Making reservation on JAL
 

On my upcoming trip I was trying to book a trip:

BOS-(NRT)-PVG
SHA-HND
NRT-BOS.

I am AAdvantage on AA but multi city reservation on AA.com is so useless, out of question. Went JAL website and tried to book multi city. Everything was fine till selecting final NRT-BOS leg, JAL reservation website only showed options on code share 10 a.m. departure on AA flight. I changed departure time preference but showed no option on afternoon and evening departure, did not even show NRT-BOS JL 8. ???

I decided to call JAL, yes U.S. reservation call center is usually 40 - 1 hr hold when not having any status on JAL Mileage Bank. The agent started construct reservation and told me the problem is NRT-PVG on BOS-PVG portion. The agent told me there is no economy available and only business class available. When I tried on JAL website there was no problem with NRT-PVG of BOS-PVG segment, it was return NRT-BOS could not display flights I wanted. The agent looked further and told me there are still a lot of seats open in economy but somehow JAL is not releasing the seats. The agent suggested to wait till JAL release those unsold seats. Alright...?

Then I went to Google Flights, was able to construct flight I wanted. Did not have problem with economy seat on NRT-PVG, no problem with getting late afternoon/early evening departure on final NRT-BOS leg. Clicked "Buy via AA" option and those were transferred to AA.com, all look good. JAL flights in JL flight number, not AA code share, no problem with NRT-PVG in economy. Purchased the ticket via AA.com. Reservation ticketed. Could select seats on JAL flights via JAL.co.jp. NRT-PVG is 787 with PE seats but sold as CY and as OneWorld Sapphire I could select PE seats on NRT-PVG.

What gives? JAL agent could not get seats on NRT-PVG, said no availability. But using Google Flight via AA.com I had no problem...