AA Challenge from BNE

[futaris]

Generally, before travel has commenced you should go back to the agent from whom the ticket was purchased in order to make changes.

Really? I thought you could always deal with the airline directly on any booking with them.

 

[NM]

Really? I thought you could always deal with the airline directly on any booking with them.

I said "generally" as there are always going to be exceptions. You can generally deal directly with the airline for things that can be changed without penalty, such as allocating seats, addint FF details, even changing date/time on changeable flights.

But when wanting to make changes to an itinerary prior to taking the first flight, I have been told on several occasions by Qantas reservations staff that they cannot do it because the reservation has not been released to the airline by the agent. This automatically happens once the first flight has been taken. You can also ask the agent to release the reservation for the airline to modify. However, in my experience, agents generally don't do that and you need to contact the booking agent for changes until it has been released either manually by the agent or by taking the first flight of the itinerary.

 

[futaris]

But when wanting to make changes to an itinerary prior to taking the first flight, I have been told on several occasions by Qantas reservations staff that they cannot do it because the reservation has not been released to the airline by the agent. This automatically happens once the first flight has been taken. You can also ask the agent to release the reservation for the airline to modify. However, in my experience, agents generally don't do that and you need to contact the booking agent for changes until it has been released either manually by the agent or by taking the first flight of the itinerary.

Yep, QANTAS don't have access to a Travel Agent Booking, unless it's been released. I'll give the corporate travel agent a go, but I don't like my chances.

 

[futaris]

Around AU$500 to upgrade from N class to V class on the BNE-LAX-SFO journey:

QF175 BNE-LAX V class (3586 Qmiles / 3586 Qpoints)
QF3243 LAX-SFO V class (500 Qmiles / 500 Qpoints)
QF3152 SFO-LAX V class (500 Qmiles / 500 Qpoints)
QF176 LAX-BNE V class (3586 Qmiles / 3586 Qpoints)

$500 for ~4000 Qpoints? I'd still need to do ~1900 QPoints, probably at a cost of at least $300-$400, I guess. So another $1000 for Plat status.

Anyone else have any suggestions to get ~6000 Qpoints cheaper?

 

[NM]

Its a real shame you could not book the same flight with the AA flight number. V on the AA flight number would earn 1 q-point/mile and easily complete the challenge.

 

[futaris]

Yeah, I know. I went through the whole checking of flights through AA.com, etc. Too much hassle unfortunately. And I doubt it would be worth cancelling and rebooking a new ticket.

It was only a max of AU$300 more for exactly the same flights.

 

[futaris]

Well, I think I'll quote my LANPASS account for the BNE-LAX-SFO leg in N class. I should get ~8000km for that, at 0.70 points / km.

Might even do a short "intercontinental" trip SYD-AKL and get 10,000km bonus for the first trip booked on LAN.com before February 21, 2007.

That plus the 5,000km signup bonus for last year, and I should have 25,000km or so to transfer to HHonors ...

NB, HHonors gold was free for Skywards Gold Members.

Still looking for "cheap" ways to get 6000 QPoints on AA.

 

[futaris]

Strange. I put my Booking Reference into AA.com, and it lists the flights as following:

I wonder if the LAX-SFO will count towards the challenge, since it is a N class on AA, even though it's booked as an QF codeshare. NB, it'd be only 250 Qpoints, anyway...

I wonder if AA codeshares (on QF) will actually count anyway...

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Strange. I put my Booking Reference into AA.com, and it lists the flights as following:

I wonder if the LAX-SFO will count towards the challenge, since it is a N class on AA, even though it's booked as an QF codeshare. NB, it'd be only 250 Qpoints, anyway...

I wonder if AA codeshares (on QF) will actually count anyway...

Looks to me like you've booked under AA code for LAX-SFO vv and QF code for BNE-LAX (thus the latter not counting for challenge). In my experience when you've booked a codeshare it shows the codeshare airline name and flight number with (operated by xx_) underneath.

 

[futaris]

Looks to me like you've booked under AA code for LAX-SFO vv and QF code for BNE-LAX (thus the latter not counting for challenge). In my experience when you've booked a codeshare it shows the codeshare airline name and flight number with (operated by xx_) underneath.

However, E-ticket details aren't the same as the details on AA.com. All the flights on the Eticket are QF flights/codeshares.

I registered for the challenge on 16 Dec. QF flights are counted. However QF N class does not.

Use American Airlines (of course!) and other elite-qualifying carriers to maximize your earnings. These elite carriers are Aer Lingus, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Qantas and Alaska Airlines (and their eligible affiliates). When you earn miles on AA or on these carriers, you also earn points. Only points count toward your Challenge. (But remember that there are some fares on these carriers that are not eligible to earn miles or points. You can easily check out these rules on Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations from American Airlines | AA.comaadvantage when you select ‘Partners and Mileage Programs’ and then navigate to the particular airline.) And please note: For Challenges that start on January 1, 2007 and later, only points earned on American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection flights (including AA codeshare flights operated by other carriers) will count toward Challenges.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Sorry I was too lazy to check if you'd registered pre or post 1 January

About the N code - not sure to be honest. In *A it is really odd - going off the booking code of the operating airline, which you may not even know on codeshares because you have been given (if anything) booking code of the codeshare airline and the booking codes don't necessarily mean the same thing for different airlines (especially relevant for cheaper economy fares) and additionally the non-earning or reduced earning booking codes also vary by airline. Bit of a minefield really.

 

[futaris]

Now I'm really confused if I should just have it all credited to AA and hope for the best, or credit the N class to LAN. NB, I have already e-mailed AA so I will see what they say about it first...