Best way to book an AA (US dom) flight?

[JohnK]

The FL at ORD is i T3 at the end of the K concourse. Unless you know its there it can be hard to find. And when I went to the AC and asked, I was told it was too far to walk and I would be better off staying in the AC. Well I like to walk so I went off and found it. I will never use the AC if I have access to the FL.

So I guess the ORD BA first lounge does not come with any recommendations. If earlier flights are in on time then I may just try both lounges for future reference.

Note that they do not make boarding calls for domestic flights, so keep an eye on the time. The desk staff are happy to advise the status of your flight. They have always welcomed me as a QF Platinum member.

Thanks. I don't plan to spend too much time in the lounges during flights as there isn't that much time to spend. All I am after is just some simple refreshments and a snack if any available.

 

[NM]

So I guess the ORD BA first lounge does not come with any recommendations. If earlier flights are in on time then I may just try both lounges for future reference.

I have never been to the BA lounge at ORD since all my travel from ORD has been with AA and that means I only have access to Terminal 3 where AA flights depart and not to Terminal 5 where BA flights depart.

Thanks. I don't plan to spend too much time in the lounges during flights as there isn't that much time to spend. All I am after is just some simple refreshments and a snack if any available.

There has always been food available at the ORD FLounge when I have been there, ranging from sandwiches to cheese/crackers and fruit. Generally few good sweets as well. Last time was huge strawberries dipped in chocolate.

 

[MatthewRob]

NM is right at ORD if you are flying AA you don't have the option of using BA lounge as it is in T5 and you don't have access to it!

No AC at Tampa and don't expect ANYTHING on the TPA/MIA portion. I flew it last month in a full First cabin. The over-aged flight attendant sat down and read her book the entire way. I went to the bathroom and disturbed her to request a bottle of water to which she replied "No, we have nothing, this flight is not catered!" When I asked not even a bottle of water, "NOTHING". However, I've flown that sector on other occasions and received peanuts/pretzels and drinks and also got that on the MIA/MCO sector a couple of days before. I just think she couldn't be bothered to do anything. A positioning flight attendant sitting next to me seemed wholly unimpressed by the crew's whole performance.

Miami is currently a huge hole! The entire airport is virtually under construction and walking distances are huge between concourses. D concourse does have a nice new lounge which is one of AA's best in the US (together with DFW/D and LAX/4. Haven't had the pleasure of trying out the new JFK lounge, but it has to be an improvement than what was in existence before.

 

[JohnK]

NM is right at ORD if you are flying AA you don't have the option of using BA lounge as it is in T5 and you don't have access to it!

Hopefully I will have a chance to sample both as I will be flying AA domestic and BA ORD-LHR.

No AC at Tampa and don't expect ANYTHING on the TPA/MIA portion.

It is a shame there is no AC at TPA but no great loss.

Miami is currently a huge hole! The entire airport is virtually under construction and walking distances are huge between concourses.

Thanks again but the 60 SCs TPA-MIA will be more than enough compensation.

 

[Mal]

I've made 2 different bookings in recent times using the 'website' method.

The first one went through without any issues. Ticketed overnight, and the CC charged at the same time.

The second one was ticketed about a week ago. At one stage my CC balance reduced by about the right amount of the charge, but since then went back to normal. No charge has come through, but fare is still showing Ticketed <date>.

Does this sound normal to anyone else? Everything about the ticket shows that it's been paid for and even the refunds site doesn't seem to show any hassles with the ticket.

Anyone have similar experiences with delayed charges from AA?

 

[Dave Noble]

Does this sound normal to anyone else? Everything about the ticket shows that it's been paid for and even the refunds site doesn't seem to show any hassles with the ticket.

Anyone have similar experiences with delayed charges from AA?

Pretty common. They will run the charge through eventually

Dave

 

[Shano]

I recently (last week) booked some flights via aa.com and put the booking on hold and paid via the India call centre (faxed authorisation to AA in SYD)

As posted in other threads spelling out contact details took a looonnng time - should have read this thread first

Flights show as ticketed but no reduction in the CC balance as yet.

 

[Dave Noble]

Its on hold. So you suggest I wait?

Yuppers

Dave

 

[Mal]

Pretty common. They will run the charge through eventually

Thanks Dave. As per usual with these kinds of questions, the charge has just turned up

 

[Shano]

Just checked my AMEX account on-line and the AA charge now appears too.

Transaction is dated 31st August, but only showed up today.

 

[Mal]

Couple of final questions (for the moment). Any online way to verify that your Qantas FF number has been added? Normally leave it out and ask check-in to add it, but prefer this time to have it in the booking.

Phoned up the call centre and requested it be added. They seemed a little confused as to what I wanted, but implied they did what I requested. Will an online check-in ticket show the FF number correctly and/or allow me to change it to my Qantas one? Havn't used AA online check-in before.

