AA launches Australian AA.com page

[serfty]

The Amadeus-powered booking engine has an option like that. The key would be to ensure multi-stop booking volume would be sufficient to make a change like that worth it -- a strong possibility given the uniqueness of AU customers. This change would also be within the realm of possibility; I would say even more possible than pulling held bookings over to the AU site from the US site.

Fair enough ... I believe I used such an Amadeus facility this morning booking a multi-stop MEL to LAX and return on Qantas.com.

 

[Mal]

Another thing I've noted about the AA Australia booking site is that it tends to limit itself to 2 flight journeys. As I indicated before, sometimes 3 flight journeys are much cheaper - especially on cross country flights.

Would be nice to see more options appear - ie for it to mimic the same search on the AA (US) site.

And, weirdly enough, I can't find any Economy fares filed BNE-LAX or SYD-LAX (I'd expect an AA codeshare on Qantas to appear) when I do searches.

 

[Connected1]

Thanks Mal. This type of information really helps the technical team tweak the display to suit your needs.

 

[Connected1]

As an example, a random search for JAX-RDU on 15 Jan (one way) gives totally different results:

Amadeus gives 2 results, whereas Sabre gives 37. The price differences are also huge - eg Amadeus's cheapest is $A427, whereas Sabre offers a $US143 option (albeit through a more convoluted route).

You should now be seeing lots more flight options on the AU site than you did before. See how you like that. Hopefully some of them are convoluted enough for you.

 

[Evan]

You should now be seeing lots more flight options on the AU site than you did before. See how you like that. Hopefully some of them are convoluted enough for you.

I think you would have to ask KiwiFlyer, he seems to be the king of convoluted
When i am on an adventure i never take the short way, if i just want to get there then sure i do direct if possible.
E

 

[Aray]

The AA AU site still has some huge discrepancies in price & avail it would seem.

Tried to book a non-stop MIA-SXM flight in May with following results...

US website gives:

- AA687 @ US$239 (A$350)
- AA729 @ US$179 (A$260)

AU website gives:

- AA687 @ A$485 !!!!
- No AA729 (no matter how I tweak search) !!!!

So thats at least A$140 more expensive, $220 without the flight I want !

Does anyone know the best way to grab those AA fares @ AA prices with Aus Credit Card ? Use German/UK site ? Orbitz ? Ring AA direct ?

 

[Dave Noble]

Does anyone know the best way to grab those AA fares @ AA prices with Aus Credit Card ? Use German/UK site ? Orbitz ? Ring AA direct ?

Just pick up the phone , call AA and book or
Go to AA US site
select the flights and the select "HOLD" rather than "PURCHASE"
You can then phone AA AU and pay

Dave

 

[Aray]

Just pick up the phone , call AA and book or
Go to AA US site
select the flights and the select "HOLD" rather than "PURCHASE"
You can then phone AA AU and pay

Dave

Sweet deal thanks

Any phone surcharges, taxes for doing that ??

I answered my own question about German website - it throws up the same overpriced junk that the AU website does - tho it did at least catch the 5pm flight ..

EDIT: I just realised the AU website is included taxes while US does not - that prob accounts for much of price diff .. it still struggles to find certain routes & flights tho ..

 

[Dave Noble]

Any phone surcharges, taxes for doing that ??

Nope ( in Australia at least )

Dave

 

[Flashback]

The AA AU site still has some huge discrepancies in price & avail it would seem.

Tried to book a non-stop MIA-SXM flight in May with following results...

US website gives:

- AA687 @ US$239 (A$350)
- AA729 @ US$179 (A$260)

AU website gives:

- AA687 @ A$485 !!!!
- No AA729 (no matter how I tweak search) !!!!

So thats at least A$140 more expensive, $220 without the flight I want !

Does anyone know the best way to grab those AA fares @ AA prices with Aus Credit Card ? Use German/UK site ? Orbitz ? Ring AA direct ?

Welcome to AFF Aray!

 

[Mal]

Tried JAX-RDU looking more convoluted indeed , although distinctly short of Instant Upgrade options. (tried Mar 16/18). Also if searching for First/Business, the issue below also comes up.

Here's another weird/interesting anomaly:

LAS-NYC 13 Mar / 18 Mar. (searching Business/First)

AA258 is offered as "Instant Upgrade" / "Business Flexible" / "First Flexible" on the AU site.
On the US site, it is offered as "Instant Upgrade" / no J flex / "First Flexible"

Seeing it's a 757 direct flight, should there be a J base fare offered? I realise one is filed between LAS and NYC, but the AA (US) site ignores it unless the Transcon LAX-JFK 3 class flights are offered.

