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Home  >  Award Bookings • Award Travel • US Airways  >  Leaked US Airways Memo: Agents Forbidden to Manually Request Award Space
Award BookingsAward TravelUS Airways

Leaked US Airways Memo: Agents Forbidden to Manually Request Award Space

Matthew Klint Posted onNovember 14, 2013December 9, 2016 13 Comments

US Airways apparently did not appreciate my story on how to book blocked Lufthansa award space, because a new memo has been issued that explicitly instructs Dividend Miles agents not to manually request award space on any flight.

It was only in late September when US Airways told me “If a customer should request a long sell (which we don’t think happens that often), and the agent actually knows how to do this function we will try to accommodate the request as best as we can.”

The “try to” and “as best we can” equivocations should have been a warning sign–US Airways has now moved swiftly to block customers from being able to get around its broken system! This pernicious policy choice exhibits fundamental dishonesty and undermines the assurances from US Airways that the blocking is unintended and technical in nature rather than a deliberate means to cut redemption expenses after selling billions of miles at a steep discount.

Interestingly, the memo–which another award booking service alerted me to and I then confirmed myself–explicitly mentions my name and article, then explains that US Airways agents are not permitted to use the long-sell process I outline in my story.

I asked John McDonald, US Airways’ Vice President of Corporate Communications, what was going on and he sent me a one-line response, “Nope, no further comment, Matt but thanks for asking.”

So now the one avenue for getting around the severe blocking on Lufthansa (and ANA) has been curtailed. With US Airways and American Airlines settling its DOJ lawsuit and US CEO Doug Parker likely to take the realms of the merged airline, look for similar tricks to continue–this fundamental dishonesty, a bait and switch, is reason enough that the DOJ should have extracted more concessions out of US and AA before dropping its lawsuit. With such poor showmanship on the frequent flyer front, it is not unreasonable to surmise that the cancer of avarice and deceit has spread to other areas of the airline as well and will spread to AA too.

Regarding Lufthansa award space: keep in mind that the blocking does not seem to affect flights departing on Wednesday or Saturday. At least on those two days you should not have a problem securing Lufthansa award space made available to Star Alliance partners.

There is one upside–the same US Airways agents who think that Australia is in North Asia or that Tokyo is part of “the China” have not read this memo. I make it a point to ask every agent I reach if they have read any memos recently about long selling award seats. Some claim not to even know what long selling is, while most say they have not read the memo.

But the memo was issued and US Airways misled me and misled you. Shame on them.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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13 Comments

  1. steve Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 7:51 am

    Surprised they haven’t stopped issuing awards altogether. Newspapers say USAir will leave SA in 1st Qtr 2014 and start riciprocal AA/US mileage earning on Jan. 7. I’m not crazy about OW with the limited number of airlines to europe: BA with their sickening fuel surcharge, AA award search fobbing off europe trips onto BA (at least the saver levels) and the very limited Finnair, Iberia and Air Berlin routes from the U.S. Not a wonderful shift at all. The consolidation of the majors to 3 is here. Europe is next IMHO. It’s being done, e.g. the LH group owning OS, LX and Brussels, Recall that LH also has looked at swallowing TAP, SAS and LOT. BA with Iberia, and AF with KLM. What’s really left? Oh, Alitalia. Defacto it’s already down to BA, LH, and AF. Latin America is essentially down to TAM/LAN, AeroMexico and Avianca. Africa is down to, er, still at, one: South African. Asia and the M.East will see consolidation but further down the road. Both regions have seen an unprecedented airline bubble that will go bust sometime. Happy flying to all.

  2. JB Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 1:41 pm

    “Regarding Lufthansa award space: keep in mind that the blocking does not seem to affect flights departing on Wednesday or Saturday. At least on those two days you should not have a problem securing Lufthansa award space made available to Star Alliance partners.”

    Does that Wed/Sat memo apply to ANA avail as well?

  3. Matthew Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    @JB: Sometimes. I have had better luck with ANA on Saturdays (haven’t tried Wednesdays). But we are just talking about ANA metal–all ANA flights operated by Air Japan will be blocked.

  4. BFrankley Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    Did you pull your article on How to Book Blocked LH? The link isn’t working.

  5. Matthew Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    Thanks~fixed it.

  6. BFrankley Reply
    November 14, 2013 at 7:00 pm

    Thank you. Great writing and investigating on your part.

  7. SAN Greg Reply
    November 15, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    This kind of stuff is EXACTLY the reason why I did not want to see the merger happen. I’m not a US flyer and really enjoy patronizing AA. Now that US is pretty much calling the shots at AA I will be watching very closely to see what happens. Sorry to say that my wallet is ready to bail on AA.

    I still remember when US merged with HP and their announcement of the new enhanced frequent flyer program that eliminated one way awards. I wrote a letter asking how this was “an enhancement” to which I received no reply.

    Now that Parker is in charge expect a gutting of the Aadvantage program. A leopard’s stripes don’t change.

  8. Willy Reply
    November 15, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    Yes, agreed that your original content is excellent. Other bloggers are pivoting off of your work and there is limited or no attribution. That’s not right and you should be acknowledged for your work. Thanks!

  9. J Reply
    November 16, 2013 at 2:54 am

    sure makes them look sleazy and petty and vindictive – just what one would want in an air carrier

  10. Grant Reply
    November 16, 2013 at 9:28 am

    “One-way award travel reservations are available for the same number of miles as a roundtrip award travel reservation.”

    (hilarity ensues)

  11. Billy Reply
    November 16, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    Milevalue is saying now that LH F awards are unblocked at US.

  12. Matthew Reply
    November 17, 2013 at 7:49 am

    @Billy: He’s just claiming some I and X are unblocked, but he should have looked harder–the blocking is still rampant.

  13. Robert Sutardi Reply
    November 18, 2013 at 11:23 am

    Thank you for such an honest and informative post! This is the first time I’ve stumbled upon your blog, and I am so happy that I did

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