American Airlines is absolutely infuriating!

[Globaliser]

As to my requesting what you seem to think is unreasonable compensation, I spent a career negotiating. I always open up high.

That sounds like a polite way of saying that you were knowingly trying to chisel as much as you could get for what you recognised were relatively minor problems that weren't worth that much.

 

No doubt everyone's moral compasses are set slightly differently.

And, from the responses I've seen both here and on flyertalk, I'm guessing most of you don't bother asking. Maybe you should.

Some of us have long-term relationships with our regular airlines, in which one poor domestic round-trip flight is of little moment or consequence, and recognise that life always has swings and roundabouts. I do sometimes complain, but only when it's about something important.

[Bruin Steve]

That sounds like a polite way of saying that you were knowingly trying to chisel as much as you could get for what you recognised were relatively minor problems that weren't worth that much.

 

No doubt everyone's moral compasses are set slightly differently.Some of us have long-term relationships with our regular airlines, in which one poor domestic round-trip flight is of little moment or consequence, and recognise that life always has swings and roundabouts. I do sometimes complain, but only when it's about something important.

 

Absolutely WRONG. I do not and did not perceive these to be "minor" problems. HOW DARE YOU question my "moral compass"?

 

You think you have a "relationship" with your favorite airlines? I hate to break it to you...They see you as just another customer...and they don't treat their customers well.

[nolatravelgirl]

I think at this point you just need to let this go. We get it, you don't like the AA domestic FC product. We are sorry that you blew your wad of AA miles and now want them returned to you because you didn't like the product that they delivered, even though the product delivered was exactly as described on their website and in multiple other independent websites.

 

Your return flight was cancelled, but flight cancellations happen all the time. Too bad this happened a while back and we don't have access to the AA system to understand what actually happened to that exact flight. They accommodated you on the next flight. Unless the cancellation is due to a mechanical issue then you are due zip/nada/diddly.

[Globaliser]

Absolutely WRONG. I do not and did not perceive these to be "minor" problems. HOW DARE YOU question my "moral compass"?

Then maybe you should re-read what you've written, from start to finish, and consider what it sounds like to the outside world.

 

And perhaps you should also pay some heed to the advice you've been given by truly frequent flyers about whether the problems you experienced were really of the utterly disastrous quality which they seem to have assumed in your mind, instead of dismissing that advice as the fantasies of airline stooges.

 

And then you might ponder what it looks like when you boast about asking for more than you think you deserved to get, just because it's the same negotiating tactics you deployed for a living.

You think you have a "relationship" with your favorite airlines? I hate to break it to you...They see you as just another customer...and they don't treat their customers well.

If that's what you think, then you have just demonstrated (again) how little you understand about frequent flying and about those who do it.

[terracool]

First of all, forget about the notion of "overhead bin space"...with restrictions and fees on checked luggage, the overhead bin space is full...everywhere...people in coach cram their stuff in the first class bins as well...

 

As to my requesting what you seem to think is unreasonable compensation, I spent a career negotiating. I always open up high. Foolish to let the other side set the parameters. On this one, I actually got them to move considerably off of their 3,000 mile opening...and that was just in dealing with the customer service rep...not the 60,000 I asked for, but not their initial position either. But, if you don't ask, you don't get. And, from the responses I've seen both here and on flyertalk, I'm guessing most of you don't bother asking. Maybe you should.

 

So, yes, I asked...seriously!

 

Interesting change of tone. Your OP didn't read as chortling at how clever you were to demand 60K miles or a free LAX-LHR upgrade as a negotiating ploy to get what you really wanted. It sounded more to me like you were irate that you didn't actually get your 60K or huge international upgrade.

 

Live and learn. And be reasonable. Go with it. You probably had a nice vacation up until your flight disruption, and that's good.

 

.

[sennen]

As a Brit I would expect Frist Class to have its own lounge,extra wide seats lots of leg room, very good food and snacks . In flight enertainment ect in fact if you fly first clas you should be made to feel extra special but I guess that does not happen in the USA.

