Circle Pacific

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Bob

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Jun 8, 2004
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Has anyone had problems like these I am having with a Circle Pacific business class fare:
I have had a booking in the system for nearly a month, but am still waitlisted on an American Airlines flight from North America to Tokyo at the end of April. Getting to Toronto with Qantas via LAX is not at issue, but my travel agent tells me there are no D class fares with AA out of North America to Japan anywhere near 23rd April, so even if I get them to release a D class fare in the next couple of weeks before I go, I am concerned that if I subsequently have to make a change to my plans that there will be insufficient availability and flexibility.

There seems no point to having the Circle Pacific as a product if you can't buy it even months ahead.

The other option I looked at is buying it in first class, but only two legs seems to have first class (SYD LAX and ORD NRT).

Has anyone any better ideas?
 
Where's NM when you want him...Bob, he's done a couple of DCIR22 or 26's; so he's likely to know the answer....
 
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NM reporting for duty. Yes, I had exactly the same issue at the end of last year with D availability on ORD-NRT. This route is notorious for a lack of D. Business Class fill early with AAdvantage members buying cheap economy fares and upgrading. And they take the confirmed upgrades out of D availability (and A for first class confirmed upgrades).

Check the number of J seats free. These flights get full in business class on Fridays, weekends and Mondays. When I booked my trip, I was going from PHL back home via ORD-NRT-BNE. I finished in PHL on a Friday and wanted to connect to the ORD-NRT flight on the Saturday. No D was available on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. I was confirmed on Tuesday and waitlisted for the other days. Eventually, about 1 weeks before the ORD-NRT flight, the Monday waitlist cleared. I was easily able to change the NRT-BNE flight. So in the end I sat in a hotel room near ORD from Friday afternoon until Mondat morning waiting for my connecting flight. Sat and Sun were completely full in J, so no chance of D becoming available.

This is the downside of AA's generous upgrade policy. They fill the J cabin with upgraded discount economy flyers, and we paying D fare passengers can't get a seat on the flight we want.

And of course they also know that NRT is the most attractive Asia port for Circle Pacific fares since it is the shortest distance between USA and Australia via North Pacific. My preference is to use HKG for these fares, but unfortunately could not fit it into 22,000 miles and include DFW and PHL, so had to use NRT.
 
Thanks NM,

I had my travel agent chase up AA a second time and also asked my Qantas account executive to contact them. It may have been just a coincidence but I have just heard today that the booking is confirmed.

Now I just have to hope that I don't have to change the dates.

Bob
 
Glad it is sorted for you. It will continue to be a problem for me as the ORD-NRT segment is going to show on almost every DCIR22 ticket I book. Unfortunately I can't fit HKG into my routing for most places I need to visit in the USA.
 
I found that I could do the HKG routing under 22000 miles if I paid for a BNE SYD sector separate to the circle fare. That is a lot less than paying $1400 extra for going from 22K to the 26K fare.
 
My parents are travelling JFK-YVR-HKG-BKK-SIN-PER-MEL-BNE-SYD-LAX-IAD on business class circle-Pacific tickets with CX/QF/AA commencing 23 March.

Their bookings were first made in late September 2004, but they made changes as recently as three weeks ago, and never had a problem in getting the flights (or seats) they wanted.
 
CDS1959 said:
My parents are travelling JFK-YVR-HKG-BKK-SIN-PER-MEL-BNE-SYD-LAX-IAD on business class circle-Pacific tickets with CX/QF/AA commencing 23 March.

Their bookings were first made in late September 2004, but they made changes as recently as three weeks ago, and never had a problem in getting the flights (or seats) they wanted.
Quite understandably - they are using CX for the North Pacific routing. The difficulty is on AA into NRT, which is the shortest routing between USA and Australia via Asia. CX always has good D far availability. And given the chance, I will take CX over AA in J any day. But unfortunately for me, I usually can't fit it into the 22,000 mile version of the fare. The routing you mention is going to be a DCIR26 fare. The extra 4K miles make a huge difference in routing possibilities.

Note that business class Circle Pacicif fares are booked in D class, which is the same class used for OneWorld Explorer and Global Explorer RTW fares. This is no unique to Circle Pacific fares. It just comes into play since there are only two options for Circle Pacific fares - AA into NRT or CX into HKG. CX always has better availability for D seats over the North Pacific.
 
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