American block-out period May 15 to October

I have been collecting American Miles via a Citibank credit card. Last
two years, no problem with award flights. Now this year, for the
second time, I am trying to get a flight with it. Impossible. They
lady on the phone admitted that American has a block-out period from
May 15th until October. During this time, reward flights are only
available at unaffordable mileages, e.g. Europe at 100k miles instead
of 40k miles.
Compare this with the advertisement and conditions for the Citibank
Aadvantage Card:
- "No block out dates"
- "No peak period embargo dates"
I recommend to switch to a different credit card / airline
combination. This card has become worthless.
Martin

Martin Renschler wrote:

I have been collecting American Miles via a Citibank credit card. Last
two years, no problem with award flights. Now this year, for the
second time, I am trying to get a flight with it. Impossible. They
lady on the phone admitted that American has a block-out period from
May 15th until October. During this time, reward flights are only
available at unaffordable mileages, e.g. Europe at 100k miles instead
of 40k miles.
Compare this with the advertisement and conditions for the Citibank
Aadvantage Card:
- "No block out dates"
- "No peak period embargo dates"
I recommend to switch to a different credit card / airline
combination. This card has become worthless.
Martin

The award chart is easily available to set that there are two types of
awards for domestic economy travel. The regular rewards that require
higher mileage, and plan ahead awards which offer a mileage discount.
FWIW, Plan AAhead miles to Europe from the US is 60K, not 40K as you
state. This is shown at:

https://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantag...ne_chart.jhtml

Plus, PlanAAhead Awards to Europe are not blocked from May 15 until
October , but tend to "sell out" rather quickly for much of that time.
Where are you trying to go? When?
From Where?

I checked SJC-FCO (Rome) Outbound Sept 7 Return Sept 14 (One trip
option each direction)
Also same dates ORD - CDG (Paris) (pulled up about 10 options each way)
ORD-CDG June2 to June 9 (6 outbound options, 8 return options)

The mileage is 60,000. This is the normal Plan AAhead rate to Europe.

So, as you can see, there are ways to go. It is easier before the summer
crunch (around mid June) and after Labor Day. If you wanted mid summer,
you should have booked already.

Any airline card that gives you miles would have the same issue.
Of course, if you only want to stay domestic, you can get a WN card and
never have an issue with capacity controls on free seats.

Martin Renschler wrote:

I have been collecting American Miles via a Citibank credit card. Last
two years, no problem with award flights. Now this year, for the
second time, I am trying to get a flight with it. Impossible. They
lady on the phone admitted that American has a block-out period from
May 15th until October. During this time, reward flights are only
available at unaffordable mileages, e.g. Europe at 100k miles instead
of 40k miles.

To add to my other post.

Actually, it is 40K from the US to Europe from Oct 15-May 15 (this is
off peak PlanAAhead)
The PlanAAhead mileage from May 15-Oct 14 is 60K

As I stated earlier, there are definitely still some European awards
available for the normal PlanAAhead rate of 60K.

So where on that chart does it say 100k miles to Europe. That is what
is quoted for all the combinations I tried on the Web. Then I called
and was told that any flight after May 15 would cost that much. I was
trying to fly San Diego - Frankfurt with totally flexible dates around
May 9 out and May 23 back.
I then used my Star Alliance Mileage, within 5 minutes, I had an award
flight for 46k miles.
The flight before that I tried to fly San Diego - Frankfurt end of
February. Same thing, 100k miles. I also used Star Alliance miles
then. Got me there for 40k miles, no problem at all.
Then I tried to fly to Orlando beginning of May. No luck. It said
first available flight back was mid June. The miles are worthless.
I see a pattern there. The one kind always works for me, the other
not.
/Martin

(Martin Renschler) writes:

So where on that chart does it say 100k miles to Europe. That is what
is quoted for all the combinations I tried on the Web. Then I called
and was told that any flight after May 15 would cost that much. I was
trying to fly San Diego - Frankfurt with totally flexible dates around
May 9 out and May 23 back.
I then used my Star Alliance Mileage, within 5 minutes, I had an award
flight for 46k miles.
The flight before that I tried to fly San Diego - Frankfurt end of
February. Same thing, 100k miles. I also used Star Alliance miles
then. Got me there for 40k miles, no problem at all.
Then I tried to fly to Orlando beginning of May. No luck. It said
first available flight back was mid June. The miles are worthless.
I see a pattern there. The one kind always works for me, the other
not.
/Martin

Well since you were so adamant, I checked it out. I went to AA.com,
selected reservations with award miles, and checked "flexible dates"
around yours. Within 3 minutes I had several options at the listed 60K
mile level on 5/11 through ORD or DFW, returning 5/23.

