AA eliminates Saver Awards; seats no longer available for QFF/partner airline redemptions?

[SYD]

Has this happened before where there are literally no reward seats available in the USA?

Don’t think so. Extremely frustrating. I was going to call QF tomorrow to see if I could still book something over the phone but ended up booking a cheap paid option direct with AA…

I did lodge a form reporting the problem but not holding my breath that anything will happen as a result of that. Hopefully someone tells the IT interns they stuffed up…?

 

[SYD]

I did lodge a form reporting the problem but not holding my breath that anything will happen as a result of that. Hopefully someone tells the IT interns they stuffed up…?

I actually just got a call back from QF this morning! So at least someone is looking into it.

 

[SYD]

I actually just got a call back from QF this morning! So at least someone is looking into it.

and now an email advising that it’s been sent to the web support team.

Has anyone had success calling up for a redemption in the last few days? ie since about Wed/Thu last week?

I was going to call today but made a revenue booking directly with AA instead…

 

[Lynda2475]

I had a hectic weekend so didn't get to resume my trip planning.

I need to work out the international flights from/to US and once have those call to have them added to existing booking to make it a OWA (hopefully will be AA and BA so wont be impacted too quickly by the fail to ticket timelines) and ask about domestic connections at the same time.

Otherwise, I will just buy some of the domestic legs as they seem to be quite cheap for a decent # of SCs.

 

[SYD]

I had a hectic weekend so didn't get to resume my trip planning.

I need to work out the international flights from/to US and once have those call to have them added to existing booking to make it a OWA (hopefully will be AA and BA so wont be impacted too quickly by the fail to ticket timelines) and ask about domestic connections at the same time.

Otherwise, I will just buy some of the domestic legs as they seem to be quite cheap for a decent # of SCs.

AS F has been coming up cheaper than AA in my searching (have some flights in a few weeks and more in Sep). Still no where near the value precovid

 

[Lynda2475]

To get an idea of pricing in AUD i was searching via Amex travel last week,. Once I know for sure routes exist, will be easier to push.

Thanks for head up on Alaskan, more research required.

 

[SYD]

To get an idea of pricing in AUD i was searching via Amex travel last week,. Once I know for sure routes exist, will be easier to push.

Thanks for head up on Alaskan, more research required.

ITA Matrix has been useful!

AS website is pretty straightforward but charges in USD. I prefer booking direct but probably bookable via an OTA that charges AUD.

We just book one internal flight on AA using the US website (paid in USD). We thought the AU site was gauging but just turns out that it shows “Total price” (in AUD) whereas the US site is pp price in USD… But I do think there’s more options on the US website, so it does pay to check there first and then see if you can get the same flights for the equivalent AUD amount.

 

[justinbrett]

We just book one internal flight on AA using the US website (paid in USD). We thought the AU site was gauging but just turns out that it shows “Total price” (in AUD) whereas the US site is pp price in USD… But I do think there’s more options on the US website, so it does pay to check there first and then see if you can get the same flights for the equivalent AUD amount.

It definitely gouges.

For the same flight -
AU:



US -


I now book through the US site, place on hold and then pay over the phone. I've given up on the AU site.

Expedia etc all price in line with the US site. But I want to book direct.

 

[SYD]

It definitely gouges.

For the same flight -
AU:

View attachment 316364

US -
View attachment 316365

I now book through the US site, place on hold and then pay over the phone. I've given up on the AU site.

Expedia etc all price in line with the US site. But I want to book direct.

In our scenario, it was $1 cheaper to book on AU! But that was only 2x Main Cabin Fares.

But yep, my memory of researching F fares is similar or worse than that example.

 

[RichardMEL]

I've always booked AA via the US website. Both because usually cheaper.. but this one time, possibly on the way to band camp, I had an AA ticket that was booked via the AU website and for reasons needed to change it last minute and AA ticketing (at the airport) lost their minds over the currency issue and had terrible trouble both with agents and their phone support) dealing with it. That alone put me right off - but definitely the, in general, higher charges from the AU site which always seemed more exxy(and yes comparing the same fares, buckets etc)

 

[justinbrett]

I've always booked AA via the US website. Both because usually cheaper.. but this one time, possibly on the way to band camp, I had an AA ticket that was booked via the AU website and for reasons needed to change it last minute and AA ticketing (at the airport) lost their minds over the currency issue and had terrible trouble both with agents and their phone support) dealing with it. That alone put me right off - but definitely the, in general, higher charges from the AU site which always seemed more exxy(and yes comparing the same fares, buckets etc)

If booking through the Australian call centre, you can request your ticket to be billed in USD instead of AUD. In fact by default, if you call to pay for a held US booking, they will convert it into AUD. It's best to stop them, as you've pointed out, changes are far easier if it's in USD.