[JVilleGal]

As a Brit I would expect Frist Class to have its own lounge,extra wide seats lots of leg room, very good food and snacks . In flight enertainment ect in fact if you fly first clas you should be made to feel extra special but I guess that does not happen in the USA.

 

 

Rarely on any Domestic FC flights.

[Regguy]

This thread is spinning a bit out of control. I don’t understand why this board gets like this sometimes – I mean, the moral compass thing really doesn’t seem to advance the ball here very much. Isn’t the idea here to have a discussion that helps people who might be reading?

 

To the OP, notwithstanding the whole moral compass kerfuffle, the notion of asking for a longhaul international upgrade or 60,000 miles for what you described simply hits those of us who fly a bit as absurd. To try to be constructive with respect to others who may be coming along to decide whether to burn cash or miles on domestic first class, here are some specific responses to some of the points you made, which are intended to be constructive and helpful to others who might be facing a similar decision but who do not fly much.

 

Not giving lounge access to domestic first class passengers is not really nickel and diming. None of the major airlines gives this, except on premium transcontinental routes. (I think Alaska may be the exception for purchased first.) This is a matter of necessity. There are so many first class passengers flying in the USA every day that if the airlines did this, the lounges would not be any place you would want to be anyway.

 

AA ground services for first class are actually pretty decent, notwithstanding your experience. You get to use premium check in and security lanes, which at AA hubs I find actually to be pretty good. LAX and FLL are not great airports for this to be much of an advantage, because LAX just plain stinks and FLL is not a major station for AA.

 

With respect to inflight entertainment, if this is important to you, you really need to research the airline you’re flying on and the equipment you’re flying. AA is upgrading IFE on many of its routes, but it also just did a merger with an airline that had a large number of planes that didn’t have any IFE. So many different types of planes flying across country that you just really need to know what you’re doing, and also you should generally be aware that if you’re booking mileage flights a year out, there’s often a reason the airlines are opening those flights – they are expecting they won’t sell them out, which could be for a variety of reasons, one of which is equipment.

 

AA, like most airlines, gives different meal services depending on the length of the flight. You don’t mention the meal service on the LAX-CLT leg, but I actually find longer segment meals to be pretty good on AA. If you didn’t get a meal on that flight, that would be weird and something to look into, though I doubt you’d get much more in compensation beyond a few extra miles. Expecting more than a snack service from CLT-FLL is kind of unrealistic, because it’s a very short flight and you can’t expect full catering services and crew service required for a meal on a flight like that. But, for the future and for others, AA publishes pretty clearly the food service that’s offered in first on its website and you can see exactly what you’re going to get. A 633 mile flight gets the snack basket. If you’d wanted more, you could have tried a connection in ORD, and then you’d have two longer segments.

 

Not being notified of schedule changes until late is poor by AA. This is a legit complaint, though very very common. For anyone booking a year out, there are going to be schedule changes and you need to check your reservation on a regular basis and be proactive.

 

Many of us think OP’s suggestion that first seats are only “marginally” better than coach seats is way off base, but this is obviously an opinion and nobody’s is more valid than anyone else’s.

 

I have found AA crew to be pretty good about manipulating bags above first class seats to ensure that passengers in those seats will have room, even if they are not the first to board. And they are usually pretty good about not letting Y passengers put their bags up, but they can’t stop what they don’t see. Sometimes, though, crews are doing everything they can to get the flight turned quickly, and this is just one of the things you need to be prepared to deal with when you fly. It happens.

 

The rant about customer service and the suggestion that you only got coach services comes off as a bit naïve, but again I think there’s plenty of room for disagreement of opinions. That said, I don’t know that you’d find any of the others to be any better, although Delta does a better job with schedule changes and irregular operations. (Though, their frequent flier program stinks.)

 

And for the record, a coach award for two pax roundtrip from LAX to FLL would have been 50,000 miles, not 40,000.

