ARCHIVE: 2018 HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
Jun 25, 2018, 6:05 am
#361
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 16
You’re not going to find much Award space if you confine yourself to aa.com. Please see the Wikipost at the top of the page of HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance. This thread will ultimately be merged there.
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Thank you!
Jun 26, 2018, 11:25 pm
#362
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Atl, GA
Programs: AA EP, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 127
I'm looking around for some Business or First Class Saaver tickets to/from Australia and/or NZ for next Feb. Plenty of results show up but when you look at the details, the main transpacific flight on Qantas (either DFW->SYD or say BNE->LAX) is showing Economy, while the domestic legs are in Business/First. What's up with that? when did AA start charging the 80k/110k points for these award flights where the main leg isn't in the class you're ponying up all the points for??
Further adding to my confusion, I went and looked for award flights using Alaska's website and they too show AA having First Class availability but once again, showing Economy on the long leg of the flight. Is this purposefully misrepresented or some kind of glitch? Bc I can't imagine who in their right mind would book these itineraries as is.
Further adding to my confusion, I went and looked for award flights using Alaska's website and they too show AA having First Class availability but once again, showing Economy on the long leg of the flight. Is this purposefully misrepresented or some kind of glitch? Bc I can't imagine who in their right mind would book these itineraries as is.
Last edited by shootermcgav1n; Jun 26, 2018 at 11:51 pm
Jun 27, 2018, 12:40 am
#363
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,228
I'm looking around for some Business or First Class Saaver tickets to/from Australia and/or NZ for next Feb. Plenty of results show up but when you look at the details, the main transpacific flight on Qantas (either DFW->SYD or say BNE->LAX) is showing Economy, while the domestic legs are in Business/First. What's up with that? when did AA start charging the 80k/110k points for these award flights where the main leg isn't in the class you're ponying up all the points for??
Jun 27, 2018, 6:00 am
#364
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
I'm looking around for some Business or First Class Saaver tickets to/from Australia and/or NZ for next Feb. Plenty of results show up but when you look at the details, the main transpacific flight on Qantas (either DFW->SYD or say BNE->LAX) is showing Economy, while the domestic legs are in Business/First. What's up with that? when did AA start charging the 80k/110k points for these award flights where the main leg isn't in the class you're ponying up all the points for??
Further adding to my confusion, I went and looked for award flights using Alaska's website and they too show AA having First Class availability but once again, showing Economy on the long leg of the flight. Is this purposefully misrepresented or some kind of glitch? Bc I can't imagine who in their right mind would book these itineraries as is.
Further adding to my confusion, I went and looked for award flights using Alaska's website and they too show AA having First Class availability but once again, showing Economy on the long leg of the flight. Is this purposefully misrepresented or some kind of glitch? Bc I can't imagine who in their right mind would book these itineraries as is.
For awards to Europe, Asia, South Pacific, previously, if aa.com saw U space available on an award search then it must have been the longhaul segment (since U was not available domestically, outside of transcons) so it was correctly programmed to return a positive result. My best guess is AA hasn't bothered to change the programming, so it still returns a positive result when it sees U, even though it's only on the short domestic segment.
Jun 27, 2018, 6:23 am
#365
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Atl, GA
Programs: AA EP, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 127
Wow that's awful. Thanks for the heads up.
Jul 2, 2018, 3:07 pm
#366
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 336
SAAver to AAnytime?
Hi,
I am quite familiar with booking international awards, but this trip will be my first fully domestic AAward ticket on AA. I am nearing the 21 Day deadline to purchase without fees. I have an AAnytime on Hold, but have been waiting for MileSAAvers for my date. They have opened up, but the current available flights are quite early in the morning and I would need to leave in the middle of the night for the airport. I don't really want to do that, and paying an extra 7.5K is no big deal at this point. However, I been tracking this routing and have seen the floodgates on my ideal route plus multiple acceptable routes open up for MileSAAvers 2-5 days before a flight. So there is a part of me that would like to purchase the inconvenient SAAvers and then hope for my ideal time to open up. Obviously I know there are guarantees, and I'm trying to weigh whether I would be okay with the early flight time.
My Question Is This: If I purchase MileSAAvers, and my ideal time doesn't become available, am I able to change the ticket to an AAnytime without fees or redeposits, and only pay the difference of miles? I know the rules in reverse, but am curious about this scenario. Would that be considered an upgrade or would I have the whole re-deposit, fees, etc., issue?
THANKS!
