Best way to book an American Airlines (ex US) flight

[SYD]

I booked a bunch of AA domestic first last week

Did you find any decent fares?

Apart from a short hop ORD-BOS in AA whY, a QF reward & some QF codeshares in AA F, 6 of 10 upcoming US flights are booked on AS First. They were so much cheaper but still none of pre Covid value. Best we found found transcon was ~US$500+ (still cheaper than SYD-PER…).

 

[Lynda2475]

Did you find any decent fares?

Not really but compared with QF domestic J for same distances felt ok to me. On dates I needed nothing direct from NYC-LAX under US$899 (USD $1100 if wanted actual first).

But ended up with: DFW-MSY (40SCs), MSY-DFW (40SCs), JFK-IND (40 SCs), IND-DFW (60 SCs)
and DFW-LAX (100SCs) total 280SCs for ~AU$2.5k.

Could have saved about AU$300 if willing to travel at ungodly hours (i.e. 5am or 6am fligtsout of NYC or DFW), but Im on vacation so late morning works better, also for arriving at hotels and being able to check straight in.

I was procrastinating, if I booked a week earlier there were a few more sale options. Thats what I get for hoping some availablity would open up so could add at least the NYC-IND-LAX leg to my OWA.

I checked Alaskan but they dont fly out of DFW so not helpful for MSY (mind you Dallas Lovefield to MSY on Sprint with 2 checked backs was super cheap; but id rather collect SCs). The flights they had to SFO were via SEA and arrived very late at night, will check them out more on a future trip if Im planing to spend time in Pacific North west.

 

[Lynda2475]

I did note that JFK/LGA to LAX via CLT always seemed to be the cheapest. It is easy to get NYC-ORD and ORD-DFW on points, but nothing free ORD-LAX/SFO on days that I could use. Although funnily enough IND-ORD-LAX was available some days (just not when i needed it).

Im sure if it was 10 months out like last year no drama, but only 5 months out fewer award flights.

 

[justinbrett]

Did you find any decent fares?

Apart from a short hop ORD-BOS in AA whY, a QF reward & some QF codeshares in AA F, 6 of 10 upcoming US flights are booked on AS First. They were so much cheaper but still none of pre Covid value. Best we found found transcon was ~US$500+ (still cheaper than SYD-PER…).

I rarely find myself needing to choose between AA & AS, unless flying intra-West coast, which I rarely do. There isn't a lot of overlap between the carriers (which I guess is why they can both play nice in oneworld and remain competitors)

Actually found AS F quite expensive, I was going to fly ANC-HNL one way and the price jumped from US$700 to US$1400 on the day I wanted to travel. I ended up having to juggle my plans to fly the next day.

Also originally was looking at a great connecting flight on AS from LAS-SEA-ORD but prices went up massively, so just booked AA LAS-ORD direct.

 

[SYD]

I rarely find myself needing to choose between AA & AS, unless flying intra-West coast, which I rarely do. There isn't a lot of overlap between the carriers (which I guess is why they can both play nice in oneworld and remain competitors)

Actually found AS F quite expensive, I was going to fly ANC-HNL one way and the price jumped from US$700 to US$1400 on the day I wanted to travel. I ended up having to juggle my plans to fly the next day.

Also originally was looking at a great connecting flight on AS from LAS-SEA-ORD but prices went up massively, so just booked AA LAS-ORD direct.

Yeah, pre joining OW I never looked at them and these flights will be my first AS experiences.

The fact that we’re in the NW on one trip and YVR on the next, makes it work. Looking forward to comparing AS F SEA-JFK / JFK-SFO against AA 2 class.

Whilst they don’t have the central hubs like AA, the string of hubs down the west (YVR, SEA, PDX, SFO, LAX and SAN) do open up some interesting options. JFK-SAN First non-stop was $500 - relatively cheap but nothing like some of the fares pre Covid.

 

[goosh]

Trying to book an AA flight with the hold and call the Sydney number, but seems they do not like it.

Followed the process earlier today at midday, and now at 6:50pm get an email saying to contact them.

Call the sydney number again, and the person on the phone says its an issue with charging USD and paying from Aus.

Anyone else had any recent experience?

 

[DC3]

Trying to book an AA flight with the hold and call the Sydney number, but seems they do not like it.

Followed the process earlier today at midday, and now at 6:50pm get an email saying to contact them.

Call the sydney number again, and the person on the phone says its an issue with charging USD and paying from Aus.

Anyone else had any recent experience?

Better idea is to call the US number, rather than the ‘Oz’ number which used to go to Fiji.

Did you book via aa.com? The prices are often cheaper than the Oz website. Worth comparing at least.

Edited

 

[SYD]

Better idea is to call the US number, rather than the ‘Oz’ number. It used to go to Fiji.

Or just use the “El Segundo” method - it’s no big deal.

Did you book via aa.com?

Yes, I was pondering that but the .au website would be quoting in AUD anyway?

The prices are often cheaper than the Oz website. Worth comparing at least.

This might not be the case anymore. But you do get more options on the US website.

 

[NM]

Trying to book an AA flight with the hold and call the Sydney number, but seems they do not like it.

Followed the process earlier today at midday, and now at 6:50pm get an email saying to contact them.

Call the sydney number again, and the person on the phone says its an issue with charging USD and paying from Aus.

Anyone else had any recent experience?

If you really want to call and pay over the phone, call the USA and when they ask for your address and get to the zip code, add a leading zero to make it 5 digits.

Otherwise pay on-line following the method reported up-thread. The only issue that makes payment on-line a challenge is the zip code and USA state selection. Do not select a different country - use the USA default. Add a leading zero to your Australian post code, google search to find if there is a place in the USA that matches that as a zip code and use that state in the on-line form. It also seems that you can use any matching zip code and state and does not need to match your home post code All the system is doing is matching the 5-digit zip code to the USA state. It is quite happy to take an Australian credit card so long as the zip code entered matches the USA state selected.

In my case, my real Australian home post code with a leading zero matches a USA zip code for a town in the state of Maine. So I enter that 04xx_ as zip code, select Maine as the state and use my real home address for street and city (suburb). AA has always been happy to accept my payment and issue my ticket based on that information.

 

[goosh]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Called the Sydney number again, which gave me another agent. Went through the process of saying I want to pay in USD, after a couple of minutes of checking, was able to make it happen and got the tickets issued right away.

 

[DC3]

Called the Sydney number again, which gave me another agent

Fiji?

 

[goosh]

Fiji?

Most likely by the sound of the agent