Who’s Booking All of the Flights to St. Louis? And Why?

Over on Milepoint, TUMD has uncovered a mystery. Evidently something is going on in St. Louis on October 19th. And it must be something big, because whatever it is, it’s causing all American Airlines award flights to be listed as unavailable that day.

I have been trying to figure out a flight back from HNL in October with AA miles (either economy or business) and I can find flights to the mainland the evening of Oct 18th but there is nothing from any connecting city to STL. The strange thing is that each city I looked at (LAX, SFO, MSP, CLT, etc.) all have no saver availability on Oct 19th but for the most part every other day in the month is open except that one. Does anyone know what the heck is going on in STL that would cause this one date to have no availability? ~TUMD

DIG/R_1K offers a possible explanation:

Someone in AA Rev. Mgmt. is optimistic that the St. Louis Cardinals will be in the World Series that weekend?

Possible, but exceptionally unlikely. Though as a Kansas City Royals fan growing up there will always be a spot in my heart for the Cardinals – as the Royals got their lone World Series victory against them.

No, there must be some other reason for this clear attempt by American to keep frequent flyers out of St. Louis that day.

DJP_707 provides another implausible theory – though perhaps more plausible than DIG/R_1K’s:

A newfound comet is apparently on course to have an exceedingly close call with the planet Mars on October 19 2014, and there is a chance — albeit small — that the comet may even collide with the Red Planet.

Hmmmm…

I typed “St. Louis 10/19/14” and learned that the Rams play the Seahawks at home. Another possibility I suppose.

But then another result showed that the St. Louis Rock ‘n Roll Marathon is held on, you guessed it, Oct. 19th.

Is it possible that the Running & Miles bloggers have convinced marathoners everywhere to start collecting and cashing in points to get to their races?

TUMD, I believe we have detected the cause of this travel mystery. Look no further than:

Read the thread in its entirety: What is the deal with October 19th??

Image: “St. Louis” by Dave Herholz. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Comments

  1. Probably all the flights are getting pre-booked to accommodate all the people coming here for the World Series that the Cardinals are going to win.

    Another Red October!!

  2. Hmmm, I have to go back-date a post now to convince my readers that they needed to book travel for the St. Louis Marathon – thanks a lot! 🙂
    And it is still somewhat of an uphill battle with a lot of marathoners to go the points route – slowly but surely they will be convinced!

  3. My guess (Also being a Royals fan from STL) is that it’s a combination of things such as the events you mention and the lack of lift in and out of STL lately.

    Suggestions are”
    Try Southwest if you haven’t already (won’t be with AA miles)
    Book the AA flight into Columbia (which now serves the area from DFW/ORD).
    Fly into MCI and take the late train.
    Oh and did you try Alaska yet?.

  4. World Series isn’t set to start until 10/22 and then it will start at the American League team’s site to begin as the AL won the All-Star game.

  5. There are two big conventions that week: the AMAA (American Medical Assistants Assoc.) and a big coal convention (Stl is the home of Peabody). More plausible since the flight day is a Sunday and these conventions run through the weekend into Monday or start Monday.

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