW Sapphire or higher status

sdsearch

It's a glitch within their whole purchase / accounting / taxing system. It sounds like a complicated incompatibility between different systems. The purchase of an MCE seat would incur sales taxes, but they're incapable of assessing sales taxes from you on ancillary purchases tied to an award redemption. (Awards incur other taxes and fees, but no sales tax.)

Keep in mind that AA has the oldest IT in the industry. When they debuted it in the 80s, that was great. Now it cripples them. It took them half a decade or more from when they first thought about making Million Miler not count all miles from all sources before (in Dec 2011) they finally got it done. That too was very slow in coming (good for us, but perhaps bad for AA) because the archaic IT was so hard to change. (Luckily their "desires" to fix were "leaked" on FT multiple times, and so some us were able to plan for it happening someday, and so Dec 2011 for experienced FTers was just a declaration of a date, but a change in the policy itself had long been forecast.)

And the IT had no problem in this area until they debuted MCE and came up with Golds having 1/2 price access at booking time. It's the 1/2 price (or full price for no-status people) that they can't charge on an award.

But completely rewriting their IT systems would be an enormous task too. And if its only breaking on "side" issues like MCE seats for Gold on SAAver awards or how Million Miler is computed, but keeps the planes running, maybe you can see why they'd rather not break it (by trying to replace it) if it mostly works.

They could come up with roundabout solutions (giving Golds -- or for that matter anyone with no status too -- MCE access on awards with some extra miles used instead of money, or something), but they haven't gotten that creative.

Dave Noble

It is not sales tax that is an issue, it is the other taxes associated with the flight that are not collected normally on an award

e.g.
MIA-ORD : normal taxes $23.41 ; taxes paid on award $5.60. Not only would the seat fee need to be collected , but the additional $17.81 in taxes that are waived when no charge is made for the flight