Persistence and following some basic ideas worked for Mary. Here is her story:
Rick,
I thought I’d share my recent award experience with you. I’m hoping it may help others who scored the British Airways 100K and want to use the miles to book on American. I was looking to book a trip for my family to Jackson Hole over the summer. I researched on American’s web site and Expert Flyer to find some flights. I found a trip with 2 connections each way (and knew there were 7 seats open for almost all of the legs). I went to
britishairways.com and the trip didn’t show up even when I included partners. I called British Airways to book. I explained that I couldn’t see the flights on their site that I found on American. She searched and told me that no tickets at the super saver rate existed. I told her that I could see them on the American site. She told me that American doesn’t release all of the frequent flyer tickets to them. From reading your blog and others, I knew that wasn’t true. I also had read that you shouldn’t try to convince the agent that that isn’t true. That you should just call back and get a different agent. So I did.
The second agent was very helpful. She also told me that she didn’t see tickets available at the saver rate. I told her I could see them on American and Expert Flyer. She then told me the only ones she could see were for 1st class. (Now I’m not like you, I always fly coach so I can get as many trips for my family as I can.) When she told me the routing, I realized that she may only be able to see trips with 1 connection for partner airlines. I asked if she could look up the flights if I told her the flight numbers. She agreed and I gave her all the numbers. And I was able to book our trip at the saver rate. She didn’t even charge me for talking to an agent because she said I would not have been able to book it online.
I hope this helps others. Happy Thanksgiving! I am truly thankful for your blog!
Mary
Suntrust Gift Basket for Kris and Megan
We have raised $90 so far of the approximately $150 needed to send a thank you basket to the Hilton Head branch of Suntrust Bank. Joshua is going to have a personally prepared basket prepared by his butcher and overnighted to them around Christmas time for all their help with the Suntrust/Delta debit card deal. If you’d like to chip in a few bucks it would be appreciated. You can paypal me your contribution to ingy104@gmail.com Thanks for thinking of Kris and Megan. They worked hard for all of us so we could “see the world at prices we all can afford”. And thanks Joshua for the idea.
Small Business Saturday Story
Rick -
Thought you would enjoy this story. My wife and I have 13 different AMEX cards:
1 Hilton for each us
2 Starwoods for each us
2 Starwood Business for each of us
1 Delta for each of us
1 Gold Business for me (w/ 50,000 miles sign up).
I called the Amex 800 number today about the Small Business Saturday promo. You can only sign up one card per account, but if you have several different accounts, they can each be registered for the promo.
I’ve just returned from my favorite neighborhood wine store, where I’ve chosen 13 different wines, each priced at $24.99 plus tax. If this works properly, I’ve bought $325 worth of wine for the taxes of approx. $17.
I know it might be too late on Saturday to share this with your readers, but I thought it was pretty neat.
Thanks for the tip on this!
Tim in Alexandria
Small Business Saturday EXTENDED unitl December 31st
Register each and everyone of your Amex cards here and earn a $25 statement credit on each when you spend $25 at a small business. This is another reason I love my Amex cards 
Limited Time Offer Ends Tomorrow
No First Year Fee, Free First Checked Bag, Two Lounge Passes and $50 Statement Credit
