I booked a couple of seats through AE YQR-CLD (Carlsbad, CA) a while ago. I was checking my itinerary and note that my final flight will arrive 17 minutes later than originally booked due to a schedule change. This is no big deal, but just for fun I checked on AE what flights I could pull up for a Classic Reward, and a much better itinerary comes up. I get the same departure out of YQR, but get a direct from YYC-LAX, and then I get to CLD 4h:45 min earlier (more beach time!) rather than having to go to YVR to get to LAX. I am thinking of just spending the $55 to change the booking to the better itinerary. The return is leg is showing a better itinerary too, in fact, so it would not be bad all round. My question is, as the original booking changed do I have any chance of having the fee waived? My sense is no as the rebooked arrival time is only 17 minutes later but I wonder what the actual rules on this are but I'll save the $55 if I can and buy a few more brews.
I pulled up the itinerary through KVS and as far as I can tell it has not actually been re-ticketed as of yet (old and new flights are showing on the itin I pull up) and I have received no notification from AE of any changes. This happened to me last year too, only AE never did notify me (I found out two days before the flight south and called in and a kind agent worked a long time to get me reticketed--one flight had been moved to depart before I was to arrive in YVR! That was not going to work).
I booked a couple of seats through AE YQR-CLD (Carlsbad, CA) a while ago. I was checking my itinerary and note that my final flight will arrive 17 minutes later than originally booked due to a schedule change. This is no big deal, but just for fun I checked on AE what flights I could pull up for a Classic Reward, and a much better itinerary comes up. I get the same departure out of YQR, but get a direct from YYC-LAX, and then I get to CLD 4h:45 min earlier (more beach time!) rather than having to go to YVR to get to LAX. I am thinking of just spending the $55 to change the booking to the better itinerary. The return is leg is showing a better itinerary too, in fact, so it would not be bad all round. My question is, as the original booking changed do I have any chance of having the fee waived? My sense is no as the rebooked arrival time is only 17 minutes later but I wonder what the actual rules on this are but I'll save the $55 if I can and buy a few more brews.
I pulled up the itinerary through KVS and as far as I can tell it has not actually been re-ticketed as of yet (old and new flights are showing on the itin I pull up) and I have received no notification from AE of any changes. This happened to me last year too, only AE never did notify me (I found out two days before the flight south and called in and a kind agent worked a long time to get me reticketed--one flight had been moved to depart before I was to arrive in YVR! That was not going to work).
For 17 mins you won't get them to waive the fee, as it is not considered a major schedule change. Just pay the change fee and get it exchanged before the seats disappear
I've had that happen on some UA flights in the AC/AE system. For some reason AE's real time is only related to inventory, not actual sked times. The sked change arrived a few days after the AE booking was made, though the UA web site showed the new times on the same day as I booked the AE seats.
As noted, it is most unlikely you can get any such consideration for such a minor sked change that does not impact connections or any other ability to get you to your destination within a reasonable period of time from your original booking.
Thanks guys. I really didn't think it was possible to not pay the fee, which was the case. I got a terrific AE agent who was quite happy to rebook our flights down (Mrs Arf04 is coming along too). The better return trip had only one seat left, alas. With the new booking we get in many hours earlier and get to head to the beach for the afternoon if we want to. Nice.
This will be our first time flying into CLD, where before we had to fly to SAN, which is about 30 minutes by car away (convenient, too, but our hotel is minutes from CLD). For anyone traveling to SAN on AE or otherwise, it is worth checking CLD fares/redemptions for availability as it is easy to get to SAN or anywhere north of SAN from there and there are about 6-7 dailies to LAX. And, of course, the airport is a minute or two from Legoland.
