Attempting to book award travel on AMEX. No Available seats.
Jun 4, 2018, 7:16 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: PHL
Programs: AAdvantage, DL SkyMiles, B6 TrueBlue, Global Entry
Posts: 56
Attempting to book award travel on AMEX. No Available seats.
Attempting to book flights on AA in Y using AMEX rewards points. No seats show as available on AMEX.com. However the flight has availability on AA.com. Can I somehow book flights through AA.com and get reimbursed via AMEX rewards?
Jun 5, 2018, 7:41 am
#3
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
You can’t book AA award flights with AMEX MR points through AA. I believe
there’s an option using MR points to pay for part or all of the Trip Booking via AMEX.
1) Select your flight, prepaid hotel, vacation package, or cruise through the American Express Travel site.
2) At checkout, select the option to "Use all or some Membership Rewards points" for your booking.
3) Choose the amount of points you would like to redeem and select Apply.
GOOD TO KNOW: The full amount of your purchase will be charged to your Card account at the time of booking. Points will then be deducted from your Membership Rewards balance and a credit for a corresponding dollar amount will be applied to your Card account.
2) At checkout, select the option to "Use all or some Membership Rewards points" for your booking.
3) Choose the amount of points you would like to redeem and select Apply.
GOOD TO KNOW: The full amount of your purchase will be charged to your Card account at the time of booking. Points will then be deducted from your Membership Rewards balance and a credit for a corresponding dollar amount will be applied to your Card account.
Moderator
Last edited by JDiver; Jun 5, 2018 at 6:01 pm
Jun 5, 2018, 9:19 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: TPA/DFW/K15
Programs: AA EXP, Mar AMB, HH LT DIA
Posts: 1,649
When you say no seats available, do you mean no flights available, or can book the flight, just not select seats?
Jun 5, 2018, 11:16 am
#5
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,952
It sounds as if you are trying to use American Express Pay with Points feature. When you do this you will actually charge the full cost of the ticket to your American Express card account, and then redeem Membership Rewards points to offset the charge at the rate $0.01 per point. You are not booking an award flight, just buying a ticket.
Amex Travel (USA) is operated by Orbitz. is Amex Travel showing NO economy class seats on that flight, or are they simply showing a different fare than aa.com?
Amex Travel (USA) is operated by Orbitz. is Amex Travel showing NO economy class seats on that flight, or are they simply showing a different fare than aa.com?
Jun 5, 2018, 2:07 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 30,987
You do realize you can buy AA tickets with AmEx's MR points even though they're not partners?
How to Use Points
1. Select your flight, prepaid hotel, vacation package, or cruise through the American Express Travel site.
2. At checkout, select the option to "Use all or some Membership Rewards points" for your booking.
3. Choose the amount of points you would like to redeem and select Apply.
1. Select your flight, prepaid hotel, vacation package, or cruise through the American Express Travel site.
2. At checkout, select the option to "Use all or some Membership Rewards points" for your booking.
3. Choose the amount of points you would like to redeem and select Apply.
Jun 5, 2018, 11:50 pm
#8
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: PHX, SEA
Programs: Avis President's Club, Global Entry, Hilton/Marriott Gold. No more DL/AA status.
Posts: 4,421
For those familiar with Membership Rewards, it's the only thing OP could be trying to do. AAdvantage is not a transfer partner with Amex Membership Rewards.
To OP -- it's possible Amex/Orbitz is selling a Basic Economy ticket in which case you would have no seat assignment. If it's a normal Main Cabin fare, once you have been ticketed you can log into AA.com with your record locator and choose a seat. Note that if Amex isn't offering one, it's possible that all remaining seats are "preferred" and thus cost money if you have no elite status. If that is the case you can keep the ticket with no seat assignment and all the 'preferred' seats become available at OLCI (just be precise at the T-24 hour mark).
To OP -- it's possible Amex/Orbitz is selling a Basic Economy ticket in which case you would have no seat assignment. If it's a normal Main Cabin fare, once you have been ticketed you can log into AA.com with your record locator and choose a seat. Note that if Amex isn't offering one, it's possible that all remaining seats are "preferred" and thus cost money if you have no elite status. If that is the case you can keep the ticket with no seat assignment and all the 'preferred' seats become available at OLCI (just be precise at the T-24 hour mark).
Jun 6, 2018, 7:17 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,372
There's every indication that the OP was trying to do just that, and zero indication s/he was trying to do otherwise. Explicitly said "Attempting to book flights on AA in Y using AMEX rewards points" and looking for the seats/availability "on AMEX.com."
Question was about AMEX not showing the availability or seat assignment capability that AA was showing, <redacted>
Question was about AMEX not showing the availability or seat assignment capability that AA was showing, <redacted>
Last edited by JDiver; Jun 6, 2018 at 9:52 am Reason: Unnecessary roughness
