Married segment availability for partner awards?
 

I had been searching for JL award space between US-Japan. I noticed when searching DTW-TYO, a number of options show up through New York on JAL, whereas when searching NYC-TYO directly, zero options appear.

Has AA extended their married segment availability to cover partner flights? Is this new? Do you think the nonstop is something I would be able to book over the phone with an agent?

I am going through the same nonsense with segments.

I am not sure why they are playing these games... or maybe it is not a game and I am just not understanding it.

Having looked into this a bit more, the rules seem *incredibly* stupid. There's wide-open JL F space, but in order to access it, the itinerary must have at least 2 stops.

The partner controls their availability, including married segment logic if they so desire.

Can you tell us what dates you are searching? This 2-stop requirement is certainly not always there.

For example, there is F availability on the. JL LAX-HND direct flight on Jan 31.

Sure, a sample search I did was TYO-NYC on August 12th. There's nothing available, although TYO-FNT yields itineraries like this:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...556e200517.png

I'm not sure if this is really married segment thing or something else.

First, it's definitely not an AA thing. AS doesn't show F availability for just flight either.

Is this a matter of them only offering the availability to certain destinations (that they don't serve?) I always thought that married segment referred to multiple flights on the same operating carrier.

It's possible JAL doesn't want to offer F award seats NYC-TYO since they might have a higher chance filling seats on that route with paying F passengers -- i.e., they don't want otherwise revenue passengers to decide to use miles instead. Meanwhile, it's less likely someone flying from FNT (for example) would be buying F to TYO.

If you continue on, you will get the

Choose a different flight or fare
We're sorry but at least one of the flights or fares you chose is no longer available.

error message

D'oh! Thanks for catching that, I forgot that was possible.

"We didn't find a match, so we added nearby airports" - itinerary via target airport
 

I was looking for an award trip between Auckland and Adelaide, but aa.com tells me that there's no availability on that date. But I can fly via Adelaide to Kangaroo Island (island just south of Adelaide). Yeah, that seems logical... LOL!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e1e18927db.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...98887e25cf.png

Is this just an AA website issue in finding availability or is it a married segment availability issue?

If the former, just phone and book
If the latter, then yes, it is indeed quite logical

AA controls married segment logic on the part that involves their metal. I could get MIA -MAD on IB using AA miles, and MCO- MIA on AA miles and metal but not MCO -MIA -Mad