Best way to book an American Airlines (ex US) flight

[penegal]

I tried to book a return flight from Miami to Carribean using the el segundo method with my mastercard however I got this email response.



Does this mean it got rejected, can someone please recommend a way to get it to work. When I log into the booking it says "Purchased" but not ticketed or anything... Do I need to call AA?

I would call them to confirm, just to be sure...

Also check your online banking to see if you were charged.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I tried to book a return flight from Miami to Carribean using the el segundo method with my mastercard however I got this email response.

Does this mean it got rejected, can someone please recommend a way to get it to work. When I log into the booking it says "Purchased" but not ticketed or anything... Do I need to call AA?

I had an issue with an AA pnr not ticketing. I'd successfully done 3 out 4 pnrs & received AA eticket numbers which had downloaded into the Tripit app yet nothing on the 4th pnr. When I retrieved pnr online (end of October) it still said "purchased 16 Oct" so I rang AA res nbr for BNE which goes through to the US & queried it & was told credit card had been declined so I thought I must've had finger twubble entering one of the digits.

They can only see the last 4 or 5 digits of the credit card number so you can't double check the details. On realising I resided in Australia they then said "do you realise you booked this on AA.com and not the Australian site" & I told them the US site showed more flight options. So after checking with someone they said they would charge the amount in Australian Dollars on the Australian credit card & confirmed the Australian billing address details as in addition to the Oz billing address, I'd put my version of 'El Segundo' which was Redondo Beach CA 90277. That confused them slightly but I said the cc would not go through otherwise because their system didn't accept our 4 digit zip codes.

Now I'm not sure what other details they have to do at the AA end like maybe change the country of residence from "US" to Australia but after taking the cc & address details they said that would be queued off for ticketing you can't wait on the line while they do it which is what I told them I was happy to do.

About 10 minutes later I logged on & the pnr status had changed from "purchased 16 October" to "ticketed" so I thought that was the end of that. Two days later I still hadn't received the eticket itinerary/receipt so I logged on to see the pnr status had changed to "canceled" - not good.

Called Amex to see if they had issues & was told all good so called AA again to query what happened & was told the cc had declined but could not expand further as to why. I asked them if they could resinstate the booking so they rebooked flights into a new pnr but I would have to call to pay as there is no option to "purchase" like when you do a 24 hour hold booking yourself on AA.com.

This was the day before we departed for LAX however AA flights weren't until 09 November. Well forgot to call didn't I so when I remembered the day after arrival the new pnr had auto cancelled so I made another booking on AA.com then went to AA Premium checkin at T4 (prior to our next flight from T5) & got them to issue the latest pnr as they could swipe the actual credit card itself by then.

Moral of the story is unless you have received the actual eticket itinerary/receipt from AA with the eticket numbers beginning with 001 don't take anything as being okay.

Sometimes if the cc charge does not go through the booking will stay there (as 'purchased') but other times it will cancel. They will not call or email you to say something is wrong. Assume nothing & keep on checking pnr - even if pnr says 'ticketed' you have to say 'prove it' & see those ticket numbers.

 

[dfcatch]

OBB,

I had a similar thing a month or two ago - when I called up they just took payment again over the phone and it was all good.

When I replicated another booking online a couple of weeks ago - it went through perfectly.

But yes - with AA - when you retrieve it online - you really want to see "Ticketed - xx/xx/20xx".

If it doesn't have the date - you should be watching it.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

What is the significance of "El Segundo" ??

 

[serfty]

El segundo is a suburb near LAX.

More on it's use may be found upthread.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[drron]

El Segundo is no longer needed.I use my real address but just put a zero in front of postcode.Has worked with purchased and award tickets.

 

[kevrosmith]

El Segundo is no longer needed.I use my real address but just put a zero in front of postcode.Has worked with purchased and award tickets.

I suspect that your oz post code with a zero in front only worked because that 5 digit number is a valid zip code. If your postcode with zero in front is not a zip code, then I reckon it will fail. The fact that el segundo works is because it is a valid zip code, not because there is anything special about el segundo itself, afaik.

e.g 2210 = Peakhurst, NSW
02210 = Boston, MA

but 4870 = Cairns, Qld but there's no 04870 in USA, but 4865 = Gordonvale, Qld has 04865 = West Rockport, ME

http://www.quine.org/zip-all-01000.html

http://www.quine.org/zip-all-04700.html

(Coincidentally, this same principle applies when trying to use petrol bowsers in the US, which require pre-authorization swipe of credit card, and you have to enter the zip code of the card at the bowser - a friend just put the Oz post code with leading zero and it worked, whereas it didn't work for me, and I suspect it's because 04870 isn't a real zip code etc)

 

[kevrosmith]

I tried to book a return flight from Miami to Carribean using the el segundo method with my mastercard however I got this email response.



Does this mean it got rejected, can someone please recommend a way to get it to work. When I log into the booking it says "Purchased" but not ticketed or anything... Do I need to call AA?

i got this message too and so I called the US number via Skype. They wouldn't accept my Oz card over the phone, but said they could put the booking into a "hold" (my term, not theirs- cant remember what they called it) and I could pay with my Oz Cc at a ticket counter when I got the the States but would have to pay the $35 manual ticketing payment fee. I just took that option. My status online said "ticketed" but didn't have the dates. It all worked out fine for me, but next time, I'll probably try to follow the el segundo methods better. I suspect it would depend which type of card you are using (Amex, visa, MC) and also which institute issued your card as to how smoothly it will go.

Serfty suggested I try to rebook a new booking and try el segundo. Normally I'd be willing to try this, but as this was my first time, I was quite nervous about it all, so took the pay-at-counter option.

