iadisgreat

?

CodeAdam10

EF remains zeroed out for JFK>AUH

I wonder if AA NZ/Australia can now once again book what we see when searching AUH<>JFK<>AUH

I suppose I can call myself ... but was hoping for others to call and report.

SeeBuyFly

See post#3372.

skor

Read the note in the wiki about AA insisting on the MCT even though the flight into US is considered a domestic one. Has anyone been able to get around that through supervisor override? My best flight was falling short of MCT by 10 minutes(!!!), so had to book a later one

AAExecPlatFlier

Unfortunately that’s how it works.

bladel

Per Gary Leff, the Australia AA call center appears to be able to see, hold, and book J and F award space again. Within the past two hours I was able to hold one seat in first (Apartment) on EY103 AUH to JFK. The AA representative saw two seats available for award booking, exactly what Etihad and Expert Flyer showed. The held seat shows up on my AA future bookings and within a minute the number of Guest First award seats on Etihad.com for that flight was reduced to 1. I initiated a Starpoints transfer to get the remaining points I’ll need. I’ll report back once the booking is confirmed. Hoping there won’t be any problems. Everything points to the old Australia call center workaround being back and a viable option again!

anabolism

I, too, was able just now to put an award itinerary on hold via the Australian call center. The itinerary includes two F seats AUH-JFK next summer. I first tried the US EXP desk, but the agent was unable to see any premium availability AUH-JFK through the end of the booking window. The Australian call center saw what I saw in EF.

One of the segments was an EY KWI-AUH flight that EF showed as available, and the Australian call center also saw as available, but he was unable to book it in the same record. He could book it in a new record, but not in this one. He tried long-selling it, but that didn't work either. He put me on hold for some time and came back finally with it successfully booked. He said it was a "system limitation" with EY flights that caused the problem.

The itinerary is confirmed and on hold. Is it dangerous to leave it on hold for a few days (I have some AA credit card retention offers that roll over in a few days)?

SeeBuyFly

Not having much luck getting through to Australia(Fiji), I keep getting transferred to Trinidad and they cannot see anything. I'm calling during what should be daytime hours in Fiji (I have now called at approx. 10am, 11am, 12:30pm Fiji time). Maybe the lines are jammed with US callers because of pent-up demand, so they send the overflow to Trinidad.

I will speculate that when people report that they failed n times and succeeded on the n+1-th time, or that Aus couldn't do it but NZ could (or vice versa), what is actually happening is that they are getting transferred to Trinidad some of the time.

EDIT: at 1p Fiji time, I called the Aus number and the agent said she was in Brisbane (Fiji time 1p, Brisbane time 10a). Could not see JFK-AUH seat availability (shows on etihad.com if doing a AUH-JFK-AUH search for a mid-Dec date).
.

bladel

Just be aware the time for the hold expiring is Sydney, Australia time. They told me the hold is good until 12:01 AM on Nov. 10th Sydney time.

sam007

Guys - has anybody flown with a kid in the apartment? I'm hearing the divider only goes down in the head area. I'm planning a trip with a 3 year old. Are emirates seats more comfortable by any chance when traveling with a companion? Thx

wolfeman27

Unfortunately I did not ask where the agent was located when I called, but I called NZ yesterday morning around 9am CST which is 3am in NZ. They were able to see availability, book, and the agent stayed on the line until it was ticketed for AUH-JFK F in September.

anabolism

When I booked it, I asked the agent which time zone, and he said "Central Time." I looked at it on aa.com, and it says "AST," which is an abbreviation for Atlantic Time, not any Australian time that I'm familiar with. I expected it to be the time zone in AUH, since AA award itineraries typically expire at 11:59 PM in the time zone of the first flight.

I can confirm that in the Apartments, only a small panel by the head area of the bed opens. There is no visibility or access otherwise, including when in the seat.

24left

The last 3 agents I spoke with this past week (for different reservations) all said "award reservations expire at 11:59 pm Central Time", versus 11:59 in the time zone of the first flight. Perhaps I should call back and get a best 3 out of 4 answer.

24left

Just a data point

I was able to book an EY award today with an AA agent in the U.S. Based on my dates, there was a decent selection of routings with Business Class, plus she found a few in F.
.

sgan317

Ticketed and Confirmed - 48 hours later