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

[Mal]

What's the current run of experiences with the various AA booking methods? I know JohnK had some dramas recently with the "UK" method, and that the Australian Call Centre seems to be going well - even if there are often long delays.

I've got some discount codes that should more than make up for the CC conversion fee by booking through the website directly, so keen on doing that.

 

[Mal]

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

UK Method worked correctly for me, so that's still an option for people to consider (although the benefits are reduced considerably now that the Australian Call Centre has opened).

 

[turtlemichael]

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

Prior to making some on-line AA bookings, I'm wanting to check from recent experience if the legit method is still as stated in this old thread, with obvious changes as IndiAA is history.

ie:

Book the flights as one way flights on the AA website. When I advise I'm in Australia tI'lll be told to put the booking on hold and call AA to pay by credit card.
Phone the Australian AA number.
Brisbane AA office will charge my card and send you a confirmation receipt in the mail. (All done in Australian dollars).
If the booking is over $1000, as it will be in total for several flights, they'll send me a fax pro forma to confirm in writing.
Il watch the PNR get updated to ticketed in due course.

Grateful for any confirmation.

 

[Mal]

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

There is the Australian site now, which if the prices are right may negate the need for you to book online / put on hold etc...

But that process you mentioned still sounds right. I have heard of long wait queues for the Australian AA office, but havn't had a need to call them any time recently.

 

[drron]

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

Just booked an AA award for mrsdrron.Did it by ringing EXP desk then put it on hold because a few dates were not definite.Out of interest asked if I could pay the taxes of $US159.20 with my Aussie CC-No Sir.But I believed that was an EXP benefit?Oh no sir.
So 2 days later rang the BNE number.Had to hold for ~ 20 minutes but the agent was very good.Made the necessary changes and so I preceeded to pay up-$A189.58-fantastic exchange rate!:shock:

 

[serfty]

I'll answer within - my last booking were in January ...

...
Book the flights as one way flights on the AA website. When I advise I'm in Australia tI'lll be told to put the booking on hold and call AA to pay by credit card.

I book online and hold; Also check return options, sometime you'll get what you are after and it's cheaper with a round trip

Phone the Australian AA number.

Early mornings right after 9:15am seem to reduce the hold time.

Brisbane AA office will charge my card and send you a confirmation receipt in the mail. (All done in Australian dollars).

The Brisbane call centre agents will convert the booking to AUD and Quote the AUD price. Ticketing is still done in SYD; the Brisbane call center merely 'queues' you booking to Sydney.

If the booking is over $1000, as it will be in total for several flights, they'll send me a fax pro forma to confirm in writing.

Not sure about the actual limits I have had a few bookings (both finalised in IndiAA and BrisbAAne) and the only one they emailed a form for was ~$7600. I have not had to do this for ~$1600 purchases. A big YMMV on this one!

Il watch the PNR get updated to ticketed in due course.

You are likely to get an email at the same time. Print and archive this; the ticket number is important; you can't always retrieve this online.

And, as MAL posted; do check AA.com.au, I saved $180 on the same quoted booking recently ...

 

[turtlemichael]

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

I'll anser within - my last booking were in January ...And, as MAL posted; do check AA.com.au, I saved $180 on the same quoted booking recently ...

Thanks serfty and others very helpful. This stuff could be in a sticky to save questions like mine

 

[Mal]

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

btw, aa.com.au should actually be American Airlines | Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations

 

[serfty]

tnx, meant to flesh it out knowing it would not work but forgot ...

 

[Febs]

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

It seems to have been touched on earlier in this thread, but a bit ambiguously, so just in case anyone was wondering - you can now book, pay for and enter your QFF number directly in a booking from the AA.com site (it re-directs you to the Au site), and pay with an Australian credit card.

I just paid for 3 US domestic return tickets. Much easier this way.

 

[drewbles]

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

It seems to have been touched on earlier in this thread, but a bit ambiguously, so just in case anyone was wondering - you can now book, pay for and enter your QFF number directly in a booking from the AA.com site (it re-directs you to the Au site), and pay with an Australian credit card.

I just paid for 3 US domestic return tickets. Much easier this way.

This is possible, but beware, the AU booking engine does not have the same flight visibility/availability as the USA aa.com site.

I've had good success with making a booking on aa.com, ringing their BNE call centre, playing dumb and saying 'oh but i got to pay and it wont let me'. They've never charged me the $60 admin fee. That way you get all the benefits and availability of the aa.com booking engine, without the inability to pay.

