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AAdvantage MileSAAver: Through Award Fare Restriction Dec 2018

AAdvantage MileSAAver: Through Award Fare Restriction Dec 2018

Old Mar 21, 2019, 10:09 pm
  #46  
 
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Yeah I don't get it. I searched from AA.com with the regular search and there's tons of availability at 12,500. I logged out and it's the same as when I'm logged in. Indeed, there is so much availability that I feel bad posting this because boy we spend a lot of time complaining about how saver awards are hard to come by:




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Old Mar 22, 2019, 4:56 am
  #47  
 
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Tons of availability which is great (although most are multi-hour layovers) but not the flights he wanted (858/5602), which are available individually as MileSAAver, but when taken together are no longer priced as MileSAAver but instead are not even offered under MileSAAver on the old booking tool, and while they are available on the new booking tool, are given a 60% price surcharge.

Either domestic MileSAAver is 12.5K or it isn't.

Clearly they are pricing certain routings higher, even though the availability is there, because they feel we will pay higher for the convenience of preferred times/ routing.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 7:40 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by PGHflyer
Tons of availability which is great (although most are multi-hour layovers) but not the flights he wanted (858/5602), which are available individually as MileSAAver, but when taken together are no longer priced as MileSAAver but instead are not even offered under MileSAAver on the old booking tool, and while they are available on the new booking tool, are given a 60% price surcharge.

Either domestic MileSAAver is 12.5K or it isn't.

Clearly they are pricing certain routings higher, even though the availability is there, because they feel we will pay higher for the convenience of preferred times/ routing.
When I checked , it was ( on the old tool ) pricing those flights at 12,500 for the through journey - Just checking again for CAE-STL and it is the 4th choice on the list at 12.5k

858
7:20 AM
STL
10:13 AM
CLT

5602
1:05 PM
CLT
1:51 PM
CAE

If there was married segment availabilty issue, then indeed would expect it to be 12.5k + 7.5k , but the exact journey wanted by th OP is available at the 12.5k price ; the issue here seems to be agents ( yet again ) picking an excuse rather than addressing the issue. Through award fare may be a real term in AA, but it isn't impacting this journey

Last edited by Dave Noble; Mar 22, 2019 at 7:48 am
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 7:57 am
  #49  
 
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Who knows, I don't see that 2-leg itinerary available for 12.5K so one can only speculate on reasons....
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 9:21 am
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by PGHflyer
Who knows, I don't see that 2-leg itinerary available for 12.5K so one can only speculate on reasons....
Out of curiosity, I tried as well and did not see that combination available in T for 12,500 on 9/6/19 while logged out nor while logged in.
​​​​​​
It is available in U though for 25,000!
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 9:41 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by Happy
That has been what we are doing all along since the married segment craps, or that not a single nonstop available out of 7 or 8 MIA-LAX, 6 MIA-JFK that kind of BS. We pay B6 to fly FLL-JFK instead.

AA is NOT going to get any revenue booking from us by employing this dirty tactic.
This is yet another instance of the long-term devaluation of AAdvantage. I haven't run into the married segment crap so far, but it reinforces my view of the problems with AA. I no longer go out of my way to fly AA or its partners and no longer focus on reward credit cards for AA miles. I'm finding DL has better pricing and scheduling for me to Europe, with the possible exception of JFK-LHR.

In the past I'd say that AA has done the analysis and found the decreased revenue from devaluing AAdvantage is more than offset by increases in revenue ticketing. Now I wonder if they've done more than the stereotypical bean-counter math: award travel means less revenue travel, so cutting awards helps the bottom line.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 10:12 am
  #52  
 
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Except they dont turn a profit without selling miles to banks.

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Old Mar 22, 2019, 12:47 pm
  #53  
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Originally Posted by VXforever
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: American Airlines is a garbage airline.

This is just further proof. Even UA doesn't do this.
Yes, but UA is a garbage airline so what’s your point?

Delta does this, as do many other carriers. It majorly sucks, but it’s also the same as what they all do for cash fares.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 12:55 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by JonNYC
No it's just that those examples (the first ones I had access to) happened to have had partners involved.

The way it works is a requested award for AAA-> CCC has to be queried by the agent AAA-> CCC
The agents are -not- allowed to query AAA-> BBB and then BBB-> CCC to create the award.
What happens if the agent searches AAA->CCC and your desired routing doesn’t come up in the results at all? Especially on international flights where I’ve often taken slightly longer routings that had availability (still within MPM), but were just indirect enough to not be found by the AAA->CCC search? Can agents specify connecting cities along with O&D?
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 3:13 pm
  #55  
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Originally Posted by javabytes


What happens if the agent searches AAA->CCC and your desired routing doesnt come up in the results at all? Especially on international flights where Ive often taken slightly longer routings that had availability (still within MPM), but were just indirect enough to not be found by the AAA->CCC search? Can agents specify connecting cities along with O&D?
I'm thinking they are allowed do to that, as long as it doesn't alter the award availability of individual segments as a result, but some might be reluctant since they have been admonished on this whole thing. It's a mess.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 4:32 pm
  #56  
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Well, since David Noble seems to be able to see award space that nobody else can find, I'll just provide another example of American's Through Award Fare restriction so that the discussion can focus on the actual restriction at work, rather than the specific example I provided earlier.