That said, "AA.. lost their minds over the currency issue" seems a bit localised to your one time experience. I've travelled may times on AU issued tickets (before I knew better), and when it came to things like changing flights or upgrading, yes they had to convert the fare between currencies and yes that took longer, but I wouldn't say they "lost their minds". I'm sure most competent agents have worked with fares issued in other currencies.

 

[RichardMEL]

If booking through the Australian call centre, you can request your ticket to be billed in USD instead of AUD. In fact by default, if you call to pay for a held US booking, they will convert it into AUD. It's best to stop them, as you've pointed out, changes are far easier if it's in USD.

That said, "AA.. lost their minds over the currency issue" seems a bit localised to your one time experience. I've travelled may times on AU issued tickets (before I knew better), and when it came to things like changing flights or upgrading, yes they had to convert the fare between currencies and yes that took longer, but I wouldn't say they "lost their minds". I'm sure most competent agents have worked with fares issued in other currencies.

fair point. that was one experience... but a bunch of agents and their phone support had problems with it. Perhaps not an issue anymore (this was quite some years back.. perhaps 2014).

However regarding the phone call centre - that does remind me that I ALSO had a problem with them when using a flight credit (booking online wouldn't work for some reason) and they kept quoting me AUD for a intra US sector (and I suspect spent extra time converting) and seemed puzzled when I requested to quote and charge in USD. Got it done eventually. Didn't help that there was a TON of noise on the line and the agent (in MNL I think) and I could sometimes barely understand each other. Took over two hours for what should have been a pretty simple transaction. This was only a few months ago, so the experience is fresh in my mind

Anyway I'm not anti AA or anything. Got a sector coming up in a few days just relating anecdotes and why I personally choose to book via US website for intra-US sectors.

 

[Delta32]

Also have been having this issue - hardly anything appears available for any AA flights (had been looking at some GIG-MIA segments, MEX-DFW (which should be plentiful)... but alas suddenly they all disappeared... unfortunately the usual unhelpful Twitter DM responses. Won't bother with the call centre.

 

[SYD]

Also have been having this issue - hardly anything appears available for any AA flights (had been looking at some GIG-MIA segments, MEX-DFW (which should be plentiful)... but alas suddenly they all disappeared... unfortunately the usual unhelpful Twitter DM responses. Won't bother with the call centre.

Try AA.com to check availability. Apparently the call centre should be able to book (and ask to waive booking fee).

 

[levelnine]

Try AA.com to check availability.

ba.com is better. It's almost impossible to determine if an award is a saver award on aa.com these days.

 

[sqrt()]

I've had terrible experience looking for domestic AA awards with QF recently. AA's regular econ award is 'Y,' and I realised I can just use expertflyer to check routes with Y available (assuming all those Ys are available to QF) Going to try calling QF to book...

 

[SYD]

ba.com is better. It's almost impossible to determine if an award is a saver award on aa.com these days.

True, but not everyone has a BA account. I finally converted a BA.com account I’ve had for years into an EC account to be able to search….

 

[muppet]

I've had terrible experience looking for domestic AA awards with QF recently. AA's regular econ award is 'Y,' and I realised I can just use expertflyer to check routes with Y available (assuming all those Ys are available to QF) Going to try calling QF to book...

Hmmm not so sure about that.

AA economy saver awards, which is the class usually available to partners, is ‘T’.

Y is full fare.

 

[levelnine]

I've had terrible experience looking for domestic AA awards with QF recently. AA's regular econ award is 'Y,' and I realised I can just use expertflyer to check routes with Y available (assuming all those Ys are available to QF) Going to try calling QF to book...

That's why you need to use ba.com, at least while qantas.com is not displaying AA award flights. aa.com has lots of web specials these days, which cannot be booked by partner airlines (ie QF, BA).

Post automatically merged: Feb 14, 2023

True, but not everyone has a BA account. I finally converted a BA.com account I’ve had for years into an EC account to be able to search….

It's free to create an account and you don't need any Avios in your account to search (unlike Qatar).

 

[Delta32]

ba.com is better. It's almost impossible to determine if an award is a saver award on aa.com these days.

But is there a way to tell with the AA site at all which is which?