You really didn't try that hard, did you?

ap

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
* andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu

Martin Renschler wrote:
So where on that chart does it say 100k miles to Europe.

I was pointing to a chart showing normal PlanAAhead mileage that permits
travel on other OW carriers. To get to the AA award chart showing the
40, 60, 100K miles, go here

http://aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/Redeem...horEvent=false
Then select "American Airlines Award Chart"

That is what
is quoted for all the combinations I tried on the Web. Then I called
and was told that any flight after May 15 would cost that much. I was
trying to fly San Diego - Frankfurt with totally flexible dates around
May 9 out and May 23 back.


Try midweek, May 11 May 25 back. Saying you will only travel on the
weekend to Europe in May is not being flexible. I entered your dates at

http://aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/Redeem...horEvent=false
It told me those dates weren't available and gave me the dates May 11-25


I then used my Star Alliance Mileage, within 5 minutes, I had an award
flight for 46k miles.

46000?

The "Saver" mileage would be 50K
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,1142,00.html


80K according to the chart here for SA.
http://www.united.com/ual/asset/Star...d_chart_v2.pdf


The flight before that I tried to fly San Diego - Frankfurt end of
February. Same thing, 100k miles. I also used Star Alliance miles
then. Got me there for 40k miles, no problem at all.
Then I tried to fly to Orlando beginning of May. No luck. It said
first available flight back was mid June. The miles are worthless.
I see a pattern there. The one kind always works for me, the other
not.

May 3 return May 10 is available from SAN to MCO.

I would agree that Saturday (May 1, return May 8) isn't available, but
then there have been a few free ticket promotions recently and last
year.It isn't that they don't have awards, it is that many people are
using them. If you plan far enough ahead, you can find seats.
I have been a member for 20 years and have not had problems getting
awards. In mid November, I booked an award ticket from SJC-SJO for early
December including weekend travel without a problem. It wasn't a peak
time, so it was not a problem.

I then used my Star Alliance Mileage, within 5 minutes, I had an award
flight for 46k miles.

46000?

The "Saver" mileage would be 50K

It was 46k online, it would be 50k on the phone. That was for the May
9-23 flight.

In spring, I received a 25% off coupon from SA, so I flew for 40k in
March, the same way I had a 5k off coupon exp March 31st from
American, only there was no flight.

My complaints were good for something! I just went back in, put in the
very same flight request SAN-FRA May 9-23 and it now shows
availability at 60k miles. Unbelievable, they went in the system and
put in more seats!!! Believe me, I even called and they had no seats.
I already have a ticket from SA, but I'll try Orlanda this evening,
maybe they changed those too.

Thanks American.
/Martin

Martin Renschler wrote:

My complaints were good for something! I just went back in, put in the
very same flight request SAN-FRA May 9-23 and it now shows
availability at 60k miles. Unbelievable, they went in the system and
put in more seats!!! Believe me, I even called and they had no seats.
I already have a ticket from SA, but I'll try Orlanda this evening,
maybe they changed those too.

Thanks American.
/Martin

Are you saying that you complain to someone at AA and they added seats
based on your inability to get seats for Sunday flights (a heavy leisure
travel day) to Europe only 2 months in advance?

It is also possible that someone changed or canceled the previous
reservation for May 9-23. As two of us indicated, it was easy to find
flights close to the exact days you wanted.

Cisco troll/netkook Michael Voight mtravelkay trolled:
-
Martin Renschler wrote:

My complaints were good for something! I just went back in, put in the
very same flight request SAN-FRA May 9-23 and it now shows
availability at 60k miles. Unbelievable, they went in the system and
put in more seats!!! Believe me, I even called and they had no seats.
I already have a ticket from SA, but I'll try Orlanda this evening,
maybe they changed those too.