[Brighton Line]

AA US Domestic wide body schedule:

https://www.aacargo.com/downloads/schedule/Domestic_WB_April_Jun_2016.pdf

 

MIA-DFW/MIA-JFK/MIA-LAS/MIA-LAX/MIA-ORD/MIA-PHL/MIA-SFO and heck even MIA-MCO. Nothing to FLL ;)

[fbgd]

As a Brit I would expect Frist Class to have its own lounge,extra wide seats lots of leg room, very good food and snacks . In flight enertainment ect in fact if you fly first clas you should be made to feel extra special but I guess that does not happen in the USA.

 

Well, you're basing that on probably a combination of flying within Europe under the banner of "Business Class" and longhaul flying in First Class.

 

Yes, some premium routes within the US offer this (perhaps minus the "very good food") but the majority do not. That's where the OP went wrong, just assuming but not researching.

[eurotraveller1]

This thread is spinning a bit out of control. I don’t understand why this board gets like this sometimes – I mean, the moral compass thing really doesn’t seem to advance the ball here very much. Isn’t the idea here to have a discussion that helps people who might be reading?

 

 

 

To the OP, notwithstanding the whole moral compass kerfuffle, the notion of asking for a longhaul international upgrade or 60,000 miles for what you described simply hits those of us who fly a bit as absurd. To try to be constructive with respect to others who may be coming along to decide whether to burn cash or miles on domestic first class, here are some specific responses to some of the points you made, which are intended to be constructive and helpful to others who might be facing a similar decision but who do not fly much.

 

 

 

Not giving lounge access to domestic first class passengers is not really nickel and diming. None of the major airlines gives this, except on premium transcontinental routes. (I think Alaska may be the exception for purchased first.) This is a matter of necessity. There are so many first class passengers flying in the USA every day that if the airlines did this, the lounges would not be any place you would want to be anyway.

 

 

 

AA ground services for first class are actually pretty decent, notwithstanding your experience. You get to use premium check in and security lanes, which at AA hubs I find actually to be pretty good. LAX and FLL are not great airports for this to be much of an advantage, because LAX just plain stinks and FLL is not a major station for AA.

 

 

 

With respect to inflight entertainment, if this is important to you, you really need to research the airline you’re flying on and the equipment you’re flying. AA is upgrading IFE on many of its routes, but it also just did a merger with an airline that had a large number of planes that didn’t have any IFE. So many different types of planes flying across country that you just really need to know what you’re doing, and also you should generally be aware that if you’re booking mileage flights a year out, there’s often a reason the airlines are opening those flights – they are expecting they won’t sell them out, which could be for a variety of reasons, one of which is equipment.

 

 

 

AA, like most airlines, gives different meal services depending on the length of the flight. You don’t mention the meal service on the LAX-CLT leg, but I actually find longer segment meals to be pretty good on AA. If you didn’t get a meal on that flight, that would be weird and something to look into, though I doubt you’d get much more in compensation beyond a few extra miles. Expecting more than a snack service from CLT-FLL is kind of unrealistic, because it’s a very short flight and you can’t expect full catering services and crew service required for a meal on a flight like that. But, for the future and for others, AA publishes pretty clearly the food service that’s offered in first on its website and you can see exactly what you’re going to get. A 633 mile flight gets the snack basket. If you’d wanted more, you could have tried a connection in ORD, and then you’d have two longer segments.

 

 

 

Not being notified of schedule changes until late is poor by AA. This is a legit complaint, though very very common. For anyone booking a year out, there are going to be schedule changes and you need to check your reservation on a regular basis and be proactive.

 

 

 

Many of us think OP’s suggestion that first seats are only “marginally” better than coach seats is way off base, but this is obviously an opinion and nobody’s is more valid than anyone else’s.

 

 

 

I have found AA crew to be pretty good about manipulating bags above first class seats to ensure that passengers in those seats will have room, even if they are not the first to board. And they are usually pretty good about not letting Y passengers put their bags up, but they can’t stop what they don’t see. Sometimes, though, crews are doing everything they can to get the flight turned quickly, and this is just one of the things you need to be prepared to deal with when you fly. It happens.

