brp

Here's the scoop:

I have a discount code for a particular itinerary. This can only be applied for bookings from AA.com.

This is an international itinerary, and I want to apply eVIPs as we have some to use up, and this is one purpose for the trip.

Because this is to South America, 'Q' fares cannot be "eVIP-ed." I can get N fares on the return (about twice as much as 'Q'), but only get 'Q' on the outbound. EF shows Q7. I even tried a temporary hold of 6 seats in the 'Q' inventory to try and exhaust it temporarily (it would only be for a few minutes), and EF still showed Q7 (and my next reservation attempt brought up more 'Q'. I don't want to keep holding phantom seats on separate reservations just to exhaust the 'Q". Doesn't seem right, even though I'm going to give it back shortly.

When I explained the situation to the person at web services, he understood and told me that I had a "decision to make." I don't want to make that decision as I want to apply the discount code and upfare to 'N'.

Any thoughts on this one?

Cheers.

sukn

Have you discussed this with an experienced EXP agent? While the agent is on the phone with you, complete the purchase on aa.com and then have the agent go in the record while it's still in the "purchased" but not "ticketed" mode, and manipulate the fare code to N or whatever else. Hopefully this will not result in a fare difference for you.

captaink

AFAIK, The inventory class listings only show availability up to 7, and for your given flight, there could be 50 seats in the "Q" bucket. If it were an Eagle flight, it might be worth it to hold all of the "Q" inventory for a few minutes, but you could find yourself holding reservations for a lot of people in this case, especially if it's a 767 or 777. If I were you, I'd wait until closer to the flight date, as "Q" will always run out before "N", and the higher price of "N" is no object in your case...

brp

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried something like that the first time- I had purchased the ticket and called to have them push through ticketing and apply the eVIP. She mentioned the Q fare aspect (yeah, I should have known), and did look at the upfare option. I believe, though, that the discount code goes out when that happens. It does result in the Q->N fare difference, but I'm prepared to pay that.

Cheers.

brp

Yes, it will only show as high as 7. I don't know if it's the domestic or international leg that has the most Q, but I do know that they have at least 13 as I did try a 6 hold and it still showed 7. Don't want to keep going down that route.

I'd thought about the waiting, but this trip also requires within-country travel purchased separately as well as a train ticket for a limited-run train. I don't want to risk those going away while I wait for this.

I think my head is going to explode over this one

Cheers.

gemac

Rock----->BRP<-----Hard place.

I would give it 48 hours to find a solution. If no solution by 2 AM Sunday Central time, I would put enough Qs on hold to force N, then cancel the holds. You are really only restricting Q from the time you put the last Q res on hold until you cancel a Q res, booking the N in between. Should be no more than 15 minutes. Likelihood of someone wanting to book a Q fare to South America between 2:15 and 2:30 A.M. is pretty low.

Your sense of ethics may vary.

FWAAA

I'm not a constant aa.com basher. In fact, compared to UA, this forum rarely complains about aa.com

But it does make me angry every time I have an issue similar to that faced by brp that those in charge of aa.com place a higher priority on re-doing the seat map pages (debuted several weeks ago) than providing us with the ability to actually pay more money than the default flight choices when we want specific booking codes.

Is it too much to ask for the same kind of price/schedule matrix enjoyed for years now by Southwest customers? Every time I buy a ticket on WN, their website gives me a wide variety of fare choices (although it no longer gives as many choices as it used to). Why can't AA give me every available fare bucket?

RChavez

ITA's booking engine already supports this type of search in its API. I don't think that customers have a need to specify the actual bucket, but rather the type of fare (upgradeable fare, cheapest fare, flexible fare, etc.)

I think AA has already started to go this route with their roll out of branded fares, they just haven't gotten all of the different fare types right yet. But at the very least, the ability to search for an upgradeable fare would be very useful.

But it should be a very straightforward query to create, but alas with everything in software development, it depends on the prioritization and justification.

brp

Well, I thought of something that could work, but it involves cooperation, and I think they may be willing.

Say I buy the fare as is- Q on the outbound, N on the return with the discount code. I won't be able to apply eVIPs to the outbound as-is (and that one is not available at the moment anyway, so there's no hurry).

Then wait for it to fully ticket and bill. Now the code is applied and in there for this part. Afterward, have them upfare the outbound to N on the Ticketed reservation. The cooperation is agreeing to waive the change fee and just charging the fare difference. All I'd be out is the value of the discount on the Q-> difference, and that's like $40 across two tickets based on the amount of discount I've seen so far.

I assume that they can change a fare bucket after Ticketed. Not elegant, and a small loss on the discount...but it should work.

Cheers.

captaink

At the moment, AA actually has more fare options that WN. AA has Deep discount economy, discount economy, full fare, YUP, and First, while WN just has "Wanna get away" or whatever they call it these days, Business, and Business select. But yeah, I'd like to see a search function like Delta has where you can pick "__ Class or higher". That would solve brp's problem easily...

Spiff

Phone me up. I'll be happy to hold a few Q seats for you for a few minutes. A coordinated FT effort might overcome the obstacles that aa.com has placed before you.

ijgordon

It would certainly be interesting to band together and see exactly how many "Q" seats AA was offering for sale.

FWIW, CO and DL both allow you to specify a specific fare class for booking on their website.

brp

Well, if I really wanted to do that, I could make several 6 person reservations and exhaust the 'Q'. Wouldn't even need to take any of my fellow FTers up on the kind offer. I can make up names with the best of 'em

Now, the problem is that the code is in "already been used" jail as I did book, and the kind EXP agent "undid" the purchase. Web services are unable to free the 15% code to LIM from the "used" state.

Cheers.

captaink

I always knew Mickey Mouse wanted to go to Lima with his friends Donald and Daisy Duck...

GTITAN

Agreed, NW, CO, DL and even UA to a certain all allow something of a targeted fare class purchase. It is too bad that AA does not allow this as with brp's situation or if one is targeting EQPs and trying to get a fare that results in a full EQP per mile as opposed to 0.5 but wants the cheapest possible. Perhaps, the folks at AA will rectify/enhance this at some point.

Safe Travels.