A couple of questions from an AAdvantage newbie

[sergeyvzn]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

In December I made a Business class booking on QF9/QF1 to LHR and no CD option appears. I guess they have sorted out the 081-/176- tickets.

Looks like it. I made a QF1 F booking for 2 people last week and there is no option to book a chauffeur drive. Instead you have a cute button suggesting you book a limo transfer starting for $45 pp -

 

[rogerkambah]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Oh happy day!!!!
Just snagged an F Award LHR-MEL-SYD (QF10) for travel in a couple of weeks !!!
Think I'll go and buy a lottery ticket now :mrgreen:

Could you book that online or did you search and call?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Could you book that online or did you search and call?

I booked it online. I was actually using the search builder on Award Nexus to look for a LM award and on a whim decided to tick the BA Award search as well as UA. Couldn't believe my luck when I saw QF10 come up for the dates I was looking for.
Went onto AA.com and snagged it straight away.
There is so much phantom availability for QF F on AA that this one likely flew under the radar. I would never have found it by just searching on AA.com.

 

[Pushka]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

At what point do you find out availability is phantom on aa.com?

 

[Nizar]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

At what point do you find out availability is phantom on aa.com?

When you select the flight and you click next and log in, etc, instead of progressing to the screen where you enter in passenger details, the website will instead take you back to the search results screen and say in green writing across the top "the flight you have selected is no longer available"

 

[sergeyvzn]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

At what point do you find out availability is phantom on aa.com?

When you click Book and it comes back with a message in green "your chosen flight is no longer available"

 

[maz1]

this may be a silly question, but if you're looking for a QF10 flight/seat- wouldn't you just go to the Qantas FF website?

I have not had any success looking at the BA website for any availability- i have no idea what i'm doing wrong there as I know all the blogs I follow advise to check availability on the BA website

In any case, in the last few weeks, using a combination of the Qantas FF website and the AA Advantage website I've managed to book return flights to LAX (combination of business for 2/one way and Premium Economy QF for 2/ coming back.

and also return business seats to Vietnam, including singapore to melbourne on Emirates with a complimentary chauffeur ride back home from Tulla.

I have to say, I check both the websites a few times each day.

 

[Pushka]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Thankyou both. So as long as you can enter pax details then all is good. Now I know why I sometimes get that message! Phantom strikes again!

 

[hummel]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

That reminds me, i should tickets he 2 x mel-lhr F tickets I have on hold for Christmas Day!

 

[Nizar]

this may be a silly question, but if you're looking for a QF10 flight/seat- wouldn't you just go to the Qantas FF website?

For reasons that I don't really understand, it seems that there are more QF F seats available to AA members than there are for QF members...
But that works for me.
AA miles are easily purchasable and charge much less in taxes/fees.

For example DXB-MEL on QF10 in F for two pax... AA website will charge US$71 in taxes and carrier charges.. on the QF website you are looking at probably close to a grand lol

 

[Pushka]

For reasons that I don't really understand, it seems that there are more QF F seats available to AA members than there are for QF members...
But that works for me.
AA miles are easily purchasable and charge much less in taxes/fees.

For example DXB-MEL on QF10 in F for two pax... AA website will charge US$71 in taxes and carrier charges.. on the QF website you are looking at probably close to a grand lol

Yes. Noticed that last year. Nabbed 2 F seats on the 380 that didn't show up in Qantas.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

At what point do you find out availability is phantom on aa.com?

It's been really frustrating for the last few months as almost every QF Flight to and from LHR is showing as available for F MileSAAvers. Real pain in the proverbial to find out what's real and what's not unless you click on every award option offered.
According to the folks I know it has been reported to AA but they either can't or won't do anything about fixing it up.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

It's been really frustrating for the last few months as almost every QF Flight to and from LHR is showing as available for F MileSAAvers. Real pain in the proverbial to find out what's real and what's not unless you click on every award option offered.
According to the folks I know it has been reported to AA but they either can't or won't do anything about fixing it up.

You are telling me! Lots of F space shows up but then just a fraction of it is actually available....I recently had to literally click on each option on 3 pages to work out if it's real or not when booking QF1. I also noticed that there's a lag of about 18 hours between when QF flights show up in the search results and when they actually become bookable on the 331st day, say today you can book on 03/01/2017 and seats on QF1/2/9/10 show up but when you go book them - they are not available. But if you wait for another several hours this availability becomes real. I think it's got to do with time zones - it probably becomes "real" only when it's 2 am in AA headquarters in the US or something like this...

 

[Pushka]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I had that experience last year. Could see the flights I wanted but couldn't select 'book' until later in the day. At 5pm DST in Adelaide in fact.

 

[k_sheep]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

A few friends have asked me what are some 'sweet spots' to burn AA miles on ex-Australia before the deval in March. In terms of Asia, I think it's hard to look past CMB in J for 35k miles each way which I did a few weeks back. .....

Thanks for your great advice - I've booked in CMB for this years' big holiday Going CX156 arriving 7:30am, got all day in HKG, then onto CMB on CX611 at 8pm. Surprisingly QF97 was also available, but didn't want to chance getting an old A330 config.

Sadly couldn't pay the taxes (~$67 USD pp) with my Oz CC, so will call the Australian call centre in business hours tomorrow.

Then to figure out a way home. And use up another 120k points before the deval. Hmm... back to the drawing board!

 

[auriga]

Another sweet spot is QR J class Africa to/from Australia for 50k miles one way. Ridiculous value

Do they allow AU to Africa via Doha as a single award?

 

[serfty]

If Expert flyer shows P availability on a QF flight then First SAAver awards are generally bookable within 331 days. Note that if a connection is more that 331 days then, while it may show up, it won't be bookable.

e.g. You can book DFW-SYD @ 331 days but not DFW-xSYD-MEL since the SYD-MEL segment is 333 days away. (In which case, put a 5 day hold on DFW-SYD to secure it, wait two or three days then call AA to add the domestic segment. Once that is done, you go back online to complete the ticketing.)

 

[sergeyvzn]

If Expert flyer shows P availability on a QF flight then First SAAver awards are generally bookable within 331 days. Note that if a connection is more that 331 days then, while it may show up, it won't be bookable.

e.g. You can book DFW-SYD @ 331 days but not DFW-xSYD-MEL since the SYD-MEL segment is 333 days away. (In which case, put a 5 day hold on DFW-SYD to secure it, wait two or three days then call AA to add the domestic segment. Once that is done, you go back online to complete the ticketing.)

It wasn't the case with me as I was looking at QF1 SYD-DXB - no connections. Still showed as bookable on 331 but it wasn't until 6 pm AEST or so on the day, which was effectively 330 days. I think while the calendar works on the local time the seats aren't released into the inventory until its the time in the USA

 

[DC3]

With the AA.com site showing so much phantom availability, I've given up on that site regarding finding award availability, as it's such a time-waster. The QF can also be unreliable at times.

I'm using Expertflyer and the BA site to check for availability. Then to AA.com to book.

 

[Guvner]

Do they allow AU to Africa via Doha as a single award?

I'd be interested in the answer to this as well.