Errors when trying to purchase JAL flights?
 

I'm looking at a trip from DCA to BKK. I've selected a particular routing, DCA-ORD-NRT-BKK-NRT-JFK-DCA, that suits my needs. The cost of this ticket according to AA.com is $1766 with the NRT-BKK-NRT flights being operated by JAL, but with AA codeshare numbers. The JAL operated flights appear to be N class on the outbound and V on the return.

When I try to book these as two separate tickets on AA.com: (1) DCA-ORD-NRT-JFK-DCA on AA and (2) NRT-BKK-NRT on JAL, the prices come out much better than if I marry the segments and try to do it one one itinerary.

Unfortunately, when I try book the JAL flights alone AA.com gives me an error and says the JAL flights are no longer available at the given price. I see the same thing on orbitz.com and other booking sites (i.e., the JAL flights appear for the lower fare price quote but when I click to book it won't let me). I called the AA EXP desk and they see the same fare, but are unable to book the flights. They advised me to call JAL. When I called JAL the agent told me that I would get a much better price from AA and quoted me some ridiculous price that was 7x the price of the quote on all of the websites.

Does anyone have any clue why every site (orbitz, aa.com etc.) is showing me this low fare for certain JAL flights but I'm unable to actually book the ticket?

Thanks

Have you tried booking NRT-BKK-NRT on JL's website? You didn't mention if you tried that. I think there are a few issues at play here that can and have happened to others:

1) With partners, aa.com doesn't always have real-time availability info. I have had the same thing happen, also with JL segments. It's frustrating because in some cases it gives the warning when you go to pricing, but in a few cases it doesn't give the warning until you attempt to purchase. At that point you're already set on what they are offering and assume that they have checked availability.

2) Phone agents often don't have access to the cheapest fares. It's worth checking with them, but in most cases you can do better elsewhere.

3) ex-NRT standalone fares are expensive in general, for reasons I don't completely understand. Try pricing TPE-NRT vs. NRT-TPE, or BKK-NRT vs. NRT-BKK someday.

Issue (1) doesn't usually/ever apply to AA codeshares, so that will likely ticket. You could perhaps put that on hold and wait a day to see if any JL availability opens up. You could also gamble and wait longer to see if any JL inventory opens up down the road. I've seen this happen - there are times when I've suspected that JL revenue management consists of a guy in an office with a dart board.

The other alternative is to look into a non-OW partner. As much as I try to stay on OW, there have been too many times lately where I've had to look elsewhere for onwards from NRT because JL was just too darn expensive.

Thanks for the informative post brenc3.

1) As you mention in point 1, this is very annoying since I do not receive the error on AA.com or Orbitz.com until after I select the option I want to purchase. In fact, on AA.com I entered my credit card and even went through the confirmation screen (assuming that my final click was a purchase), yet the error still appeared.

2) I called JAL directly. Before he even checked the flights, the JAL Agent told me that he could only offer me a really expensive fare and I was better off buying it somewhere else. Sure enough, he quoted me a price that was even higher (like 13x the price). JAL.com gives me a price about 2x the aa.com and orbitz prices.

This is a huge pain and may force me to cancel the trip.

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Thanks for this tip. I was not ware of this option. I spoke to 3 different EXP agents and one JAL agent and no one could get me the flights that I wanted for a price that I was willing to pay. I am a bit disappointed to because no one mentioned it, and one EXP agent even called the OW desk for assistance. As a result I had to give up my low fare US-NRT-US ticket and purchased the much more expensive R/T with the AA codeshares as that was the only thing available.

So, I finally ticketed the entire itin at $1800 USD, as opposed to the $1350 USD itinerary I had seen and had been planning on. My US-NRT-US fare was $700 so that plus this Visit Asia Pass would have been a more attractive and affordable option.

I don't think you can mix N fare with V fare. At least not when you are ticketed with JL. N fare bucket is not used for Japan roundtrip. Not sure about AA though.

I hope that's not what's causing the error upon attempt to purchase, though. I assumed it's an issue of whether the actual inventory is available on the JL flight. The error is coming after pricing and after entering credit card info, after clicking purchase (and has happened to me before too). I would have assumed that aa.com is smart enough to apply fare rules before pricing. Maybe not?

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I thought OP was trying to book NRT-BKK-NRT as a separate ticket.

I was trying to buy NRT-BKK-NRT on JAL independent of my US-NRT-US flights on AA.

that's why it failed. N class is for xxx-japan-yyy roundtrips and v class is for japan-xxx roundtrips

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I had an almost identical situation with an AA/AS domestic fare recently. In the end I gave up.

AA let me go right through payment before bombing out, and then so did various other sites.

If I recall both legs were showing up as N, but I was unable to actually book (even though I entered CC info and hit purcahse).

Now I'm booked in N on the outbound and V on the return on the AA codeshares.