Came across an interesting upgrade situation today. What is more interesting was the response from AA.
I am confirmed for a C class flight in early October LGW-DFW. I prefer to connect via FRA or CDG to avoid a change of airports in LON. Only LGW-DFW was available in C when I ticketed. But, have a BEE fare so I can make changes once FRA or CDG clears in C.
Looking at Galileo, if you pull up C CDG or FRA to DFW, it shows 0 avail. If you ask for CDG or FRA to LAS,MSY,LAX,ORD,SEA,IAH,ELP, etc it shows both flights as C4 available to DFW. But with linked connection avaialbility, they won't give it to you without an Act (and aid) from Congress.
Called AA EXP desk and got a very nice and helpful agent. He said that this has been happening more and more. AA considers themself a "long haul" carrier and wants to sell seats beyond the gateways. Thus, they are limiting the upgrades into/out of the gateway cities in favor of availability to a connecting point.
I took this and then did a little more snooping around and sure enough, many dates Europe to Dallas and Chicago will show C0 on the flight, but if you ask for a further destination, boom -- C4. Geeezzz...
Great for non-gateway people, but bad for the MIA,DFW,NYC,ORD people I guess. Just another example of how AA considers hub PAX locked in.
Bartond From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 788 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (9 years 9 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 1390 times:
I may be retarded but what exactly does that thread mean? This guy is trying to upgrade on his flight from LGW-DFW but cannot, but if he flew through FRA or CDG to DFW and/or connected on to Las Vegas, Houston, etc. he could upgrade? Am I way off?
So I guess this means I won't be able to get a free upgrade on my DFW-LGW flight in a few weeks? I'm still gonna try my damn-dest!
Milemaster From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 1009 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (9 years 9 months 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 1352 times:
Basically, what this means is that if you are O&D out of DFW, there are limited amounts of C seats available. However, if you departed AUS-DFW-ZRH then there are more seats available to you.
For the most part, screwing people who live in a gateway city.
Nice... Screwing the people who make up the majority of their customer base.
Tbear815 From United States of America, joined Jun 2003, 704 posts, RR: 5 Reply 3, posted (9 years 9 months 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 1345 times:
In marketing terms, it's called inventory control and many times referred to as yield management. However, inventory can change at anytime if the marketing people see holes in bookings. Therefore, seats may open up, but there again, maybe not. Sometimes I think they just put all their data on a darts target and wherever the dart lands, thats the "fare du jour."
We are always told that there is a mathematical and logical theory for inventory. My, my, my - it's all numbers, what? Just do what you are told and upsell, upsell, upsell! Happy flying! And pax wonder why the person sitting next to you paid hundreds less?
Jetdeltamsy From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 2984 posts, RR: 8 Reply 4, posted (9 years 9 months 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 1342 times:
it's to maximize revenue. that's the bottom line. this has been in practice for decades.
travel agents used to be able to get around it by, for example, booking msy-dfw-lgw, then cancelling the msy-dfw segment.
about 10 years ago, AA devised "married connections" which eliminated this loophole.
Worked for too many airlines to list. Banktupcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy.
JGPH1A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (9 years 9 months 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1291 times:
AA's Marriage Logic is at least sensible - if space opens up on the shorthaul sector you can cancel the longhaul, and vv. Most other US carriers impose blanket marriage - if you book a shorthaul/longhaul connection, you cannot cancel either segment seperately, regardless of the availablity on either one.
And..it gets better - coming soon to a CRS near you - Marriage to Journey Data. Not only will they control cancellation of segments booked together with long-haul journeys, but they will marry your shorthaul to your longhaul even if they were booked seperately - and then not let you cancel one without cancelling the other.
Greg From United Kingdom, joined May 2005, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (9 years 9 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1233 times:
I can't say it makes any sense, but I know exactly what you mean.
When we were scheduled to travel from IAH to DFW on CO, connecting to AA's DFW-LGW, Biz was not available on the international portion.
However, if you book IAH to DFW and onto LGW soley on AA...then seats in C class appeared.
Althought the layover was an hour more than CO, we booked AA to ensure getting C class seats (BA was full on both flights out of IAH...as was CO).
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