Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it
Have a bit of a rant that I need to make, any feedback would be most appreciated.
Yesterday (Sunday) at just after 5pm AEDST, (1am US CDT) I went online to book an F milesAAver ticket for 18 Feb 2014 on QF metal (I had been following the availability on QF classic award search which indicated availability - no EF for me). This is just at the 331 day limit.
Went to search, it's still there but when I select it and go to book, the error message "the flight you selected is no longer available" comes up. Grrr.
I ring up the AA Oz number (re-routed to somewhere in the South Pacific, Fiji maybe?) and ask them why. They try to get onto AA in the US but can't and say it is just a matter of time until the awards are loaded.
I try a few more times (read: 10 or 20) in the next hour or so and the same error comes up.
Finally, at about 8am CST I ring up, explain the problem and then get transferred to the AA desk in the US. The AAgent wasn't able to find availability for any QF flight on that day regardless of class so there was nothing she could do except advise me to wait.
I then get transferred to someone in IT who tells me that the data doesn't get loaded in chronological order and is dependent on what data QF sends to AA. Basically there is nothing that AA can do on their end. I then ask why I can see the flight, go to select it but then at the next booking screen get told that it's "no longer available". He replies with something about not all the data being present.
This morning, some 8 hours later, I try again and it is still available but the same error comes up. It's still Sunday in the US so I don't bother ringing up as I don't think they'd be able to do anything that the previous staff couldn't do.
Later in the afternoon today (just after midnight CDT) I try again and someone has snapped it up!
I check on the QF award booking engine and it's gone. However I can select a Y AAward on the same flight and go to the booking screen with no problem.
The kicker is the guy saying that the seats don't get released at the stroke of midnight, it could take any number of hours after that point for the booking engine to make it available and that this "issue" of non-AA flights being released "late" is a common one. He said that AA metal flights are released more or less on the stroke of midnight because it's already in their system.
However get this: the previous day (Saturday) I put a J milesAAver ticket - same QF route - on hold for the previous day 331 days out (17 Feb 2014) as a backup in case I couldn't get the F seat the following day. This was done with no problem at about 2am CDT. I've just paid for the ticket. If the system has some delay on a Sunday, wouldn't you expect the same on a Saturday?
Has anyone else experienced something like this before?
