Manipulating the American Airlines booking computer

blindman

lackingwedge wrote: »

Is there a way one can force AA into honouring their deal?

Contact Mastercard and tell them that AA are not honouring the deal ?

stoneman

Did you try booking through the U.S. site? I have found them more helpful myself. I would try that, and if you don't get the answer you want, keep phoning up and get a different agent until you get one that will take your booking, this has been used in the past on many occasions, left hand, right hand, and all that

stoneman

OK think I have sorted this. The offer that has been posted and linked to on here is from the Irish site. I phoned up Mastercard when AA refused to give me the 15% discount today, (even after speaking to a superviser) and the marketing department said that that offer was specific to Ireland, and in fact it has been taken down now off of their site anyway.

blindman

stoneman wrote: »

OK think I have sorted this. The offer that has been posted and linked to on here is from the Irish site. I phoned up Mastercard when AA refused to give me the 15% discount today, (even after speaking to a superviser) and the marketing department said that that offer was specific to Ireland, and in fact it has been taken down now off of their site anyway.

No it hasn't.

Well done for looking further into this.

However it sounds like total B*ll*cks from Mastercard.

If the savings were huge (and they're not) I'd advise anyone to pursue this further as the original T&C's + the "Irish" ones state the offer is open until Dec 2008.

So if anyone missed this "offer" I wouldn't worry to much.

stoneman

UPDATE!!
Just got off of the phone to marketing at MC and asked why this offer is still showing. She thought it had been taken down and says that it will be now. The lady said that there was a typing error on it that stated that the offer was good till Dec. 2008, and it should have read Dec. 2007. The reason that it was Ireland specific is that they do there own deals with AA.
Now she also told me that a new offer for 15% off is due to go on-line as early as the end of this week!! She is going to email me and I will post here as soon as it goes live, in the meantime i have put my flights on hold for 3 days hoping that I catch the offer.

stoneman

OK, the new deal is up here but not very good. only 5% off base fare but better than a kick in the nuts I guess. the better deal seems to be further down where you get 15% off of Sixty car hire

GentleGiant_2

BTW - I have found that going through https://www.americanairlines.co.uk as opposed to https://www.aa.com can result in lower fares for exactly the same flight / booking code.

Not a massive saving, but every penny counts.

Also if you have previously completed a challenge, you can repeat it after 18 months.

We did one that started Dec 06, and are doing another one starting this week (after the 16th June date) - to get it through to end of Feb 2010.

We had slipped back to Gold, but will shortly be back to Platinum

You can also register any children in the promotion - they too will become Platinum.

Incidentally if you are Gold, carry around with you the benefits of Gold Status, as this should allow you to check in at Business desk on any One World flight - however from experince BA will not always agree that you have the benefit!

Finally whilst you can earn points on any One World flight (except trans-atlantic flights on BA!!) you will only get points towards the challange if using AA metal or on AA flight numbers on other airlines.

Chaufeurse1956

Getting the major hump with AA at the moment. There is a new 15% Mastercard promotion out there which started on the 1 June and is for flights from Heathrow to JFK or Stansted to JFK (this one I find particularly amusing considering AA have ceased the Stansted flight due to 'financial' reasons). I went to (http://www.mastercard.com/uk/personal/en/specialoffers/travel/summer2008/americanairlines.html) and duly followed the instructions for my promotion code - received my promotion code via email - went to the AA website, entered the code, and....... yes, you probably guessed it got the following 'The Promotion Code entered was not valid for your selection. Please click [URL="javascript:void(0);"]Promotion Code Rules[/URL] to view details'. Checked the promotion code rules - I was within the boundaries, rang AA and spent 20 mins arguing the toss with some bloke who insisted the promotion did not exist/had expired/I got it wrong etc - usual gumpff when they have no idea what is going on. I advised him to check his own website before making sweeping statements and requested a supervisor - after waiting for 5 mins for a supervisor I put the phone down and rang Mastercard - who are not happy bunnies and said AA always do this with new promotions! I am now awaiting a phone call back from Mastercard to see what the outcome is.

I wouldn't be so ticked about it but I am trying to reduce my next flight to Florida and will try any option I can at the moment even if I have to go via JFK and then take Jet Blue down to Fort Myers.

If anybody else goes for this promotion I wish you luck!

Christine

stoneman

Good luck with this Christine, seems as though they should stump up.

Chaufeurse1956

OK - had a phone call from a lovely lady at AA who advised me that the 15% mastercard promotion is very much alive!. She is not happy that some of their customer service reps are unaware of the promotion BUT here is the kicker! Although the promotion claims there are only two black out periods in the form of dates, there are also restrictions as to what flight you can take to get your 15% discount, but AA do not tell you that in their promotion rules so you just see a message saying your promotion code is not valid. The AA lady did a mock booking whilst I was on the phone and the joke was I could not get a discount on the cheaper flight that came in at £348 return. So, we did for the more expensive flight which did give the discount - great I thought - until I realised that even with the 15% discount my selected flights were more expensive than the original timings I wanted - that came in at £378 after the discount - £40 more with 15% discount - I don't think so!

So, all in all considering this discount is only for flights from Heathrow to JFK it's really a bit of a con - most will find out that the discounted flights will actually make the journey more expensive. I have since been lucky enough to find flights from Newcastle to JFK via Amsterdam with great timings and then Jet Blue down to Fort Myers are not too bad in price. I have been lucky enough to pick up flights for a total of £471 from Newcastle to Fort Myers whereas the lady from AA quoted me over £650 for Heathrow to Fort Myers - I would have had to add another £100 for my flights from Newcastle to Heathrow making it in excess of £700 so I like to think my alternative is a much better option and almost £300 cheaper. My flight from Newcastle to JFK I located with https://www.affordableflights.co.uk if anybody is interested.

Regards to all,

Chris