koi

I'm trying to book a business class award seat from Japan to Toronto, and although I secured a business class from NRT to BOS, AA is saying there's no business class to BOS to YYZ. I would need to pay the business class equivalent miles since NRT to BOS is business.
I then tried looking up available business class from BOS to YYZ, and I'm seeing a number of flights where the business award is available. Is there any reason why they would not offer BOS to YYZ in business class if they're part of NRT to YYZ, despite BOS to YYZ business is available if they're booked separately?

JJeffrey

In order to be booked as a single award with your existing NRT-BOS flight, the award space on BOS-YYZ must be available as sAAver space, not web special. This is the most common culprit in instances like this.

koi

ohh that makes sense, thanks for the tip! I remember seeing most of them being webspecial. I'll look into if there are any sAAver available. just out of curiosity, what's the difference?

guv1976

Web Special awards can cost more miles or fewer miles than SAAver awards. But Web Special award seats cannot be combined with other flights on a SAAver award.

koi

actually I just checked other YYZ to NRT trip and a business class on YYZ to DFW as part of YYZ to NRT trip. Even though when I checked YYZ to DFW trip, only web special, and "business" are available. is there anyways to find out if "business" is SAAver or aanytime? I'm assuming I can book SAAver is available for us to bok as part of the international trip, but aanytime isn't.

guv1976

A Business MileSAAver award from YYZ to DFW would cost exactly 25K miles, and would just be marked "Business," not "Web Special Business." An award just marked "Business" that costs 50K miles or more would be an AAnytime award, which can have multiple redemption rates.

If if an ordinary "Business" SAAver award were not available for a stand-alone YYZ-DFW flight, it might still be available for a YYZ-DFW-NRT itinerary, because of "married-segment" availability.

AAnytime awards are available for international trips, but only when all segments are on AA metal. If an award itinerary (domestic or international) has even one segment on a partner carrier, the itinerary can only be booked as a MileSAAver award (when available).

enpremiere

You COULD combine a web special with your saver ticket (it will calculate as exactly that, the sum of both), especially if you wanted to get it on the same PNR.

The only problem is that you'd have to do this with with multi-city tool online as reservations can't ticket those.

koi

wouldn't that mean I'll be redeeming the cost of international business + continental US? As opposed to 1 international business?

guv1976

Yes, that's exactly what it means. Sometimes you just don't have the option of getting a single MileSAAver award for your entire journey.

koi

Does that mean the website is actually showing the best seat available within the restriction? Unfortunately, my NRT - BOS (and DFW - NRT) are JL metal, so I'm assuming I won't' be able to use AAnytime award seat?
trying to see what's my best alternative... would you recomend booking the seat now to secure at least NRT-BOS and see if BOS - YYZ business saaver comes available?

enpremiere

Since the web special segment can be tricky, it's not an approach that I would use for this instance.

To get everything in the same PNR, I would ticket the whole thing at the same time and take the downgrade from BOS-YYZ (even if you're still paying saver business miles on that segment). You can always 'fix' that short segment if it does open up in saver business (and who knows, it may not) but the key for your particular trip would be to keep it in the same PNR so that you don't have issues with protection.

koi

Thanks! will have the entire leg ticketed then. How would I know if SAAver becomes available though?
Right now, since webserver is available on all flight options, I have to click on every single flights to see if the non-web saver flight option is aanytime or SAAver, do I have to continue checking every single flight that shows up bw BOS - YYZ?

guv1976

I suggest that you take a different approach:

Periodically search for NRT-YYZ SAAver awards, and see what comes up.

koi

Are you saying to first book NRT-YYZ through Boston now, and when another flight comes available that's full business change to that? would there be a cost related to the change?

Repooc17

or another gateway city where you can get everything on one ticket.

Award inventory =/= actual inventory, so you'd have to work with what's available.

Worse case, get a cash ticket in economy on the short leg. It's an hour flight from Boston to Toronto. Doesn't make sense to be spending a lot miles on such a quick flight.