Waitlisting the first segment of a DONE4
 

I finally called to reserve my DONE4.

To my surprise I had a problem with the very first segment SFO-ORD D class for March of next year.

Since I am connecting this with my SFO-AKL-SFO pricing error :) the dates and times mattered to me.

I have looked at expertflyer and as of now AA has not sold even one first class seat.

I know there are 'special rules' for the first flight on a RTW itn [I am confused some with the rules actually].

What would you do...wait list or just forget about this segment [and buy it as part of a separate ticket]. [I need 5 A seats]

What happens if the inventory never becomes available?

Have to ask: is that 5 a five, not a typo?

Is it a 2-class flight? The agent should have looked for A class, not D.

They did look for five 'A' seats. A is completely zeroed out for SFO-ORD different days of the week for next year [as is SJO].

Are you an AA EXP talking toi the AA RTW desk? If so, I would expect them to free the flights up for you pretty quickly - that was certainly my experience when I was an EXP doing this sort of thing. Although that was only with one or two seats, not five!

Are all the flights sold out in A or just the one(s) flown with the 767-300? You could consider confirming on a different MD-80 flight and waitlist to the 767-300 and I bet over time everyone clears.

Steve

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Seems like AA has zeroed out specific days of week systemwide.

I specifically asked and they told me the RTW group did not do that sort of a thing. The AAgent said she used to be able to this for AAwards, but not RTW.

Best she could do was wait list me.

Does not sound right to me...any experiences?

They can waitlist you, and send a request to revenue management to see if they can open up A inventory for you. As to whether or not they will, I don't have a lot of experience to go by, but I'd be surprised if they would give up 5 seats to you.

Another option is to get booked in L, waitlisted for A, and cross your fingers. We did this starting a DONE4 from ARN on BA (booking only a week or so in advance), and got the D seats at the airport (but are still trying to get 125% of miles on AA rather than the 25% we got because of the original L booking).

A problem with this in my case is that it is the first flight and apparently special rules apply to any change to the first flight.

As far as my specific flight first class is 100% open...they are just no 'A' seats.

They can, and they do, sometimes, but most of the times they just tell you they can't.

The first date needs to be set because it affects the validity of the ticket.

I don't think you can even change the flights for the first segment. Once it is set, no changes.

however given you still got so much time, just WL now and then see whether AA will release the A Class for you.

Pity you're starting from ORD. Any changes to an xONEx are unlimited & "free" (or at least without penalty), ticketed or not - unless purchased in TC1 (N/A & S/A).

16. VOLUNTARY CHANGES/REROUTING/PENALTIES

1. Rebooking/Rerouting
   1. Prior to departure
      1. Origin TC1
         1. Before ticket issuance - Permitted without penalty.
         2. After ticket issuance -
            • Changes to the first international flight and preceding flights are not permitted less than seven days prior to the date of the first ticketed flight. Date/time changes to other flights permitted at no charge.
            • Date/Time/oneworld Carrier changes are permitted without reissue provided origin/destination/connecting points and inventory remain the same.
            • Changes other than to Date/Time/oneworld carrier permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction.
      2. Origin TC2/3
         • Unlimited changes permitted without charge.
         • Date/Time/oneworld carrier changes are permitted without reissue provided origin/destination/connecting points and inventory remain the same.
         • Local service fees may apply
   2. After Departure
      1.  
         • Date/Time changes permitted at no charge. Date/Time/oneworld carrier changes are permitted without reissue provided origin/destination/connecting points and inventory remain the same.
         • Routing changes other than to Date/Time/oneworld carrier permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction. If currency of ticket origin is not shown convert the USD amount at the BSR.
      2.  
         • If the rerouting results in an increase to the number of continents or extra flight segments previously charged, the ticket shall be recalculated. Tickets may be reissued to a higher fare, eg. from A –ONE3 type to A -ONE4 type fare and the increase in fare will be collected. When flight segments are added above the free allowance, those charges will be collected. When the rerouting results in a reduction to the number of continents or extra flight segments previously charged, no refund will apply.

Can someone explain this too me.

My first flights would be
1 SFO-ORD
2 ORD-PVG
3 PVG-HKG

The AAgent implied that CX would not need their ticket numbers until about a week before their flight [3]. So in theory changes would be permitted to 1 and 2 until then.

However, I was under the impression that once you 'receive' your tickets you are basically ticketed.

My plan would be to take L and waitlist A.

Define 'receive'. For example, 'Ticketed', as per aa.com, does not mean anything. You are ticketed when the issuing airline is able to give a ticket number.

This is what the AAgent was trying to explain. Something that ticket numbers were not given to Cathay in this example until 2 weeks before the flight and thus it 'might be possible' to waitlist.

That sounds then like you are not ticketed. Otherwise one would have to think that AA is hiding the ticket number from CX just for the sake of improving your chances with the waitlist. Then again, AA will go the extra mile sometimes so who knows, maybe they are being nice this time.

Be aware there are at least two, maybe three, IIRC, posts in the archive that dispute the above, stating that CX has (paraphrasing here) demanded to know the ticket number well in advance of the flight (soon after booking), or else they will simply cancel the booking and, in one case, if memory serves, actually have done so.

As of now I only have a reservation.

A few minutes after the reservation was put in the AAgent stated CX automatic system had requested ticket numbers by 'April xxx' of next year [1-2 weeks before the flight].

This did not make sense to me since if I were CX I would want ticket numbers right away.

The AAgent implied that changes could be made to the first flight until that time.

CX's auto-ticketing deadlines seem to depend on the anticipated demand. When I booked CMB-HKG-LHR for early Jan the msg returned was a ticketing deadline of 14 days after the reservation was made.

I would call CX and ask them directly when they need to receive the ticket number from AA. And then once you are ticketed, I would call CX again and confirm that they have the ticket number. I lost a seat because AA failed to give the number to CX within their deadline (or their computer systems failed to communicate).

Well this is the problem in my case...I want to wait as long as possible for AA to send the ticket numbers to CX. That way I can have more of a chance of changing the first flight as discussed above.

After a couple "no's" I talked to the supervisor.

She sent a message to yield management and the next day the seats were opened up.

A couple observations, I think it helped that this was the first segment. The supervisor could 'guess' these seats would eventually open up causing the RTW desk a lot of work in re-writing these hand tickets. This made me happy and made sense for AA [plus indirectly prompted me to buy an extra set of $10K in tickets not related to RTW today].

I am still unclear about the 'first flight' rule because the AAgent implied it could be changed until 7 days before the first flight which seems inconsistent with what is written.

The rule involved is as per post #14; your case is TC1... what part of it you find inconsistent with the agent's interpretation?