US Airways transitioned its fare codes over the weekend. As of yesterday, ‘U’ is fare basis for business class awards instead of ‘I’.
It looks like some of the folks in revenue management over at US Airways didn’t get the memo, because ‘U’ class has been left wide open on several flights.
Last night and this morning, for instance, the US Airways Philadelphia – Tel Aviv flight had a big chunk of its business class cabin available as awards most every day for months. That hole seemed to get plugged early this morning just as I was going to write about it.
But several flights are still exhibiting the trait.
For instance, here are searches for business class award space on non-stop US Airways flights for 6 passengers.
Here’s a sample of Philadelphia – Munich:
Days in blue have at least 6 business class seats available on points.
It’s not every day in the same manner, but there are days where Charlotte – London Heathrow has 6 business class seats open (which doesn’t otherwise happen).
Much better is Philadelphia – Madrid.
This is just a sampling of what’s available right now across the Atlantic.
For 50,000 American miles each way, you can book these flights. US Airways charges 100,000 miles roundtrip (they don’t offer one-ways but do permit a stopover in addition to your destination).
US Airways pioneered the fantastic reverse herringbone business class seat on their Airbus A330 that I believe is best in the market and is now featured in the newest American 777 products, by Cathay Pacific for their long haul, and others. (I wouldn’t necessarily want to fly a US Airways 757 transatlantic.)
Cathay Pacific’s reverse herringbone business class
American’s reverse herringbone business class
Grab these quick while the award space is there!
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Can you use US miles for these, or just American? I noticed today it seemed wide open on BA’s site, but not on the US search tool. Thanks!
Wondering when AA will release their Business Class/First Class inventory, Aug. 30, LHR/LAX (direct flight). I booked the one seat available back in early Oct. To date, I am the only one booked in Business Class for that flight! I need one more premium cabin seat! So frustrating!!!
Unfortunately looks like it is only U and not C inventory. Looks pretty weird to see U9 and C0 on CLT-MAD.
Had a leg on an econ AA reservation changed on Friday from AA metal to US Air. When I looked today I saw that I had been upgraded to Business. I’m guessing it is attributable to this switch over and explains a lot as I have no status and the seating chart is wide open. I believe U used to be a really low level econ seat and I was coded to that prior to the switch 🙂 should make for a much better 5 hrs.
A few quick questions:
1. Does the 24 hour cost-free cancel apply to award bookings.
2. Is this bookable through the agents if you want to do a stop-over award (not available on-line).
3. If booking a family with a combination of US and American miles coming out of three different accounts, can it be done with one call to one of the airlines, or are the programs still sufficiently separate that I’ll need separate calls to redeem the US Airways and AA miles?
US Airways and American both let you put awards on hold, so there’s no courtesy cancel.
There are some reports of not being able to book these seats via US Airways, only American and British Airways and presumably other oneworld airlines.
This should be bookable through agents, though at US Airways that’s contingent on being bookable at all.
@dbeach – yep that’s because U didn’t used to be business class award space 🙂
USAirways awards error out after you select the business class flights and try to continue.
Works on AA website but if you put a business award on hold and then go back to look at the reservation under ‘My Trips’, the transatlantic flight says economy class. YMMV.
Found a seat for my 82 year old mom, CLT-FRA.
On the AA website it shows Business Saver, but says economy in the fine print.
Plugged the PNR into the US website and it shows business class. I have it on hold until I can talk to mom to confirm the dates with her.
Is there a way to hold these tickets for ~10 days? I have points that will post in about 10 days, but I do not currently have enough available to book the flights I want.
Thanks, was looking to get to JNB this summer but couldn’t find anything to LHR avail. Scored two Business on AA website.
thanks, but the REAL problem is that I am unable to find US domestic segment to PHL/CLT. the availability is even worse than the international segment…
Just to circle back to my own comment/question (#1) I was indeed able to book a PHL – MUC US business leg as part of an itinerary to India, over the phone. The segment wasn’t available a few days ago, so thank you!
Thanks, Gary!
@Dogbert – the way the itins are displaying on the AA site may show Econ, but if you look at the US site (AA itins will show the US PNR), you will see that the seats are properly in business class. The “error” in how they are displayed on AA.com is attributable to the prior difference and subsequent switchover in booking class fare codes.
So are these tickets really in “business” class since the fare class is “U” and they’re showing up as “business” on the USAirways site, but “economy” on AA.com… just want to make sure before actually buying some miles to book these. Thanks Gary!
Data point – Just booked 2 R/T PHX-CLT-FRA for August. It wouldn’t work on USairways.com so I had to call in. Gladly paid the $40 phone booking fee.
THANKS GARY!
I’m just seeing a pair (2) available. No luck when I try to find 4.
I’m having the same issues with US Airways PHL->FRA business class showing up as “economy” AFTER putting it on hold. I called into the reservations department to verify that it is indeed business class, and they assured me their system says so. The CSR said to verify with the future agent when fully booking the flight with confidence the booking is indeed for business class.
AA.com has had issues showing the correct class of service of partner awards in the past.
