ellinj

AA is worse, they won't allow any changes at all to a ticket issued by a TA, even with paying the change fee. They just won't touch it until travel starts. Not looking forward to that.

Sam I Am

I did this on AA without issue (fare was booked by travel agent, but on the phone 1 hour after ticketing, they upfared and waived change fee).

However, I've been in a battle with US over the 50% PQM bonus - they insist it was an "upgrade" and not eligible, despite having the E-Receipt showing the A fare class.

Superguy

Yeah, I'd fight that too. It wasn't a GoUpgrade - it was a legitimate buy up to a different fare. Do you have a copy of the fare rules?

Segments

Is it viable to cancel the original ticket booked by TA and purchase new ticket from airline? Done within 24 hours should mean no change fee. You would have the original receipt for expense report purposes.

ellinj

No, we have to use the corporate card for the purchase. Even if I called US and got them to take two payments I'd be worried that the charge will come through indicating an F fare class on the corporate card. They audit that stuff.

Superguy

Can't buy the Y ticket with corp card, then call in and ask to upfare and pay with a personal card? That's what I do.

You can even do it online if you change flights (for some reason, online doesn't allow you to keep the flights but change your class). It then asks you how you want to pay the difference.

ellinj

last time i tried no, they referred me back to the TA. If the situation arrises again I will try and see if Amex can do it. Lately all I have been doing is PVD to DCA, which isn't worth it at all. 99 segments to CP this year, been a tough slog, but I will make it on segments.

miffSC

I rather like keeping the US speculation in the US thread until US no longer exists at all any more. Having a conversation with AA elites is like banging one's head against the wall.

I've written about the reciprocity not working, the slow decimation of the US Airways program, and why I believe that our four tier system with complimentary upgrades works well. It is just really sad that even though US came to the rescue of American, that very little of what we love about US Airways is being kept in the mix and I'm afraid that things do not bode well for our program.

Even though there will be more elites, there are also more planes and more seats.

JMN57

That is hardly an accurate representation of what occurred. AA went into bankruptcy to restructure labor costs which were un-competitive as its competitors had gone into bankruptcy earlier and done so while AA had not wanted to. The net result was that AA's labor costs were higher and it needed to change them. Ultimately, AA realized it needed to change its cost and bankruptcy was the only way to accomplish that.

Doing this made the AA unions unhappy and Parker pursued them and their unhappiness to try and get a merger for US. Parker needed the merger as US had some serious cash needs given its contracts and commitments and AA , in spite of bankruptcy, had a pretty good cash position and cash flow. Frankly, after the labor contract changes, AA is generating tremendous profits and cash.

AA could and would have emerged from bankruptcy as a profitable and cash generating airline (their last couple of quarters under Horton were quite good). One can argue whether they had the scale for the long haul. Whether AA was not big enough for the long haul to compete with DL or UA, it is clear that US was not.

middlekingdom

Not sure if this is the right forum. Based on my current travel schedule, I will land at about 90000 miles this year. If platinum exists on US, I would platinum for 2015. What would be the options that I could to get to CP.

I have a USAirway master card and have spent enough and got the 10,000 miles credit, so not sure if I can do anything more there. I am willing to consider a mileage run but not really much into that. I am willing buy up to the next level if it is reasonable but that option seems to have been removed. Ideas appreciated.

WiscAZ

At this point your only guaranteed option is to do a mileage run to obtain CP. The only other possible option is buy up but as you can see from the thread this is a bit of an unknown at this point. The credit card does you no good after the 10K PQM bonus is exhausted.

AZ Travels the World

One could apply for and get a second card, complete the necessary spend and earn a second 10K bonus.

But it's getting pretty late in the year for most people to pull off that level of spend in such a short time.

Yahtzee

I'm in the same boat at 88K and change; looking like a same day turn in F to LAX and DFW in Nov/Dec. I can actually do that for about the same as the 1500 I think it would have cost to buy up. But the loss of time sux.

iztok

I am looking at being at 90k as well. Found around $700 MR CLT-PHX-ANC that might be viable to take for me.

Superguy

Did a similar run twice last year (BWI-PHX-ANC). It was very good with the 3x PQM promo going on at the time.