I've been looking at an AKL-LAX ticket for a few weeks now and its the same old problems... "Choose a new fare" almost every day, every time I see a $3000 J are it comes up . It then reprices to $5700. On the phone I didnt say anything to agent and just let her try it. She said it wont ticket b/c Qantas has no seats on the flight.......Ya okay, W/e. Then she says but for $5700 you can fly in F. I said lets do it, ticket it. 20 minutes later, we are about to ticket and she reads my seats and the A380 flight with QF is in 25A........NOT F lady. Its abhorrent that is agent was seconds from ticketing me in J but teling me it was F. What if I was not aware and had no clue and bought the ticket.

Why cant AA fix the Choose a New Fare message and not show prices/fares that arent there. One interesting thing though is that if I choose the Jet Star flight AA is showing to get to SYD I then can get all the way to check out and get the 3K fare. However, I would prefer not to fly Jet Star in Y, or Jet Star at all really. However, I was going to consider it BUT..... the site will not take my trip credits. And get this, there is no option to Hold the ticket. This is a month away so no reason it shouldnt allow a hold. And no reason why their IT should be so bad to not let me input the trip credits.

So I call back to AA and ask to ticket the Jet Star scenario but the agent cant see any JQ flights, absolutely nothing comes up and she was telling me AA doesnt offer any flights in Jet Star. At that point I hung up and am done for the night.

So basically, I cant use my 3K of trip credits, I cant hold the res and I can only even get to the buy page if I choose the JQ flight to SYD.

AA is a total JOKE.

There are a few things here

What AA has right:

1. Trip credits can only be used for AA marketed flights. I don't believe that AA sells AKL-SYD with a AA number, just a JQ one.
2. Holds are only available for AA flights, not partners (excluding award tickets)

What AA has wrong
1. Phantom inventory. AA shows stuff that doesn't exist sometimes.
2. AA agents are a mixed bag. Some great ones and some duds.

Thanks for laying it out like that. I am majorily bummed if I am going to have to use my 3K in credits on actual AA flights lol. I've been saving them and now ready to book. I suppose I could use them on a good J fare to/from SGN as the TYO/SGN portion on JL does have an AA flight number so credits would be allowed.

However, doesnt AKLto SYD have AA flight numbers for the QF flight? I hadnt realized all flights had to be AA numbers so obviously no dice on the Jet Star flight. So this kicks me back I guess to being able to use the trip credits but all the $3200-3500 J fares trip out with Choose a New fare message and kick me to a $5600 ish fare.

Had no ideas about holds only being allowed for AA metal, thx for explaining that.

Its wild to me how AA continues to have phantom inventory or just the wront fare, by thousands of dollars. Really is frustrating.

I'm going to give it one more go on the phone and see if I can find a J fare that actually exists for the 3K range. It seems online if I take an evening flight the day before to SYD then a long connection to the QF 11 the next day it will allow me to buy it at the $3000 ish fare. However I cant add trip credits online at least and with out being to hold it there is nothing I can do.

I think this might be a point-of-sale issue. I can see the lower price on google flights and on AA.com NZ (amadeus) although I didn't enter my credit card to try to book. There is also not a place on the Amadeus site to enter a trip credit.
Can phone agents at non-US call centers take an AA.com trip credit? If yes, you might be able to get the lower price with your trip credit by calling the AU/NZ call center.

What currency are you looking at? US$3000 = NZ$5276 = AU$4771
Doubt you will find NZ/AU to USA in J one way for $3000 (any currency)
Just purchase an AKL SYD (~3:30hr) on any airline and then SYD LAX on AA72 with your credit

Edit
QF3 SYD-AKL-JFK. Is also marketed as AA7284, AS5043, EK503 and TN1452 for AKL-JFK
QF4 as AA7264

And
American Airlines AA . DFW-AKL Until 30 Mar 2024. From 05 Dec 2024 to Mar 2025. LAX-AKL. Pre CV19 AA was due to fly LAX-CHC 3 days a week from Oct 2020. [Oneworld Alliance]

This was actually the issue I was running into first, a few weeks ago. Google has the lower price but it would send me to a weird AA site which I guess was the Amadeus you’re referring to and no trip credits were allowed to be used. I called the AU number and still was unable to use the credits and in fact as I recall they didn’t even see the lower fare.

Was also confused why an F ticket never shows on AA site for this route unless JQ is the way you fly to SYD. I can get all the way to check out thru the regular AA site for a $6000 F ticket but only if I fly JQ to SYD. Agent told me AA won’t sell a J and F combo ticket on a partner metal but that’s not true…. You can buy SGN-HND-LAX with a J and F combo all on JL no?

6K if starting in AKL is half the cost of if you begin in SYD and w my 3K credits I would be down to go F for 3K out of pocket but I would really prefer to fly QF J not JQ Y to get to SYD. And with out trip credits being allowed on a non AA flight number actually this 6K option w JQ to SYD is not even an option.

US 3000 for sure. Actually when QF recently had the J fare sale it was $1800 AKL- LAX. You can find on QF $3100 to $3600 now on QF 11 if you begin in AKL. I’m sure beginning in SYD is 2 x that.

I’ve flown AA 72/73 4 x now and I really want to fly on QF on the A380. On QF site no issue I can book it but on AA I’m getting choose a new fare although just before my above post I was able to check out the whole way and get $3300 if I flew day 1 to SYD then day 2 QF11 but the issue being it said to call in to use trip credits. I’m going to phone in again.

Update:

I tried the US line but was put in a 1 hour queue so figured I would try the NZ number again. They can sell me no problem $3300 J fare AKL to LAX on any of the 4 daily codeshare flights AKL to SYD. It will ticket, no glitch. However, they cant add trip credits. If the NZ line could simply add credits I would be set.

Got the call back from the US line and wated 75 minutes of my time. The first scenario with the 645am on the 789 which was my preference came back as not confirmed by Qantas even though the AA agent saw it for $3300. Then he said the 730am to SYD is looking good and it did not come back as not confirmed. However, the price jumped from $3300 to $5600.....no thank you. Then he put me on hold for a good 30 and came back and told me I need to call QF and they can price it correctly and put it on hold for me and then AA can add trip credits. Not sure this is even true. I have not tried calling QF yet.

I cant incorporate a Jet Star flight or a QF SYD-AKL that isnt an AA codeshare or I cant use trip credits.........NZ folks cant add trip credits. I cant hold anything b/c they arent AA metal flights. I dont understand all this but its so frustrating. I guess I need to look elsewhere to use the 3K of credits and just plan on buying an outright ticket for the $3300 if I want to fly this route. I guess one call to QF is worth it but do they put trips on hold and how can AA then add their trip credits to QF flights. That doesnt sound right.

I have had the same "Choose a different fare" issue when trying to book an itinerary with an AA-G3 codeshare. Funny enough, as someone described on Reddit, I tried once every day and was successful at about the 10th try.
My case was less complicated than the OP's because there was no travel credit involved.