We have to fly out urgently next week to Russia to pick up our adopted daughter! I have the flights back on United, but I need a one way on AA to get us there from LAX, but am being charged with the $75 per person fee which is $150, more than the actual fuel charges on AIr Berlin!
If I call AA line and explain the situation, is there any chance they will waive the $75 less than 21 days booking fee based on our situation or is that fee set in stone no matter what?
It certainly has been waived for some in some circumstances, but I see no compelling reason in your post for them to waive the fee. There is a reason that they have the fee, so waiving it in arbitrary cases is not common.
Of course, you can always call.
(Congrats on the adoption, by the way, but I still don't see it is a valid reason for a wavier )
There may be situations where long-standing fees are waived (it's not like this is a recent fee like the charges for better economy seats), so call and ask. I suspect that AA's response will along the lines of "if we waived the fee for everyone making last-minute award seat bookings who says they have a good reason for booking at the last minute, every single person booking an award seat at the last minute would have a compelling reason why the fee should be waived."
They just recently waived that fee for me (for same day travel on BA where the alternative would have been a paid $900+ ticket for a two-hour flight) - the agent saw the $120-odd YQ on BA and went "ooh, that's ridiculously high already, I'll waive the 21-day fee for you to keep the cost in line". Nice. Didn't even ask.
So they definitely do have some leeway there.
And didn't Russia just decree "no more adoptions" in an attempt to retaliate against the Magnisky Act? You got lucky there!
Well actually, no there isn't, not unless "we want your money" is a reason.
Why yes, yes it it. In the same way that "even though the incremental cost of putting you on the plane and taking you over there is about $20, but we're going to charge you $250" is a reason. The same reason that it costs more to get a US Passport or Chinese visa faster even though it's no more work. Exactly.
Yes there is a ban that was signed that has affected many people including us. The reason we couldn't book sooner is because directly of this law, we had no idea if we would be allowed to come back. But now it appears we will be alright as we had our court approval prior to the law coming into effect.
Will be calling AA today, thanks everybody for your advice!
They just recently waived that fee for me (for same day travel on BA where the alternative would have been a paid $900+ ticket for a two-hour flight) - the agent saw the $120-odd YQ on BA and went "ooh, that's ridiculously high already, I'll waive the 21-day fee for you to keep the cost in line". Nice. Didn't even ask.
So they definitely do have some leeway there.
I assume the OP has no status and is subject to the fee. But isn't the fee waived for you anyway since you have status (EXP)?
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