To: Campus Unit Finance Leads, Business Managers, AAdvantage Members
From: Rebecca Spanos, Director, Travel and Payment Card Services
In early May, Travel Services communicated an update regarding American Airlines. In late May, American Airlines made several announcements regarding the changes they have made in the last year. They now understand that these changes were not executed well and have created difficulty for travel agencies and those booking through travel agencies, as the University does.
On June 11, American sent a communication to travel agencies regarding strategy changes in how their fares will be available for booking. While this will be a welcome change once it is completed, the process is currently causing challenges when attempting to book flights on American Airlines via Concur. Concur can only look up fares from one source: either the legacy system, where all other airline fares are sourced, or Travel Fusion.
While American works through the process to bring fares back into the legacy system, it is causing some fares to not be available through Travel Fusion. If you are searching for a flight on American and it is not presented in your search results in Concur, please take the following steps:
- First, confirm that your AAdvantage number is saved on your profile in Concur with all uppercase letters. If there are lowercase letters included, this can affect the search results displayed. Please update your AAdvantage number and try your search again.
- If flights on American are still not appearing in your search results, please contact the agents at World Travel for assistance in booking your travel. As a reminder, our Dedicated Team of agents is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. They can be reached by calling 877-602-4950 or via email at uncch_travel@worldtravelinc.com.
As a final note for our AAdvantage Members: American had previously communicated that there could be some forthcoming changes in the way frequent flyer miles are earned depending on the method of booking. During their announcements in late May, American communicated that these changes will no longer be occurring. Travelers will continue to earn their AAdvantage miles regardless of how the flight is booked. As a reminder, frequent flyer miles acquired by a state employee while traveling on state business at state expense, are the property of the state and should be used, to the extent possible, by the state employee on future state business trips.