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American Airlines question re: San Francisco to Boston

American Airlines question re: San Francisco to Boston

Old Jul 29th, 2004, 11:23 AM
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American Airlines question re: San Francisco to Boston

Hello, guys, I'm relatively new to air travel so please don't laugh at me in writing

Reserved a RT in October SFO - BOS on AA at convenient (for me) times for $256.70 total. While making reservations I went through several steps, including "finish". They will mail confirmation to my e-mail - how soon?

The seat choice was just OK, so I clicked on "select" and chose better seats, but after that there was no "confirm" or "finish" buttons... have I done something wrong or this is how their website works?

Oh, yes, and before reservation I subscribe to get FF miles, see I'm getting smarter
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 11:28 AM
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If you don't have the email confirmation by now, you may not have a reservation. After you clicked "finish," you should have gotten a page with a record locator code (usually all letters, like WYSIWYG). I hope you kept a copy of that. If not, check to see if you HAVE a reservation first by going to the AA website and click on "My Reservations." It'll ask for your Freq. Flyer number and password. If the reservation's not there, call AA right away and ask what's what. You may have to start over again, and that fare is good enough that it's worth fighting for.
 
Old Jul 29th, 2004, 01:08 PM
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Thank you, Cassandra, I logged in, the itinerary is there, even my choice of seats is there! Just no e-mail... I'll wait till tomorrow to see if there is such a thing as "contact us" and ask to repeat the confirmation e-mail (and my e-address is correct, I checked).
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 01:45 PM
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I haven't booked on-line with AA before, but it has taken up to 24 hours to get an email confirmation from some airlines (including British Airways).

Make sure you've got a printout of the itinerary and fare you can see on-line on the AA website, in case a problem arises later.
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 04:07 PM
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Great job, FainaAgain, you got an excellent fare. Sounds like you got it all correct, including signing up for the FF program. If you can check your credit card online, you could look for a charge from American Airlines. That would be another positive indication. Otherwise, you could wait. I booked an award trip with AA on the phone and asked the person to e-mail the itinerary. It took at least 12 hours.
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 04:45 PM
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Everytime I book on line I get instant e-mail confirmation. It's so quick that it shows the seats that AA picked, not the ones I changed to right after the res was made.

Anyway, the only possibility I could think of is that you either have a wrong e-mail address on file or you don't have any e-mail address on file at www.aa.com

Accordng to you the res is there, so you should have received the e-mail confirmation, although wth e-ticket it's really not necessary as long as you have the record locator code (6 - all letter code).

Have a great trip!
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 05:17 PM
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Just some more info.

Are your flights non-stop? If they are you will be flying the dreaded 757. No MRTC on these planes. Judging from your post I see that you are new to AA FF program, thus no status. Here is a suggestion to get some nice seats.

The best coach seats on the AA B757 are as follows:

My personal favorite - row 9 (B,C,D,E), no windows but great leg room, no seats in front of you.
Row 10 (A or F) not good for 2 people traveling together as you will not sit together, but great for a single traveler with a window and plenty of leg room.
Row 17 - (B,C,D,E) exit row, full recline, (A,F) no full recline.
Row 18 - (A,B,C,D,E,F) exit row, full recline.
Rows 17 and 18 give you about 6 inches more of space. Worth it on a long flight.

Without status you can't reserve these seats ahead of time, but you could get them during checkin at the airport. Very possible, because many elites reserve these but ultimately they get upgraded to the front cabin thus opening these great seats. Get to the airport little early and you may be able to grab one of these. It's a 6 hour flight, so it may be worthwhile to try.

Have a great trip!
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Old Jul 29th, 2004, 06:41 PM
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One more suggestion

If there is even a slight possibility you will be flying with AA in 90 days after your first flight and it will be something similar to your first flight, then you should sign-up for Gold Challenge.
Basically you need 10,000 miles in 90 days, and you will earn about 5400 on this trip so will be more than 1/2 way there. If you do make the required miles in 90 days you will get Gold status with AA. It's not much, but it's better than not having any status. Some of the major perks are:

Reserve exit row seats during reservation

Checkin at the Business class desk, regardless of the class of service you are flying on that day. (First class desk if there is no business class desk).

1.25 x actual miles flown.

The ability to upgrade from any published fare with 500 mile stickers. You get 4 free ones for every 10,000 miles flown or you could buy them on-line for $25 each or on the phone or at the airport for $30 each. So on a flight like yours, SFO-BOS which is about 2700 miles it would cost $150 each way to upgrade to first class.

You have to start the challenge on the 1st or 15h of the month. So if your outbound flight is on the 14th you would still need to start on the 1st of October. You will have 90 days or 3 months to complete it. If you don't get the miles, no big deal. You don't get penalized or anythng, you just don't get the status. If you do complete the challenge, your Gold status will be good till the last day of February of 2006.

