LAN awards available on ba.com but unable to book over phone
Sep 28, 2011, 3:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 15
LAN awards available on ba.com but unable to book over phone
I have booked an award trip with BA over the phone from NYC to South America. Had to do it over the phone because it included stop overs.
Now I see that LA0533 from NYC to SCL is available on 11/19 on BA.com, I had booked the same flight on 11/20 but want to switch to 11/19 flight.
BA.com is not allowing me to switch the flight because I booked over the phone. I called BAEC 4-5 times and none of the agents saw availability in their system. They told me the flight is not available, even though it clearly shows as available on ba.com.
One of the agents said the inventory system is different for the website and award booking agents.
Is there anything I can do if I want to switch the flights?
Now I see that LA0533 from NYC to SCL is available on 11/19 on BA.com, I had booked the same flight on 11/20 but want to switch to 11/19 flight.
BA.com is not allowing me to switch the flight because I booked over the phone. I called BAEC 4-5 times and none of the agents saw availability in their system. They told me the flight is not available, even though it clearly shows as available on ba.com.
One of the agents said the inventory system is different for the website and award booking agents.
Is there anything I can do if I want to switch the flights?
Sep 29, 2011, 6:56 am
#4
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,677
I've been struggling with "phantom availability" on LA too. Things are showing up and all is well to the point of charging my credit card, then BA.com returns an error - along the lines of "unable to complete your request please contact the service center". The call center can't see the same availability.
Odd thing is, often it's a particular segment on a 2-segment trip that is the culprit on BA.com. The call center may see one of the two segments as unavailable even though BA.com returns the full 2-segment trip as available and almost lets me book. Just for fun if I try to book just one of those two segments individually on BA.com, it does not show as available.
One of the agents I spoke with early last week said the IT folks had been doing some work on the LAN interface and suggested that was causing problems. No idea if he knew what he was talking about, or why it persists for this long.
Odd thing is, often it's a particular segment on a 2-segment trip that is the culprit on BA.com. The call center may see one of the two segments as unavailable even though BA.com returns the full 2-segment trip as available and almost lets me book. Just for fun if I try to book just one of those two segments individually on BA.com, it does not show as available.
One of the agents I spoke with early last week said the IT folks had been doing some work on the LAN interface and suggested that was causing problems. No idea if he knew what he was talking about, or why it persists for this long.
Sep 29, 2011, 1:24 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 12,949
There are known system issues with LA Awards -- doing a Long-Sell is the only way to confirm actual availability:
http://Help.KVSTool.com/#AgentSaysNo
http://Help.KVSTool.com/#AgentSaysNo
Sep 29, 2011, 2:48 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,854
WHY both AA and BA have problem seeing LAN availability?
The nature of problems may be totally different, but it seems that it is extremely hard to book LA award seats whether it is using AA miles or BA miles because both airlines agents could not see availability.
Not all agents are willing to do the long sell. In fact some dont even know what it means.
Not all agents are willing to do the long sell. In fact some dont even know what it means.