Thanks American.
/Martin

Are you saying that you complain to someone at AA and they added seats
based on your inability to get seats for Sunday flights (a heavy leisure
travel day) to Europe only 2 months in advance?

It is also possible that someone changed or canceled the previous
reservation for May 9-23. As two of us indicated, it was easy to find
flights close to the exact days you wanted.

What the **** do you ****ing care??? You're supposed to be working, so stop
harassing the posters and get to work!!!

IP address: 171.71.79.114
Host name: mvoight-w2k02.cisco.com

About Rogue Cisco Employee Michael "mrtravelkay" Voight,
a.k.a. the "mrtravel" Netkook Troll/Usenet Flooder

***WARNING: THIS IDIOT HAS BEEN CAUGHT FORGING PEOPLE'S IDENTITIES ON USENET
AND CANCELLING THEIR POSTS.***

"mrtavelkay" is the latest usenet handle of a brainless troll whose real name is
Michael Voight, email .

He is better known by his previous stupid handle, "mrtravel".

The idiot works for Cisco in San Jose and apparently they don't
keep him busy enough so he has to troll usenet when he isn't
looking for foreign brides to marry in exchange for money
in alt.visa.us.marriage-based and alt.personals.big-folks, or trying
to pick up minors in alt.personals.teens or any of the number of creepy
newsgroups he frequents. Some of his other trolling aliases are Network
Guy, , sleepydoc , jlhunt
, and Lost 5 of 8 , mrt ,
news.sf.sbcglobal.net , not-nomen
, David Tanner
, Jeff Davies , BobTheBuilder
.

All intelligent members of the usenet community have killfiled him, so he takes
great pains to get past their killfiles by rubbing his only two cerebral neurons
together and coming up with gems like: mrtrav , mrtrav3
, mrraveltay , and mrtravelkay
, and mtravelkay and ""a.a\"@a,a,a.
The lastest product of his brain diarrhea is Bill Clarkj
.

He seems to like to hang out in alt.sex.preteen. Hmmm....

His phone numbers are 831-295-3628 and 831-252-2606.

He's got a daughter in Orange County that one of his ex-wives had the
intelligence to take away from him. Lord only knows what could have
happened to her if she had continued to live with the kook. The other kids
he has belong to his previous Russian sleazy brides, and since they come
and go so do the kids. It wouldn't hurt to let Cisco know what kind of
deviant sexual pervert maniac they have working for them, so....

For starters, forward his idiotic posts to .

He works in technical support, so forward them to .

He often posts through sbcglobal and prodigy, so forward them to
and as well.

You can also call them at 1 800 553 2447 and ask to speak with a supervisor
and explain that you are EXTREMELY unhappy that this idiot spends his whole
day at work playing on the internet on company time. THEY WILL NOT LIKE
THAT.

Then write to corporate headquarters explaining what this idiot is doing
and telling them HOW BAD IT IS FOR THEIR COMPANY IMAGE. They will LOVE
that you brought this to their attention:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134
USA

Then also call them. You should always follow up email or letters with
phone calls. Always ask for supervisors or managers. Try to get as far up
as possible.

(408)526-4000
(800)553-NETS or
(800)553-6387

Contact Investor Relations and tell them you are interested in investing in
their company but won't do so until they get rid of this asshole who is
wasting company resources:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
Investor Relations Department
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-1706
Phone: (408) 526-8890
Fax: (408) 526-4545
Email:

Might as well contact customer service too, they LOVE to hear about this
type of stuff:

USA 1 800 553 6387




Then finally, send letters with copies of his nasty posts addressed
personally to each one of the OFFICERS of the company using the
headquarters address. Believe me, they READ your complaints and are VERY
INTERESTED in them, especially if it's about one of their employees. They
will take a PERSONAL interest in rooting this ASSHOLE out of their company:

John Morgridge, Chairman
John Chambers, President, CEO
Donald Valentine, Vice Chairman
Larry Carter, CFO, Sr. VP-Fin. and Admin., Sec., Director
Richard Justice, Sr. VP, Worldwide Field Operations

Have fun!

Cisco troll/netkook Michael Voight mtravelkay trolled:

Martin Renschler wrote:

My complaints were good for something! I just went back in, put in the
very same flight request SAN-FRA May 9-23 and it now shows
availability at 60k miles. Unbelievable, they went in the system and
put in more seats!!! Believe me, I even called and they had no seats.
I already have a ticket from SA, but I'll try Orlanda this evening,
maybe they changed those too.