Call the AAdvantage desk at 1-800-882-8880 to sign up. You will need your AAdvantage membership number and the date you want to start the challenge. Ask the CSR to sign you up for a Gold Challenge.

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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 07:56 AM
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GOT IT!!! It took less then 24 hours for sure, more like 20 hours. I asked around at work - everybody said they get confirmation the next day - Southwest, Delta, Continental.

AA, thank you, will you please de-abbreviate MRTC what's that?

As I got the seats 2,5 months in advance it was too late to choose, my rows are 20 and 26, isle seats (my choice) and it's a 3-3 seater, 8 am to Boston, 4 pm to SF.

Fare $221.40, trans tax $16.60, other taxes $18.70 (darn!) total $256.70.
Breakfast going there, dinner coming back.

Do I have any choice, can I pre-order vegetarian?

I will learn eventually, I promise. For now I'm patting myself on the head: Faina, you're doing great

And I have all printed out, all kind of confirmations, even a confirmation number for a phone notification for flight changes (self-taught all american bureuacrat!)
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 07:59 AM
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Faina-

MRTC = More Room Thru Coach
A huge reason why many people love flying AA.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 08:09 AM
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FainAgain...Yes, you may order vegetarian but you have to call to do that.Here is a link to some sample menus.
http://www.aa.com/content/travelInfo...#vegetariannon
Happy Travels!
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 08:23 AM
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The seats that you have are just regulr (no MRTC) seats. Aisle will be a little better, but I would still go for one of the seats I talked about above. You will be more comfortable if you happen to get one of the seats.

Also, since you did sign up for AAdvantage program, you could pull up your reservation on www.aa.com. All you have to do is to sign in and pull up your reservation. You will get to see the seat map and choose different seats if you so choose. The exit rows will seem occupied because you don't have status, but they may open up at the airport.

Good luck!

Have a great trip!
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 09:02 AM
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Thank you guys! What a nice crowd!

AA, I've been to that page where they show the seat availability, but most of them were taken... maybe because of my low internet rate? Anyway, I've changed to move like 5 rows ahead, and I'll keep an eye on the seats - hopefully I can get one of those on your list. I have to go for aisle seats at least for now because of my fear of flight. But I'm working on it, and getting better.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 12:25 PM
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Re AA and seat assignments: The day before flying recently LAX to DEN, I checked the seat map for our flight. It showed all seats taken (we'd reserved our seats long before) and the flight would be full. When we took off, the plane was about 30% full, so don't know why the inconsistency.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 01:42 PM
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Betsy - most airlines don't allow any more online seat selection once a threshold is crossed. Most think it's about 70%-75% filled. After that, only a live agent can assign the remaining seats, either on day of travel at the airport, or perhaps through the phone.

It makes sense for them to do it this way, or else the last 25-30% passengers will be spread all over the place, most likely with middle seats only, even if they're travelling as a group. Some people (myself included) will get seat assignments like 15A and 15C online, even if only two people are travelling together, leaving all the middle seats at the end.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 01:51 PM
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Thanx for your explanation, rk, I was wondering what the rationale is, and now it makes sense. We reserved aisle and window and were surprised (and happy) that the middle seat remained unassigned.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 01:51 PM
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Betsy

Seat maps on airline sites should NEVER be taken at face value. If you really want to get a better picture of how full your flight is you would also need to look at the loads for the flight. Even then, it's never a clear picture. Here are some of the most obvious reasons:

1.Many passengers connecting from a flight and that flight is late.

2.Some passengers purchase a fully refundable ticket and they choose not to fly on this flight for whatever reason.

3.Some passengers decided to go standby on an early flight and were able to get seats.

etc, etc, etc.....

And ultimately, only the airline knows the true loads for any flight. They just don't want the competition to know, so we pions will never really see the true picture till we get on the plane.

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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 01:55 PM
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Thanks AAFF, looks like we were posting at the same time. I guess the "take home" message is to reserve early and hope there's not an equipment change.
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Old Jul 30th, 2004, 02:03 PM
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Faina, as someone to whom it's very important to be seated in a specific area, I will suggest you check back about every week or so to see if seats have opened OR if your flights have been changed or equipment changed. AA isn't as bad as some on this, but it does happen that flights change, equipment changes, and the airline will just assign you a whole new seat without notifying you.

If you call AA and explane that you are a bit anxious about flying, they MIGHT be able to move you up or put a note in your record to that effect so that on the day of flight, you have documented grounds to ask for a seat that they have blocked up 'til then.

The earlier you check in (if you haven't been successful switching seats before day of departure), the better chance you have of requesting and getting a seat that had been blocked in the computer.

But do keep checking on your reservation between now and then.
 
Old Jul 30th, 2004, 02:03 PM
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"explane" -- hah! great inadvertent pun! Make that "explain" !!
 

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