gvizkelethy

I have just bought a ticket to Europe business class outbound premium economy inbound. In the past when I bought international business the domestic leg was always first class, since there is no business class on short flights in the US on AA. This time the domestic leg was economy and there was no way to change it. Before I purchased the ticket I called the platinum line, I was transferred to the web support where I talked to a person/was on hold for about 40 minutes then they hang up on me. Since I had to purchase the ticket and went ahead and bought the ticket. Then assuming that the platinum. reservation can help I called them again. They just were not willing to understand the problem and wanted $100 for an ABQ-DFW ( ~500 miles) upgrade to first class (from which already should have been first class). I was even transferred to a quite unfriendly supervisor who was not much help. Now I am paying for business class and had to travel on economy. Was there a change in AA policies that the international business class is now domestic economy? I checked all the flight combination and it said economy for the domestic leg for business class. Is this some new gimmick from AA to extort even more money?

JJeffrey

No. An international business fare still includes domestic first class on the domestic connecting flights for all intents and purposes. After the fact like this it's almost impossible to tell what happened, perhaps it was sold out on that segment for a bit, or the fare rules didn't allow it and required a small upcharge, who knows.

While AA agents can be frustratingly inept at times, in the future the time to sort this out is before you purchase it. HUCA if you need to, put the reservation on hold at aa.com then call and ask, etc.

gvizkelethy

The segment was not sold out, the first class was practically empty, which the AA agent confirmed. I do not know about the fair rules but if you said that international business is first class domestic, I do not know what fair restrictions would be. There was no note about it. The domestic leg is booked as Y and the rest is I. If I understand correctly, Y fare is a full fare economy, refundable. I do not understand this either. And I did call before I bought the ticket, spending almost an hour with different tAA agents, but it did not help.

USFlyerUS

Can you post more details about the routing, date of travel, etc.?

MSPeconomist

Often1

Without knowing the exact details, all I can say is that a quick dummy booking for ABQ-LHR connecting at DFW and booked into J, shows F for the ABQ-DFW segment and then J for the onwards.

This is in the past, but if this happened to me, I would have AA book over the phone. Web Support is the wrong place for international rate issues. If you have some kind of broken fare which may have been a significant savings, at least you will know before you insist on a higher fare bucket for the micro-hop in F.

gvizkelethy

Yes.
April 17
ABQ - DFW 10:50-13:38 AA 2420
DFW - LHR 15:50- 6:55 AA 50
LHR - BUD 8:45:12:15 AA 6685
The above was booked as business but the ABQüDFW leg is shown as economy, fare type Y. Also, when I got to seat selection only the main cabin was available.

April 30
BUD - LHR 7:20 - 9:05 AA 6600
LHR - DFW 11:00 - 15:15 AA21
DFW - ABQ 18:30 - 19:25 AA 2698
This is premium economy.

gvizkelethy

I am not sure where you find the fare rules the you book online. What you say that the FC inventory was not available for this airfare must mean that it was zero since apart from one seat the FC cabin is empty. I checked with the AA agent.

gvizkelethy

>> Without knowing the exact details, all I can say is that a quick dummy booking for ABQ-LHR connecting at DFW and booked into J, shows F for the ABQ-DFW segment and then J for the onwards.

You are perfectly right. But try the ABQ-DFW-LHR-BUD route and you will see that the price drops quite a bit and the ABQ-DFW segment becomes economy. My ticket was booked with a fare code I, which is discount business. Last year I flew twice on business to Europe (I am sure it was discounted, since it did not cost even half of the full J business fare) and I had first class on all the four domestic legs. As one of the replier pointed out it might be that there is no discounted FC fare on that flight (which is hard to believe because of it is practically empty).

The problem is that the online booking does not tell you why this is happening, and the AA people are clueless. Even the supervisor could not tell me what you guys said, she just said this is it. And she was quite unfriendly, she said I could cancel my ticket in 24 hours. It sounded like they did not need my business.

I guess the solution is just request upgrade for that leg (I am platinum, my wife is executive platinum) and if we do not get it we can sit in economy for that hour and a half. It just really annoying and has never happened before.

donotblink

MSPeconomist

Scoop3172

I had a similar scenario, although I was pleasantly surprised as I was trying to book economy from SFO to Guatemala City. SFO-DFW came up as economy (Y) and DFW-GUA came up as business (I), even though there were plenty of seats left in economy on all legs. The ticketing allowed me (no Advantage status other than being a member) to select main cabin economy on the domestic legs, and indicates that there's no charge for baggage, so it's applying the business class fare rules. In the past (3+ years ago), I've flown business to Central America several times because fare premium over economy was only 20-25 percent, and it was first class on the domestic legs. Now fare difference is more than 100 percent.

Dave Noble

It could be how it has been priced out , that rather than a return from ABQ , it was 1 fare component from ABQ and another from DFW

Alternatively, it may be that , for example, I class is needed, but I class is unavailable and that to go to D class is extra $100

It may well be that for travel in 1st class on that sector that there is more to pay if it

Can you get full fare breakdown and booking classes ?

C17PSGR

I was thinking the same thing -- the seating in F is open but this could be be an I fare, and there was no I available from ABQ.

Looking at AA 2420 on April 17, its J7 D7 I0. I suspect that because I class wasn't available, OP may have a broken fare with Y from ABQ to DFW, and then I from DFW to BUD. -- OP -- I suspect the price difference between a D fare ABQ-DFW-LHR-BUD is more than $100 so this worked to your advantage even if you use a couple of coupons to upgrade.

NYC Flyer

Even the cheapest currently filed "I" fare tickets permit seating in "I" on domestic legs, with "Y" permitted if no "I" inventory is available. Assuming the entire ticket involves a fare basis starting with "I", you're entitled to first class seats on ABQ-DFW at no extra charge if/when "I" inventory is released. Once ticketed, call AA, ask them to review the fare rules and booking codes associated with the fare. You should be able to waitlist for "I" class, and even if inventory is never released, you should be ahead of all complimentary upgrades on the airport standby list. If the first agent can't help, HUCA, ask for a supervisor, etc. Good luck!