Anomaly with QFF Reward Booking (for AA flights)

[PJ1984]

First time poster - Trying to use QFF points to book award seats on AA but getting some weird results. Trying to get from Florida (any of TPA, MIA, FLL, MCO) to DFW. When I search for TPA to DFW, it returns a connection flight, i.e. TPA - MIA - DFW. I thought 'Great, there must be a MIA-DFW direct award flight!'. BUT when I search for MIA-DFW, it returns all connection flights, e.g. MIA - ATL - DFW or MIA - CLT - DFW. The MIA-DFW that was available as part of a TPA-DFW booking isn't an option! Any ideas why or how I can just book the MIA - DFW??

Thanks

 

[serfty]

Welcome to AFF @PJ1984

It's called "Married Segments". An airline will sell a seat AAA-BBB-CCC but not AAA-BBB and/or BBB-CCC.

This means AA will sell an award seat between TPA and DFW vie MIA, but not TPA-DFW or MIA-DFW.

It's a known phenomena with AA doing this with awards.

 

[Danger]

It would be interesting to know whether or not AA is offering awards on a direct service.

 

[jase05]

It would be interesting to know whether or not AA is offering awards on a direct service.

Can’t say for the OP’s dates but selected several random dates and there are tons of award flights MIA-DFW and TPA-DFW on AA’s site

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It is married segments. But it's actually been working to my favour the last couple of years. I originate in a small US city and while most trans-atlantics on AA metal are blocked, once I originate from the small city it opens up a bunch of the TATLs.

I suspect this to be the case for the OP. Some of the non-stops will be available in conjunction with long-haul travel, but for domestic you need to hub.

UA is not much better, but in a different way. For them many of the connections intra-USA following long-haul are relegated to coach (with business only available as a premium award).

 

[ozfflyer]

First time poster - Trying to use QFF points to book award seats on AA but getting some weird results. Trying to get from Florida (any of TPA, MIA, FLL, MCO) to DFW. When I search for TPA to DFW, it returns a connection flight, i.e. TPA - MIA - DFW. I thought 'Great, there must be a MIA-DFW direct award flight!'. BUT when I search for MIA-DFW, it returns all connection flights, e.g. MIA - ATL - DFW or MIA - CLT - DFW. The MIA-DFW that was available as part of a TPA-DFW booking isn't an option! Any ideas why or how I can just book the MIA - DFW??

Thanks

give us your dates & preferred timing ASAP & will get someone to have a look for you.

Also you may not realise AA fly PBI(west palm beach) to DFW nonstop 2-3 times a day. PBI is around 45 mins drive up I-95 north of FLL.

 

[diningdecadence]

somewhat similarly AA is offering SYD-LAX direct, but i can't get QF to show that flight - is it worth calling QFF and seeing if they can do it manually?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

somewhat similarly AA is offering SYD-LAX direct, but i can't get QF to show that flight - is it worth calling QFF and seeing if they can do it manually?

Yes, you can call. But if could be phantom availability on the AA site. The seat might not actually exist.

 

[serfty]

somewhat similarly AA is offering SYD-LAX direct, but i can't get QF to show that flight - is it worth calling QFF and seeing if they can do it manually?

They won;t show if there is plenty of availability on QF, so you do need to contract Qantas and specifically ask for the flight. Because they won't show online, the assisted award fee should be waived.

In doing this, you need to make sure an award is available (T class for economy on AA).

I see this for a flight on AA72, June 5th: (Expert Flyer)



Also on AA.com:



But it often won't show on Qantas.com.

 

[diningdecadence]

Yes, you can call. But if could be phantom availability on the AA site. The seat might not actually exist.

Appreciate it. It’s AA metal so you’d hope their own system was working!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Appreciate it. It’s AA metal so you’d hope their own system was working!

Yes sorry - I misread the issue... that AA was showing a QF flight but QF was not showing it (which can happen).

 

[ozfflyer]

They won;t show if there is plenty of availability on QF, so you do need to contract Qantas and specifically ask for the flight. Because they won't show online, the assisted award fee should be waived.

In doing this, you need to make sure an award is available (T class for economy on AA).

I see this for a flight on AA72, June 5th: (Expert Flyer)

View attachment 156962

Also on AA.com:

View attachment 156963

But it often won't show on Qantas.com.

plenty of Qantas ff seats on AA72, 5 June. Maybe you should use a travel agent to find you your frequent flyer seats for a very small fee. They can find them for you very quickly. Much faster than looking up any individual airline website or any other site for that matter.

Don't understand why people waste so much time looking online for flights(frequent flyer or paid). Invariably it's almost always cheaper to get through an agent, who knows what they are doing.

We fly to USA few times a year & when we had to go in peak season at Xmas when we had to take school holidays into account, the best economy deal we could usually find was nonstop in one direction & via Fiji in other. A fare we couldn't get from Qantas or Fiji Airways & could only get through a travel agent or tour operator. If you can find that routing online, it's very expensive, but we found it to be much cheaper than Qantas both ways or Fiji Airways both ways. The agents often seem to have fares exclusive to them.

Why do many people believe all the lies being told about online is always cheaper ?

How do the likes of Webjet get away with blatent lies, when they say, look at our site for ALL the options, when they clearly don't offer all the options. Isn't there some advertising authority in Australia ? For TV ads it used to be FACTS (fed of Aust television stations, but am sure they'd accept any claim, as members just wanted the advertising revenue)