yet when I call the airline on the phone, I can always make a reservation with $25 charge.
Do other people have this experience and can I do anything ?
I've had AA miles for some twenty years and flown numerous times on miles. I have noticed that there has been a tightening up on availability in recent years. On the other hand, the partner airlines have made up for that - the choices are many these days. I don't remember any instances where a simple AA award flight was not there on the website but was available with a phone call that incurs the fee, but I've paid the fee many times for complicated award trips involving two or more partner airlines, tickets that simply could not be done from one or the other website alone, and the 25 bucks were well spent.
Maybe madi is a victim of "revenue-enhancing tactics" on the part of AA?
OP, were you picking cities that AA doesn't service with their own metal?
For what it is worth, we've been able to get FF Award tickets many times using the website - can't recall ever having difficulties. Like one of the previous poster we sometimes call to book when we have a complex routing - we never really worry about the $25 fee.
Not all of AA's partners can be booked for mileage travel on AA's website, so it's possible you're just not seeing options that are only bookable through the agents. Yes, it's annoying that you have to pay the fee in those cases, but that's baseball.
Where do you want to go, when and from where?
I am going to Thailand in February and the airlines are Cathay Pacific or Japan. I understand what you say and the fee of $25 is very small compare to the cost of a ticket. I just wanted to ask because it seems that I always needed to call and not do it on the website.
Flying to the US with engagement ring.