I'm being Starnet blocked..
 

I'm trying to book two 1st class miles seats to get some relatives from FLL to YVR. ANA shows this as avail:

1 12/4
(FR) US506 Fort Lauderdale Phoenix
07:00 10:12 320 First 2
2 12/4
(FR) US506 Phoenix Vancouver
11:10 13:38 320 First 2

The return is on CO so there is no issue with different availability on the return.

I called CO's gold desk and am told they don't have this, spoke to the agent and her supervisor who insisted they didn't have any way to book this. Instead they have availability only on CO flights for this route (which have awful times).

I called AP and they do have the seats avail to book.

Any tips or advice?

If Continental is indeed following UA's rev management on StarNet, as some evidence in this thread suggests, thats pretty embarassing after tooting their own horn that they will not do it.

Lets hope its all a glitch, because seriously, if its true, how long did CO think before FT noticed?

What's your return date?

Edited to add: called in and CO can see the PHX-YVR but not the FLL-PHX segment -- not sure why this is the case but my guess is that it's a systems integration issue with either ANA not having up-to-date info on US (doubt that) or a glitch in the CO systems.

Either way I'm sorry for your frustration and hope that things get sorted out. FWIW everything we've heard from CO has clearly stated they're not planning on pulling the nonsense that UA does and hopefully it's just a *A integration issue.

Never mind.

SHARES strikes again!

You are of course aware that even the fantastic ANA tool (which has been around for many years) can't see availability across all Star Alliance members (e.g. LX)?

:rolleyes:

Not so fast, while I do agree that SHARES has its issues, this problem is all about how the ticket is being sold by US and not CO who is simply making the reservation. While I do understand that you want the best for CO (at least I know that I do), I find that sometimes you come down way to hard on the company. Yes, they have their foibles, but what company/airline does not?

The ANA award site is a great tool as it allows us (the common PAX) to research award seats and assist the agents in finding awards that are customized to our personal tastes.

With regards to LX, the reservation system they use apparently does not play well with others and until LX changes systems, it looks as if ExpertFlyer or the airline phone agent is going to be the only solution.

Dan

With Regards to US 506 FLL-YVR
 

Before I am willing to place the blame on CO and STARnet filtering I wanted to see if I could understand what could be happening here.

I have a good friend who is a US Chairman and I decided to give him a ring and see if he could book the award in question (FLL-YVR US 506 on 12/4) with US miles. He conferenced (sp?) in the US Chairman’s line (which is probably one of the best parts of US Airways) and tried to book the award.

Here is what I discovered and clearly demonstrates that there was something else at play other than CO or STARnet filtering.

US 506 FLL-PHX 12/4 is available at both SAVER (which is offered to STAR Alliance partners) and STANDARD (which is generally not offered to STAR Alliance partners) award levels.

US 506 PHX-YVR 12/4 is available at both SAVER (which is offered to STAR Alliance partners) and STANDARD (which is generally not offered to STAR Alliance partners) award levels.

US 506 FLL-YVR 12/4 is only available at the STANDARD (which is generally not offered to STAR Alliance partners) award level.

The agent explained that if a flight is sold as a DIRECT (this is important) flight, regardless of each segment being available at SAVER award levels, the flight is priced out as one segment and in this case, the segment US 506 FLL-YVR on 12/4 which is not available at the SAVER award level.

This matches up directly with the ANA tool which shows US 506 FLL-PHX and US 506 PHX-YVR as available, but not the direct flight US 506 FLL-YVR.

I then called up CO and was able to see and book US 506 FLL-PHX, but if I then added US 506 PHX-YVR, she was unable to see and book that segment. She then started with US 506 PHX-YVR and was able to see and book that segment, but then was unable to see and book US 506 FLL-PHX. She then surmised exactly the same thing that the US agent explained, if a flight is sold as a Direct flight, you cannot break the two segments, even though they are available as two separate segments.

Hope that clears things up,
Dan

There are free online ways to search LX inventory. I believe the easiest is to sign up for an LH M+M account as a minor. That will expose the LX inventory.

Good ol' married segments logic. Gotta love it.

Time to put the foil hats away; this conspiracy seems to be put to rest. ;)

Hey, even on a bad day, CO's award booking-related IT FAR outclasses that of Delta's.

CO is not blocking inventory.

Let me say that again, just in case anyone gets antsy: CO is not blocking inventory.
^

LX is not the only carrier, although the GDS issue is the main cause although not all *A carriers use the same GDS.

FWIW CA and FM also do not display on the ANA tool.

I was thinking of returning to Continental this year for some flights and trying them out.
Only because of the Star Alliance factor
I left them over poor award availabilty in the late 90s and never looked back
At One World I must say I rarely have a problem finding seats on AA/BA/Iberia/ Cathay.Qantas can be real tough but even then I managed to score a seat on the new 380 in First 90 days before departure
Not convinced early on its worth a return to Continental until the full jury is out and the final verdict is in

LX/CA/FM as well as all others are displayed by AC's Aeroplan booking engine, although its a pain in the butt to use.

Miles are much easier to redeem now and the agents seem better equipped to deal with awards (IME all the agents I've talked to have been great.)

As for coming back to CO --- don't know who you're with on OW (guessing AA) but EXP is far stronger then CO Plat and I don't know if I'd give that up just for "better" mileage redemption offerings then compared to OW (to say nothing of schedule & routes from your main cities.)

Plus if you want *A awards you can always pump in MR points to CO (or NH) or sign up for a Chase card (currently think there's a 45k offer floating around right now) and then redeem for the flights you want.