FlyerMC

I have received the AA confirmation email, have a ticketing number and can enter the BA itinerary on BA's website.

In my case, I was initially booked on Iberia JNB-MAD. That flight was cancelled and I was reprotected into two connection flights JNB-LHR-MAD. I then called several days later (after finding Z inventory for JNB-LHR) and changed LHR to a stopover of several days.

Maybe the "reprotection" allowed an exception to be made but I thought that connection and stopovers could be changed as long as you didn't have more than one stopover in any city.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable (than me) can chime in with some insight.

Happy

AFAIK, stopover can change to a connection but not the other way round. It has been this way since when in the old days when the distance was calculated on the beeline instead of counting the actual distance flown. May be this rule is the leftover from the old days when connection segments did not count in the distance, only stopover segments do.

FlyerMC

Maybe AA has latitude to make exceptions (like doing so to get my ticket approved). The person who made my changes initially said the same thing to me after she spoke with ticketing. But then she said she got a supervisor to approve it.

Note: When my ticket was originally "reprotected" my segments jumped from 16 to 17. AA couldn't book the ticket so the supervisor had me use miles for a separate MIA-DAL segment and then reimbursed those miles into my account. So, technically, my RTW ticket begins in DFW and ends in MIA. In that instance, AA could not get around the 16-segment cap.

Austinrunner

AA can't get around the 16 segment limit because its ticketing system won't allow it. There is no way to override it.

Now you have 2 PNRs. That could have several unintended consequences down the road.

Jwerking

Okay - Thanks for the confirmation of the OW rules - makes no sense, but I guess I am stuck now with the 30 hr flight - ugh! This is my first OW ticket - so I will definitely be more attuned to details such as this the next time.

Hmmm, maybe I can try to delay the AKL -HKG flight to a later flight - so I will miss the 2 hr connection to the HKG-JFK flight - thus, forcing an overnight stay. All I am trying to do is to preclude such long haul back to back flights - so overnight in a HKG airport hotel will serve my purpose. What do you guys think - will it work?

Joyce

ckpeter

You can certainly do that. The key would be to find award availability on the later AKL-HKG flight and the HKG-JFK flight the next morning.

Don't be too frustrated about the rules, Joyce. Realize that award tickets have rules because the airlines want to sell flexible full-fare tickets. If AA allow completely flexible changes to be made to an award, a lot more people would not pay and would just book award tickets.

FlyerMC

Austinrunner,

Agreed. I thought about the lack of protection, but the 1st PR is on March 31st and the second PR begins on April 1st. So, I felt since the flights were on different days there would be opportunities (later flight that day or earlier flight the next day) to move me to if there is a problem with my flight.

ilovetofly

Did you ask for miles reimbursement and no additional YQ surcharge or AA simply make the accommodation?

FlyerMC

The supervisor offered to request the 10,000 miles (which she said was the maximum request).

I also confirmed with her prior to her talking with ticketing that I should have no additional YQ surcharge since they dropped me from a First Class Award to Coach. When she came back she told me that there would be no additional charges.

Then several days later, I found 1 Z class seat and called AA. I switched my seat from Economy to First and LHR from a connection to a stopover; I was positively surprised that no additional charges were levied in that I believe YQ surcharges are done by class and also there is an additional London tax for having a stopover.

I still do not have the ideal itinerary (4 flights across 4 days and leaving a day early), but I have not paid any additional amount for going from Iberia Business Plus to BA First Class to LHR and from having a stopover in LHR.

FrankReynolds

I called up AA yesterday to reserve an itinerary for my RTW trip in J. I put it on hold and then called back this morning to book it. Everything went fine, I gave the rep my credit card info for the taxes and was told that the itinerary would be ticketed within 24 hours. I went online a few hours ago and saw that the status had changed from "On Hold" to "Ticketed." But, having noticed that my card still hadn't been charged, I checked just now and saw that it seems to have gone from "Ticketed" to "On Request" for some reason. Has anybody else had this happen to them? Is the change something I should be concerned about?

Austinrunner

It's something to be very concerned about. Until you receive a ticket number, you are not "ticketed," regardless of what the website says.

LRD

Perhaps the OP can be updated to reflect the inclusion of IB affiliate Iberia Express?

FrankReynolds

Just called AA, they said it's because my trip is so long it's taking a while to calculate the taxes and fees. The agent assured me that if there was a problem they'd call me... so I guess I can sleep a little easier for now. But is this an unusually complicated itinerary?

BOS-LHR
LHR-CPT
CPT-JNB
JNB-HKG
HKG-MNL
MNL-NRT
NRT-DEL
DEL-BKK
BKK-SYD
SYD-LAX-JFK
JFK-LIM
LIM-SCL
SCL-EZE
EZE-MIA

dstan

Done, thanks.

United747

If I really wanted to, could I fly something like this?

Msp-ord(stopover)-lga(stopover), JFK-LHR(stopover)-bos-LHR-man(stopover)-LHR-iad

And Of course I would make sure to add another oneworld airline.

Thanks,
Delta747