* Reasonable likelihood they haven’t re-mapped the website for US Airways U class yet
* What US Airways shows is what matters
* You’ve been offered business class and charged the business class price
* Try assigning seats with US Airways, what cabin do they assign them in?
If US Airways wants to assign you seats in coach, sure, this could get a little bit messy on Tuesday. But as long as US Airways sees you in business, and you are booked into the fare bucket that American and US Airways have declared is the business class award bucket (U), and you’ve been charged the business class price I’d expect this should be fine.
@lynn – might be worth buying a segment, in the past i’ve found us airways premium cabin domestic award seats to be reasonably easy to get though of course you could accept coach
@ryan no there isn’t sorry!
Thanks for the tip Gary! Booked a return from cdg to ORD shows business when booking then upon ticketing Econ. Long segment then first subsquential flights. Think this will book into business for overseas?
@Carol see my comment above 🙂
Data point to confirm what Gary posted above…I booked a RT business ticket to Italy last night. Showed as economy on AA.com and didn’t ticket. When I got up today, it was ticketed and showed as business class on US Airways.
Thanks for the early heads up on this Gary!
Think they might be closing this. PHL to ZRH availability disappeared right before my eyes!
I just booked a CLT-CDG in J for the end of July for my wife and I. Not sure if we’ll end up going, but that kind of space is so rare that I couldn’t let it go. As other contributors mentioned, I couldn’t book my domestic segment (space isn’t open yet) but it will open as the dates get closer.
Just booked international business from Europe to US (one way) on US Airways using AA miles. The domestic connection to CLT was booked into coach, although I see premium class availability on that same flight. Is there any charge to call and have the domestic segment moved to business? Thanks!
I got 2 roundtrip business class tickets from dca-cdg through clt for the week of Memorial Day last night!
Looks like it is getting shut down…very quickly. See 50k on the initial pages, but at booking jumps to 180k! Rome, Paris, FRA.
And did get one booked, but haven’t got the confirm yet…that was 3 hours ago.
Booked tickets last night 10 minutes after this post. Was confirmed in Business class, now my long haul says ECONOMY on the AA site.
Shows Economy on the AA site but Business on US Air site.
@Ben read my comments above on this 🙂
@mdtravel American doesn’t do instant ticketing, and awards – especially far into the future – can take 24 or even 48 hours before you get the email
I booked w/ the CP agent on the phone…CLT – LHR, CDG – CLT (train in between). I can pull up the reservation but it shows no cost in $ or miles.
Are ppl still getting bookings?
@Gary Leff: US Airways assigned me seats in Business for the transatlantic flight, but assigned me coach for the domestic leg. It charged me the business class miles price for the entire flight.
Of course the transatlantic flight is more important for business, but was just wondering if I could change the domestic seat assignments to business for free after booking (I’m on hold now) as the itinerary is priced as business overall.
@Ben what booking class are you in for the domestic flights? I don’t find US Airways tends to open up much additional inventory as the flight gets closer. You might be able to get them to upgrade you to domestic first (hang up, call back) but many agents think you either have to cancel and rebook to make any changes (false, and don’t let them) or charge you a change fee even for changes like this.
@Gary Leff I’m in fare T for the domestic leg. Actually if I plug in the domestic flight on its own, AA shows business class availability! Maybe space opened up between last night when I booked and now?
Would I call AA about this or US Airways?
Thanks for the heads up on this. Calling American, I was able to put an SFO->DFW->PHL->BCN, CDG->PHL->DFW->SFO on hold for July. As many people have reported, it shows economy on American’s website, but business on US Airway’s website.
BUT, for whatever reason, the US Airways site doesn’t show the first SFO-DFW leg at all. It shows as me originating in DFW. Is that going to be a problem?
@Andy US Airways systems only need to see the flight before you are on their aircraft, not your whole itinerary
@Ben you call the airline that you used to book the award
Got a confirmed reservation on the AA site for Moline, Illinois to Dublin Ireland and return – Business Class.
Originally, like others, my domestic connections were listed as First Class (no Business class available on the domestic segments). However, the international flight from CLT – DUB was listed as “economy” though my mileage charge was 100,000 miles. I then checked the US Air site and it showed my entire reservation cancelled!
Is it the consensus that these are “mistake” fares/availability? If so, I assume they will still be honored. What will I need in order to prove that I had a confirmation at one time?
Thanks for the heads up Gary. You are AWESOME! I was able to change a complicated itinerary involving several stops and overnight layovers ORY-MAD-MIA-CLT-SAN to a fairly simple one CDG-CLT-SAN. My US Airways agent was very nice and didn’t charge me the 150 change fee for the three award tickets which would have been 450. Of course I had to HUCA several times before I got the “right” agent to do it for me. I am going to miss the US Airways call center lol!
I’m still concerned. I’m coming up on 24 hours since I booked my award. No email. No mileage deduction. Nothing showing up in my online reservations listing. The confirm number pulls up flights but the seats have been changed and there is no indication of miles or cash paid for the tickets. Also, no pending charges sitting on my credit card for the fees.