AA-so frutrated!! Help with codes

[jngwright]

After hours of frustration on the website and on the phone, I am banging my head against the wall. Believe me, you don't want to hear the whole story, but it involves terrible customer service...

Does anyone know what it means when they ask for coupon codes, or where I would find one for American Airlines? We are flying Minnesota to Orlando.

TIA!

 

[Tara]

After hours of frustration on the website and on the phone, I am banging my head against the wall. Believe me, you don't want to hear the whole story, but it involves terrible customer service...

Does anyone know what it means when they ask for coupon codes, or where I would find one for American Airlines? We are flying Minnesota to Orlando.

TIA!

Sometimes promotions are offered to people for one reason or another - they typically have a code on them that must be used to obtain a discount. Either you have a coupon code or you don't - they generally aren't widely available or something you can just find on the internet.

 

[Jestocost]

As noted, coupons and codes are few and far between. Sometimes if you are traveling to a convention, the organizer will have arranged for a discount on airfares. These generally don't offer rates as good as discount fares you could purchase in advance and only will help someone booking at the last minute. In the 2010 Entertainment book we have there is a $5 or $10 per ticket discount coupon for AA.

If you don't know you have a coupon or code already, you probably don't.

Save yourself the hassle and just ignore that field.

 

[kaytieeldr]

We actually do want to hear the whole story - we may be able to help. If you don't want to post it, feel free to PM me. If I can't help, I may be able to find the 'right' DISer.

 

[jngwright]

I logged on to book flights for our June trip. They showed 3 fares at $132. This is perfect for myself and my sons. My father can fly on his AA miles, so I called to make sure we would be able to be seated together if we book 2 reservations. The rep said didn't know and transferred me to a AA miles rep. She said yes, but gave me the # for tech support if I had trouble. I entered all the info for the 3 of us, double checked the flight info was correct, pressed hold (as directed) but couldn't figure out how to now book my father's flight. Called tech support. The very rude tech (who acted like I was the biggest moron ever to call) told me to go to the home page and book the AA ticket. He said that my info would be held. My biggest mistake is that I didn't print that page. I went through and did my dad's ticket, and we proceeded to get seats together. On the connecting flight, he informed me we had chosen different flights. We didn't!! I checked and checked and checked. The only reason we were flying AA was because of the MCO arrival time. He said that was that and did I want to keep the late flight for the 3 of us. I said "no" and he cancelled the incorrect flight. This all took about an hour....

I went back online and now there is only 1 seat left at the $132 fare. I called and asked for a manager and explained my situation. She said-if I had wanted that fare, I should have held it. I explained that I did and she said that AA is a business and they don't do things willy nilly and put passengers on flights they don't want. HA! It is not their fault I made a mistake. She flatly refused to honor the fair, or do a credit of any kind. She said if I wanted the flight I could pay the $200/seat that was now available.

I went back online and held the one seat at $132 and then tried to book the other 2 seats. Since it is one adult and 2 children, I can't do it online because it would be 2 reservations, and one reservation would be a child only-which I can't do online. I called again, and they said they could book the children, but it would be an additional $20 a ticket.

So, in a nutshell, in a few (looong frustrating hours) the tickets I wanted went from at total of $450 to $600 (one way for 3 people..), because I trusted tech support and didn't do a print screen. They are completely unwilling to help me at AA, and I am

Whew......

 

[dudspizza]

Did you actually book your tickets?

If you are on a different flight, by accident AND there is a miles award available on that flight, you can move your dad to that flight for free. AA award tickets can be changed to another flight, time, or day as long as the departure and arriving airports stay the same AND awards miles are available on the flight you are moving to. It is for there reasons that I love AA's FF program.

Duds

 

[uva185]

I'm confused. You selected the flights you wanted online for $132. Then you selected the flights you wanted for the award ticket? Then the agent told you that you selected different flights?

Did this just happen? Are you sure the agent canceled the flights you put on hold? There is a chance the 3 seats you put on hold will eventually return to available inventory. Might take an hour, might take a day.

To book an award flight on aa.com all you have to do is check the box that says "AAdvantage Redeem Miles" in the flight search box on the home page.

 

[jngwright]

AA told me (over the phone, more than once) that I couldn't book my dad on the same reservation since he was using miles and we weren't. Thus the 2 bookings. The flight we wanted arrived at MCO at 6pm, the one we were switched to had an arrival of 9:45pm. I could fly into MCO on other airlines at the later time for half the price of the AA ticket, we were only going with them so we could get the earlier time at a (semi) decent price for AA and so my dad could fly free.

Anyway-I have sucked it up, booked the tickets, and will not fly AA after this. Our previous experiences with AA have been less than stellar and I don't want to deal with this again. I will stick with the tried and true in the future.

Thanks for your input!!

 

[jngwright]

Did you actually book your tickets?

