When building a business class award itinerary to Europe. I was told by the CO agent that the connecting AS flights could only be booked in Coach not 1st. If I had flown on a CO or NW flight to the International gateway I could fly 1st.

Has anyone come across this restriction? I find it a bit misleading. They state no restriction on AS rewards in their award information.

I had similiar problems with domestic first class awards. They blamed it on computer problems that were to be corrected. to this day they still have not but i did get first class being very diligent. good luck....

i don't know if this helps you any, but when I've booked int'l awards in the past, I was told that i would be confirmed for coach, but waitlisted for first on the domestic legs "as a courtesy". that happened on CO metal, connecting to CO metal, and on CO metal connecting to QF.




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Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

Which CO/NW "international gateway" to Europe does AS fly to?

They don't go to MSP, DTW, IAH or EWR.

Somehow I think that you might be getting an AS/AA code share flight to the "gateway" and that's why they can't upgrade.

could be the nonstop SEA-IAD, connecting to VS codeshare...




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Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

I flew:

PHX-SFO HP
SFO-SEA AS
SEA-NRT NW
NRT-HKG NW
HKG-NRT NW
NRT-SFO NW
SFO-PHX HP

on a purchased Northwest coach ticket. All segments were upgraded using miles, at the time I requested the upgrade.

Sure, the possibilities are endless with those types of routings, but we've got enough problems upgrading on CO metal, I would find it hard to believe that CO would allow an upgrade of an AS/VS itinerary.

I had a similar issue when I looked into a EWR to AKL (fly co to see...Aukland, NZ ) on US Air. Even though Quantas listed an EWR/LAX/AKL routing if I wanted to fly Biz using miles, I would have to fly US with a domestic connection to LAX, i.e. NYC/PIT or CLT/LAX/AKL.

Have you tried booking the tix w/ CO, NW segments as part of the itinerary? CO/NW have direct flights from SEA to all of their gateways.

To clarify we are heading from SEA to SFO to connect to a KL flight to AMS (no seats on the NW non-stop to AMS). The BC Award states from the 48 contigious states to Europe. They have agreed to fly me on AS to SFO but only on coach.

Just to clarify, are you buying the tix and looking to upgrade, or is this complete reward travel?

I don't think anyone here has actually been able to upgrade a KL flight, and the CSRs are clueless about KL procedures.

I was told in no uncertain terms that I could not upgrade a KL segment *at all* unless the ticket had at least (1) pure CO segment on it.

It does sound like your itinerary is pure reward travel... Your issues notwithstanding, it is encouraging to hear that they finally have KL reward travel loaded into their system... or so it seems.

This is a pure award ticket. My experiece on other Programs (Alaska and USAir) with european business class rewards has been great. They have both flown me (1st class)to the gateway city, even if it was on a parnter airline.

CO has Alaska as a 1st class award option, but on a mixed itinerary they will only book the Alaska portion in Coach.

We can not book AS flights directly in first class, but can book in coach and request FC from AS. It is not a waitlist, but a request to be processed and responded to by AS within a few days.

Unfortunately, AS generally does not respond yes or no and it usually requires follow up by the customer, and the agent has to call AS directly and ask for it. It is an extremely awkward and unreliable procedure, and that is why most agents will not bring it up. However, it is part of the reward if you connect from AS, no matter how many other airlines are involved in the PNR.

You can do the same with a domestic itinerary as an FS0 reward.

Wow, sounds like something off the mileage run page ;>

ResAgent86, Can I ask you two questions?

1. I have this same situation - I am booked SFO - LAX on AS and then on a first class Qantas reward ticket LAX SYD Ayers Rock CNS Brisbane AKL LAX, then back to SFO on AS. Here's my question - I've talked to several people at the international aprtner desk, none of whom say what you said. They just say "it has to be coach - no other option." Any advice on how to get someone to actually look into requesting first class for me?

2. My other question is, the rough times of those two flights are 7am - 8am, connecting to a midnight Qantas flight (i.e., 16 hour layover)...same basic story on return, arrive 7am, leave 6pm or so. I am told "those are the only flights Continental is allowed to use" - but Alaska has a ton of flights all day. Is the information I'm given true? If not, any advice on how to get a better connection?

Thanks for any info.

AS only operates one flight per day in each direction. The other flights are operated by AA, as AS code-shares. AS operated flights have flight numbers 0 - 999, everything else is operated by a partner.

I can't speak for the partner desk rules. You could ask them if they can request it the way Onepass reservations does. I don't know if it is part of the reward or not.