Thanks American.
/Martin

Are you saying that you complain to someone at AA and they added seats
based on your inability to get seats for Sunday flights (a heavy leisure
travel day) to Europe only 2 months in advance?

It is also possible that someone changed or canceled the previous
reservation for May 9-23. As two of us indicated, it was easy to find
flights close to the exact days you wanted.

What the **** do you ****ing care??? You're supposed to be working, so stop
harassing the posters and get to work!!!

IP address: 171.71.79.114
Host name: mvoight-w2k02.cisco.com

About Rogue Cisco Employee Michael "mrtravelkay" Voight,
a.k.a. the "mrtravel" Netkook Troll/Usenet Flooder

***WARNING: THIS IDIOT HAS BEEN CAUGHT FORGING PEOPLE'S IDENTITIES ON USENET
AND CANCELLING THEIR POSTS.***

"mrtavelkay" is the latest usenet handle of a brainless troll whose real name is
Michael Voight, email .

He is better known by his previous stupid handle, "mrtravel".

The idiot works for Cisco in San Jose and apparently they don't
keep him busy enough so he has to troll usenet when he isn't
looking for foreign brides to marry in exchange for money
in alt.visa.us.marriage-based and alt.personals.big-folks, or trying
to pick up minors in alt.personals.teens or any of the number of creepy
newsgroups he frequents. Some of his other trolling aliases are Network
Guy, , sleepydoc , jlhunt
, and Lost 5 of 8 , mrt ,
news.sf.sbcglobal.net , not-nomen
, David Tanner
, Jeff Davies , BobTheBuilder
.

All intelligent members of the usenet community have killfiled him, so he takes
great pains to get past their killfiles by rubbing his only two cerebral neurons
together and coming up with gems like: mrtrav , mrtrav3
, mrraveltay , and mrtravelkay
, and mtravelkay and ""a.a\"@a,a,a.
The lastest product of his brain diarrhea is Bill Clarkj
.

He seems to like to hang out in alt.sex.preteen. Hmmm....

His phone numbers are 831-295-3628 and 831-252-2606.

He's got a daughter in Orange County that one of his ex-wives had the
intelligence to take away from him. Lord only knows what could have
happened to her if she had continued to live with the kook. The other kids
he has belong to his previous Russian sleazy brides, and since they come
and go so do the kids. It wouldn't hurt to let Cisco know what kind of
deviant sexual pervert maniac they have working for them, so....

For starters, forward his idiotic posts to .

He works in technical support, so forward them to .

He often posts through sbcglobal and prodigy, so forward them to
and as well.

You can also call them at 1 800 553 2447 and ask to speak with a supervisor
and explain that you are EXTREMELY unhappy that this idiot spends his whole
day at work playing on the internet on company time. THEY WILL NOT LIKE
THAT.

Then write to corporate headquarters explaining what this idiot is doing
and telling them HOW BAD IT IS FOR THEIR COMPANY IMAGE. They will LOVE
that you brought this to their attention:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134
USA

Then also call them. You should always follow up email or letters with
phone calls. Always ask for supervisors or managers. Try to get as far up
as possible.

(408)526-4000
(800)553-NETS or
(800)553-6387

Contact Investor Relations and tell them you are interested in investing in
their company but won't do so until they get rid of this asshole who is
wasting company resources:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
Investor Relations Department
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134-1706
Phone: (408) 526-8890
Fax: (408) 526-4545
Email:

Might as well contact customer service too, they LOVE to hear about this
type of stuff:

USA 1 800 553 6387




Then finally, send letters with copies of his nasty posts addressed
personally to each one of the OFFICERS of the company using the
headquarters address. Believe me, they READ your complaints and are VERY
INTERESTED in them, especially if it's about one of their employees. They
will take a PERSONAL interest in rooting this ASSHOLE out of their company:

John Morgridge, Chairman
John Chambers, President, CEO
Donald Valentine, Vice Chairman
Larry Carter, CFO, Sr. VP-Fin. and Admin., Sec., Director
Richard Justice, Sr. VP, Worldwide Field Operations

Have fun!