Manipulating the American Airlines booking computer

blindman

MOLLYBRUSH wrote: »

Well I have saved almost £200 off my flights thanks to you guys, I have also got a cheap hotel at Heathrow through Priceline, which I had never heard off until I saw it on a thread here. I got my dollars on the Thomas Cook offer last year, courtesy of MSE and am slowly getting my itinerary together and booking hotels as cheaply as I can, courtesy of the Las Vegas thread and various recommendations on the other Murphy thread I have read. I am so grateful for all your help.

Hope you got a good deal. Did you see this guide?

Did you post your winning bid, dates and Hotel on BetterBidding?


It helps others if you do.

duchy

Vix for AA go via www.aa.com and when you do the flight search go to the advanced/further options and select UK resident. Use the "price and schedule" option.
Cheapest time of year to fly is between November and March excluding Christmas and Easter-dearest is Christmas and June to September. For example at the moment you can fly Heathrow to New York return for £250 return including taxes. AA sometimes have fare sales even in the summer months but not always. Best place to find them is by looking on www.americanairlines.co.uk home page (at the moment there are discounted fares running up until May edit now June).
Panda I'm a HUGE priceline fan but find the one place they are rarely the best value is Vegas. They are great for everywhere else in the US and a lot of UK cities too. I use both betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com for guidelines on bids. Know what you mean about Belfast hotels-I'm in Belfast in May and struggling to find a decent price at the Hilton.

Murphy_The_Cat

vix2000 wrote: »

I can't 'get' this cheap flight thing. I try for hours and only get expensive flights. When is the cheapest time of year to fly, and what is considered a cheap flight? On the AA website do you click the box that says you're in the uk? Do you have to wait right until the last minute to get these bargains? Sorry for all the questions but I must be doing something wrong on the AA website!!!!

Hi vix

i suppose it all comes down to where/when you want to go and your idea of expensive.
I usually find AA to be competitive on flights across the Atlantic for a full service airline, the stuff that I've posted on the first post are merely things that I've found to get that price even lower.

on the website click on the box that says UK, and then search, search and search again as the website can change several times a day.

MOLLYBRUSH

blindman wrote: »

Hope you got a good deal. Did you see this guide?

Did you post your winning bid, dates and Hotel on BetterBidding?


It helps others if you do.

Yes, did see the guide, although I had done the Heathrow hotel deal before I saw it, and I found it quite straightforward. I will post on BetterBidding as suggested.

MOLLYBRUSH

Got friends who want to come with us now but they need to fly back from Vegas. We are flying into LA. Is this what is known as an "open jaw" flight and do AA do them? I'm sure I saw a discussion on it somewhere.

Murphy_The_Cat

MOLLYBRUSH wrote: »

Got friends who want to come with us now but they need to fly back from Vegas. We are flying into LA. Is this what is known as an "open jaw" flight and do AA do them? I'm sure I saw a discussion on it somewhere.

Thats the one.
Into one airport and out of another. If you search AA under 'multi stop' you'll get the fare.

MOLLYBRUSH

Thanks for that Murphy. Thought it was you and found it on the other thread you've got going about your itinerary. Managed to find them a good deal. Can I book it and get more points or do they have to book it themselves?

Murphy_The_Cat

MOLLYBRUSH wrote: »

Thanks for that Murphy. Thought it was you and found it on the other thread you've got going about your itinerary. Managed to find them a good deal. Can I book it and get more points or do they have to book it themselves?

I'm not at all sure, someone like duchy knows a lot more about that side of the job than me :beer:

MOLLYBRUSH

I suspect not, my name automatically comes up with my reference number. Worth a shot though when they want me to book.

duchy

Somebody call ?
Afraid not Molly-they earn their own miles and can only transfer them to another card by paying a fee. Course you could earn brownie points and good karma by telling them to sign up with Aadvantage so they get miles rather than lose them.
We're doing open jaw too-into Vegas and out of Salt Lake City-also flying out of Stanstead and back into heathrow for complicated reasons.