Last night, I was searching for a fare for a friend to join us in Bonaire next January. American is the only viable option from Rochester without doing an overnight both ways, but aa.com said there was nothing available going down for a whole week. AT THE SAME TIME, SideStep (which checks simultaneously with aa.com or expedia etc.) showed the same itinerary Alan and I use (American all the way) as being available --- and at a price of $486 RT (as compared with the $682 we're paying)!!!

Well, I thought, there's something wrong here, but let's at least see if I can book it. So, I clicked on "book", was taken to Orbitz, booked it and received a confirmation from Orbitz (including seat reservations) -- for that price.

I'm still suspicious, of course, so I waited a couple of hours, then called American --- who confirmed the reservation, and said they'd send me an email confirmation directly.

SO, I don't know what's going on. aa.com still shows nothing available going down when I put in the full itinerary. HOWEVER, when I just put in ROC-SJU, it quotes a price of $730, then when I put in SJU-BON (all for the same dates), it quotes $310 --- for a total of $1,040 for flights they say aren't available when I put the full itinerary in (and which I've just booked for $486)

Go figure... BTW, aa.com normally doesn't have any problems with the full ROC-BON itinerary (as long as I look via "schedule" not "price". Price only seems to work half the time.

SO, if anyone's still on the fence about a trip, try this. If you haven't got SideStep, it's a free download from SideStep.com, and then it does a simulataneous search. This spring SideStep found me a fare to London more than $250 less than ANYTHING I'd found elsewhere, and last week a fare to London on NW again much lower than anything else I'd found ($400 RT ROC-LHR)

You GO Girl ! doin' your homework ! it sure is confusing, they have us jumping thru the hoops..now you know why travel agents used to earn their pay..but now we have privy to all that info and confusion too ..I understand from talking to Delta agent if you don't change your city of origin or destination you can still rewrite your ticket..maybe you can get the lower price on YOUR ticket ? have you checked ? have used Sidestep also....good luck..we must really be hooked on Bonaire to go thru all this trouble with ticketing..poor Bonaire ..there are easier places to get to

IF the price has dropped, the airline HAS TO reissue the price difference. The problem is you have to go to the airport to do it..
So this was on Sidestep?WOWWOWOOW..

Ann

Fortunately, Josie is not far from the airport in Rochester. One of the nice things about a 'small town'! :–)

Just to make this clear for me...

If I bought my ticket from Denver to Bonaire on Orbitz.com for November 2 months ago at $840 per ticket and can now find the same for $541 per ticket, the airline must reissue the ticket at the lower price? Would I need to contact Orbitz.com or go to American at Denver International and ask for a reissue at the lower price. That would be a $300 savings per ticket for us. That would be our rental vehicle for 16 days. WOO HOO

Aquaman

Yes and no. The airline would have to reissue the ticket if the new fare was booked in the same class of service which means the letter code like a Q, or a K. However if they used a different letter like an X for the low fare and you are booked in Q, they don't. It would probably be easiest to call AA with your tickets in hand and have them check before you travel out to the airport.

Just to clarify, aa.com doesn't even show the itinerary for January 11 ROC-BON, but does show the flights when I break them down by leg: for a TOTAL cost of $1,040 for the RT. I think the Orbitz price that showed up on SideStep was some sort of anomaly, but am glad I found it.

BTW, when I put in the actual schedule I've booked for Alan and me, aa.com shows $797 (as against the price of $692 we booked at), but SideStep shows the exact same thing at $707!!

Linda, what happens about a reissue if you have an e-ticket that doesn't show a fare rate?

Josie -

I've found that aa.com isn't as 'smart' as Orbitz for a multiple leg trip. The programming on the search for Orbitz is much better than aa.com. I even found a flite on Orbitz that I had to mention to our travel agent. She had to use her system in a different way to find my suggestion - but she confirmed it and couldn't understand why it didn't show originally on her system.

Bea

Reissue on an e-ticket??
I don't know. E-tickets are way after my time as a travel agent. I looked at Jake's most recent e-ticket and it does not state the booking code or the fare basis code. They don't state penalties and such very well either. The exact fare basis code should be part of the ticket record that AA has.

The only good thing is since it is paperless, you don't have to go to the airport to turn in the old ticket for a reissue. They would have to be able to handle the entire thing via phone.

My ticket to Puerto Rico started out as priced at $474, but currently shows on Travelocity at $409, both on the search and the confirmed ticket info under "My Stuff". I need to double check my credit card billing to see what has happened there and if by the time I check in at the airport my billing doesn't show a total amount of $409 or less, I will demand a refund at that time. It will at least give me something to occupy some of the 2 hours before my plane takes off

Tom and I have found that AA runs low fares right after Dec from Salt lake. We paid 514 R/T and have noticed this the last two januaries.