Questions and Answers

Anyone have any idea why all of a sudden there is NO availability of any kind coming up using AA miles for the simple SYD to MEL route on Qantas?

Its the only flight i had left to book for my asia/australia trip and i was waiting on miles which i now have and this route is nowhere to be found. I keep getting error message. I dont get it. This is like flying LA to SF, there are 15 flights a day. Up until now each time i peeked every flight was there for just 20K miles

So confused………And i checked not just my day in april i need but days in diff months too and it keeps coming up as an error message..

[QUOTE=”Mikewarren1000, post: 66195, member: 5445″]Anyone have any idea why all of a sudden there is NO availability of any kind coming up using AA miles for the simple SYD to MEL route on Qantas?
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So confused………And i checked not just my day in april i need but days in diff months too and it keeps coming up as an error message..[/QUOTE]

Have you checked on BA? BA.com is showing plenty of flights available in both economy and business for most of April. Get the flight #s and call AA.

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 66196, member: 4556″]Have you checked on BA? BA.com is showing plenty of flights available in both economy and business for most of April. Get the flight #s and call AA.[/QUOTE]

Oh, and get AA to waive the telephone booking fee. Take a screen shot of aa.com before calling.

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 66200, member: 4556″]Oh, and get AA to waive the telephone booking fee. Take a screen shot of aa.com before calling.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! For sure will take a pic of that but how do i show them via the phone that i have a picture of it not working? Well i will figure it out.

Actually i have a friend who is an AA rep i texted her to look into and figure out whats up. They monitor really closely their screens and what they do so i am going to probably have to call in still and do it as a fresh call but she is helpful to tell me about award availability and stuff like that with out having to sit on hold.

Very weird that the only route getting an error message is SYD to MEL, the day i am ready to book it too. Strike 4 🙂

[QUOTE=”Mikewarren1000, post: 66213, member: 5445″] Very weird that the only route getting an error message is SYD to MEL, the day i am ready to book it too. Strike 4 :)[/QUOTE]

The AA website has been very glitchy for me the last 3 days or so – I get an error when I click on “Buy Now” or whatever, and the error says to retry the booking. Meanwhile, I get the confirmation e-mail, and the itinerarys show up in my Bookings.

Your issue may simply be that aa.com is not showing the award travel, for whatever reason. Just use BA. So much better.

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 66196, member: 4556″]Have you checked on BA? BA.com is showing plenty of flights available in both economy and business for most of April. Get the flight #s and call AA.[/QUOTE]
I will call AA tonight after work but how would I do it on BA if I don’t have Avios? I can use AA miles on BA ?

Must be a glitch no way 15 flights aren’t available on a Nothing little route. Something is up w their site. Of the big 3 I have more problems w AA site hands down

Just log into BA to use their tool to look for seats. They should have the same availability that AA has. If you don’t have an account you can get one for free. Then, as [USER=4556]@OCTinPHL[/USER] says just write down the flight numbers so that you can tell the AAgents which flights (or at least the flight times) you want.

I wouldnt call QF SYD-MEL a nothing little route…

[URL]https://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/threads/highest-revenue-routes.36679/[/URL]
[URL]https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/highest-revenue-airline-routes/index.html[/URL]

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 66219, member: 29″]I wouldnt call QF SYD-MEL a nothing little route…

[URL]https://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/threads/highest-revenue-routes.36679/[/URL]
[URL]https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/highest-revenue-airline-routes/index.html[/URL][/QUOTE]
Thanks got it and ya okay guess your’re right but this is a a web site issue. 2 days ago and probably once a week for last 2 months every flight all day was available

42 minutes on Hold to speak to someone with AA. I tell her how there is an error message. She sets up my whole reservation and then puts me on Hold comes back 10 minutes later and says Tech support said there is no such problem and i need to pay her $40 for my SYD to MEL ticket. I said No so she transfers me to Tech support. On Hold 18 minutes. He puts me on hold 3 times during the convo and ultimately agrees that there is an indeed a problem with booking online for a reward from SYD to MEL. All in all I believe I was about 75 minutes in when we hung up………….

And then I look real quick online and he booked me on the wrong day. I call AA again, 37 minutes on Hold……….Transfer to tech support, 14 minutes on hold………..Re did it correctly.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH………What a waste of 2 freaking hours

Okay just had to vent…………But at least i am done now all 8 trips for my Aussie/Asia trip are done

Mike, just some thoughts here. You were on the phone for longer than that flight is in the air. Flights in business class on that route can pretty easily be bought for $300 or so, as long as you’re not flying last minute. And the flight is so short, I’d argue business isn’t even worth the premium. I’m not sure offhand how many miles AA charges here, but I have to think that for me personally, 3 hours of my time is worth just paying cash for that ticket next time and being done with it in 2 minutes.

Just my morning musing :rolleyes:

Only 20,000 miles vs 10,000 for coach. So not bad Ricky. Its funny but on a similiar route in the US i would never use miles. If going to PHX, Vegas or SFO i would just buy a ticket in F for a few hundred bucks no doubt

I had bought the other 7 flights for this trip with miles and just sort of stuck with the Miles route to finish off the trip, even though no doubt its by far the shortest of the 8 segments..

I think maybe b/c its April (great month down under) and right in the middle of US spring break maybe its a drop more to buy it outright. It is $485 had i wanted to buy it

Fair enough! To each their own 🙂

Hope you at least got on the A330 flight for a lie-flat seat for an hour…

That was a NO brainer ricky. The 8am A330 for sure. I had to get on seat guru to get the right seat b/c Qantas seat map was so ridiculous. Like JAL they also blocked some of the first few rows since I am not revenue but i was able to get 4A which looks perfect.. JAL blocked entire forward J cabin on both sides thus unless you want a middle you have to go to the cabin behind L2.. At least here i was able to get Row 4.

Sleep is going to be at a premium on this trip i am sure i will hit that flat bed for an hour. I never pass up a flat bed seat and being able to sitting alone no matter how short the flight.

As far as $485 Vs. 20K miles i am not sure what the measuring stick is but I feel like $500 for me is the trade off for 20K miles so it was a 50/50 decision. If $700 i would go 20K easy but if $300 i go with the money and save the 20K for sure.

I think those valuations are also unique to each person based on how many miles they have and how much using cash for F seats is worth to them.

I am excited to check out the hard product of Qantas obviously i wont be experiencing any soft product amenities on an 80 minute flight.

Managed to only have 1 non flat bed/having to sit next to someone flight out of my 8 flights for this trip. That would be China Eastern from HKG to PVG. Not looking forward to that flight really, at least its just a couple of hours

You’ll have a great trip, I’m sure!

I agree, 20,000 miles to save $500 is pretty solid. I was referring more to the time spent needing to book. After 2 hours on the phone, I know I would have just said screw it and booked the flight online for cash, selected a seat, and moved on.

A 12 hour flight that costs $6000 in cash or 70,000 miles… sure, I’ll sit on the phone all afternoon if needed.