 

[Shano]

Couple of final questions (for the moment). Any online way to verify that your Qantas FF number has been added? Normally leave it out and ask check-in to add it, but prefer this time to have it in the booking.

Phoned up the call centre and requested it be added. They seemed a little confused as to what I wanted, but implied they did what I requested. Will an online check-in ticket show the FF number correctly and/or allow me to change it to my Qantas one? Havn't used AA online check-in before.

I requested the call centre to add my QFF number, which they told me has been done, although I am yet to find anywhere to verify this, apart from ringing again. I also made sure that my AAdvantage number did not find its way into the booking by selecting the "continue without logging in" option on the aa.com website.

When booking through a TA in the past the QFF number has always been in the booking, but the AA BP only shows the OneWorld status, not the QFF number.

Will try the OLCI next Wednesday morning from SYD for my LAX-DFW flight and post how I go.

 

[serfty]

Couple of final questions (for the moment). Any online way to verify that your Qantas FF number has been added? Normally leave it out and ask check-in to add it, but prefer this time to have it in the booking.

...

When I use the "book, hold then call IndiAA to pay in AUD" method, I quote my FF at that time.

In the confirmation e-mail with subject: "AA eTDS Itinerary Notification" that get sent, the FF number is generally quoted against each segment (To the left of the "Meal" details).

When it does not, I call IndiAA again, quote the sabre reference and ask for them to read the FF number back to me.

It's a pain, but I prefer to be sure.

...

Phoned up the call centre and requested it be added. They seemed a little confused as to what I wanted, but implied they did what I requested. Will an online check-in ticket show the FF number correctly and/or allow me to change it to my Qantas one? Havn't used AA online check-in before.

Using online check in June I do not recall my QFF number being on the printout. I did subsequently use a self service machine in one case, the BP's these printed certainly did not have my FF number and I went to the counter to get some "traditional" BP's - these do show your QFF number.

 

[Shano]

Serfty, how long after payment until you receive the email notification you mentioned?

My flights show as ticketed on AA.com and my CC has been charged the correct amount, but still have not received a confirmation email.

The India call centre has my email address as they emailed me the CC authorisation form.

 

[serfty]

Serfty, how long after payment until you receive the email notification you mentioned?

My flights show as ticketed on AA.com and my CC has been charged the correct amount, but still have not received a confirmation email.

The India call centre has my email address as they emailed me the CC authorisation form.

It could be that IndiAA actually send this email. It's possibly a manual process. I generally receive them shortly after the telephone conversation and booking process.

They are normally sent before the ticketing process is completed.

It's easy enough to see if you have been actually ticketed by looking up your booking on aa.com. If you see a ticketed date then you should be OK: e.g.

Status
Ticketed - Aug 20, 2007

Also clicking on

should show a ticket number in the pop up.

 

[Shano]

Cheers. Flights definitely show as ticketed on AA.com so should be no problems.

 

[JohnK]

Couple of final questions (for the moment). Any online way to verify that your Qantas FF number has been added? Normally leave it out and ask check-in to add it, but prefer this time to have it in the booking.

When I booked my KUPs recently, using the UK method, I called AAindia to get my QFF number added to booking. I could not see the QFF number anywhere on the bookings but when checking in for the flights the QFF number was in the booking. The flights posted correctly within a few days.

Don't know about online checkin but I used the checkin kiosks in ORD but did not like the paper boarding passes even though my QFF number appeared on these as well. I requested and got proper boarding passes re-issued in the lounge.

 

[straitman]

I've also had this where the FF Number doesn't show on the AA boarding pass though it definately shows in the booking. General response from AA checkin staff was 'yeah, so what :!:'

 

[Tiki]

I've also had this where the FF Number doesn't show on the AA boarding pass though it definately shows in the booking. General response from AA checkin staff was 'yeah, so what :!:'

This happened to me too. Our AA numbers were on the aa.com booking and the etids email, but they didn't print on the boarding passes. We did eventually get the QF miles posted. I noticed this in PPT but the LA office had closed so we had to wait until IPC and I went into the LA office and they manually added our AA numbers to each flight segment and all LA flghts posted miles promptly after the flight.

The AY segments-the AA numbers posted on the boarding passes and as per my other thread, we have yet to get those miles posted.

 

[Shano]

I have booked some more flights via AA.com. The quoted price on the website is US$622 which equates to ~ A$760.

If I redo the booking selecting UK as country of residence, the quoted fare is GBP350, or about A$860.

I rang AA IndiAA to organise payment for the initial booking and they quoted me ~ A$860.

This seems a pretty poor exhange rate conversion (~ $0.70). Is this normal? Why is the fare so much higher when payment is from AU or UK? Will I have any more luck ringing the US AA number?