Saver Award - enigma
Let me start by saying that I would much prefer to fly on AS vs AA for many reasons. But, so far, it appears AS mileage plan is much better on paper than in reality. This discussion is limited to the AS Mileage Plan and not the actual planes or service.
I have tried to upgrade the last 10 AS segments, all without success. No big deal, I am perfectly happy with being able to book exit row.
I tried to make an award reservation SEA-MCO at the absolute earliest time possible (Jan 5 returning Jan 20). No seats were available (saver). :td: I searched four days in each direction, no seats available. :td: :td: I thought this was funny since I was so early and Jan is the value season for MCO, thus lighter loads.
So, I did a search here and discovered AS doesn't have award seats on every destination. :td: :td: :td: Apparently MCO is one of those places.
I went back to AA and found at least 4 choices on the outbound and return for the 25k award. AS wanted 40k for their "peak" award (funny nomenclature since this is the absolute least busy time in MCO). AA allows award tickets on each and every flight. They sometimes go fast, but they exist.
In the end, AS looked like a good program until I tried to use it. Granted this is the first time I have tried, but it is not a good start.
Am I the only one who would prefer "real" 25k awards and be able to get them instead of the 20k awards that just are not available to choice destinations?
I fly a bunch on business and only ask to take my fam to Disneyworld once a year. I think scalping me for 120k miles for a single trip in coach is a bit weak, especially since the program advertises you should be able to do this for half that.
how do you know they dont have any saver award seats in the first place? is it possible someone beat you to them? i will concede that seats may not be available all the time (blackout dates may be gone, but things are still capacity controlled). but if you look on those dates there are still first class award saver seats available. and if AA still has seats available to MCO, as pointed out by someone else, use your AS miles for the AA tickets -- you will still be paying the 25k that you would pay on AA.
Wrong, those flights do NOT have any saver awards to begin with. That is my whole point. I would rather pay 25k for awards that exist rather than 20k for those that simply do not exist. It doesn't matter how many stops or how cheap the award is if they don't offer it.
I hate to sound so down on things, but for me, it is a bummer. Every year, I book a really nice family vacation reservation well in advance to get the best hotel, best room, best car, best flight and best price possible. It seems that AS is the only link in the chain that penalizes you for booking in advance.
I think I will hedge my bets by watching the number of A seats on AA while waiting for W seats to show up on AS. If I only knew when they release W seats. Either flight will work fine in the end.
I do fly quite a bit and will get the 75k bonus on AS as well as will cross the 1M mark on AA, so I could bite the bullet, but flying my whole family around in first gets expensive.
Here is a final question. If I book the A award and W seats do open up, could I downgrade the award reservation to 20k without penalty?
Assuming you are/will be Gold, then yes. And for the future, if you're gold, you can book the outbound on the first day it opens up, with a return on the same day, then change to the date you want once the 330 day mark hits. I suspect that either that happened, or people with shorter trips took the outbound seats before you reached the 330 day mark on your return.
And I must say, this does sound like a great trip for your family! Hope it's relaxing for you!
So, on your other issue, I'm curious what routes you are flying that you are 10/10 on NOT getting upgraded? It sounds like you must be travelling transcon on peak days!
AS allows you to book 329 days in advance. I tried to make the reservation at midnight 329 days in advance. When that didn't work, I tried several days on either side of my departure with the same result.
It could be possible that there were a bunch of people booking all of the Jan outbounds, but probably unlikely.
Fri, Jan 05
8:40am Depart - Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) Delta Air Lines 9123 operated by ALASKA AIRLINES Adult Fare Rules
4:59pm Arrive - Orlando, FL (MCO) Nonstop
Total Travel Time: 5 hrs 19 min
Return Flight
Sat, Jan 20
6:03pm Depart - Orlando, FL (MCO) Delta Air Lines 9124 operated by ALASKA AIRLINES Adult Fare Rules
9:15pm Arrive - Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) Nonstop
Total Travel Time: 6 hrs 12 min
Save this whole itinerary
Price Summary
Travelers Price
3 adults = $ 932.07
Taxes and Fees = $ 127.23
Service Fee = $ 15.00
Total Price = $ 1074.30 (358.10 Average per person)
Personally, I wouldnt burn 60k or 75k given that i could buy the tickets for a grand.
Well, it doesnt seem like i am the one who is WRONG here, from what the others have stated. Spend 25k on AA and enjoy your connection through DFW or ORD.
The connector isn't the best outcome, but for me, it is the only choice.
And for your dates, AS9 has availability on 1/20, it's your outbound that's the problem.
You're still not any worse off than if you were in the AA program, as you could use 25K for the AA seats.
I agree I am in the same boat as with AA, but better seat selection, so I am happy with everything except the saver awards. Maybe I am in the minority, who knows.
I found through research that AS doesn't allow saver awards in every flight from the beginning, especially places like MCO. If it looks like the plane won't be full, they may add them later, but they will first try to sell every seat.