If you are on a different flight, by accident AND there is a miles award available on that flight, you can move your dad to that flight for free. AA award tickets can be changed to another flight, time, or day as long as the departure and arriving airports stay the same AND awards miles are available on the flight you are moving to. It is for there reasons that I love AA's FF program.

Duds

Hi fellow Minnesotan, BTW!

 

[uva185]

AA told me (over the phone, more than once) that I couldn't book my dad on the same reservation since he was using miles and we weren't. Thus the 2 bookings. The flight we wanted arrived at MCO at 6pm, the one we were switched to had an arrival of 9:45pm. I could fly into MCO on other airlines at the later time for half the price of the AA ticket, we were only going with them so we could get the earlier time at a (semi) decent price for AA and so my dad could fly free.

Anyway-I have sucked it up, booked the tickets, and will not fly AA after this. Our previous experiences with AA have been less than stellar and I don't want to deal with this again. I will stick with the tried and true in the future.

Thanks for your input!!

So the agent changed the flights you had on hold when you called. That doesn't add up..

On a side note, that is a huge waste to spend 25,000 miles on a $132 ticket.

Miles are much more valuable than that, I've actually purchased 25,000 miles for $350 and thought it was a stellar deal.

 

[jngwright]

It ended up being 25000 miles on a $200 ticket, and he didn't care-as he doesn't ever fly AA and figured why not. $200 is $200 and it will pay for his dining plan.

Don't know what happened with the hold, know what the screen said when I hit the hold button, and it wasn't the flight we discussed. So, it is now a "moo" point as I have, as I said-sucked it up..

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Sounds like you were confused from the get-go. Sometimes what we want and how we express it to others can become two different things. After reading the 'story' I'm still not sure what happened, but I know that csutomer service is the department to call rather than tech support. And no airline allows a single reservation when some passengers are flying with dollars and others are using miles.

AA has some of the least restrictive policies in the world when it comes to redeeming frequent flyer miles. Sure, picking and choosing flights online can seem tricky. If you only 'held' a flight and did not actually purchase the tickets there are no penalties for canceling. However, it can take 23 hours and 59 minutes for the fares in that bucket to be placed back into the available inventory if you did choose to cancel without purchasing.

Lesson learned, hopefully.

And we still don't know how the coupon codes added to the confusion!

 

[jngwright]

Sounds like you were confused from the get-go. Sometimes what we want and how we express it to others can become two different things. After reading the 'story' I'm still not sure what happened, but I know that csutomer service is the department to call rather than tech support. And no airline allows a single reservation when some passengers are flying with dollars and others are using miles.

AA has some of the least restrictive policies in the world when it comes to redeeming frequent flyer miles. Sure, picking and choosing flights online can seem tricky. If you only 'held' a flight and did not actually purchase the tickets there are no penalties for canceling. However, it can take 23 hours and 59 minutes for the fares in that bucket to be placed back into the available inventory if you did choose to cancel without purchasing.

Lesson learned, hopefully.


And we still don't know how the coupon codes added to the confusion!

Customer service IS who I talked to originally. They told me to contact tech support (and gave me a direct #) Customer service told me to book the 3 $132 tickets (since they would have to charge me $20 a ticket to book by phone), press hold, then book my dad's ticket using his AA rewards. I didn't see where to go to book the AA ticket for my dad, so called the tech support #, as directed by customer service.

My coupon code question was whether there was a coupon code out there somewhere that I could use to lower the price.

And yes, I did learn my lesson: Don't post a question/vent on the Transportation board. This is not some crazy situation I dreamed up in my head-it is how it happened. I travel by air many times a year, with no issues on other airlines. So, to head it off at the pass-I will go back to those airlines, and not fly with AA.

Out

 

[kaytieeldr]

Nobody said you dreamed it up.

There would've been NO reason to PURCHASE a fourth ticket if your father was using miles.

WORST case - absolute worst - would have been you'd have paid for your three tickets, then separately 'paid for' his award ticket in a separate transaction. What makes it 'absolute worst' is that he MAY not have been able to fly with you, but may have had to go on the later flight, or an earlier flight, or, given the restrictions of award tickets, even on a different day. Or FOR HIS TICKET ONLY, after buying your three tickets online you could have paid the $20 to redeem his miles with a person on the phone - I know from experience the CSRs can do or find things we travelers sometimes can't.

It's all moot now, I know - but for anybody reading this thread for informative purposes OR if the OP is able to get her same three $132 tickets - i.e. if she keeps checking and the tickets go back into the system - PLEASE ASK HERE FIRST about any potentially confusing transaction!!!

The OP apparently doesn't like the answers she got, but we really CAN help! There are many experienced travelers here - some who fly a hundred thousand miles or more annually. All you have to do is ASK.

