I had FCO-PHL-LGA during the holiday. Evening PHL-LGA gone and rebooked to next day. Chatted with AAgent and switched to FCO-LHR-JFK.

Maybe have them to do IAD or BWI nonstop on BA?

Full refund is definitely an option cause it sounds like they didn�t even rebook on another ANC flight.

They might be able willing to book on AS and/or combination with AA flights being oneworld if no workable AA flights.

Just do your research on Google Flights/ITA Matrix first and then spoon feed the desired flights to AAgent via X (direct messsage) or chat in AA app. The price shown doesn�t matter you just need to find a new set do flights with availability in same cabin.

I did just this morning no fuss.

 

Appreciate your suggestions. BWI is a lol-nope for us. We applied SWUs to JFK-LHR so not sure how well that would work going over to BA. I eventually discovered a midafternoon DCA-LGA that will work (weirdly it had zero availability in any class at 9am and then opened up by noon today).

 

I've often seen on Sundays where AA does schedule changes a lot of flights often show zero availability for whatever reason and then by Sunday evening/Monday the inventory levels return to normal. Just something to note for next time.

 

Would an invol schedule change (in advance, rather than day of travel) on an award ticket booked by another carrier (say BA or AS) be subject to AA's rebooking policy? Or, would it be kicked back to the ticketing carrier who would then have to find open award space again?

I figure it's the latter, which would make booking with an AA partner a bit of a risk. I don't think those partners can force award space open, either, if there isn't any.

 

Just following up on my cancelled ANC-DFW flight in December. I think a refund request is in progress, but it hasn�t been that easy:

Called in to AA. First agent saw the changes and confirmed ANC-DFW was being seasonally discontinued on my date of travel and the flight was cancelled. She cancelled my reservation and assured me a full refund to original form of payment would process within 3-5 days. She seemed knowledgeable, but it was almost too easy.

After the call I noticed that a flight credit showed up in my AA account for the ticket price. Hmmmm. I had specifically asked to cancel for a refund and not a credit. Perhaps this was a normal interim thing with AA as again I�m infrequent on AA and primarily DL. Decided to call back and inquire.

Second agent said no refund had been processed and that because it was a non-refundable ticket, no refund was due. Only a credit. Didn�t matter the route was cancelled. When I pushed back citing AA�s own policy, plus DOT rules, he stood firm that it was non-refundable. I asked for a supervisor.

Once the supervisor came on she apologized for the confusion and assured me it was eligible for a full refund due to the cancellation. However AA agents can�t process a refund request, and that it must be done by the customer on prefunds.aa.com. She walked me through that step, entering the ticket number and other relevant data.

Im still leery if I�ll ever see a refund. Fully understand it�ll take a few days for the request to be reviewed plus refund processing time. But it just wasn�t customer friendly and I got the distinct feeling they were trying to avoid a refund.

Is it normal to get this much runaround from
AA? I gripe about DL as much as the next guy, but this doesn�t exactly make me want to give AA my business.

 

Using prefunds is the process. For whatever reason, refunds on AA aren't automatic. For cancelled flights, I've always had to submit the request at prefunds.aa.com. The first two agents should have told you that -- poor training, which unfortunately is more common than it should be. I've never had AA deny a refund as a result of their cancellation (for any reason) once the request was properly submitted.

 

I've got two reservations week of Christmas I'm trying to alter because the airline I'm connecting to changed (the EAS contract for the city changed to another carrier, so I have to fly into a different city to connect to them). Guess more changes are in the works because I'm getting this pop up since last night:

 

We booked 5 pax in business class GRU-MIA-LAX, the overnight flight from GRU-MIA on Saturday Jan 4 (12:30am departure) and then left a full day in MIA before transiting on to LAX on Saturday evening. The fare is R so has some flexibility, no change fees and allows a free stopover in the US. Initially we wanted Saturday day and an overnight in MIA, but the flights the next morning (Sunday) would not show up on AMEX when we booked, only Saturday flights or Sunday evening flights.

Once booked, I called both AA and AMEX to try to shift the MIA-LAX flight to Sunday. AA said they would not touch the ticket and AMEX continued to not see the Sunday morning flights from MIA-LAX so we just let them sit awaiting a schedule change.

Now our Saturday evening MIA-LAX flight has been changed, to an 80 minute connection after landing from GRU (so not even enough time to shower) onward to LAX on Saturday morning. I haven't rung AA yet, but I am assuming the 12 hour schedule change should be enough for them to agree to touch the ticket now and honor their schedule change policy. But the big question, since the underlying fare allows a free stopover, we should be allowed to be moved to the next morning, but will AA do that or will they again point me back to AMEX (who hilariously still cannot see the Sunday morning MIA-LAX flights)?

 

Since you booked through Amex you unfortunately have to handle everything through Amex including schedule changes and new flights.

 

Interesting you say that. I have done tons of "fixes" directly with AA where they make a schedule change and revalidate the ticket and I dont like what they have done. Even with TA issued travel agents, I have dealt directly with them on things that fall squarely within the purview of their schedule change policy. That is not my question though, since the flight I want would not fall within the purview of the schedule change policy. But the fact that they have already changed the flight (to one I dont want) and reissued the ticket makes it clear they can actually make changes to a TA issued ticket.

 

You would need to work with the airline that issued the award ticket. That airline can open additional award space on its own flights, but can only request, not force, its partners to do so. If you are not satisfied with the alternatives offered after a significant schedule change, you can receive a refund of your miles and fees and then start over.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. Unfortunately, as suspected.

Does it follow that booking an award on AA itself would bypass these types of issues? Because an invol change would follow their broader policy on the topic, even allowing rebookings on itineraries without existing award space?

 

Yes and no, since it depends on what flights are involved. If you book award travel on AA and there is a sufficiently significant schedule change, AA can force new award travel space on its own flights but can only request its partners to do the same. The same is true on the reverse situation, as far as partner airlines are concerned (i.e., a partner airline can clear additional award space on its own flights, but cannot force AA or other partners to do the same). Refund always remains an option.

 

And while AA can make the request to all partners, certain ones will generally open the space (BA), and some will not even respond (QR)

 

This makes sense. Appears I'm off to AAdvantage then.
Thank you to you both.