Happy

Actually it was you who told me to check Expedia when I posted a UA fare found on UA site but not on Connexions site. You said if Expedia did not show it, chances are such fares only available on airlines own sites and not released to OTAs to sell.

So checking Expedia is a way to know if a particular airfare is available thru OTA also or it is on airline's own site only.

Happy

Caution on getting Eurail passes from US travel agencies - you may be paying a hefty mark up for the same things than you buy them on the European sites. JR passes are only sold by JR authorized travel agencies and IIRC there is no mark up but the exchange rates used were a fixed rate set per quarter, from experiences a few years ago. We actually were lucked out at that time as the USD was falling off cliff against Japanese Yen but the exchange rate set per quarter literally gave us a "discount" of over 10%.

mia

Agreed, but now I am asking if we have any reason to believe that Connexions places air tickets through Expedia rather than directly with airlines through a GDS. If I see a fare on an airline site, but not on Expedia or Priceline, I wouldn't expect to find it on Connexions. However, If I do find it on Expedia or Priceline it indicates that the fare is not exclusive to the airline's own site, but I don't think Connexions has access to EVERY fare that Expedia or Priceline offer.

Happy

No. I posted that suggestion solely based on what you previously suggested. No idea whether Connexions uses Expedia to book airline tickets or not. My assumption is, Connexions would see the SAME inventory offered to other OTAs, and not have special access to fares exclusively to them. You want to figure out IF Connexions DONT have the same access of fares like Expedia. I cannot see how we could figure out this with the limited DPs we have. I do know that I have seen Expedia showing some Veulings for example but Connexions would not. In other words, Expedia sells some LCC fares but I have yet to see any LCC fare shows up on Connexions offerings.

slickvik

I'm looking for an option to book rail tickets (Amtrak, Eurostar) via UR portal, but I'm not seeing any option. Is there any way to do this via calling?

philemer

No. Search this forum for "rail" and you'll see some empirical data points.

lexluthor

I was just trying to book an LGA to SJO round trip on AA for 7/2 (7:59am) through 7/15 (2:35pm) via Chase UR, but the flights are not available. I called and spoke to 2 different reps and there were unable to book the flights manually.

The fights clearly available on aa.com and I'm nearly positive I saw the flights on the UR portal the other day.

I thought that Chase could pretty much book any available flight, no?

One rep said that because they couldn't book it, I can later call customer service and they'll give me 1 courtesy point per dollar I spent. Anyone ever heard of that?

I have now held the flight on aa.com to pay via my csr, but I'd have much rather paid with points. Unfortunately, I took the last fare class on one of the flights, so now it's $50 more if someone here comes up with an explanation or the flights appear back tomorrow.

iamflyer

Chase travel portal now have a 'exclude basic economy" option on the flight search result page!

zhangg

Has anyone ever had luck purchasing a flight on hold with AA by using UR points? called twice, no dice, but neither agent seemed very confident in their answer.

philemer

No. You have to initiate the search from your UR website. Just book the same AA flt w/UR and then cancel the one you had on hold.

philemer

It's widely known that the Chase UR portal does not have ALL flts available for sale. Probably never will. Sometimes, you can book flts you don't see by calling in.

zhangg

Unfortunate - I have the flight on hold because it was the last seat in the fare bucket - and the price more than doubled. Should've booked with UR when I had the chance, but completely slipped my mind.

Good time to use the Amex gift cards I've got laying around...

Thanks for the quick answer.

jakemalloy

In case anyone was wondering, you can NOT get Luxury Hotel & Resort benefits when you book a hotel in the collection using UR points. I recently booked 3x at PH on points and was hoping to get the LH benefits. No dice.

Colin

How good is the Ultimate Reward travel agency in handling customer-requested airline reservation flight changes after schedule changes?
My initial thinking is that I should just book directly with AA if I know that I am going to need to call in later to negotiate improved flights after schedule changes.

pallhedge

I had a schedule change on AA a few weeks ago. It was a flight booked using UR points. UR wouldn't do anything because the schedule change wasn't long enough. I called AA directly and they made the courtesy change without hesitation.