Amiercan Airlines- No Flights???

[VacationMom]

Last night I held some tickets for a late May trip and I just went out to check prices and unless American's site is messed up it shows only one flight from St. Louis to St. Thomas on 5/27 and none for the days closest. I wouldn't think all the flights are sold out. Even if they were, I thought they still showed the flights. I tried to call AA but got but on hold forever. Has anyone traveling around that time heard anything about your reservation? I may just go ahead and try to purchase what I held and see what happens.

[Randy in MD]

I'm experiencing the same thing! I put a flight on "hold" yesterday for April which has to be purchased by midnight tonight. When I checked back this morning to see what the fare was today (it's gone up and down by $200 over the past few days), that flight and several others weren't there anymore, though my reservation is still there for the flight I booked yesterday...

I'm holding the trip home separately with FF miles and for that, there's been a major schedule change already, though the original flight times are still displayed for new bookings (hope that makes sense)...

It seems like they may be in the process of changing some schedules and the reservation system is in the process of being updated...

That's my guess anyway...

[ToonMann]

Can't comment much on purchased flights -- we usually travel on AA frequent flier miles -- but I did notice on Saturday that round-trip DCA-STT flight on AA for January 2013 is $1,216.

The AA frequent flier program (Aadvantage) is also looking pretty ugly right now. Typically, it takes 35K miles for a roundtrip to the Caribbean, but the AA website quotes 35K miles for a ONE-WAY trip to virtually every island in January. So they've effectively doubled the mileage required, despite what the Aadvantage reward chart shows.

I called AA about this, but the agents know nothing about whether it's a permanent change. Haven't heard back from an email sent to AA.

Anybody else notice this? Any insights?

TM

[Muhaha]

Interesting topic that has been puzzling me for a while. I booked our late March trip back in Nov. I recently checked to see what the pricing is currently (out of curiosity) and the flight option is no longer showing. But, the flight still has a dozen or so seats remaining. Seems kinda odd to me.

The mileage thing is really beginning to irk me as well. Miles simply don't work as well as they should. I plan to give it a few months and if the trend continues I may move to United. UA offers a one-time "mileage challenge" that will let you move an EX-PLAT level over to UA.

[Randy in MD]

Even more frustrating as I try to book my flights again this morning is that when I pick the flights that I want and after I choose my seats, the confirmation page shows flight times that are different than the ones I just chose, yet with the same flight numbers. Had to cancel my hold for the flights I just chose because the layover in Miami shrunk from 55 minutes to 20 minutes...

I think I'll wait until the schedule stabilizes a bit...

They are obviously in the midst of changing things...

[scrumblin]

Hi,

I work in travel, and there is definitely single connection service w/American every day via Miami. The AA website seems to be not picking up the nonstop flights from STL to Miami. So either their web-site is messed up, or impending doom for that AM outbound nonstop from St. Louis, as well as the PM return. I would call them (and wait on hold). I know there was talk of some rearranging of flight schedules due to bankruptcy notice, but I still see those flights.

[iowaguy]

Just to comment on the post about booking with AA miles, for many years I have booked trips to STT in high season with 35,000 miles (round trip). Just recently that has become virtually impossible and it now generally requires 70,000 miles for one ticket---huge difference.Not sure what has happened.

[Ron in South Texas]

I think they were doing wholesale flight changes. My flight from Houston to Kauai got "messed up" Saturday night after I went to bed. Took an hour for them to get my fights the way I wanted. The agent said that a lot of flights were being "restructured".

[scrumblin]

All looks normal again for flight schedules!