Thoughts on a forced Overnight in NY
Nov 20, 23, 12:13 pm
#1
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Thoughts on a forced Overnight in NY
I'm trying to get back to SFO from Bogota. Fares are fairly low. I'd like to grab some food in NYC to bring back to the family. Unfortunately a forced overnight in NY brings the fare up. Fair enough. I found an option into LGA with a 2 hours connection to JFK-SFO. I'm figuring I can totally miss the last flight to SFO and be forced to overnight in NY, Which for me beats getting to SFO after midnight and spending the night there.. Shady yes, but totally doable. Now I am thinking to book in Basic economy as I'm an EXP with tons of Loyalty Points. If they rebook my JFK SFO flight will that put me in the 24 hour booking period and take away my upgrade chances? I always fly last minute so never get a chance to buy BE since the 24 hours window screws me.
Nov 20, 23, 12:21 pm
#2
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I'm trying to get back to SFO from Bogota. Fares are fairly low. I'd like to grab some food in NYC to bring back to the family. Unfortunately a forced overnight in NY brings the fare up. Fair enough. I found an option into LGA with a 2 hours connection to JFK-SFO. I'm figuring I can totally miss the last flight to SFO and be forced to overnight in NY, Which for me beats getting to SFO after midnight and spending the night there.. Shady yes, but totally doable. Now I am thinking to book in Basic economy as I'm an EXP with tons of Loyalty Points. If they rebook my JFK SFO flight will that put me in the 24 hour booking period and take away my upgrade chances? I always fly last minute so never get a chance to buy BE since the 24 hours window screws me.
BE is generally not available that close in though, is it? Isn't there usually a 3 day advance purchase requirement?
Nov 20, 23, 12:32 pm
#3
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So if you book a trip leaving within 24 hours... No upgrades! The other day I flew SFO-JFK-MIA-SAP and booked on Expedia BE. No upgrades allowed. Canceled, paid another $50 or so and got upgraded all the way to SAP. Bought the ticket about ten hours before departure.
Nov 20, 23, 12:36 pm
#4
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Huh? This is not true. Are you sure Expedia had ticketed the reservation? It'll show upgrades not permitted until the TA issues the ticket. I see similar behavior all the time on reservations made with my CTA.
Nov 20, 23, 1:00 pm
#5
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I'm pretty sure that AA's MCT for a LGA-JFK connection is more than two hours. That suggests that the itinerary you are being offered consists of separate tickets. Even if both are in the same PNR, I don't think that AA is under any obligation to protect you if you miss the second flight if the ticketed itinerary does not satisfy MCT.
Nov 20, 23, 1:15 pm
#6
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If you could somehow buy BE that close in I could see where being technical problems with the upgrade, as you ticket would not have time to have the booking code changed from B to the underlying fare class (that's a batch job that runs overnight). But it can be manually forced by a good agent and their help desk (They had to do this for me once when the batch job failed to change it). It's not a policy issue but a technical one.
But every B fare I've seen has a 3+ day advance purchase requirement. Is there some route that has B fares filed with no such requirement?
Nov 20, 23, 5:15 pm
#7
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There is if you book on Expedia, as the OP did.
The OP booked SFO-SAP, not SFO-JFK. A quick search for SFO-SAP tomorrow shows plenty of BE options available (some via JFK).
And BE fares usually have advance purchase requirements. For example, when I look at JFK-SFO flights for tomorrow, BE is unavailable. Same with the next day. The first BE I see is 3 days from now, at a $25 savings over main (totally not worth it for a $350+ flight since you only earn 40% of the miles)
But every B fare I've seen has a 3+ day advance purchase requirement. Is there some route that has B fares filed with no such requirement?
But every B fare I've seen has a 3+ day advance purchase requirement. Is there some route that has B fares filed with no such requirement?
Nov 20, 23, 6:28 pm
#8
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Expedia gives you refunds within 24 hr of booking even if the airline doesn't allow them? I rarely book through OTAs, but if they make same day bookings refundable without having to pay the higher refundable fare, that might be worthwhile sometimes.
Nov 20, 23, 8:18 pm
#9
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*if the ticket is settled by ARC; Im not sure how NDC tickets are handled.
Nov 20, 23, 9:32 pm
#10
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I'm trying to get back to SFO from Bogota. Fares are fairly low. I'd like to grab some food in NYC to bring back to the family. Unfortunately a forced overnight in NY brings the fare up. Fair enough. I found an option into LGA with a 2 hours connection to JFK-SFO. I'm figuring I can totally miss the last flight to SFO and be forced to overnight in NY, Which for me beats getting to SFO after midnight and spending the night there.. Shady yes, but totally doable. Now I am thinking to book in Basic economy as I'm an EXP with tons of Loyalty Points. If they rebook my JFK SFO flight will that put me in the 24 hour booking period and take away my upgrade chances? I always fly last minute so never get a chance to buy BE since the 24 hours window screws me.
#1: Forced Overnight. Obviously you plan on paying out of pocket for that (if you plan to stay in some type of accommodations
#2: Assuming AA will just put you on the next flight when you no-show for the JFK-SFO leg
You're making a lot of assumptions that this "shady" plan will go off without a hitch, all so you can bring some NYC food to your family, which won't likely taste anything like it did when it was bought fresh. Is it worth the effort? Why not buy a multi-leg trip and build in a longer connection? Too expensive? Please don't come back and post how AA left you stranded in NYC because you missed a flight because you missed the connection.
