LHR/MEL/Europe FF

no not really. Just when you call and ask for PVG-NRT and they say NH is not available but they can get you on CA, then you ask 'is there anything via seoul' some agents will just come back with 'no'. Sometimes its because of no availability, sometimes i guess they just don't want to give you 2 segments when you can do it in 1. Some have also reported problems with avaiability ex SHA and GMP.

Rather than jump through hoops I rather just take the CA flight in 3 hours than 5 hours + via ICN. But that's just me, YMMV

jamar

Yeah, as a student I have more time on my hands, thus the return via ICN from KIX. That and they told me the return only had F availability on CA, thus requiring another 10k points (they suggested NH+CA via TAO, but, well, it's TAO and the last segment would have been in Y).

But on the whole I do take after your attitude- no way could I have afforded it had I paid for the whole thing in cash (I checked for my particular dates- I was looking at just this side of US$800 return if I went all on CA, double that on NH- buying the miles is cheaper) so I don't get too worked up about it.

TPJ

May I kindly know WHY? I do not want to offend anyone - I am asking purely by curiosity... This is a legitimate CRS entry, not a sort of 'dirty trick' to confirm non-existing inventory... I am asking as I did some consultancy work during the ATRAXIS (that is now part of HP SHARES) times and this entry was a recommended (not by me, as this was not my area) method to book partner inventory...

Air Rarotonga

I also know this function very well as have worked long time on GDS. It's just a request and if there are seats and you're eligible for it, you get the request back confirmed.

Here I can only understand, that US is using a *Starnet-Filter* on its system to blocking out all F-cl availability on specified carriers. The reason are listed on the last few threads.

That would make sense that they forbid the CRS to use direct-sale, because they would get those requests confirmed and all the blocking would make no sense... I am convinced they have the possibility to make direct-sales in their system.

Has anyone already contacted US about starnet blocking?

samsaia

Hi!

I'm planning a trip from Europe to New Zealand, and would like to include a stop in Australia when I'm first there...

However, does the rule stating that a stop needs to be in a *A hub city basically rule out any stopovers there?? As far as I know there are no *A airlines using Australia as their hub...

Could I maybe "walk around" the rule stating AKL as my "stop", and SYD or MEL as my destination? My concerns with that is that the stopover would be two weeks (is there a time limit for stopovers??) while my destination would only be three or four days... Might look strange?

The direct route rule might be another issue... Going by New Zealand for a Euope-Australia flight?

Does anyone have any experience as to what they would allow?

Thanks for any help! )

ariyo15

Lucky you... SYD is an NZ hub

eponymous_coward

The problem is this clearly is not solely a US issue. There are apparently multiple issues at play: phantom availability, LH making inventory available at only short notice, US's general user-unfriendliness with SHARES at being easy at booking *A inventory (given that LX was never easy to book, even before LH changed policies and any supposed edicts on "don't long sell" came down from US management).

For the record, has anyone been able to book actual inventory on UA/AC/whoever that wasn't bookable on US? I don't mean "see it on a site"- I mean go all the way through to the point of issuing a ticket with the other company. It seems to me this would be the definitive statement on whether or not there's US "Starnet blocking".

(For the record- I've gotten inventory on a *A award that didn't show up as available in ANA, so I think even there, we're not talking 100% accuracy.)

goliath

No, it isn't.

But stopovers have gone through in SYD before, regardless (on some of my own routings to New Zealand, and on other routings posted on FT and VFT as well). You can sure give it a try!

Air Rarotonga

... says who?

Star Alliance member Airlines

geo1005

I have experienced this as well. I recently booked a LH C award from WAS to MUC and was prepared, based on info provided by ANA availability tool, to fly DCA-CLT-MUC as that route showed C available while the IAD-MUC non-stop did not. The US phone rep asked me if I'd rather fly the non-stop as she saw seats available. I was online at the time and ran a quick search while telling the US agent "yes to the non-stop flight" at the same time. It never showed available on ANA and I was able to book the non-stop (and yes, I mean book it, paid the taxes, tickets issued, PNRs received and seats assigned).

travelkid

As I have understood when talking to agents now, as soon as you mention award, they use a different system to search, and there just aint nowhere to input the data required for a longsell. They may have updated their software to prevent this?

Its been a while since we heard success on this, so that might be true.

Nicksta

My family did this with United in the fall. US could not see the seats after a few calls, but they kept showing on ANA. We called United and they were booked no problem. At the time, I was leaning towards it being an IT issue, but I'm convinced now that its a system-wide block.

KRS

Managed a decent open-jaw itinerary from Northern Europe to Southeast Asia for Christmas/New Year holidays: svg-fra-ist-bkk-sgn,cei-bkk-zrh-fra-svg. Long legs on TK and TG, tax USD142

Spent countless hours trying to get F (for 2) both ways but not too flexible on dates, so quite pleased with this itinerary

Unable to lookup the itinerary on usairways.com since it does not include any US segments (or so I was told); but the agent gave me the references for LH,TG and TK and they all show the flights ^

cvarming

The confirmation code the agent gave you should work on usairways.com. If you didn't get a confirmation code for the reservation, then you should call US to get one.

KRS

I got one but it doesn't work...