IADCAflyer

A friend of mine is doing an AA status challenge and I clued him in on my good DCA-LAX routings. He tried to book a DCA-PHL-LAX-DFW-DCA routing. Lots of open seats, fare prices out on aa.com (initially), Google flights, etc.

When he goes to do seat assignments, he gets the following error code:


I looked at it and there is nothing odd. Layover is 3 hours, seats available, no warning about "2 seats left".

Odd that AA is doing this. Any thoughts?

Antarius

What happens if you skip seat assignments?

3Cforme

He should look at the detailed fare rules for applicable routings.

AANYC1981

Dave Noble

were you searching for flights sector by sector ? if so, it could be married sector availability ; although there may be flights for A-B and B-C standalone, it may be that A-C via B is not available

IADCAflyer

Not sure what the issue is or was. My friend stated he didn't do anything odd - and I could replicate the error. Picked from available flights and the error pops up. Did not search from Google flights; did not attempt to search segment by segment; did not do anything out of the ordinary. AA.com would not allow one to skip assignments.

xliioper

Sounds like married segment availability issues. Generally this only pops up with segment-by-segment searches as ITA and ITA-based fare searches don't look at married segment inventory (it incorrectly looks at individual flight segment bucket availability) when using multi-city searches and the married segment inventory is only checked at the last stage when actually attempt to book. You can check married segment bucket inventory on ExpertFlyer (for fee) or BCD Travel Flight Availability checker (free). Those of us with EF accounts can check the availability if you provide dates and flights.

The whole of point of married segment availability is make certain routings cheaper or more expensive based on an airline's ability to the individual flights segments separately at a higher price point than through fares where you are consuming seats on two flights on one fare. The fact that there are lots of "open seats" is meaningless -- especially if the flights are long way out. Many seats are often only sold relatively close-in to the flight. The airlines have far more detailed information on yields and history and use this to set the married segment bucket inventory levels.

Score8

I had some odd things happening yesterday when AA wouldn't show me a seat map (SFO-JFK). Seems to be fine now. That said, as a BOS based flyer, they definitely surpress options that they would rather you not choose. I generally have to force an SFO trip through JFK rather than have it just come up. It generally wants me to go through other hubs.

fanger

I don't have any particular insight, but I was trying repeatedly to pick a BOS-PHL-SFO routing in December that was offered via the usual web interface, and whenever I clicked through to purchase, I got that error. I can understand suppressing a routing for whatever reason, but why offer it in the first place? Super irritating. I just gave up and took a CLT connection on a 321 (the PHL-SFO was A330 and I wondered if it had something to do with it).

IADCAflyer

OK, I got some feedback and could duplicate the issue.

Check: Jan 23 or Jan 30. Departing city: DCA Arrival city: LAX. Same day out and back.

I tried to book AA 1813 DCA --> PHL / AA 582 PHL --> LAX - all OK

I then tried to book AA 1925 LAX --> CLT / AA 4341 CLT --> DCA - all OK

Prices out at $307.

After you get to the Passenger info screen and then attempt to hit continue, you get the error referenced above.

Doesn't matter if you try January 23 or January 30 or February 5. Same error.

aztimm

What did they say when you called Web Services?

CPRich

Is it DFW, in your original post, or CLT in your last post? Did you try to "Contact technical support"?

Book AA221 LAX-ORD and 1691 ORD-DCA for the return. Leaves later, gets back earlier, $2 more expensive. I had no problem getting through seat assignment and to the final payment screen.

wetrat0

This is the correct answer. Call Web Services. They will replicate and then if they cannot fix it they will transfer you to reservations and waive the booking fee.

ridepow

I had a unique experience with this and was able to book the flights with a phone call and a long time on hold as the amazing agent got it booked...here are the details...

Due to a crazy travel schedule this month, my client agreed to just have me book my own one-way flight out of Aspen, CO (never cheap!) to my next gig destination and bill it back. I had a budget to work with and was stressed on hitting that budget while keeping me on AA rather than another airline.

I used google flights and found a perfect routing with one layover that was coming up as $900+ for main cabin, but only $350+ for first class via a multi-city booking. I thought it was a mistake, but I was able to find the same fare on kayak and multiple searches on googles flights...both websites linked directly to aa.com where I would get the never-ending 'fare no longer available' loop.

Called in and first agent said there was nothing she could do. So, kept searching and kept finding the never-ending 'fare not available' loop on aa's website. Called in again and got a super helpful agent who could see all the fare bucket availability but had trouble linking everything together. It took her about 30-minutes, but she was able to get me the $350+ first class ticket booked.

Not sure if AA is having issues, but when in doubt a phone call in to an agent might help.