American Airlines Low Fare Guarantee?
Apr 3rd, 2006, 06:34 AM
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American Airlines Low Fare Guarantee?
My wife and I are traveling from St. Louis to London and returning from Rome to St. Louis in September. I have been looking for a good airfare for some time and today I have found the exact flight I want on Airfare.com for a total of 1986.30 for two tickets and on AA.com the same flight is 2094.00 for two tickets.
American has a "low fare guarantee" if the exact same flight is five dollars or more cheaper, per ticket, they will refund the difference and give you a fifty dollar voucher.
Has anyone tried to use this guarantee? If so what was your experience? Do you feel like they would honor the airfare.com offer?
Thanks!
Richard
American has a "low fare guarantee" if the exact same flight is five dollars or more cheaper, per ticket, they will refund the difference and give you a fifty dollar voucher.
Has anyone tried to use this guarantee? If so what was your experience? Do you feel like they would honor the airfare.com offer?
Thanks!
Richard
Apr 3rd, 2006, 07:05 AM
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I have not personally tried this, but I read a review on flyertalk who said getting the refund 'approved' was like pulling teeth. Evidently there are all sorts of hoops to be jumped through, including having proof of both fares (take webshot printouts now!) 
Good luck!
Good luck!
Apr 3rd, 2006, 12:25 PM
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Also, does the fare on Airfare.com include all the misc. fees. Everytime I've seen cheaper fares, I've found out that something or other wasn't included until I actually went through part of the booking process.
May 5th, 2006, 08:43 AM
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RMoore16,
Did you use airfare.com? Has anyone out there used them recently and what were the results? Am trying to get some tickets for son and daughter in law who are not frequent flyers so accumulation of miles is not necessary----just a good price and dependable service.
Did you use airfare.com? Has anyone out there used them recently and what were the results? Am trying to get some tickets for son and daughter in law who are not frequent flyers so accumulation of miles is not necessary----just a good price and dependable service.
May 5th, 2006, 10:15 AM
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Actually I'm going through the same calculation right now for flights DCA-CDG in late Aug.- early Sept. The same flights that would be $1030 pp on AA.com are $837 on Sidestep.com & airfare.com.
Jul 14th, 2006, 11:21 AM
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Was wondering if Rmoore, laidback and lisa ended up booking through airfare.com and what your experience was or was it too good to be true? Since there's 4 of us flying, the savings would be nice. From what I could gather, ther rates include everything.
Thank you again!
Thank you again!
Jul 14th, 2006, 05:56 PM
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I don't know about American matching the fares from consolidators, etc., but American did refund money to me when my flight (Boston to London) went down in price. I booked in September '05, for a May '06 trip. The price went down three times, for a total of $100 per ticket (4 tickets, so a $400 savings overall). Each time, we called American and they gave us the new price - keeping our same flight and our seat assignments! The credits showed up almost immediately on our credit card.
I wouldn't hesitate to book directly through American - and then keep checking.
The folks at American did say that they only do this for flights booked through them, so buying flights on Cheaptickets or Orbitz (or wherever) would have made us ineligible for the refund.
Just my experience...
Gayle
I wouldn't hesitate to book directly through American - and then keep checking.
The folks at American did say that they only do this for flights booked through them, so buying flights on Cheaptickets or Orbitz (or wherever) would have made us ineligible for the refund.
Just my experience...
Gayle
Jul 14th, 2006, 06:05 PM
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Bonzhoor, we actually purchased tickets for our son and daughter in law through www.bt-store.com (Best Travel) as they had better schedules and prices than anyone at the time. The tickets ended up being on American Airlines.
Jul 14th, 2006, 10:45 PM
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Neopolitan asked: "If the price guarantee doesn't include consolidators whom would it include? Surely you wouldn't be booking an American flight from another single airline?"
Consolidators and airline sites are not the only two sources - there are the likes of orbitz and travelocity and on and on - they are not consolidators and they probably sell umpteen times more tickets than all the consolidators combined.
Airfare.com explain their consolidator's status: "Wholesale and consolidator tickets are specially negotiated, deeply discounted tickets offered to travelers."
www.airfare.com/sitecontent/CustomerSupport.asp
WK
Consolidators and airline sites are not the only two sources - there are the likes of orbitz and travelocity and on and on - they are not consolidators and they probably sell umpteen times more tickets than all the consolidators combined.
Airfare.com explain their consolidator's status: "Wholesale and consolidator tickets are specially negotiated, deeply discounted tickets offered to travelers."
www.airfare.com/sitecontent/CustomerSupport.asp
WK
Jul 17th, 2006, 09:08 PM
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I actually just called AA with the same situation. I found a flight I wanted through airfare.com that was about $60 cheaper than on the aa.com site. They won't beat airfare.com prices as they buy blocks of seats, etc... (basically explaining that they're a consolidator).
He also pointed out that the airfare.com fare does not include all taxes. I didn't notice it at first, but there's a little * below the price that says "Taxes are excluded." The pop up explains that additional taxes on internatinal flights could range anywhere from $60 - $270! He also said that the fare might be more restricted in that a charge would apply for changes, etc. I think I'll probably end up biting the bullet and booking through the airline.
He also pointed out that the airfare.com fare does not include all taxes. I didn't notice it at first, but there's a little * below the price that says "Taxes are excluded." The pop up explains that additional taxes on internatinal flights could range anywhere from $60 - $270! He also said that the fare might be more restricted in that a charge would apply for changes, etc. I think I'll probably end up biting the bullet and booking through the airline.
Jul 18th, 2006, 05:35 AM
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I just checked airfare.com for a couple of upcoming trips where I will be probably flying AA. On the same flights, airfare.com showed a slightly lower price for the ticket, but when fees and taxes were added in, airfare.com was a few dollars higher.
Keith
Keith