 

 

 

The rant about customer service and the suggestion that you only got coach services comes off as a bit naïve, but again I think there’s plenty of room for disagreement of opinions. That said, I don’t know that you’d find any of the others to be any better, although Delta does a better job with schedule changes and irregular operations. (Though, their frequent flier program stinks.)

 

 

 

And for the record, a coach award for two pax roundtrip from LAX to FLL would have been 50,000 miles, not 40,000.

 

 

 

Your right, Delta does a much better job than any other US carrier when IRROPS happen, and they do offer a much better service in FC and even in coach.

 

Given the state of Delta's FF program, they are lowering the price in FC so more people buy a seat in the front cabin instead of waiting for an upgrade. I have seen the difference between the lowest fare in coach and FC to be less than 180USD. So, save your AA miles and use them in real international First Class seats, make it aspirational so it can be worth it and you can save a headache for yourself.

[Hawaiidan]

In the past year, all airline ff programs have gone to a 2 tier award system one for saver use of points and one for regular use of points

 

If you choose the "saver" you save 50% of the miles you need for the same CLASS ( like Business or First) but mot the choice of the same schedules.

You wont get the best times, non stops or connections when you choose the saver option.

 

When you pick the "regular or anytime" miles/points you get offered the best flights, non stops and with the best equipment like wide bodys with lie flat seats and all the extras.

 

In the case of Miami to LAX the saver or discount for first is 25,000 per each way. The regular of full miles required is 43,000 miles/points

 

All the lesser planes, seats, routes, changes that you had to endure in your quest for first class, were the result of opting for the saver or discount mileage.

Were you to have spent 13,000 miles more ..or 43,000miles then you would have been offered AA 767 , wide bodys with non stop service, in lie flat business/first seats with a great meal and all the extras .But not at all offered to the "saver miles" passenger.

 

So , and this applies to anyone on any carrier who has the option between using the discount or saver level for any class of service. VS using the full or regular level of miles, DO NOT EXPECT THE SAME OPTIONS, SERVICE OR CONSIDERATION. No non stops, old non reclining seats, Lots of connections , long layovers and not top level experience or comfort.

 

The choice is always yours and you get what you pay for....Dont complain because as a high mileage frequent flyer you should have known from experience. that this 2 tiers of awards will yield totally different experiences and results..

[fbgd]

In the past year, all airline ff programs have gone to a 2 tier award system one for saver use of points and one for regular use of points

 

That is not true.

[CruiserBruce]

That is not true.

 

Agree. Hawaiidan has a ton of broad generalizations in that post. Very broad generalizations with lots of holes. To say you will see different seats when you use Saver Awards is false, at least on United. For example, we flew Global First to Australia on Saver Awards a few months ago. United only used one style of plane, with one style of Global First seats. All the same seats, all the same food and booze, on the same flights as someone who booked a Standard Award, or actually paid money for their seat.

 

Generally, Saver Awards are harder to get on the most direct flights. But not absolutely gone. And the planes used for flights are not assigned by what type of seat is going to be available for Saver Awards. For example, we are planning a SFO-MCO roundtrip in the near future. I can't get Saver Awards on the non-stop (a 737), but I can get Saver Awards on several one stops routes, with a variety of plane types, all with pretty much the exact same seats. Meals will be different if the segment flights are shorter, but not absolutely diffferent. I could fly SFO-IAD-MCO on a nicer plane than the 737 non-stop to MCO, and get perhaps the exact same meal as the non-stop.

Edited April 5, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[Bruin Steve]

In the past year, all airline ff programs have gone to a 2 tier award system one for saver use of points and one for regular use of points

 

If you choose the "saver" you save 50% of the miles you need for the same CLASS ( like Business or First) but mot the choice of the same schedules.

You wont get the best times, non stops or connections when you choose the saver option.

 

When you pick the "regular or anytime" miles/points you get offered the best flights, non stops and with the best equipment like wide bodys with lie flat seats and all the extras.

 

In the case of Miami to LAX the saver or discount for first is 25,000 per each way. The regular of full miles required is 43,000 miles/points

 

All the lesser planes, seats, routes, changes that you had to endure in your quest for first class, were the result of opting for the saver or discount mileage.

