Manipulating the American Airlines booking computer

duchy

That's a lot of tax. I booked an award ticket this week to the west coast of USA and taxes came to £60 (slightly less than the usual £70 as you pay the UK taxes but not the US taxes on an award ticket).
The tax "split" you are talking about isn't classed as tax but as a fuel surcharge-which is why it isn't added to award tickets but is counted as tax when discounts that are percentages like mastercard are applied (and no I don't see the logic in that either).

LB1985

Has anybody been able to get the £15 telephone booking fee waived when booking over the phone? I'm booking a Citibank promotion and it can't be done online (I'd do it online myself if I could, but there's no promotional code available for me to use on their website).

Scots_Girl

LB1985 wrote: »

Has anybody been able to get the £15 telephone booking fee waived when booking over the phone? I'm booking a Citibank promotion and it can't be done online (I'd do it online myself if I could, but there's no promotional code available for me to use on their website).

I've had the fee waived every time when I've had to use the phone to book something that can't be done on the website.

Luckily the first time I had to make a phone booking the agent knew the phone booking fee shouldn't apply and told me. The last two phone bookings I've had to remind them.

So, if they say the fee applies, just remind them that your booking can't be done on the internet, and say you believe that means the fee is waived.

duchy

Yes several times-sometimes the agent has offered to waive it-othertimes they've said they will charge it and I've pointed out that it is impossible to book on-line and it has been removed. However it is probably worth mentioning that there are currently several new hires just started so you may need to push a little harder and ask to speak to a supervisor to get it removed as it seems the more experienced staff will remove it and the new staff say no.

karena

just booked my tickets and got the 15 per cent off base fare. Had a huge argument with them as they changed the base fare without my knowledge... still cheaper than booking through expedia

blindman

karena wrote: »

just booked my tickets and got the 15 per cent off base fare. Had a huge argument with them as they changed the base fare without my knowledge... still cheaper than booking through expedia

Did you not read my post

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

Did you not read my post

& then lucky old Stoneman got 15% off the lot

Dave_and_Aleks

I've read this thread with interest and some amusement!

Firstly, the "W" fare code that is available for online bookings earns you 1 point per mile flown if you are in the AAdvantage program, very useful for completing Gold and Platinum challenges. I fly regularly to Orlando - when I attained Platinum status I flew Manchester-Chicago-Orlando-Dallas-Chicago-Manchester to get the 10,000 points needed.

Secondly, AA.com never shows the "base fare", it will always include the fare surcharge. To see a full breakdown of the fare, register for free at http://matrix.itasoftware.com - a very useful search engine which at its most basic search level will bring up pretty much every available route/fare for your flights. When you select a flight, click on "show booking details".

By way of example, flights from Manchester to Orlando on April 30, returning 14 nights later, brings up a price on AA.com of £239.00 plus £80.40 tax per passenger. Looking at the same flights using ITA brings up the price of £138 plus taxes. The fuel surcharge is £101, hence making the £239 you see on AA.com. The Mastercard promotion would work the discount on the £138 price and not the £239 price.

Hope that helps.

Murphy_The_Cat

Dave_and_Aleks wrote: »

I've read this thread with interest and some amusement!

Secondly, AA.com never shows the "base fare", it will always include the fare surcharge. To see a full breakdown of the fare, register for free at http://matrix.itasoftware.com - a very useful search engine which at its most basic search level will bring up pretty much every available route/fare for your flights. When you select a flight, click on "show booking details".

By way of example, flights from Manchester to Orlando on April 30, returning 14 nights later, brings up a price on AA.com of £239.00 plus £80.40 tax per passenger. Looking at the same flights using ITA brings up the price of £138 plus taxes. The fuel surcharge is £101, hence making the £239 you see on AA.com. The Mastercard promotion would work the discount on the £138 price and not the £239 price.

Hope that helps.

I'm glad that we've entertained you :beer:

As for AA not showing the Base Fare, is that an Industry wide thing ? For most people, most of the time, it probably doesn't matter to folk, its only when a promotion that runs on a percentage off that people get upset.

That link that you gave is very familliar - is it the same one that expedia uses ? but on this version you can drill down to get the details ?
But the prices that they pulled up were very poor, typically a lot more than booking direct with AA - or at least it was on the flights that I just looked at !

gingababe

Wow what a fab thread..

Many thanks