AONEX does CX filter availability for AA; does the online tool use AA?
 

Looking at a CX segment HKG-SFO. For several days there are instances where EF is showing A4 for CX 870, but for the codeshare in EF is says A1 on AA 6074 (the AA codeshare of the exact same CX flight).

The thing is, if I go use the online booking tool, and input 2 passengers in first, then run the search on these same days for HKG-SFO it refuses to display CX 870 as an option. It only shows CX 872.

If, however, I change the number of passengers on the RTW online tool to 1, I am then able to get HKG-SFO to display CX 870 as well as CX 872.

This evidence suggests to me that the online tool is being filtered by something, which happends to coincide with the AA codeshare availability that is showing on EF, rather than the true CX availability according to EF. So, I wonder and worry that when I call the AA RTW desk, they'll only be able to see the A1 availability and not the A4 availability CX is showing on EF.

The quickest way to answer this is to just call the AA RTW desk. Still, I found it curious enough to post on FT. I'm relatively new to the OW forum, but a search for "filter" did not result in a number of threads talking about any airline filtering availability (unlike the *A forum, where they're a dime a dozen). So does CX filter A class availability to everyone else? Any workaround?

Well, based on my experience, here's what I think. CX doesn't want to sell any more codeshares than it has to, because it doesn't want to share the revenue with anyone else. That's why CX shows A4, and the AA codeshare shows A1 on the same flight. This is very common with CX. You'll usually see a similar difference in F.

The AA RTW desk will try to sell the codeshare whenever it can, even when you don't request it, because AA also wants to maximize revenue. However, if it's only available as a CX flight, the AA RTW desk will still give it to you. This has happened to me, and I'm almost always looking for only one seat.

All that makes sense to me, but what threw me for a loop was the fact that the OW Online Booking Tool is only seeing A1 even for the CX flight, not just the AA codeshare.

Since when does CX filter A-availability to the OW Online Booking Tool for their own flights, not just codeshare? And, who else might they be filtering availability to... the AA RTW Desk too?

I've reported similar thing in the xONEx online tool bugs thread.

Of course it could just be additional filtering by fare code, but some of the specific examples I've seen suggest that is not the reason for some flights not appearing in the tool despite apparent availability.

I had an interesting experience trying to get AA award U seats on CX SFO-SIN. The flight I wanted showed only 1 seat consistently (I needed 2). After many calls I finally ran into an agent that suggested that CX likes to release 1 seat at a time. She took the one seat for one person and a second seat then showed up which she grabbed as a separate ticket. Maybe you can try that.

Different availabilities for different markets. ClassAvailabilityITN has indicated D9 on a certain LHR-SYD flight, but CX could not book it (they did ticketting). Had to waitlist and make phone calls to QF to get the seats released.