KopiKosong

Does anyone KNOW whether AA has any official rule about schedule changes? When there is a schedule change and travel has not commenced yet, are passengers allowed to re-book on another date or cancel altogether without penalty, if the new schedule is not acceptable to them?

If yes, is there any clear cut-off time period, beyond which a passenger can cancel without penalty? Is it for a 5-minute schedule change or a 5-hour schedule change?

I really want to know if there are any set rules about this? I have called AA but it seems to me that each agent makes up her own rules

Dave Noble

Have a look at https://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Booki...ule_240_80.jsp

This is the advice for travel agents, but you can reasonably expect that AA will do same directly

JDiver

As American Airlines and US Airways are still operating as distinct airlines, this question is being moved to the appropriate pre-merger airline forum.

Please note the sticky at the top of the consolidated thread which is titled PLEASE READ ME BEFORE POSTING! Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum!. With all of the changes about, it is important to know where to post, and reading that thread before posting (as the title suggests ) will help get you in the right place.

~Moderator

Note the emphasis in the link above on 91 minutes - a few minutes change is unlikely to result in free / no-fee schedule changes or cancellation with fee waivers.

hillrider

The only official rule is the Conditions of Carriage, a Congress-sanctioned unilaterally-imposed contract which you had to accept by "adhesion" (you didn’t bargain the terms, so you did not consent to them in any traditional sense; there is no meeting of the minds between the parties) when you forked over your hard-earned money. In AA's case, they state:Translated into English, it means that AA doesn't have to do anything about taking you to your destination when it said it would, and when it changes its schedule, well, tough luck to you since you have no legal rights.

Your taxpayer dollars at work!

Yep -- these are the rules it uses in practice, but are unofficial and unenforceable, so they're not strictly what you were asking about.

3Cforme

I <redacted> but there are DOT rules on air travel and air fares, too, and you know it.

JonNYC

Agreed-- and I'm very confused as to why anyone would claim otherwise.

Often1

Does anybody have an actual -- as opposed to rant-generated -- example of AA refusing to honor it's TA advisory at 91 minutes+ (or where the change takes a connection below MCT)?

sbrower

I haven't looked at the COC for a while. It used to have a separate section on refunds and it didn't require ANY amount of time. It just applied if there was a schedule change. Period.

hillrider

I don't know of any DOT rules that apply to schedule changes besides, and only since 2012, requiring timely notification (14 CFR 259.5(b)(10)). Please let me know what you know.

And I agree that the official situation is rather silly and that the rules should be official and enforceable!

hillrider

Time for you to relook at the CoC!

They state what they are going to refund should they elect to give you one, but no, the CoC does not give you the rights to get such a refund.

hillrider

I don't have one: AA has been very good with accommodating schedule changes (nobody claimed otherwise, certainly not me).

I am sorry that a factual answer to the OP was perceived as a rant.

JPG3392

I don't know the official rules and regulations (which may vary to some extent from one airline to another), but the amount of time in a schedule change is not the only factor to be considered. A schedule change of 5 minutes could result in a connection becoming invalid under some circumstances (if, e.g., the minimum connection time is 45 minutes and the schedule change results in a 40-minute connection). In practice, airlines tend to be more flexible than is strictly required when a schedule change occurs. It may not be to your advantage to insist on strict enforcement of the rules.

sbrower

This appears in the CoC:
I am doing this somewhat quicker than usual. Can you find somewhere in the CoC where is defines WHEN (other than "the failure to operate on schedule" - which could be 5 minutes) there has been a "failure to operate on schedule" which "requires a refund"?

JDiver

For those who wish to search them out, there are many instances mentioned in this forum where members have, or have not, been granted refunds or gratis alternative flights in cases of changes schedules.

Iirc, some of those depended on which rules were brought up and how they were interpreted, and often seemed to depend on the agent involved (and I suspect how the caller treated the agent and / or how the issue was presented.

I've had agents who insisted on following "The Rules" or detailed rules for my ticket, and I've had others more concerned with "doing the right thing" (rather than merely "doing things right"), going so far as to overrule the detailed flight rules, change or cancellation fees, etc.

I think this is pretty much why we tend to think out our presentation before we call (making someone's job easier can indeed be helpful) - and why our FlyerTalk mantra in these cases is often "Hang up and call again".

It's easier to give a short, formulaic answer, but it's not, IMO, as useful.

sbrower

Excellent advice, as always. There are so many "one off" that the question "has anyone ever" doesn't mean anything (the answer is virtually always "yes" but just because it happened once doesn't mean it will happen again). I have received full refunds for 15 minute delays on the date of flight. But, based on what I have read here, that is a "one off" and not the common expectation.