Edit: Although I did search prior to posting, I must have overlooked this on AA’s site, it seems pretty clear:
I am quite familiar with booking international awards, but this trip will be my first fully domestic AAward ticket on AA. I am nearing the 21 Day deadline to purchase without fees. I have an AAnytime on Hold, but have been waiting for MileSAAvers for my date. They have opened up, but the current available flights are quite early in the morning and I would need to leave in the middle of the night for the airport. I don't really want to do that, and paying an extra 7.5K is no big deal at this point. However, I been tracking this routing and have seen the floodgates on my ideal route plus multiple acceptable routes open up for MileSAAvers 2-5 days before a flight. So there is a part of me that would like to purchase the inconvenient SAAvers and then hope for my ideal time to open up. Obviously I know there are guarantees, and I'm trying to weigh whether I would be okay with the early flight time.
My Question Is This: If I purchase MileSAAvers, and my ideal time doesn't become available, am I able to change the ticket to an AAnytime without fees or redeposits, and only pay the difference of miles? I know the rules in reverse, but am curious about this scenario. Would that be considered an upgrade or would I have the whole re-deposit, fees, etc., issue?
THANKS!
Edit: Although I did search prior to posting, I must have overlooked this on AA’s site, it seems pretty clear:
- “Changes to the itinerary which involve different AAdvantage awards than originally ticketed require a reinstatement of the original award ticket, payment of the applicable award reinstatement fee, and a new award ticket issued.”
Last edited by miles4sheli; Jul 3, 2018 at 7:32 am
Jul 2, 2018, 11:43 pm
#367
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Atl, GA
Programs: AA EP, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 127
So I had found some Business class availability on Qantas, called up AA to try and book but they said they hadn't released that space to to AA yet. Does this happen frequently? any idea when/if they would release to other OW partners? Thanks.
Jul 3, 2018, 12:26 am
#368
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,123
Award Hold usage
I have never used the AA award hold feature.and have a question on its usage. We are trying to book a African award trip from the US on QR. My research shows the award seats on the return flights (from Africa to the US via DOH) tend to book very quickly at the 330 day window.
Would I be able to put an award segment on hold at 330 days out (WDH-DOH for example) and call back the next day and change the ticket to WDH-DOH-PHL and then book it?
Would I be able to put an award segment on hold at 330 days out (WDH-DOH for example) and call back the next day and change the ticket to WDH-DOH-PHL and then book it?
Jul 3, 2018, 5:28 am
#369
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
More details needed. What do you mean you found space on Qantas, were you searching qantas.com? Was the flight more than 330 days in the future?
Jul 3, 2018, 5:30 am
#370
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
I have never used the AA award hold feature.and have a question on its usage. We are trying to book a African award trip from the US on QR. My research shows the award seats on the return flights (from Africa to the US via DOH) tend to book very quickly at the 330 day window.
Would I be able to put an award segment on hold at 330 days out (WDH-DOH for example) and call back the next day and change the ticket to WDH-DOH-PHL and then book it?
Would I be able to put an award segment on hold at 330 days out (WDH-DOH for example) and call back the next day and change the ticket to WDH-DOH-PHL and then book it?
Jul 3, 2018, 6:50 am
#371
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Atl, GA
Programs: AA EP, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 127
Yes, I was searching qantas.com looking at award availability. I actually booked another segment earlier in the evening just to lock something down in case I couldn't find anything better, that leg was also found using Qantas' website. The flight is not more than 330 days in the future.
Jul 3, 2018, 9:00 pm
#372
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Melbourne
Programs: ►QFWP/LTG►VA WP►HyattExpl.►HiltonGold►ALL Silver
Posts: 21,995
I have generally found if an award is found on Expert Flyer then it is normally bookable on AA.com.
(Being oneworld Emerald with Qantas I get a greater allocation of seating than normal. So it's no good looking for seats on Qantas.com if I want to book an AAdvantage award.)
(Being oneworld Emerald with Qantas I get a greater allocation of seating than normal. So it's no good looking for seats on Qantas.com if I want to book an AAdvantage award.)
Jul 10, 2018, 9:30 am
#373
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 322
I'm currently looking to book award space on Iberia - ExpertFlyer shows two awards available when searching IB, BA.com shows two seats available. AA.com and phone agents only see one (have called the US and NZ lines). Does IB gives out more awards to its own members and BA members than it does to other OW partners like AA?
Jul 10, 2018, 5:15 pm
#374
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,457
I'm currently looking to book award space on Iberia - ExpertFlyer shows two awards available when searching IB, BA.com shows two seats available. AA.com and phone agents only see one (have called the US and NZ lines). Does IB gives out more awards to its own members and BA members than it does to other OW partners like AA?