Also the Instant Upgrade fares look weird. $A823 available on both direct flights each way, $A1300ish available on all other flights. US site is $US569++ on most fares each way. First Flexible fares look about right converted.

Quite happy to see the likes of BNE-SFO turn up to give another option when pricing trips to the US.

 

[sr81]

AA Australia now online

Just been looking at some flights for later in the year from RDU-ORD-JFK on aa.com and found that you can now select Australia as your country of residence and get your flights priced in AUD.

It will also take Australian credit cards so no need for exchange fees etc.

Link here:
American Airlines | Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations

Looking at the same flight in USD vs. AUD the exchange rate seems pretty good.

Finally stop that silly practice of putting in a false US address to purchase tickets.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: AA Australia now online

See also here: http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...tage/aa-launches-australian-aa-com-15400.html

(Credit cards may trigger fees for some issuers if they are processed outside Australia though)

 

[sr81]

Re: AA Australia now online

Ahhh, missed that thread.

Still, it is was long time coming from AA.

 

[Connected1]

Here's another weird/interesting anomaly:

LAS-NYC 13 Mar / 18 Mar. (searching Business/First)

AA258 is offered as "Instant Upgrade" / "Business Flexible" / "First Flexible" on the AU site.
On the US site, it is offered as "Instant Upgrade" / no J flex / "First Flexible"

Seeing it's a 757 direct flight, should there be a J base fare offered? I realise one is filed between LAS and NYC, but the AA (US) site ignores it unless the Transcon LAX-JFK 3 class flights are offered.

You are correct that the J fare is indeed filed but should not be categorized separately. Thanks for pointing that out. Like the number of flight segments displayed, this is something that can be fixed fairly easily.

 

[Connected1]

Re: AA Australia now online

(Credit cards may trigger fees for some issuers if they are processed outside Australia though)

This issue should go away within a month or so. Right now it may vary by card type, but at least you aren't restricted from entering an AU billing address.

 

[serfty]

Here's a reason why this site needs more fine tuning before I will use it for bookings.

Looking for "Instant Upgrade" fares:

• SFO-LAS on Feb 28th
• LAS-SFO on Mar 4th.

On AA.com, with a LAX connection several different options are offered each way for a total cost of USD402.40.
Same dates on "AA.Oz" shows one combination of instant upgrade fares for a cheapest total of AUD2276.20 - selecting these very same flights on AA.com returns the USD402.40 fare (~AUD625).

Moreover, "Business Flexible" is being offered on AA.oz where there are no Business class seats.

 

[Connected1]

Re: AA Australia now online

This issue should go away within a month or so. Right now it may vary by card type, but at least you aren't restricted from entering an AU billing address.

By the way, every card type on the
AU site is now billed locally in AUD. So if your CC account is AUD-denominated you shouldn't have any issues with AA.com AU.

The web team is aware of the domestic business class fare family issue raised by serfty, and will take care of it sometime soon.

 

[wandering_fred]

Problem one.
Perhaps a unique issue
I have a US$ and issued AA debit card (yea it's Citibank NY) with an Australian address. Something about the underlying cheque (check) account being almost 25 years in existence......

The US site doesn't want to know about the Oz address and the AU site will cost me at least 3% in bank fees....... Also have other US$ and AU$ accounts....... Just a question of where the funds are.....

Suggestions. Or a name at AA
Or do I just call the EXP desk?

Suggestion = Accept accounts in both US$ and AU$ on the websites with appropriate currency conversion (potential profit to AA) and billing sources as the banks seem to now care about the source of the charge as well as the currency.

Problem two.
I was quite pleasantly surprised at the under AU$1300 fare PER-NRT-LAX and return on au website. I was not overly surprised (but greatly disappointed) that it was in Q class on both QF and AA. And the (only) next step up was to fully flexible in the $5-6K range.
While the rules implied upgrades were possible - I don't believe it. And that applies to BOTH airlines.

So an intermediate step - fully upgradeable - needs to be added in between. And someone needs to look at the fare rules that are shown.
That would be S class (upgradeable) . V class pricing would also be nice (Fullish Qpoints on the flights). Or some means to hold and call webservices or the equivalent.

The aa.com site only routes via SYD at much higher prices.....

An AA code share on QF 79/80 would be nice - but that is beyond the scope of this thread.

Hope I didn't wander too far.

Fred

 

[serfty]

This site now has the ability to "Hold" bookings.

Also, the fares are very similar to those found on AA.com when converted.

A couple of issue with it still:

• The AA.com multi-search facility is still far more flexible.
• The AUD60 stick that is now charged to ticket a booking made on AA.com when calling from Oz to pay. I never found the exchange rate used for the conversion too bad, but this $60 is onerous.
  
  I guess the dodgy address method will need to be used more in the future.