So wanted to share my "nightmare" with AAdvantage reservations. Spent more than 10 hours with them on the phone and still nothing ticketed!
Wanted to buy two one ways PER - xHKG - HAN and SGN - xHKG - PER on CX J. No other way to go via oneworld it seems?
Sector: PER - xHKG - HAN
1/ Wanting to charge 57.5K miles per sector instead of the 35K in the first instance. Told them to look at the award table and they conceded it was 35K in the end. Held the reservation whilst I buy the points.
2/ Called the Australia line (24 hours) at 10pm Perth time - seemed to be diverted to America to ticket this award. Had to be charged the 21 day expedited ticketing fee (no issue). Cash component came up to US$120 I think including ticketing fees...
- Agent says will need to convert it to AUD before charging your credit card. It will be A$200 please. Excuse me? How does your system do the FX conversion? They look into it and say oh we need to charge the Australia service centre fee (NB: according to information volunteered by this call centre, you don't have to pay the Oz call service fee if you pay the 21 day expedited ticketing fee). Tried to tell them that US$120 fee is correct and since it already includes the expedited US$75 service fee. It seems to be you (or your system) is stuffing up somewhere either in the FX conversion or double adding another Oz service centre fee. They don't seem to get that...
- After going on hold (agent needs to speak to supervisor), they finally concede that it shoudl be around A$120 and take my credit card details.
3/ Take my credit card details, booking status changed to "ticketed". But knowing that this is not sufficient without a e-ticket number, I monitor this vigorously. 24 hours later not here - I call the call centre who assure me all is well. 48 hours later, no e-ticket number and I know something is wrong and call back again. This time they say oh, we need a copy of your photo ID and credit card! What? This is new and I have never heard this before. I leave it as that because I have other fish to fry with them on my other leg.
SGN - xHKG - PER (CX J)
1/ Again, Asia Zone 2 to Oceania should be 35K points in J but they wish to price it as 57.5K again (i.e. two tickets as Asia #2 to Asia #2 and Asia #2 to Oceania). After being put on hold (I need to speak with my supervisor) multiple times, they concede it should be 35K points and proceed to hold the reservation
2/ Called the Asian office (HKG) to try and ticket - thinking that they will understand CX routings and geography a little better.
- Lady says it is 57.5K points please. I say no, its meant to be 35K and this was agreed during the reservation process. Sorry sir, can't see anything and we can't do anything - we can only price according to the computer system and have no flexibility - you will need to call the US Aadvantage desk.
- I call the US desk. Again, the agent said it is 57.5K miles please and I say no that is not right. It was initially agreed during the booking process that it was 35K points She tries to make excuses that you are going to HKG first and I say no, I'm transitting in HKG. I just want to get from SGN to PER and it seems that is the only way to do so in J. She puts me on hold and comes back and says ok, I have checked with the relevant department and it is 35K + some taxes.
- She says how would you like to pay - online or credit card? I think it will be great if I could pay online and she says she'll send the payment link to my email address on file (on hindsight, I am not sure if this option is even valid at all or whether she was just deluded?).
3/ Anyway email never came so I call US reservations again at night to finally try to ticket and they want to charge 57.5K points again! I say NO, the agent I spoke to in the afternoon has said its 35K and has noted it in my record. Unfortunately nothing! And then we spend another 2 hours trying to fix it to 35K points (a lot of time being put on hold). Finally, all done and now ready to ticket and pay with my credit card. Oh sorry! We can't accept your Australia credit card. I try to get them to put 00000 in the Zip and AU as the state (instead of the El Segundo method) but she says she can't set this up. She says there is an authorisation to debit 35K points and taxes for your ticket though and maybe to try the Australia office. I say OK.
4/ Call up the Oz office (24 hour line) and want to ticket. THEY WANT TO CHARGE 57.5K points again and that there is no record of 35K on the file. I give up...
Thinking of totally cancelling both booking now and kinda regret buying the 90K points in this promotion. What should have been a really simple process seems to have wasted 10 hours of my time... And, I don't even have the consolation of anything ticketed.
So this whole foreign credit card issue really is annoying so would appreciate how others have gone. It doesn't help that I have to fight so hard for them to charge the right miles SGN - PER too! And not having CX availability online is also such a pain.
YMMV.
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