The problem with AS saver awards in my case is that it looks like I would have to book short term, like tommorow as you mentioned. The problem is that I can't book a nonrefundable vacation and wait until the day or week before to make the flight reservations and hope the flight isn't full and AS adds saver awards.
I don't know where you found that. AS10 has saver seats tomorrow, and AS19 has saver seats on 3/2. That's just 2 dates I randomly put in.
And for your dates, AS9 has availability on 1/20, it's your outbound that's the problem.
You're still not any worse off than if you were in the AA program, as you could use 25K for the AA seats.
Let me start by saying that I would much prefer to fly on AS vs AA for many reasons. But, so far, it appears AS mileage plan is much better on paper than in reality. This discussion is limited to the AS Mileage Plan and not the actual planes or service.
I have tried to upgrade the last 10 AS segments, all without success. No big deal, I am perfectly happy with being able to book exit row.
I tried to make an award reservation SEA-MCO at the absolute earliest time possible (Jan 5 returning Jan 20). No seats were available (saver). :td: I searched four days in each direction, no seats available. :td: :td: I thought this was funny since I was so early and Jan is the value season for MCO, thus lighter loads.
So, I did a search here and discovered AS doesn't have award seats on every destination. :td: :td: :td: Apparently MCO is one of those places.
I went back to AA and found at least 4 choices on the outbound and return for the 25k award. AS wanted 40k for their "peak" award (funny nomenclature since this is the absolute least busy time in MCO). AA allows award tickets on each and every flight. They sometimes go fast, but they exist.
In the end, AS looked like a good program until I tried to use it. Granted this is the first time I have tried, but it is not a good start.
Am I the only one who would prefer "real" 25k awards and be able to get them instead of the 20k awards that just are not available to choice destinations?
I fly a bunch on business and only ask to take my fam to Disneyworld once a year. I think scalping me for 120k miles for a single trip in coach is a bit weak, especially since the program advertises you should be able to do this for half that.
i just booked an award ticket from ANC-MCO with no problems at all for august. contrary to popular believe january is still a busy time in MCO. MCO is busy year round. adjust your dates a week or two later and you will find availability for 4 coach award seats.
We think alike. :D
Mostly SEA to ORD, LAS and SJC, probably favorites for MVPGs. Not getting upgraded isn't a big deal for me, AA made me quite used to it. As long as I get exit row on the 2 side, it really is quite comfortable.
ATL 4:21pm 05 Jan 2007 Delta 706
0 stops Coach (T)
ATL 7:15pm 05 Jan 2007
MCO 8:44pm05 Jan 2007 Delta 1789
0 stops Coach (T)
MCO 8:45am 20 Jan 2007
SEA 12:00pm 20 Jan 2007 Delta 9087 *
0 stops Coach (T)
*Operated by Delta Codeshare Partner. Click flight number to view flight details.
View Seats Base Fare:
Taxes/Fees:
Total: $193.49 (USD)
$29.40 (USD)
$222.89 (USD)
This one has you on the AS MCO-SEA non stop coming home. For $223 each
Plus you'll each earn about 5000 miles (7500 for you as an MVP) but you'll probably be gold by then and get about 10,000 miles in the process.
Food for thought
AA surely has many many more flights daily into MCO than does AS. With that in mind, this boils down to a simple capacity issue. Try getting a 20k Saver Award to SAN with 3 hours notice. You'll win almost every time, because they have 8+ flights a day to SAN.
It goes without saying that a Non-Stop flight from SEA-MCO will be amongst the first flights to book up. AFAIK, AS has the only nonstop SEA-MCO.
Save your miles, look for great fares and buy the tickets. Use your miles for a trip to Europe in First.
Delta tends to sell these (AS serviced) SEA-MCO seats fairly cheap.
Junkie
And for your dates, AS9 has availability on 1/20, it's your outbound that's the problem.
You're still not any worse off than if you were in the AA program, as you could use 25K for the AA seats.
We got 5 Alaska Airlines saver award tickets to Orlando from Seattle last May. The outbound was the red eye and the return was the early flight. They were available mid-week with flexible dates for us to choose from. We booked approx. 3 months out.
And we plan on doing it again next year!
The funny thing is that the other family traveling with us just sent me an e-mail with the same info about the Delta codeshare. It isn't a bad option indeed.
I hate to sound so down on things, but for me, it is a bummer. Every year, I book a really nice family vacation reservation well in advance to get the best hotel, best room, best car, best flight and best price possible. It seems that AS is the only link in the chain that penalizes you for booking in advance.
I think I will hedge my bets by watching the number of A seats on AA while waiting for W seats to show up on AS. If I only knew when they release W seats. Either flight will work fine in the end.
I do fly quite a bit and will get the 75k bonus on AS as well as will cross the 1M mark on AA, so I could bite the bullet, but flying my whole family around in first gets expensive.
Here is a final question. If I book the A award and W seats do open up, could I downgrade the award reservation to 20k without penalty?
#If you have any other info about this subject , Please add it free.# |