AA > BB > CC ... DEN > CLT > FLL (1 ticket, 9/6/2019)

AA > BB ... Flight #1957 is available at the standard 12,500 MileSAAver award cost
BB > CC ... Flight #469 is available at the standard 12,500 MileSAAver award cost

AA >> CC ... The combined flights are only available as an AAnytime award at a listed cost of 20,000

As I pointed out previously, these restrictions are all over the place in the American schedule. I can find them on just about any domestic route through a hub city. It's no longer possible to piece together available segments to create a valid MileSAAver award ticket. If revenue management has not assigned a Through Award Fare for the specific flight combination, no MileSAAver award can be issued, even if each nonstop segment has MileSAAver seats open/available.

Last edited by bruinfan90; Mar 22, 2019 at 4:43 pm
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 4:40 pm
  #57  
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Originally Posted by bruinfan90
Well, since David Noble seems to be able to see award space that nobody else can find, I'll just provide another example of American's Through Award Fare restriction so that the discussion can focus on the actual restriction at work, rather than the specific example I provided earlier.

AA > BB > CC ... DEN > CLT > FLL (1 ticket, 9/6/2019)

AA > BB ... Flight #1957 is available at the standard 12,500 MileSAAver award cost
BB > CC ... Flight #469 is available at the standard 12,500 MileSAAver award cost

AA >> CC ... The combined flights are only available as an AAnytime award at a listed cost of 20,000

As I pointed out previously, these restrictions are all over the place in the American schedule. I can find them on just about any route through a hub city. It's no longer possible to piece together available segments to create a valid MileSAAver award ticket. If revenue management has not assigned a Through Award Fare for the specific flight combination, no MileSAAver award can be issued, even if each nonstop segment has MileSAAver seats open/available.
I realised that my search for the flights that you wanted were for 9th September rather than the 6th - regardless it proves ( along with someone else's indication on buisness awards ) that there is no issue with that routing , just that there is availability issues

Indeed AA1957 on 6th shows on EF as being T7 as is AA469
For DEN-FLL via CLT , the availability is T0 on both of the flights, so indeed, no milesaver award available

This is nothing more than married segment availability and not some new restriction called "award available fare". It may be that this is term it is giving to customers about the restriction, but it isn't anything new. If you want to fly from A-C , you need to search for A-C to get the correct availability ; cannot just take A-B and then add B-C

Returning to CLT-CAE via STL on 6th September
CLT-STL shows T7 on AA858
STL-CAE shows T4 on AA5602
For STL-CAE via STL both AA858 and AA5602 show as T0

Again this is just no availability for the through journey and so cannot be booked as a milesaver

Last edited by Dave Noble; Mar 22, 2019 at 4:46 pm
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 4:55 pm
  #58  
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Originally Posted by beachfan
Except they dont turn a profit without selling miles to banks.


Exactly.
In their latest quarter report, the AAdvantage dept is the ONLY business unit that is profitable that supports other businesses, incl its core - flying.

The stringy of reasonable award routing and seat availability has been going on for almost 2 years now. During the time, AA has not seen much of improvement in its core business. I dont know how blind is the internal dept that formulates such a strategy to still not see the strategy is not working.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 5:02 pm
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
When I checked , it was ( on the old tool ) pricing those flights at 12,500 for the through journey - Just checking again for CAE-STL and it is the 4th choice on the list at 12.5k

858
7:20 AM
STL
10:13 AM
CLT

5602
1:05 PM
CLT
1:51 PM
CAE

If there was married segment availabilty issue, then indeed would expect it to be 12.5k + 7.5k , but the exact journey wanted by th OP is available at the 12.5k price ; the issue here seems to be agents ( yet again ) picking an excuse rather than addressing the issue. Through award fare may be a real term in AA, but it isn't impacting this journey
I'm not finding this at all.
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Old Mar 22, 2019, 5:10 pm
  #60  
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Originally Posted by platbrownguy
I'm not finding this at all.
I mentioned in recent post that I actually checked the wrong day - even so , that flight pairing was offered
As also highlighted, it is simply an availability issue with CLT-CAE via STL having T0 availability for the through booking whilst the individual flights on a standalone basis are T7
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