I've always found AA to be "cheap" after being accustomed to the gouging I get from QF. How ever trying to book a simple 174 mile flight is turning out to be horrendous!
I've found away around the gouging, but it is not an ideal solution.
Well, OK - I'll b ite - what is the way around it?
Have been thinking the same of late re AA - had to book two flights - LAX-SFO, and then SFO-BOS - super cheapest price - but it wasn't cheap. Mind you, American are used to everything going dear around holiday times, we silly us, didn't think that when we were flying was Thanksgiving!
AA has many flights that are the equivalent of QantasLink - expensive thin routes.
Using QF points can be an option... The Taxes+Surcharges are only a few $. But there are also other options. Sometimes flying backwards, then forwards (eg instead of flying AAA-BBB, flying AAA-CCC-BBB or flying AAA-DDD-AAA-BBB due to the way markets are priced.
That's very pricey for a short flight! I've got a booking with DL in January for CLT-ATL-DEN (about 4 hours flying across 2 segments) and its only $500-ish ... in First class!
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