whats wrong with QF availibility?

[The Flying Brick]

There is still phantom availability so be careful.

I'm seeing lots of availability in QF F being returned on AA. However, when you select the flight(s) and click "Continue" at the bottom of the page, all it does is reload the page with the results; it doesn't proceed to the booking stage. ExpertFlyer and QF do not return any seats when AA does. As discussed in the thread referenced above, this has been going on for many weeks and I can't understand how AA hasn't fixed it. It's extremely poor.

I agree. the only way to check if the QF Award showing on AA is genuine is to follow the booking right through to the hold/payment page.

If you get that far than the Award is bookable and you should grab it with a 5 day hold so that it is yours until you find either something better or decide that the Award you have on hold is as good as it gets.

I had this same problem booking a return to LHR recently and nearly fell off my chair when I saw the "availability" on the AA page.

Alas, it was not to be (and never was).

Still got my F rtn to LHR for later this month though

 

[kanada999]

I agree. the only way to check if the QF Award showing on AA is genuine is to follow the booking right through to the hold/payment page.

If you get that far than the Award is bookable and you should grab it with a 5 day hold so that it is yours until you find either something better or decide that the Award you have on hold is as good as it gets.

I had this same problem booking a return to LHR recently and nearly fell off my chair when I saw the "availability" on the AA page.

Alas, it was not to be (and never was).

Still got my F rtn to LHR for later this month though

did you check flight by flight on aa or via availibility shown on EF

 

[The Flying Brick]

did you check flight by flight on aa or via availibility shown on EF

Well I did check EF, but EF is not the definitive answer for every flight, especially when trying to book Awards on on other carriers metal as I understand that some code shares are given blocks of seats that show as unavailable on EF.

Besides, when I see an F seat show up within a week or two of when I want to travel I will always follow it up, even if it means going through them one by one just in case.

The trick is to concentrate on the international segment rather than the domestic so even though AA may be showing a dozen options or more for the day in reality there is only (e.g QF 1 SYD - LHR) just with lots of different domestic connection times listed as separately available Awards.

In reality that means checking no more than 2 flights per day (in this example) through to actual booking stage.

No more than 5 minutes per attempt so not to bad especially if you do find some diamonds amongst all the dross.

Most importantly though when you find what you - book it as there are often no 2nd chances with Award fare availability at the time you want and the place that you want to get to.

 

[kanada999]

thats exactly my finding, and there is not the risk of "married" segments dropping the domestic and/or european connection

 

[kanada999]

Qf Seems "returning" award F/C space day by day +290 days

 

[exceladdict]

It all makes sense now.

"There's no U in Qantas"

 

[kanada999]

thats the point. But plenty of P.....

 

[spd]

anyone have any insight as to whats happening with MEL - SYD award avails ? On AA (i logged in and i'm exec plat) there used to be plenty of availability (outside peak) for economy, but now all i'm seeing is J class. If i log into QF, there's the usual amount of economy seats......pretty much every flight has a seat.

need to get on the phone with AA ?

 

[exceladdict]

anyone have any insight as to whats happening with MEL - SYD award avails ? On AA (i logged in and i'm exec plat) there used to be plenty of availability (outside peak) for economy, but now all i'm seeing is J class. If i log into QF, there's the usual amount of economy seats......pretty much every flight has a seat.

need to get on the phone with AA ?

I'm noticing this issue too - significantly less avails on AA.com vs QF (even not logged in) for domestic flights (both Y and J)