Perfect Itn Screwed by Connection vs Through Issue
 

I'd worked for months to get a near-perfect around-the-world trip set up for late August/early September, with me on a OW RtW fare, and my partner on an award. We were trying to do a lot with this trip: visit places we wanted to go to, have enjoyable flights, make sure I re-qualified as EXP, etc. We wanted to be on a 747 wherever we could (we like the upper cabin), and wanted the long-haul flights to be long enough to have a chance at some decent sleep.

I managed to get (all in business):
AA: SAN-DFW-YVR (stopover in Vancouver)
BA: YVR-LHR-AMS (stopover in Amsterdam)
AY: AMS-HEL-OSL (stopover in Oslo)
BA: OSL-LHR (stopover in London)
BA: LHR-HKG (stopover in Hong Kong)
CX: HKG-JFK (overnight in New York)
AA: JFK-LAX-SAN

The Cathay flights at the end were the hardest. I kept calling every day, and nothing was available, until all of a sudden, there was an award seat HKG-JFK on CX 888, which stops in Vancouver. The RtW desk booked me as a through flight (perfect so I didn't break the only-one-transcon rule) and the EXP desk booked my partner as two segments: HKG-YVR-JFK, saying "on an award that's how it has to be done."

I purchased the RtW ticket, and was about to do so for the award, when the agent told me it was invalid: the CX 888 HKG-YVR-JFK wasn't enough time for a legal connection, and CX refused to allow them to convert the two segments into a through trip. I was told the original AAgent shouldn't have booked it that way, that there never was CX HKG-JFK award availability, only HKG-YVR and YVR-JFK.

AA told me I could downgrade my partner to coach for the whole way, or change the flights from YVR onward to something that had award availability. The AAgent asked the CX liaison three times to allow the two segments to be converted into one, but each time CX refused. The AAgent told me that when she explained that we were traveling together and my ticket also had restrictions, CX told her "so cancel everything and refund the other pax ticket."

I thought about just coming home from Vancouver (YVR-DFW-SAN), but then I'd lose almost 5k miles at 1.5 EQP per! (Also, there is no award space on AA from YVR to DFW except on an 8:45 AM flight the next day, so we'd have to overnight in Vancouver no matter what.)

I settled for something somewhat close to what we had before, but with extra connections and on AA domestic instead of CX international, and an extra overnight. So we now have:

CX: HKG-YVR (overnight in Vancouver)
AA: YVR-DFW (overnight in Dallas)
AA: DFW-JFK-LAX-SAN

It doesn't make sense to me that AA couldn't ticket it with my partner booked CX 888 HKG-YVR-JFK. Since it's perfectly OK for people to board that plane in Hong Kong and take it all the way to JFK, I don't see why it was invalid. The AAgent told me it was an FAA rule, and that AA gets fined for doing it.

I also don't see why CX refused to convert the HKG-YVR-JFK into HKG-JFK, since it was the same award seat on the same plane either way.

(This is similar to the problem that jmgregory78 had, but seemed sufficiently different to be its own post.)

(I wasn't sure if this was best posted in the OW, CX, or AA forums. Since I was dealing with AA, that seemed on balance to be the best place.)

No one?
 

Wow -- not a single reply in two days. Feels kind of lonely out here.

Did I post to the wrong forum?

Actually, you may have. :) The oneworld Forum may have been the best place, and I will port this thread over there - oneworld has some very knowledgeable posters who will likely give you some further advice.

The whole airline industry is operating this way as the yield management software has become more capable and sophisticated. This is true for many different airlines, not just CX, and for paid tickets as well as awards. The concept is simple: market segmentation. It is a way for businesses to maximize their profit by taking advantage of various demand elasticities in different markets. Quite often an airline might have A-B-C available but refuse to sell B-C, for example. You ran into the same situation in reverse on CX, where they will do HKG-YVR and YVR-JFK but not HKG-JFK -- as they have issued the maximum number of awards for HKG-JFK that they want to issue in advance. CX usually releases such seats about a week before the flight date for award use, if they are still unsold. There is nothing that can be done about this, except to expect it to occur more and more frequently, on many different airlines.

As an aside, and you know this already (that is why you redeemed this type of award), but CX gets more for 2 awards HKG-YVR and YVR-JFK than they do for HKG-YVR-JFK. So the agent at CX doesn't have discretion to make this change after the number of award seats were determined by yield management; if they changed it, they are literally taking money out of the airline's pocket ... something they aren't authorized to do, just as they cannot negotiate fares and offer extra discounts on paid tickets. Only yield management can do that.

I have not done it myself, but several FTers here routinely manage to get a one-stop direct flight Australia-(Asia)-Europe on QF/BA, converted into two segments (Australia-Asia + Asia-Europe), all on the same flight. If it is a rule,and not BS, then it clearly affects US airspace only.

With AA the same is often true but reversed: no A-B-C, lots of A-B, or B-C. The point you are making, however, is the same.

Could it be an MCT issue?

It sure sounds like it, but what I was thinking is that such MCT are not enforced by QF/BA when the pax is not really connecting, as in the case of the OP (or others in the Oz-Europe route), but rather "staying on board". This particular case calls for a little flexibility in the interpretation of MCT, but it appears AA is not willing to go that way.

The MCT at SIN , for example, is shorter than the duration of the stop and so there is no issue doing so

If the MCT at YVR doesn't allow for the connection, then it is not surprising that AA will not ticket it.

Dave