Who Else was calling American Airlines for FF tickets last night?

[chemteach]

I phoned every half hour starting at midnight Central Standard Time. At 1:30 am, the Award tickets for LAX to Maui for 6/29/07 had finally loaded. I was calling every half hour, and by the time I phoned, there were only 4 tickets left on the morning direct flight, but 12 left for the evening direct flight. So who out there has that fifth seat I need for the morning flight?

We'll have to buy one ticket for the trip, but that's better than buying 5 and/or dealing with 3 very tired children at what would be an 11 pm landing time for us if we had taken the evening flight.

Edye

[ajsmithtx]

I wasn't calling AA, but I called Delta and got our June 2007 return from Hawaii, booked via FF miles last night at 11:01pm CST.

[Dave M]

It's possible that AA allocated only four seats to FF award tickets for that early flight. Many airlines, including AA, limit the number of seats allocated to awards, especially on flights expected to have high demand.

Congrats on getting four seats.

Good luck on getting return seats. If you plan to return on a weekend, I suggest you read this thread for some strategy ideas, including making your return reservations for a day or two earlier than your first choice and then changing them, if space is available.

[skim118]

Ever since American cancelled it's two Bay area - Maui flights direct in the past two years, SF passengers now also compete with LA passengers on the two direct flights out of LAX.

During the past week I have made 6 FF ticket bookings(SFO-Maui thru LAX) and only the afternoon flight was available each time.

[Blondie]

I have much better luck online with AA- It is very simple

[skim118]

Originally Posted by Blondie

I have much better luck online with AA- It is very simple

It is not possible to do online what we are trying to do -- booking outbound only first and then booking inbound(back to mainland) 15 days later, when that 330-day window opens up.

[ajsmithtx]

Originally Posted by skim118

It is not possible to do online what we are trying to do -- booking outbound only first and then booking inbound(back to mainland) 15 days later, when that 330-day window opens up.

It is the same with Delta. I call to book the outbound flight, 331 days out, then I have to wait to book the return, when that 331 day window opens.

[chemteach]

I phoned today and there was a fifth seat available! Now I just have to hope 5 tickets are available for the return flight!

Edye

[travelplanner70]

I was trying to get Delta FF for Hawaii for the end of June, but I only see Shy Choice tickets using 70,000 miles. Are any airlines allowing 30,000-35,000 miles for FF tix to Hawaii? Thanks for the info.

[BILLVACK]

We just got American FF for Next Summer. It took a while since we were doing a three way connection, and calling at 12:01 am when the seats were available. We got 4 seats from Philadelphia to San Francisco (with a 4 day layover) then San Fran to Hawaii, then 2 weeks later, Hawaii to Philadelphia. And these were 30,000 miles per ticket.
How happy are we right now !!!

[SherryS]

Good question, jojo!....I am going to start a new thread,

[chemteach]

Originally Posted by BILLVACK

We just got American FF for Next Summer. It took a while since we were doing a three way connection, and calling at 12:01 am when the seats were available. We got 4 seats from Philadelphia to San Francisco (with a 4 day layover) then San Fran to Hawaii, then 2 weeks later, Hawaii to Philadelphia. And these were 30,000 miles per ticket.
How happy are we right now !!!

It was 30,000 and not 35,000? I thought all AA FF tickets from the mainland to Hawaii are 35,000.
Edye

[skim118]

We were able finally coordinate & get our 6 FF tickets(San Francisco-Maui) for June-July 2007. We did book our outbound at 330 day mark and booked the return when they opened up.

We did run into a snag in booking our return ticket from Maui. As soon as the Maui-LAX overnight flight opened up, AA would not let us book the ticket because the LAX-SFO flight was not bookable since it was leaving on the next day ! We called back a few minutes later and the more experienced agent was able to hold the 6 tickets on Maui-LAX flight and we were able to book the LAX-SFO flight the next day and complete the reservation.

The difficult days to book AA tickets that I observed were on Saturdays(both outbound and inbound) & I was wondering if it was timeshare related ?

It does take 35,000 miles and even though we are happy with AA in general we have already switched over to United because of direct flights from SF Bay area to Hawaiian islands and Mexican destinations(Cabo, PV & Cancun).

[Spence]

I've got 8 outbound AA flights reserved for Saturday 7Jul BWI-OGG, now waiting for 21Jul KOA-BWI to open up.