bocastephen

I am absolutely infuriated - this is not the first time I've had Amex travel quote a fare much higher for the same flights as I can book directly through my GDS or the airline website. Now I am gathering proof, but unless proven otherwise, I will be submitting the documentation to the CA state AG office, along with the FTC for investigation. I believe they are deliberately up-quoting the flights to get into commissionable fare classes per their airline contracts.

Here is my most recent experience, as I did not document the other episodes that required me to call Amex PTS and waste 1hr trying to get a US agent with GDS to get the correct fare booked for me. It's not the first time - but now it's happened so many times, my only conclusion is it must be deliberate.

24AUG ONT YYZ with the first segment to SFO operated and ticketed by UA and the connecting segment to YYZ operated by AC as a UA codeshare.

The flights are available in G class, and price out to $295 at the time of the booking, confirmed on ITA. I go to Amex to book the ticket so I can use MRs, and low and behold, the fare is now $500 for the same flights. How could that be? ITA is still confirming the lower fare. So, I get into my Apollo GDS account and sell the same flights in G class, which now price correctly at $295.

Screenshots below explain what is happening

guv1976

Is there any Federal or California State law, rule or regulation that prohibits this practice? If not, does Amex Travel advertise or guarantee that it will always offer its customers the lowest bookable airfare?

trooper

Who is forcing you to book through them? Doesn't the principle of "shopping around" apply to airfares too? I don't understand the complaint... the desire to "use MR's" is surely YOUR choice? If they were selling G class for $500 maybe that would be a problem... but aren't they quoting K and W respectively? What price does Matrix give for THOSE Fare classes?

bocastephen

So we need to pay a steep premium in order to use MRs to book airfares? You don�t feel that significantly devalues your MRs?

wathornton

It is almost always better to transfer MR points to an airline's frequent flier program. You might be able to buy the same flights using any of the below methods getting more value for your points.

In your case, Amex MRs won't transfer to United, but Chase points will. If you do have Chase points, they will transfer to AC Aeroplan with a 20% bonus through end-July, 2023. If you don't have Chase points, Amex MRs will transfer to AC Aeroplan.

Going outside Star Alliance, Amex MRs will transfer to DL for either DL or WS flights.

Kacee

So it looks like Amex is booking that as a broken fare, K/W, rather than a throughfare. I would assume it's caused by a flaw in the Expedia booking platform, there are certainly plenty of those.

bocastephen

Not at all. If you transfer points you end up paying a massive premium for devalued award tickets, then you lose the airlines miles and status points earned back from the revenue ticket and lose the 35% rebate on business class or favorite airline tickets.

RK23

I use my MR points to book 5-10k round trip business class tickets for as low as 68k-100k points round trip or as much as 180k round trip to fly on Qatar's business/first class product. Better than paying 370k MR with the rebate just for a 5k ticket but ok.

But thank you for continuing to use MR inefficiently, it helps slow down the devalues!

bocastephen

Everyone has a different use case for MRs. It doesn�t mean how I use them is less valuable but that�s not the point of this thread. The point of my post was to demonstrate that Amex was deliberately looking for ways to charge more for an air ticket than any other available channel without disclosing such to customers.

blitzen

You have to take other people's use cases into account. I looked for US-Europe business tickets and on my route there are consistantly the options
- have luck and find availability on BA (57.5k AA miles one way and $700+ one way and $300 the other)
- use United/Air Canada/AA and pay 100-200k miles each way with limited co-pay
- look for sales fares in this case $3800 using Amex Travel and miles costing 247k MR and earning points/status
Yes if you live at a hub or in the NYC area you have a lot of options and get "cheaper" flights. But not everyone has these options.

boss315

Quit using them due to issues such as this and the abysmal customer no service!

bocastephen

again - that�s not the point of this thread. The point here is to make people aware that Amex is charging a much higher price for revenue tickets by purposefully failing to display less costly availability which can be purchased through other channels, and not disclosing this practice to customers.

mia

Disclosure is here:

In our role as a travel agent and provider of a Travel Channel, we act as an intermediary agent and independent third party between you and the Suppliers; no joint venture, partnership, employment, agency, representative, fiduciary or similar relationship exists between you and us, or any Service Provider, as a result of your use of our travel services, including, without limitation, a Travel Channel. We assist you in finding travel Suppliers and making certain arrangements for travel. We consider various factors in identifying travel Suppliers and recommending specific itineraries. We want you to be aware that certain Suppliers pay us commissions as well as incentives for reaching sales targets or other goals, and from time to time may also provide incentives to our travel consultants. Certain Suppliers may also provide compensation to us for various marketing and administrative services that we perform for them, such as granting them access to our marketing channels, participating in marketing programs, and supporting technology initiatives. In addition, we receive compensation from Suppliers when customers use their American Express� Card. From time to time we may enter into other business relationships with Suppliers and these arrangements, including levels and types of compensation and incentives that we receive, are subject to change. In identifying Suppliers and recommending itineraries, we may consider a number of factors, including, without limitation, Supplier availability and your preferences. The relationships we have with Suppliers may also influence the Suppliers we identify and the itineraries we recommend. While we may recommend certain destinations of travel and Suppliers, these are solely suggestions; any and all decision as to appropriate destinations of travel and Suppliers are your sole and exclusive decision and we do not accept any responsibility or liability should you be dissatisfied, for any reason, due to the destinations and Suppliers we may suggest.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-u...nd-conditions/

bocastephen

I�m not seeing that as an accurate disclosure that addresses the refusal to show lower fares from a recommended supplier where a lower fare may be available for the identical itinerary through other booking channels aside from the airline itself.

RK23

Getting back to the topic of AMEX travel as an OTA, my old employer booked with Amex travel through Concur and the fares were often higher vs. booking direct. It would not show the lowest non-basic economy fare code that was bookable, even for simple Point A to Point B flights with no layovers. Then you paid an additional travel booking fee for the privilege...

So they definitely do that and I bet they make so much more with corporate bookings where you are forced to book through the portal vs. doing it by yourself.