Were you to have spent 13,000 miles more ..or 43,000miles then you would have been offered AA 767 , wide bodys with non stop service, in lie flat business/first seats with a great meal and all the extras .But not at all offered to the "saver miles" passenger.

 

So , and this applies to anyone on any carrier who has the option between using the discount or saver level for any class of service. VS using the full or regular level of miles, DO NOT EXPECT THE SAME OPTIONS, SERVICE OR CONSIDERATION. No non stops, old non reclining seats, Lots of connections , long layovers and not top level experience or comfort.

 

The choice is always yours and you get what you pay for....Dont complain because as a high mileage frequent flyer you should have known from experience. that this 2 tiers of awards will yield totally different experiences and results..

 

I have not seen that at all...

And, when I booked these flights, almost a year ago, there definitely was no such option. AA had an extremely limited choice of flights. On this route and on those dates, what I got was the ONLY option they offered.

 

I have actually become extremely disenchanted with the AAdvantage program in recent years. Far more often than not, there have been NO seats available for virtually every trip I've tried to book...rendering those miles unusable. When seats are available, like for this trip, the award levels are always high. It sure wasn't like that when I first joined the program back in about 1980--when they started. Back then, I was flying a lot on business (I'm retired now) and I could always get the award flights I wanted.

 

But, I did still have a lot of miles in my account from those days (when I maybe flew as much or more than some of you who have been so condescending to me because I'm "not one of you") and I haven't been able to use them for years. I stopped collecting miles by credit card a couple of years ago when I realized just how worthless they've made the program, instead, switching my credit card usage to the much better CapOne Venture card.

 

As to the program itself, there IS a value to those "miles" and you can compute them based on the cash value of the award flights versus the amount one would have to spend on an AA Visa Card to get them--IF AVAILABLE. When the airline requires more and more "miles" for a flight, the value of a "mile" diminishes. If you are working at a job where the employer flies you places on their dime and you collect the miles, sure, those flights are free and you're getting miles anyway...so little reason to care what value you get for your miles...or even if flights are available when you want them...

 

But, in booking these flights, there was NO evidence of ANY such "two tier" system.

[nolatravelgirl]

But, in booking these flights, there was NO evidence of ANY such "two tier" system.

Wow, this just gets better and better. Now you are claiming that you had some special website that somehow has a different set of search options than the rest of the planet.

[Bruin Steve]

Wow, this just gets better and better. Now you are claiming that you had some special website that somehow has a different set of search options than the rest of the planet.

 

What the heck do you think you're reading?

I claimed I have a special website??? I wish!

 

What I said was that in searching for flights on the AA website, there was only one option on this date, this route...

 

Hawaiidan said there were two options...I was refuting that...Maybe YOU are just confused...

Edited April 5, 2016 by Bruin Steve

[nolatravelgirl]

What the heck do you think you're reading?

I claimed I have a special website??? I wish!

 

What I said was that in searching for flights on the AA website, there was only one option on this date, this route...

 

Hawaiidan said there were two options...I was refuting that...Maybe YOU are just confused...

No you are claiming that your website was somehow different than the published website that clearly lays out all the multiple options. It should have looked like this.

 

[/url] by , on Flickr

 

it shows you a week at a time and is color coded. Not all flights are available on all days, but you had options. You just wanted the exact flights/dates/seats to just magically be available. That isn't how award seats work. Airlines release seats for award tickets that they don't expect to sell.

Edited April 5, 2016 by nolatravelgirl

[Bruin Steve]

No you are claiming that your website was somehow different than the published website that clearly lays out all the multiple options. It should have looked like this.

 

AA Capture by Rachel G, on Flickr

 

it shows you a week at a time and is color coded.

 

Nolagirl,

Have you ever used that website? Yes, there are different colors and week at a time, etc.....BUT, many times a date will have no availability or extremely limited availability.

 

On the many occasions I searched THAT site for flights on my dates (I had no flexibility...it had to fit into my wife's Spring Break work schedule), there was only one available set of flights...and only in First Class.

