beep88

You are at least 5 years too late.

Back then, J seat to NRT or HKG cost ~6.5k versus 5k in Y, so a 2-for-1 was a pretty good deal and I have purchased those.

mia

Merged into primary thread on this topic. "IAP" is probably not the best search term, just use: international companion.

Look, for example, at post 90 for a satisfied customer. This likely isn't what you were looking for. This program cannot provide two seats for the price of one deeply discounted, advance purchase, non-refundable business class ticket. It's another way to obtain approximately the same discount when you cannot meet the qualifications for such tickets. It's not a way to stack discounts.

thebkguy

I just did this today. Quick version:

Needed six (6) R/T J tix LAX->CUN for April, didn't really care what airline as long as it wasn't coach, and I needed specific travel dates, and everyone needed to be on the same flights traveling together.

Kayak showed avail for ~$1000 inc. tax for restricted fare J R/T ticket on AM.

So ~$1000 x 6 = ~$6,000 for six restricted J tix.

Called PTS. They provided same flights, but fully refundable for ~$1600 inc taxes and fees, and covered via IAP. Used three Amex plats to buy three itineraries, each with one paid ticket and one "free" ticket under IAP ($111 in taxes/fees on the free ticket).

So ~$1711 x 3 = ~$5,133 for six fully refundable J tix. (or roughly $855/ticket)

Savings of $867 with everyone on the same flights, and much more importantly, all my tickets are fully refundable and met my specific travel dates without compromise.

IAP doesn't always provide the best value. But it's a nice tool to have in the toolchest - sometimes it comes in handy.

bedelman

I happened to stumble onto the 2012-2013 Air New Zealand IAP rules. Lots of interesting provisions including discussion of the available UA connecting flights and applicable booking classes.

mabff

Does anybody know what booking classes and fares used for the newly joined British Airways? In particular I am interested if J1OW or J1US is used for one-way travel?

Nicksta

Whoa! When did that happen? I just looked at the site and saw that they are indeed listed as a participant. That could provide a nice value depending how they price it out. I'll be curious to see what fare basis, too.

Aaron01

I'm pretty sure you'll need to call

mia

BA companion fares have long been available through Diners Club, Merrill+, even Saks First. Not sure if any of these still offer it, but it should be straightforward to find the terms from at least one of them to read the terms.

For example, here were the terms of the Merrill+ offer in 2010:

http://www.beyondrewardscard.com/brm...0_m?pg=56#pg56

A Club World companion required purchase of a round-trip J1US fare and availability of D bucket inventory. No assurance that American Express has the identical agreement.

mabff

Well, I called AmEx today and they told me two things:

1. They can not issue a WT+ (W fare) ticket with IAP, contrary to what Chase used to be able to do and what Merrill+ says in the link above

2. The fare basis they use is: J1CNUQ. It does not come up in ExpertFlyer but it looks like similar to J1US which is the most expensive J fare not discounted to some cities beyond LHR as J1OW often is. So this partnership is not very exciting, some other airlines offer much more attractive fares for IAP (e.g. AC, EI).

3. For normal tickets they can only use published BA fares, there are no specials or one-way upgrades. I believe a few years ago AmEx was able to do one-way upgrades on BA.

JMN57

Quite dated but yes. In 1994 (yes, the benefit has been around that long), I had to be in Budapest for business.
Wife and I (all flights on Alitalia):
ORD->FCO->PRG,
Ground PRG-> VIE -> BUD Meeting
BUD->FCO->TUN visit friends
TUN->FCO - few days in Rome,
FCO->ORD.

My ticket J was $3900. Hers was $35 or so in taxes. I figured it paid for about 9 years or so of Amex Plat. These days, the card is easily justified by providing airline club priviledges @ AA, DL, US + others.

DownUnderFlyer

For years I never found value in this program. I was now looking for flights to Australia from the US one month out and the cheapest Star Alliance option was more than $8800 per person. Companion ticket worked out at $12,000 for two so a decent deal. Only problem is the lack of miles of one person.

ijgordon

As has often been discussed, the 2-for-1 does tend to provide value on routes where there is not usually any deep discounted business class. US-Europe always has pretty discounted J tickets. US-Asia used to rarely have it, but now sometimes you can get <$4k r/t tickets. I think US-Oz is one where, as you allude to, business class is always very expensive, and a nonrefundable ticket with high advance purchase doesn't save you more than a couple of thousand. There might also be some value in the IAP on US - South America and US - Africa.

wishinghard

Hi long time lurker first time post!

I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Amex PTS, and here's what I got out of it:

I was interested in the "free" companion ticket offer from amex plat, and did a lot of research online. Determined that the price Asiana airlines LAX --> BKK for full-fare non-refundable biz class would be $4211, of which $500 are taxes/fees. I expected 2 round-trip biz class tickets using this amex "benefit" to be around $4700 or so.
This price was based on Asiana's own website, and Amex travel website (you have the option to select "non-refundable only" on both sites).
I verified the fair code / class as "Z".

I called PTS, and a very nice lady helped me, and she consistently pulled up fares (for a single ticket) of $84xx. I was dumbfounded. I read to her the full fare terms and conditions for the fare I was seeing on Asiana's website, and they matched the requirements that Amex has (class Z fully refundable biz class). We called Asiana directly, and Asiana confirmed a price of $4,211. Confirmed all of the rate rules as well, and they all matched the PTS criteria.

The Amex PTS agent put me on hold and talked to her ticketing supervisor, and about 5min later gave me the explanation / excuse:
(paraphrasing)
PTS Agent: "Sir, the reason our tickets cost almost EXACTLY what 2x business class tickets cost directly from the airline is because we have pre-negotiated rates with the 23 airlines that we support for this benefit. We cannot change the price, although I understand that it makes no sense."
Me: "Uhh, ok, I do appreciate all of your help, but can you tell me what is the purpose of having this free companion benefit if it costs twice as much as a full fare ticket in the first place? Is there something that I'm not understanding?"
PTS Agent: "Well sir, I do understand your question, and I wish I had an answer for you. At this time, it seems there is no benefit for using the free companion ticket offer. I do apologize for this inconvenience."
Me: "Well, again, you've been very helpful, but I find this benefit to be very misleading and not becoming of Amex Platinum in general. Thank you... bye..."

So, I definitely didn't lose my cool as I figured that there must be some catch to this program even before I called, and of course it wasn't the PTS agent's fault. But, what a sham!

Does anybody out there know a real way to take advantage of this program? I mean, theoretically it would have been great at $4800 for 2x roundtrip biz class tickets. Even up to $6k. But, EXACTLY double? I feel like a sucker! I have taken advantage of many other Plat card benefits, and can vouch for them, but this one defines the word "sham".

alpen1

Thought this was a pretty good read with regards to the companion ticket benefit: http://thepointsguy.com/2012/05/the-...s-it-worth-it/

roknroll

This is discussed pretty extensively in the AMEX forum. For the most part, fully refundable business class tickets are close to 2x the price of a discounted restricted ticket. I think you found the rare exception to the case. Most people aren't buying full fare business, but if they are then this benefit will most often save money.

I can understand that AMEX negotiates a discount rate where they can provide you with 2 full fare business class tickets for the price of one full fare. But if Asiana or another airline decides to drop fares or offer a sale, AMEX is still paying their negotiated rate.