 

[Jestocost]

I suspect what may have happened is that there were no award seats left on one of the flights on which you had booked the paying tickets. Generally, there are a limited number of seats available for award travel on any given flight and when they're gone, they're gone. Destinations like MCO are of course some of the more popular places that people like to go using award tickets, so those seats can book up fast. If you try to book tickets using miles on a flight on which no award tickets available, the site will offer an alternative flight earlier or later, or a connecting flight vs. a non stop, etc. If you're not paying real close attention, you can select the alternate offerings without noticing.

If that happened, you would have wound up with your dad booked on different flights than yours with his award ticket. Then, when you tried to get seats together the system showed that you obviously couldn't do that being booked on different flights. From this point it sounds like a communication breakdown. Customer service gave you the tech support line anticipating that you may encounter a problem with using the site itself, but you had a different problem and tech support probably was wondering how they got pulled into the whole thing.

Sorry things got so messed up for you. I'm only guessing at one possible answer for what may have happened. If I'm right or something comparable was going on, it's easy to see how it would be frustrating for you, but it's also easy to see how AA may have had a hard time figuring out what was going on and how to resolve your issue. They couldn't book your dad on your flights using miles if there were no award tickets available, so the only solution--other than cancelling completely or having your dad pay OOP--was to switch your party of three to his flights and sort out any fare differences.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

So you're mad at AA because

a) you couldn't navigate their website

b) Customer service tried to save you $60 by telling you to book your tickets online

c) you didn't closely scrutinize which flights you picked for your father using miles once tech support showed you how to click the 'purchase with Aadvantage miles' box

d) they followed their policy after you agreed to it

Yes, I can see why you're so angry! Have a nice day!

And yes, I did learn my lesson: Don't post a question/vent on the Transportation board. This is not some crazy situation I dreamed up in my head-it is how it happened. I travel by air many times a year, with no issues on other airlines. So, to head it off at the pass-I will go back to those airlines, and not fly with AA.

Out

 

[SuzanneSLO]

One of the things I like most about booking on AA is that you can put both paid tickets and award tickets on hold before entering your credit card info or having miles subtracted. You can even choose seats with a ticket that is being held. I then print out the flight information, double check that everything is as it should be, and can go back in and finalize the already held transactions, or make changes if necessary and put it on hold again.

With other airlines, you may not have an option to place the tickets on hold. You may need to book and pay for the tickets, then cancel within the first 24 hours if there is a problem.

One downside to booking on AA is that when you use a coupon, you cannot place the ticket on hold; you must pay for it immediately and it is a final transaction.

It is too bad that the AA CS told the OP to talk to Tech Services, as it doesn't appear that her problem was a technical problem with the website. I found Tech Services to be very helpful the one time I stupidly cancelled a reservation when trying to select it under My Reservations. An immediate call to Tech Services and my already paid for reservation was reinstated with no penalty. Others have found Tech Services to be helpful when the price of a ticket on hold changed before it should have or to change the fare bucket from which a booking comes.

Sorry to OP for the problems she encountered. -- Suzanne

 

[dudspizza]

OP, first off, hello back to a fellow Minnesotan.

The folks replying on this thread are only trying to figure out the whole situation. We all tend to "think out loud" in terms of trying to work through things. Everything we do is speculation in trying to get it right.

There is a ton of knowledge here on the transportation board that many people don't see because they take the posting style as brash or rude, when in all honesty, the people are trying to help.

I personally find booking an awards ticket on AA very easy and do so all the time. I have only flown AA 2 times as a paid passenger, while the remainder of my flights are on miles. I carry the AA credit card and have earned well over 200,000 miles over the last two years on it.... free flights are nice.

AA is never the cheapest to MCO from MSP, but a good thing is that I have been able to fly anywhere in the country on AA, I simply make a connection in Dallas or Chicago. I would prefer to fly non-stop, but AA has done a nice job getting me from point A to point B, with minimal flight changes.

Have a wonderful day and believe it or not, those of us here on the transportation board are trying to help.

Duds

 

[Jestocost]

I personally find booking an awards ticket on AA very easy and do so all the time.

And I find the trick here is to find the flights where award tickets are available FIRST, then go and match the paid tickets to that. There always will be seats available for purchase on those flights, but there aren't always award seats available on every flight on which you can purchase tickets. As a result, it makes sense to see what's available on the most restricted option before moving on to the next. Heck, you may even find a situation where it's cheaper to buy four tickets on one itinerary than it would be to buy three and get one free on another.

 

[uva185]

And I find the trick here is to find the flights where award tickets are available FIRST, then go and match the paid tickets to that. There always will be seats available for purchase on those flights, but there aren't always award seats available on every flight on which you can purchase tickets. As a result, it makes sense to see what's available on the most restricted option before moving on to the next. Heck, you may even find a situation where it's cheaper to buy four tickets on one itinerary than it would be to buy three and get one free on another.

That's excellent advice.