Booking Awards
 

How long does it usually take you all to book an award flight by calling the airlines? It seems like it takes forever. I am just wondering how much of a pain this is for most of you like it is for me.

Thanks all,
Elbow

IME it depends upon the complexity of the trip and whether or not it's purely domestic.

A couple of years back I booked 4 round trips to Paris (CDG) using AAdvantage miles (240k), took around an hour IIRC. These days I tend to save the miles for TATL/TPAC upgrades ^ .

I have not booked many award flights in my time, but an hour seems like quite a bit of time? Is this just me or are there horror stories of this process taking much longer?


Thanks,
Elbow

For TATL *A awards I've booked through US, an hour seems to be a best case.

First, it often takes more than one call until you get an agent who knows the rules. Things like whether stopovers or open jaws are permitted, whether places like JFK/EWR are coterminal, etc, are important and some agents are flat out wrong.

Then when you think you've got a competent agent, you may not. In my case, I've had to deal with an agent insisting that my C award actually costs the international F mile rate because the domestic segment is F. And I'm told, "It's the computer, Sir. I can't change it, a supervisor can't override." Ok, thank you. Hang up, call back.

You eventually get a super agent, competent, knowledgeable and experienced with many award bookings. Once the itinerary is all set, you're still at the mercy of fare desks to calculate the tickets and fees. More segments and varying airlines tends to mean more time to calculate it out.

Read about some of the RTW awards people have booked, they've taken days to get a fare calculated in some cases.

Wow AZGuy, it is crazy some of the hassles you have to put up with in order to book an award flight. There needs to be a listing of the top horror stories associatied with booking award flights.

Thanks all for the input,
Elbow

Nothing's free anymore. FF awards are just that, awards. They still cost time and coin. Personally my family got so much out of the trip to Paris and Normandy that I really don't care that it took an hour give-or-take to book the travel. YMMV, of course.

I agree that it's worth the hassle, particularly if you're booking business or first. For Y awards, I think I'd rather just buy the ticket and be done with it.

If you're traveling TATL, TPAC, some intercontinental route or RTW on some of the world's best airlines with the best lie-flat C or F seats, the possible hours spent on the phone to get a ticket that would normally cost several thousand dollars US, or over $10,000 in some cases, it's worth the effort, time, and relatively inexpensive taxes and fees. :)

It all depends.... it can take 2 minutes for very simple flights... I have done that before on United.com.... or it can take hours... as you try to find flights and classes of services across several airlines in an alliance.

When we travelled to Egypt and Vienna two years ago on a first class award on United and LH, it took a call to book.... and took about 20 minutes.... not bad for a flight that would have cost over $15K!

There is no simple answer....

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Just today, I did a booking with UA miles. SNA - ORD - FRA -ARN. Return is CDG - FRA - DEN - SNA.

It took about 15 minutes for UA to book and hold all flights. Key was that I knew which flights I wanted and just read them off to the agent. I also was aware, from the ANA site, that the flights were available (except for the potential of Starnet blocking).

So bottom line is that it can take an hour or so, or it can take minutes. A lot of it depends on how prepared YOU are.

I have done pretty elaborate Oneworld award tickets and it's only taken me about 15-20 minutes of hold time with an agent. That's because I already know what flights have availability in the class I want (thanks to either Expertflyer or the Qantas website) , and I'm armed with all the information beforehand. I think the agents get a bit irritated that I know more than they do, but it does help them out in the long run.

I do the same - I never call without knowing exactly what flights I've wanted. But agent roulette is a huge factor. US generally is very good with regard to what they see tends to match ANA Tool consistently, no Starnet worries. The good agents get the intinerary booked quickly and then it's just a fare desk issue. Even that's fast if it's a relatively simple itinerary.

However, another aspect of a good agent can actually slow the process down - this is a good thing. On a recent award, I could only find availability in Y on a late connecting flight. It was the domestic leg so I was going to take it. The agent thought my choice was odd and asked if I wanted the earlier connection. Took him an extra 25 minutes but he got me the early flight and 2 seats in F. In such a situation, if they can open award seats that ANA doesn't show then I'll wait all day. :)

good points made here about knowing flights etc. before calling FF help desk

lurking here (and learning about tools etc.) has better equipped me for bookings of various sort, hopefully FF Awards included. will need all that to get those oh-so-hard to get Award tix to Oz on QF in F when the time comes ...:cool: