No DONE Inventory on 2-class Flights
 

I've been looking for a seat on a DFW-HNL flight for next year (February). RTW desk told me that DONE books into 'A' inventory on a 2 class plane. But isn't that the same inventory as an eVIP? I can't find ANY space on EF for the entire month of February into early March. Is this correct? Any thoughts or suggestions?

That is quite correct. A class is also used by AA for mileage upgrades and systemwide upgrades as well as some paid offerings ( including OW ATW tickets )

Only real options for non stop DFW-HNL are to find a flight with
A availability or a flight with L availability ( if prepared to fly in economy ) and then watch out to see if A opens up closer to the time

Aternatively see if there is availability on a different routing to HNL ( such as DFW-LAX-HNL )

It's also an issue with the likes of DFW-ANC in the season.

Just a very small correction - in addition to 'L', passengers on a DONEx are also allowed to book into the higher 'H' booking class on AA (and into 'B' on non-AA flights)

None of the flights via DFW/LAX/PHX seem to have 'A' availability. I'm guessing since eVIP's expire in February, many people book as far out as possible.

I would just book a round-trip ticket to HNL for 2/2017 & waitlist the eVIP's, but there will be no advantage to booking early for priority on upgrades henceforth.

Hawaii flights are a bit of an anomaly. There are plenty of P fares but no A fares, even 330 days out. F7 P7 A0 In essence meaning no one can use mileage or SWU upgrades or book on AONEn or DONEn RTW fares or ACIRnn or DCIRnn Circle Pacific fares.

Whereas, ANC flights have A fare availability, but you need to book within a few months of ANC seasonal summer schedules being released in November/early December. I booked mine last December on my AONE4 for this coming summer. If you go look at availability for ANC flights for this summer you will find that many flights are sold out, F0. F0 A0 P0

P fares are usually deep discounted F class, except for Hawaii flights where it is normal discounted first class; and still rather high priced IMO. But if the demand is there, which it appears to be, then AA is going for it, at least until the next recession.

It is interesting that when EF lists fare codes they are listed with P fare in second position for Hawaii flights and A fare code in the second position for ANC flights.

Note: They do release A inventory on Hawaii flights closer to departure date. For example DFW-HNL for example today's AA 123 flight has F2 P2 A1. One flight on Friday, Sunday, and Monday has A inventory available. Return flights for Tuesday, Thursday and Monday of next week have A inventory available. It appears that 3 weeks to the day is the magic number as A inventory is zeroed out from July 12 onward.

OP: If you want to attempt to book Hawaii on your DONEn ticket, I would book L inventory with plans to change it to A inventory and most likely the date and flight too, when A inventory becomes available. Subscribe to EF and set alerts for A inventory >0 for flights on or around your preferred travel dates. This would allow you to book your onward flight to Asia or SWP, which if you were to wait, D inventory may not be available 3 weeks prior to travel. I would also recommend booking refundable and fully cancelled hotel reservations for multiple arrival dates, or book 1 night stays. Same goes for car rentals.

Great Post - Thanks
 

Wow, thanks so much. I feel like you gave a PhD dissertation on Hawai'i upgrades. Excellent & insightful.

On my last AONE my travel agent was able to get A seats for me by contacting AA directly.

Makes sense. The right person at AA should be able to move P to A for a DONEx passenger. Finding/getting to that person OTOH ...

I'm EXP on AA and I can say wth a high level of confidence that probably won't happen. AA revenue management rarely opens up other fare buckets, especially on the DFW HNL as they will sell all the P and F.

If you are ticketed thru AA on 001 ticket stock you can try calling the RTW desk and ask them to ask revenue management to open up a seat. But I wouldn't hold your breath. That's if the RTW agent will even entertain sending the request. With only 6 agents on the RTW desk, the HUCA process usually doesn't work with them.