 

[Myrna]

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

1. I have booked an internal US flight with AA at the Australian website for LAX-SFO-LAX. I wanted to book it via the US website, but it would not let me pay with a US$ mastercard as the billing address is in Australia and not in the US. This is a bit annoyance for me because I have US$ in my mastercard and wanted to pay for the flights in US$ and not in A$.

2. When I booked the flights via the AA Australian website, I could put in my QFF number. However when I went to the Qantas website to check my bookings, my flights were not listed. A bit odd. Last year when I booked flights with BA in Africa, the flights showed up on Qantas.

 

[Dave Noble]

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

both BA and QF use Amadeus as their reservation system so if you book on one, it can be found within qantas. AA uses sabre so there is no reason for Qantas to know anything about it. Putting your number in will allow for mileage credit and if u look at the reservation on the AA site should see the number

 

[serfty]

... 2. When I booked the flights via the AA Australian website, I could put in my QFF number. However when I went to the Qantas website to check my bookings, my flights were not listed. A bit odd. Last year when I booked flights with BA in Africa, the flights showed up on Qantas.

If there are only AA flights in your booking then there is unlikely to be any "Qantas" Amadeus PNR so it will not appear on www.qantas.com/yourbooking .

 

[Mal]

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

AA uses sabre so there is no reason for Qantas to know anything about it. Putting your number in will allow for mileage credit and if u look at the reservation on the AA site should see the number

If there are only AA flights in your booking then there is unlikely to be any "Qantas" Amadeus PNR so it will not appear on www.qantas.com/yourbooking .

I am most likely wrong, but I believe AA (Australia) uses Amadeus to book the flights, then pumps the information into Sabre. So I would expect Qantas would pick up the flights based on their links into Amadeus - as happens when other carriers use Amadeus and the FF number is entered correctly.

I haven't booked an AA flight through the .au AA site yet, so have no practical experience. But it just seems weird.

 

[serfty]

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

I am most likely wrong, but I believe AA (Australia) uses Amadeus to book the flights, then pumps the information into Sabre. So I would expect Qantas would pick up the flights based on their links into Amadeus - as happens when other carriers use Amadeus and the FF number is entered correctly.

I haven't booked an AA flight through the .au AA site yet, so have no practical experience. But it just seems weird.

I have booked both on the oz and USA sites.

Even though the oz site's booking engine is Amadeus, a SABRE PNR is created. You can actually look the Oz generated booking up on the USA site using the SABRE PNR, select seats and such.

I have not seen an Amadeus PNR refence in these circumstances.

 

[Myrna]

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

Thanks, Dave, serfty and Mal, for your explanations. Now, I understand why my AA bookings may not show up in my Qantas FF page.

 

[Fantic125]

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

Hi,
Our company uses a booking agent, and all flights (e.g. AA, AI, IC, KA) are listed in 'Your Bookings', however when I personally book on-line (and list my QFF number) some show, some don't. For example, I have a AA flight booked from IAD to LAX which is not listed, but the FJ flights from LAX to NAN , NAN to SYD are.

 

[serfty]

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

Hi,
Our company uses a booking agent, and all flights (e.g. AA, AI, IC, KA) are listed in 'Your Bookings', however when I personally book on-line (and list my QFF number) some show, some don't. For example, I have a AA flight booked from IAD to LAX which is not listed, but the FJ flights from LAX to NAN , NAN to SYD are.

That would be because your company's agent uses the Amadeus GDS system. Qantas use that as well as do FJ.

When an AA flight is booked using an Amadeus GDS, relevant information about the AA flights is sent to AA's GDS called SABRE. Often this is only regarding AA's actual flights and sometimes, , connecting flights, if there are non-AA flights which don't connect to an AA flight on the same booking they generally will not be sent .

 

[yeldarb8]

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

Folks, I am a 21-year veteran and Lifetime Platinum status in AAdvantage and (here comes an off topic remark) I have no clue why anyone in their right mind would join QFF because as an AA member I get better service, lower fees, and more flexibility even flying QF... rant over. The answer to OP's question is dead easy:

1. Go to AA.com and select "Australia" from the worldwide sites drop-down near the top of the home page in the upper right hand corner (it's the one immediately to the right of "My Account").
2. Set up your flights
3. Enter your passenger details and QFF number in appropriate fields
4. On the payments page enter your Australian credit card info
5. Submit

YOUR DONE.

Hard to imagine an easier process than that.

No calls to UK, India, or Mascot required. You can do this all online.