 

What about that do you not understand?

[nolatravelgirl]

Nolagirl,

Have you ever used that website? Yes, there are different colors and week at a time, etc.....BUT, many times a date will have no availability or extremely limited availability.

 

On the many occasions I searched THAT site for flights on my dates (I had no flexibility...it had to fit into my wife's Spring Break work schedule), there was only one available set of flights...and only in First Class.

 

What about that do you not understand?

Why yes I have used it on many occasions including my first class journey to Indonesia in Cathay and also for my trip to Barcelona this summer on BA, both for cruises. I could link you to the blog posts. I was quite happy with my final flights but I had to be FLEXIBLE! You wanted to travel at a very busy time to a very popular destination which is a recipe for disaster for award flight search. I know we all want to use our miles but sometimes our specific terms are not conducive to award flights. For example I needed FIVE tickets to LAX during Texas spring break. I initially looked at award flights but each ticket would have cost me 50K per ticket in coach! This was ridiculous and not a good use of miles, since I knew my dates were inflexible I had to book with real money. It worked out great since I was booking far in advance I was able to get discounted paid first for not much more than coach class and I will save my miles for another time.

[Regguy]

Nolagirl,

Have you ever used that website? Yes, there are different colors and week at a time, etc.....BUT, many times a date will have no availability or extremely limited availability.

 

On the many occasions I searched THAT site for flights on my dates (I had no flexibility...it had to fit into my wife's Spring Break work schedule), there was only one available set of flights...and only in First Class.

 

What about that do you not understand?

 

You're the one not understanding.

 

There are two classes of awards -- milesaver and anytime. They exist in economy, business and first. "Anytime" means exactly what it says. You can use it for any flight, any time. It is essentially (with minor exceptions not really relevant here) completely last seat availability. If AA flies the route, you can use miles for it. It is never not available, that's why it's called anytime. The only exception is when the flight is actually sold out. That is, if every single revenue seat has been sold for cash or is booked with miles, then you cannot redeem an anytime award. But that virtually never happens, and certainly never happens a year out.

 

A domestic USA economy any time award is either 20k or 30k each way, so if you want to pick your flight you can redeem between 40k and 60k AA miles for a roundtrip ticket on any route that AA publishes.

 

If you don't believe it, go do a search right now for LAX to FLL using AA miles and on the search screen, select that you want "anytime". To really put what I'm saying to the test, go ahead and select that you want six seats. You will see that there is availability on, literally, every single day from now until the end of schedule -- 330 days from now -- for 20k or 30k per direction.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Regguy

[Bruin Steve]

You're the one not understanding.

 

There are two classes of awards -- milesaver and anytime. They exist in economy, business and first. "Anytime" means exactly what it says. You can use it for any flight, any time. It is essentially (with minor exceptions not really relevant here) completely last seat availability. If AA flies the route, you can use miles for it. It is never not available, that's why it's called anytime. The only exception is when the flight is actually sold out. That is, if every single revenue seat has been sold for cash or is booked with miles, then you cannot redeem an anytime award. But that virtually never happens, and certainly never happens a year out.

 

A domestic USA economy any time award is either 20k or 30k each way, so if you want to pick your flight you can redeem between 40k and 60k AA miles for a roundtrip ticket on any route that AA publishes.

 

If you don't believe it, go do a search right now for LAX to FLL using AA miles and on the search screen, select that you want "anytime". To really put what I'm saying to the test, go ahead and select that you want six seats. You will see that there is availability on, literally, every single day from now until the end of schedule -- 330 days from now -- for 20k or 30k per direction.

 

NOT what "Anytime" means...It means that the award, if available, is available during the times the "saver" awards are blacked out. BUT it is NOT always" available. The airlines only release a limited number of frequent flier seats...and they do not have them always available for every flight. They also do not necessarily release available ff seats 330 days in advance when the schedule is released. They may or may not release them at any time...in their discretion...or never at all.

 

If only those "Anytime Coach" and "Anytime Business" seats were ALWAYS available, no way would I have booked First Class...

