Manipulating the American Airlines booking computer

lynzpower

Im getting some extortionate fares on this murphy, looking at over 900 plus taxes to atlanta return in end july start august....

Im getting 568 inclusive off Last min with delta I think,

Have you ever flown delta, are they OK ( last flight we too was with kenya airways, not great) so my standards are pretty low anyway, TBH we jsut go with the cheapest...

duchy

I find it's rare that expedia etc are cheaper than aa.com.
Obviously always worth checking for the inevitable exception tho
Some people are very easily entertained !

duchy

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lynzpower wrote: »

Im getting some extortionate fares on this murphy, looking at over 900 plus taxes to atlanta return in end july start august....

Im getting 568 inclusive off Last min with delta I think,

Have you ever flown delta, are they OK ( last flight we too was with kenya airways, not great) so my standards are pretty low anyway, TBH we jsut go with the cheapest...

Well I'm not Murphy but........
First quick buzz through with Delta on their own website gave me £570.90 inclusive of tax.(picked random dates of 24 July-7 August) That £900 fare sounds like you maybe didn't include a Saturday night stay in your dates.
I've flown Delta-they are fine-and of course are direct to Atlanta which is always a plus
AA for the same dates throw up £581.61 but you'd need to change planes -probably at Chicago or New York-but the up side is that if you are clever with this and want to visit one of those cities you can often make it a long connection with enough time for a bit of shopping or sightseeing (eg fly in really early in the day from Atlanta to New York-and take say the 11pm New York to London flight out). If you do it on the way back you can check your bags in at Atlanta and won't see them again til London anyway so won't be bogged down with them.

lynzpower

duchy wrote: »

.

Well I'm not Murphy but........
First quick buzz through with Delta on their own website gave me £570.90 inclusive of tax.(picked random dates of 24 July-7 August) That £900 fare sounds like you maybe didn't include a Saturday night stay in your dates.
I've flown Delta-they are fine-and of course are direct to Atlanta which is always a plus
AA for the same dates throw up £581.61 but you'd need to change planes -probably at Chicago or New York-but the up side is that if you are clever with this and want to visit one of those cities you can often make it a long connection with enough time for a bit of shopping or sightseeing (eg fly in really early in the day from Atlanta to New York-and take say the 11pm New York to London flight out). If you do it on the way back you can check your bags in at Atlanta and won't see them again til London anyway so won't be bogged down with them.

thanks for this.

I did include a sat night as the dates im looking at fly in on 31st July ( thats a thurs) and out on the 17th Aug which is a Sunday night ( hopefully on a night flight)

Will keep plugging away, im sure theres a solution somewhere, but if not delta seems ok and yes direct is preferable for us anyway, Id only change if there was a significant price differential and on prelimerary ganderings looks as if there isnt... Will keep lookng :cool:

stoneman

I've also registered for the Platinum challenge so after this flight all 3 Adults will be PLAT until 2010

I was told that as well, but when I asked for this to be confirmed on the AAdvantage forum, I was informed that in fact I would only be Platinum until Feb. 2009 (starting my challange in April this year) you then go down to Gold until 2010

stoneman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

& then lucky old Stoneman got 15% off the lot

shhhhh!!!!;)

Scots_Girl

stoneman wrote: »

I was told that as well, but when I asked for this to be confirmed on the AAdvantage forum, I was informed that in fact I would only be Platinum until Feb. 2009 (starting my challange in April this year) you then go down to Gold until 2010

It depends when in the year you start the challenge. Start up to 1 Jun 2008 it'll last to Feb 2009, start from 16 Jun 2008 it'll last until Feb 2010.

From Flyertalk: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=702660

"Begin your Challenge June 16, 2007 or later, your status will remain in force the current and following status years - ending Feb 28, 2009. REMEMBER all Challenges are based on Elite Qualifying POINTS, not miles, earned in a three month period."

The AAdvantage agent I spoke to when setting up my challenge said to beware of QSONG! Flights with any of these booking codes either don't qualify for points, or only give 0.5 points per mile. So you could end up doing 10,000 miles but getting no points, or only 5,000 points.

stoneman

Scots_Girl wrote: »

It depends when in the year you start the challenge. Start up to 1 Jun 2008 it'll last to Feb 2009, start from 16 Jun 2008 it'll last until Feb 2010.

From Flyertalk: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=702660

"Begin your Challenge June 16, 2007 or later, your status will remain in force the current and following status years - ending Feb 28, 2009. REMEMBER all Challenges are based on Elite Qualifying POINTS, not miles, earned in a three month period."

The AAdvantage agent I spoke to when setting up my challenge said to beware of QSONG! Flights with any of these booking codes either don't qualify for points, or only give 0.5 points per mile. So you could end up doing 10,000 miles but getting no points, or only 5,000 points.

Sorry , yes you are correct, I thought for some reason Blindman was going soon, then I decided to read properly and realised that he was going Christmas time:o

Dave_and_Aleks

lynzpower wrote: »

thanks for this.

I did include a sat night as the dates im looking at fly in on 31st July ( thats a thurs) and out on the 17th Aug which is a Sunday night ( hopefully on a night flight)

Will keep plugging away, im sure theres a solution somewhere, but if not delta seems ok and yes direct is preferable for us anyway, Id only change if there was a significant price differential and on prelimerary ganderings looks as if there isnt... Will keep lookng :cool:

My preference would be to maximise my mileage flying on AA, sign up for the Platinum Challenge and do the following route:

July 31:
AA51 Heathrow-Dallas 1025am-230pm (4751 miles)
AA1074 Dallas-Atlanta 405pm-725pm (732 miles)
August 17:
AA1699 Atlanta-Dallas 155pm-305pm (732 miles)
AA50 Dallas-Heathrow 520pm-825am (4751 miles)

Pricing at £596.60 in V fare code which on the AAdvantage program gives you 1 EQP (elite qualifying point) per mile flown. Total miles flown would be 10966 miles giving 10966 points putting you over the 10000 point threshold required for a Platinum Challenge. Start the challenge on 16 July, your flights would qualify as they'd be within the 90 day challenge period, and you'll end up with Platinum status with AA until 28 February 2010.

You'd also receive a 100% miles bonus for the flight that took you over the 10000 point threshold. Every flight taken with AA thereafter would earn you 100% bonus miles. Build it up to 40000 miles in your account and that qualifies for a free transatlantic trip (just pay taxes). You'd also receive an opportunity to upgrade, and much more - full details on the AAdvantage forum on FlyerTalk.

Perks of Platinum status - checking in at First/Business Class checkin even when travelling in economy, executive lounge access (different rules for different lounges but able to use most lounges in the OneWorld network), priority boarding (on AA flights, not sure about other OneWorld flights), advance seat selection on AA flights (including exit row seating), earn points on other OneWorld airlines (BA, Qantas, Cathay, etc) - lots of things to consider when booking.

Do you want to pay £581 with Delta and get no status on future flights or pay the £15 extra and get a host of extras for future flights until February 2010?

MOLLYBRUSH

Hi, am still dithering here. My AA reservation says it will be valid until 11.00 pm tomorrow. Is that that the case - from Friday. I thought it was only held for 24 hours. I did ring them again and they will give me the 15% but I was not at home when I called and couldn't check the figures - I thought they were a bit low, and now I have read the thread I can see why if the 15% is only taken off the base figure. Still every little helps. Just got to decided whether I am brave enough to go.:eek: