No seats now available on AA when there were plenty yesterday
 

Want to get two tickets JFK - Zurich, Jan 26-Feb 4. Put a "hold" on a FF seat (we will have enough miles only for 1 person, on Aug 20th) and looked for prices for the other person on the same flights. Found a $855 price for non-stop flights but don't want to buy it until I absolutely know I can book the FF seat.

My "hold" on the FF seat ends today but I won't get enough points until Aug 20th to actually book it. So I looked today to "rehold" (my words) my seat which means cancel the "hold" I have, and then put the same flights on hold today. This gives me a "hold" on the FF flights through Aug 20th when I can use my miles.

With me so far?

The price for the "regular" economy seat which would be for my husband was $855. Non-stop. However I looked again today and I now see that for our date for coming home, Feb. 4th - there are NO seats for the non-stop flight back to JFK. Only a connecting one on British airlines. I looked at the remaining seats available yesterday on the non-stops I want and there were plenty of available seat.

So, how could a flight get totally booked up from one day to another?

<i>However I looked again today and I now see that for our date for coming home, Feb. 4th - there are NO seats for the non-stop flight back to JFK.</i>

That's because AA65, ZRH-JFK, only operates on MWFSa in the winter, and February 4 is a Tuesday. It's wide open the day before and the day after.

But, I was able to "hold" that date for me with FF miles AND it was available for the past 3 weeks (when I've looked).

If you are correct, would that mean that my FF hold would not be allowed if I tried to book it now?

This is what my email from AA for "Summary Itinerary On Hold", in part, looks like:

AMERICAN AIRLINES
64
JFK New York
January 26, 2014 06:00 PM
ZRH Zurich
January 27, 2014 07:55 AM
Economy

T
34H 
Dinner  Breakfast or Snack 

<b>AMERICAN AIRLINES
65
ZRH Zurich
February 4, 2014 10:00 AM
JFK New York
February 4, 2014 01:15 PM
Economy </b>


T
32H 
Lunch  Snack 

I think AA must have done the schedule change while you were holding the reservation. Either that, or somebody in the IT department goofed up.

Timetables published last week show AA 65 as daily in February, however when you go to AA.com it shows it as only operating on the days I indicated.

Did you make the held reservation online or with a phone rep?

Online.

Since you're well into the period of availability for buying seats with miles it doesn't apply in this case. But for future reference, since AA flights can be bought one-way and one's return flight need not be bought at the same time as the outward-bound flight, I've learned to buy my FF tickets as they become available (330 days in advance) and as I have the miles in my account. So for my trip next summer I'll soon buy my ticket to LHR, one-way/30,000 miles. I then have time to accumulate the additional miles and buy the return when it comes available for a flight in the fall, one-way/20,000 miles. A companion ticket purchase can be timed to be bought when the return FF ticket is available. Nothing is guaranteed but it helps with availability not having to wait until both legs of the trip are available.

Thanks MmePerdu.

The days I put on hold for JFK - ZRH were no longer available to buy because AA changed their schedule.

Now a new dilemma - I can get tickets JFK-ZRH R/T with FF with coming home via Air Berlin with a stop in Dusseldorf. However, I am not offered this way on their "regular" buy tickets page. All they show me are flights going through LHR on BA. I wouldn't want to come home that way since the taxes are over $400 using my FF miles. Taxes would only be around $70 with the Air Berlin flight.

For the purchased ticket, use the "multiple flights" option on AA.com, JFK to ZRH on the 26th, ZRH to DUS on the 4th and DUS to JFK also on the 4th. Search by schedule and select the nonstop option on preferences. When you see the results you'll see the AA codeshare flight no. on airberlin for DUS-JFK - use that, it's cheaper than using the AB flight number.

I'm seeing $962 for that trip, vs. $855 using the AA nonstop from ZRH on the 5th or 3rd.

Gardyloo - I did what you said and yes, it worked. Thanks. But, unfortunately, it is $962 like you said. Wondering if I wait until Tues or Wed next week if the fare will come down. Or, if I will get better deal if I reserve it over the phone.

<i>Wondering if I wait until Tues or Wed next week if the fare will come down. Or, if I will get better deal if I reserve it over the phone.</i>

Probably not. By using non-AA metal on the return you move that part of the trip from an "O" fare bucket (JFK-ZRH) to an "N" bucket for ZRH-xDUS-JFK, which raises the base fare by $94, then you add a €10 German passenger service charge on top of that. AA's fare rules won't allow an "O" fare on the return.

All you'll accomplish by phoning in the reservation is to pay a $25 phone booking fee on top of the flight cost.

For what it's worth, the airfare part of the total is $118 each way on the nonstop itinerary, and $118 outbound and $212 on the return. The rest is taxes and fuel surcharges, and those definitely won't go down, even if you wait for the base fare to fall, which it almost certainly won't.

To clarify, on the JFK-ZRH-JFK option the total airfare cost is $235; on the JFK-ZRH-DUS-JFK option the airfare is $329. The balance in each case is taxes and fuel surcharges.

Gardyloo - What you're saying about the airfare prices vs. just the taxes on the flights is interesting. But confusing to me!

Using my FF miles I would be paying $77 total for the taxes with JFK-ZHR, ZRH-Duss-JFK for those flights that I put on hold a couple of days ago. But today, I looked again and using the same exact itinerary and my FF miles, it is now $111 for the taxes.

Unlike some airlines, on mileage redemptions AA doesn't necessarily pass through all the taxes and fees on award tickets that are "buried" in the purchase price for the same flights. They'll pass through <i>some</i> fees assessed by <i>some</i> partners, and they'll generally pass through taxes levied by foreign governments, but it's frequently confusing. If this interests you, look carefully at the fare construction and list of taxes when you book.

When you redeem AA miles for trips involving British Airways, AA passes through BA's fuel surcharges, which can be exorbitant. But when you use AA miles on some (not all) <i>other</i> partners, AA eats the fuel surcharge. It's all quite difficult to predict.

The fuel surcharge is NOT A TAX, even though the airlines cynically bundle them into the same category. The fuel surcharges are simply a way to extract more profit out of passengers who think they're getting a "free" ticket with their miles. 'Taint so.

Yes, Gardyloo - BA's enormous fuel surcharges that AA passes on when even with using FF miles, is the reason why I won't fly with them.

Thank you for your obviously extensive knowledge on this stuff.