ExitRowAisle

Months ago, I booked domestic award travel (RT) using BA Avios miles on AA. I've now learned that, instead of returning to my home, I need to travel to a different city on business. So instead of traveling A to B to A, I now am planning to travel A to B to C to A.

After talking to BA, I learned that my award travel was apparently booked as a round-trip rather than 2 one-ways, so I can't just cancel my returning flight without affecting my outbound flight. I'm prepared to walk away from my return trip to my home, but I wanted to know what will happen if I book travel on AA to the work-related city. Will AA see that I am scheduled to travel on two different flights at the same time, and cancel one, both, or none of the tickets? I could always book a different airline to City C or not put in my frequent flyer number, but I would prefer to get the limited Gold perks I have earned with AA.

jordyn

Are the either of flights from B to C or C to A at the same time as your original B to A flights?

AA does have a duplicate detection system--I have no idea what criteria it uses to match on--but unless you're going to be in the air at the exact same time as an existing booked flight I think you'd probably be safe.

Blumie

My experience has been that while AA will cancel duplicate/conflicting reservations that are on hold (or will cancel a reservation on hold if it conflicts with a paid reservation), AA will not cancel duplicate/conflicting paid reservations. For example, I recently booked a LGA-ORD-LGA reservation, and later learned I had to fly ORD-BOS instead. Because of the fare, there was no reason to change my return, and instead purchased a separate ORD-BOS ticket at the exact same time I was supposed to be flying ORD-LGA. Both of these flights remained ticketed and un-cancelled for a couple of weeks, until I actually took the ORD-BOS flight.

ExitRowAisle

The two flights in question (B to A, and B to C) are scheduled to be in the air at the same time.

Shawn02139

I've booked and paid for for two different flights from two different city pairs that would be in the air simultaneously, because advance purchase was so cheap that it made sense ven though i knew i'd only take one.

AA called me up and made me pick one to cancel (but at least didn't charge a fee to cancel it).

brp

and

Will be interesting to see what happens. What's the over/under on how long it takes AA to call?

Cheers.

djibouti

Contrary to what many US-based BAEC agents say, this is not correct. Call the UK number and they will tell you it can be done without trouble (with the change fee and phone agent fee, so something like $65, but fees are fees). Unfortunately, if you are US-based they'll tell you that you have to contact the US number. Ask them to document the procedure for canceling just the return in your PNR and when the next US agent says it can't be done, mention that the UK agents said it can and documented the procedure in the PNR for the benefit of their US counterparts. They'll escalate, take their sweet time figuring it out, then come back to charge your card for the change fee and phone fee (actually, probably refund to it in the end because of fuel surcharges).

I did this the other way (canceling just outbound) and finally got traction after getting confirmation from the UK that it can be done as long as the award band hasn't changed.

Often1

AA's software does a better (or worse) job of picking up impossible bookings. Either AA will call and require the cancellation of one or the other or simply cancel one or both. The former at least gives you a chance to keep what you want. The latter can become ugly.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Are award seats still available from A to B to C to A? If so, just book those flights, and cancel the original award. You'll merely forfeit the small amount of cash you paid for the original award. (BA does not make any additional collection when award travel is cancelled. If the cash paid on the award is less than BA's cancellation fee, the traveler merely forfeits the cash paid.)

ExitRowAisle

I just got through to a helpful BA agent (perhaps from the UK given his accent, although I used the US phone number), and he was able to cancel only the return flight of the original RT award ticket. I had to pay the change fees but got back 4,500 Avios points/miles. All in all a very painless transaction -- not at all what I was expecting given the previous information I had been provided by BA.