Detail on using the AA RTW Desk

[serfty]

Well I had not thought of mentioning it earlier; however I'll probably never know if it was necessary.

Anyway, I called the US this morning and the pricing has come through. +++ of only AUD374.10 pp!

When one considers the +++ for MEL-LHR return on QF is AUD614 there's very little reason to use Qantas for these personal bookings .:-|

 

[serfty]

OK, using the Oz AA number I called IndiAA.

The agent I spoke too did not want to touch my booking and asked for me to call back in two hours when "The people who handle those are in". This was at 9:40am in MEL.

 

[Shano]

Well I had not thought of mentioning it earlier; however I'll probably never know if it was necessary.

Anyway, I called the US this morning and the pricing has come through. +++ of AUD374.10 pp! :shock:

When one considers the +++ for MEL-LHR return on QF is AUD614 there's very little reason to use Qantas for these personal bookings .:-|

The +++ for my recent LLONE4, ticketed by QF, was $542, so a decent saving of ~ $170 by ticketing with AA.

 

[serfty]

Perhaps saving a lot more for my routing ...

For interest sake, I tried to book the routing as an award on Qantas.com. I had a couple of isses: 1) Couldn't get any CX flights and 2) SEA is not on "the list".

Anyway I was able to bring up the following similar routing:

MEL-xSYD-JFK,JFK-xORD-SFO-xDFW-xLAX-LHR,LGW-DBV-LGW,LHR-SIN,NRT-MEL

Missing any for SIN-HKG-BKK-HGK-NRT, the +++ for that came to AUD874.18. :shock:

Note that none of the last 6 flights I have booked are transits; each subsequent flight departs > 24H after the previous arrival. This is to avoid possibly having to pay more tax on these when I revalidate them for around Easter next year.

 

[serfty]

OK, using the Oz AA number I called IndiAA.

The agent I spoke too did not want to touch my booking and asked for me to call back in two hours when "The people who handle those are in". This was at 9:40am in MEL.

I rang back at 12:30pm MEL time yesterday.

The agent looked up the PNR and asked me if I would wait while she checked some things. After about two minutes, she informed me that as the cost was over USD4K, she would have to email me an authorisation form. It was to be sent in "about 2 hours".

I was to fill this out and send by facsimile to the Sydney fax number indicated on the form along with an image of the back of my CC.

The email was received ~4pm yesterday. I edited the MS Word Document attached and printed it out. I have now filled it out and faxed it to the Sydney number.

 

[simongr]

My experiences with teh ATW desk have been a little patchy recently - my major gripe was paying for it - it took three attempts to get the form sent to me for me to fax to SYD.

But at a saving of heaps of cash it's worth the hassle...

 

[Shano]

....she informed me that as the cost was over USD4K, she would have to email me an authorisation form.

This implies that had the cost been < US$4K they could have processed the transaction over the phone?

My very limited experience (2 transactions, 1 < A$1K, 1 > A$1K) was that this could not be done over the phone and that an authorisation form would need to be signed and faxed to AA Sydney. These were for YUP fares, not ATW fares, but the type of fare probably should not make any difference.

Has this changed?

 

[serfty]

Dunno, that's what she quoted - perhaps they have different limits depending on the type of fares being sold. Perhaps even how long in the future the booking is for?

FWIW, all other times dealing with IndiAA, I have been purchasing YUP's. All were < USD900 & I was able to do it fully by telephone.

Given the transaction is for over AUD7500 I fully expected the need to use a form.

 

[serfty]

My experiences with teh ATW desk have been a little patchy recently - my major gripe was paying for it - it took three attempts to get the form sent to me for me to fax to SYD. ...

I think my work's Firewall was intercepting these emails.

The authorization form is an attached ms-word document and these are verboten via work email for security reasons. To get to it I needed to access the email from home.

 

[simongr]

There are various rumours about being able to use Oz credit cards soon over the phone with AA - maybe this is the start of it...

 

[serfty]

There are various rumours about being able to use Oz credit cards soon over the phone with AA - maybe this is the start of it...

All my YUP's have been purchased "over the 'phone" with IndiAA, with no authorization form required. The charge gets processed in Sydney.

 

[tuapekastar]

This implies that had the cost been < US$4K they could have processed the transaction over the phone?

My very limited experience (2 transactions, 1 < A$1K, 1 > A$1K) was that this could not be done over the phone and that an authorisation form would need to be signed and faxed to AA Sydney. These were for YUP fares, not ATW fares, but the type of fare probably should not make any difference.

Has this changed?

When I paid AA for an ATW a couple of years ago my hazy recollection is that I needed to use the form because the amount exceeded $1K. Maybe it has changed...it's a PITA having to use the form at all.

 

[simongr]

This thread has a lot of info regarding the payment using a CC to AA.

 

[serfty]

I rang back at 12:30pm MEL time yesterday.

The agent looked up the PNR and asked me if I would wait while she checked some things. After about two minutes, she informed me that as the cost was over USD4K, she would have to email me an authorisation form. It was to be sent in "about 2 hours".

I was to fill this out and send by facsimile to the Sydney fax number indicated on the form along with an image of the back of my CC.

The email was received ~4pm yesterday. I edited the Work Document attached and printed it out. I have now filled it out and faxed it to the Sydney number.

A short time after I spoke to the AAgent in IndiAA, the status of the booking changed.

This was from "Held" to "Ticketed" (no Date); it's now been this way for over 48 hours.

It is well over 24 hours since I faxed the Authorisation form back.

Is it normal to take this long?

Should I be concerned?

How can I check the status of processing in Sydney?

I would hate for this booking to go belly up as our QF flight from LHR to SIN in late June is now showing B0 H0 K0 M0 R0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 ... and there are very few other flights with L available during that period.

 

[Dave Noble]

If it is showing as ticketed , I wouldnt worry too much about it

Dave

 

[simongr]

On my last one when I couldnt get it priced and IndiAA werent responding to me they changed it to ticketed (no date) even though I then went past the "must pay by date" and it was all ok.

 

[serfty]

It's the lack of a date that slightly concerns me.

My CC has not been charged yet ... (Amex - my experience it shows charges from AA in Sydney within 24 hours)

 

[Shano]

It's the lack of a date that slightly concerns me.

My CC has not been charged yet ... (Amex - my experince it shows charges from AA in Sydney with 24 hours)

My AA transactions took about 5 days after showing as ticketed to show up on my AMEX statement.

 

[serfty]

All my other purchases have not required the authorisation form.

The sequence then was basically:

• Book and 'hold' online in USD
• Call IndiAA
• Advise personal details (name, address FF number etc).
• They convert to AUD and quote price
• I supply CC Details
• They advise cc will be charged and information will be mailed.
• Rechecking the booking shortly after this reveals "Ticketed" (no date)
• A day or so later this changes to "Ticketed - <date>"
• within 24 hours of that the transaction appears on AX online.
• A few days later mail arrives.

I just hope the process is simply queued - and they'll get around to it in a few days.

 

[Keith009]

I just hope the process is simply queued - and they'll get around to it in a few days.

AA SYD won't get around to ticketing your booking if your departure date isn't for a while yet and none of the carriers involved are demanding tight ticketing deadlines. Of course this leaves you open to fare increases, rules enhancements and the like. I remember Kiwi Flyer mentioning that he had to practically beg them to issue the tickets.