 

To add a little note on that: when I booked this, before booking, I called AA directly and asked if there were ANY other flight options using miles for my dates...and this was almost 11 months in advance...no flights were anywhere close to sold out. I was told "NO". I was advised that I could wait...and they MAY release more ff seats...but I'd risk losing these.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Bruin Steve

[Regguy]

You're misinformed, which is fine. But you're now misinforming others.

 

AA Anytime awards are last seat availability. If the seat is for sale, you can book it with miles as an anytime award. There are no blackouts. (And since AA oversells its flights, the "for sale" requirement is irrelevant until a day or so before the flight.) Unlike saver awards, which are heavily capacity controlled, AA revenue management does not block a single seat on any flight on its own metal using any anytime award.

 

I imagine when you called AA did not offer you an anytime award, because most people do not book them, since they are not a great use of miles. But, yes, if you call AA, and want an anytime award, you need to mention that. And if you do, they will gladly redeem it for you if you have adequate miles for, again quite literally, any seat on any AA operated flight.

 

Here is the direct quote from the AA website, which, again, is easily confirmed if you do a search on the website for anytime awards, which you will see are available on every day on every flight through the end of schedule, in all three classes of service: "With no blackout dates, you can use AAnytime awards for any seat on an American Airlines or American Eagle® flight . . . ."

 

https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/american-airlines-award-chart2016.jsp

[pinotlover]

Although Hawaiidan did throw out some generalizations, he is mostly correct. I just booked ff miles on UA, to Egypt, for next February. At booking, the system showed a host of possibilities for travel. Only one option allowed for saver miles use, while a multitude of options were available for standard miles. This is the two tier system of which Dan spoke. I would have preferred a routing available on a different airplane through a different airport, but didn't want to pay double the miles for the business class seat at the standard mileage rate. I purchased business class seats (ff miles) but on one of my domestic legs I had to take a economy seat, and then pay to upgrade it to PE, even though 1st class seats were available.

 

I have been through this with both UA and AA. The availability of partner seats, at any level, on any plane, on any route, is solely up to that partner, whether Star Alliance or oneworld. If Lufthansa only releases certain of its flights to Star Alliance ff miles or with standard miles only, United has no power over that and can only honor their releases. I tried to book a return from New Zealand last year to the States and it was at a high tourist travel time and NZ never released any business/first class seats to the system. They sold them all during that time frame. Same for AA and its partners. Qantas actually release miles on its ff system only and never gave AA any open ff seats through that time period.

 

It is always important to look at the "operated by" portion of the code shares, not whether UA or AA has a code share flight number on it to determine what is going on. This becomes highly obvious when trying to book seat assignments these days on flights operated by the partner lines.

 

As an example of flexibility. Using free miles for our cruise from Sidney to Auckland, passengers were able to book miles on United, round trip, Sidney on UA. They had to purchase one way tickets from Auckland back to Sidney, on the airline of their choice, because NZ Airlines never released seats for ff miles to UA, during that schedule on the UA system, from either Auckland to the States, or to Sidney. Other times of the year NZ Air does make seats available.

[Bruin Steve]

Well, Reg,

I guess I owe you an apology of sorts...

I just called the AAdvantage program and explained the discussion and asked if that were correct...And the person I spoke with said yes. I then asked why the agent I spoke with at the time told me there were no other options...and why the website showed no other options...and her response was that the Anytime Economy award likely cost more than the First Class award...so, the agent likely just ignored it and told me that was the only option...since the alternative made no sense at all.

 

I am a little surprised. I've tried to book several trips in the past few years...and, after reaching frustration level, I've always ended up calling AA...with mixed results. I've had a couple of very good agents who have gotten creative on alternative routes (usually trips to Europe)...and I've had some with no solutions at all...but I've NEVER had one tell me that an "Anytime" award was always an option.

 

OTOH, if an Anytime award is priced higher than a First Class award, is it really an option?

 

And, of course, if it's an "option" that means shelling out 100,000 miles plus for a domestic coach seat, doesn't that further my contention that the program has become, largely, worthless?