As per ozbeachbabe's, the call centre ppl were concerned that I'd used the US site and were confused when they saw the US zip code I had against the address. (I think I'd tried to use a friend's address in the States - a real one, that is - but think the credit card processing system rejected it cause it mustn't have matched the address on my credit card account - I didn't realize that credit card processing systems did this level of checking, but they must some how...?)

Somewhere in this thread, I think serfty mentions that he puts the real Oz address in the lines, but selects El segundo etc as the zip code. I suspect that this still might be a combo of card type (Amex..?) issued direct from Amex (?), and not, for example my Amex as a partner card to my Westpac MasterCard etc. which may then determine the level of checking the system may do to verify the validity of the card etc. (Eg. A real Amex issued by Amex may not get as much scrutiny). Keep in mind, the first (4?) digits of a CC number signifies the card type, issuer etc. so they may be able to tell a foreign card straight away by number range. I've read varied comments from people who have had success with different card types, credit/debit, various issuers etc and I think there are quite a few factors at play which determine smooth success.

 

[dfcatch]

Can't find it on the iPhone, but further up the thread is the suggestion that you select Australia as the country, use the Address 2 line to put in Suburb, State and Postcode, and leave the Zipcode field blank.

Whilst this failed once for me - it has worked 3 times in the last 6 weeks perfectly.

All from the US site.

 

[serfty]

There's several ways - all to avoid the booking/service fees.

I'm in the drron camp, but also am always logged on to my AAdvantage account when booking. (This way ensures the booking shows up in your list of bookings when logged on later.)

Although I mainly use Amex, about a year ago I used my EDR mastercard.

 

[Isochronous]

NAB Platinum Amex seems to work for me using real Australian address.

Although logging on to my NAB account, it seems the transactions are a little strange. There are a string of 95c "miscellaneous authorisation" charges, and the actual airfares just appear as a dollar amount seprately without saying who the merchant is, but a few days later some of them have started changing to American Airlines Dallas. Will wait for the monthly statement to come to check what the deal is, but their credit card processing system seems rather weird. Both Air Pacific Nadi and Qantas Mascot come through straight away with their actual name listed.

 

[penegal]

Sorry for the delay reposting this, but El Segundo and/or phoney post codes are no longer needed.

[URL]http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/qantas-frequent-flyer-program/how-research-book-aa-instant-42433-3.html#post667797
[/URL]

I have been using this technique for a while and it works fine.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

El Segundo is no longer needed.I use my real address but just put a zero in front of postcode.Has worked with purchased and award tickets.

Sorry for the delay reposting this, but El Segundo and/or phoney post codes are no longer needed.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....earch-book-aa-instant-42433-3.html#post667797

I have been using this technique for a while and it works fine.

So if using your Australian billing address but with a zero in front of your post code do you put Australia as your country of residence or still the United States as per the El Segundo method?

 

[DC3]

If Australia appears on the country list you no longer need to use the 'El Segundo' method.

I have successfully made bookings on AA.com using an address like this:

View attachment 9144


If you read the form carefully it says that the least two fields are only required for "U.S. and Canada", and "U.S., Canada, Mexico or UK" respectively.

In my experience if you populate the ZIP/Postal Code box your form will fail their validation checks as the website checks this field regardless of which country is selected, therefore I have started putting the state and postcode it in the city box in order to enter a 'correct' & 'complete' address.

YMMV.

It's in the link, above:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....earch-book-aa-instant-42433-3.html#post667797

The last two fields are only required for "U.S. and Canada", and "U.S., Canada, Mexico or UK" respectively, and

"In my experience if you populate the ZIP/Postal Code box your form will fail their validation checks .."

 

[penegal]

So if using your Australian billing address but with a zero in front of your post code do you put Australia as your country of residence or still the United States as per the El Segundo method?

What I do:

• Select country as Australia
• Don't put anything in the Post Code box.
• Put the address, city, state and post code in the it in the address boxes, as per the screen dump.

e.g. Leave the last two boxes blank... the form still works (in my experience).



View attachment 9144

 

[dfcatch]

What I do:

• Select country as Australia
• Don't put anything in the Post Code box.
• Put the address, city, state and post code in the it in the address boxes, as per the screen dump.

e.g. Leave the last two boxes blank... the form still works (in my experience).



View attachment 9144

I can confirm this works fine.

 

[Isochronous]

I filled in the postcode box and it all worked for me.

 

[file51]

I can confirm this works fine.

Ditto...

I usually use the AU site as the Instant Upgrade fares on the flights I book work out to be the same price,
HOWEVER, the AU site never seems to show the 'FIRST SPECIAL' fares which are even cheaper than the Instant
Upgrade fares.

i.e. I normall fly LAX-DFW-CMH at least 4 times per year each way. Previously YUPP/KUPP fares were $650, a few months
ago they went up to $832. Currently they have a FIRST SPECIAL (P class inventory) fare at $542... naturally I have just
locked in all my CBus sectors for 2013 up to October...

The El Segundo method always worked for me.... but it gives me a little more peace of mind knowing everything now
is being done properly by using my real billing address.

 

[jastel]

I have been using the AU site with my real address and a westpac amex card with no problems for the last month.
All bookings fine, email confirmations quick, then full itinery a bit later, just show that at check in.
I havent tried to get points upgrades, just whatever tickets a week or so out.
Some fares have been cheap, some have been a bit exxy but if you want flexible you pay.

 

[serfty]

I have been using the AU site with my real address and a westpac amex card with no problems for the last month.
...

Yeah - used it myself, sometimes it's cheaper - but rarely.

Even today - First Class LAX-SFO is AUD438 when the same flight in First on AA.com is USD231.

Also, you can't get the most effective routings on "AA.oz".

FWIW, I have been using the AA.com (USA web site) since 2006.