tocy

As a Japanese citizen who lives in the States, I would like to express sincerest thanks to people who are helping the earthquake victims.
Thank you very much. It is truly heartbreaking.
I also would like to thank American Airlines for supporting American Red Cross which is helping the victims a lot.
Thank you all again. ARIGATO!

JDiver

Welcome to FlyerTalk, tocy, and thank you for your comments. Your link is a good way to make donations to the American Red Cross and earn some miles to boot.

Personally, I've made my contribution to Medicins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders, as they have had teams on the ground working with local health professionals - though they do not accept country-limited donations.

The Japanese Red Cross Society has been a leading agency on local aid and assistance, and one can read more here; they have fielded over 400 people in 72 Disaster Relief teams, as indicated here. Donations to the JRCS can be made (in Yen) here, via Google's Crisis Response. US and British Red Cross are also accepting donations.

If we can't be there doing something useful, we can certainly contribute our help and enable those who are on the ground helping. (I've spent ~two years in Japan, mostly Kanto and Aomori, and met my wife there in 1965, so this disaster is definitely reaching us.)

AUSMatt

How flexible is AA on the rebooking in same inventory class? Can I choose to rebook via a different route and perhaps different arrival airport (e.g., HND instead of NRT) as long as it's in the same inventory class (e.g., N to N)?

Am I restricted to similar time periods (e.g., rebook from 7 days to 7 days)?

cesco.g

I have somebody booked on an award ticket in a couple of week to Narita. Given all the sad news, we are thinking about canelling and postpone the trip indefinitely. Will AA wave the award cxl fee in this case?

Ross0

Obviously YMMV, but since the official policy does not waive the cancellation charges, it is unlikely that AA will waive these charges. I just called the EXP desk to discuss my options as I'm supposed to fly through NRT on way to/from BKK next week. I would prefer to avoid NRT. Agent said my only options are to re-route through another AA served destination (e.g., DEL, PVG, PEK) or to look at CX or another carrier. CX wouldn't be an option as I'm in confirmed C and would like to use SWUs which aren't available on CX.

I asked if I could cancel the trip altogether and agent said it would be $250 cancellation charge per ticket.

logicalrealist

Does anyone have experience, from past travel notices, with AA allowing multiple changes as the situation goes on? I have a trip that I'm considering pushing back two weeks just to give things a little more time to stabilize. If, however, things are still bad at that point, I may wish to further postpone.

I realize that this would be an exception to the "one change" rule, and that exceptions are hard to predict - but I'm trying to figure out how far back I might push things with the first change, and if I want to make it now or give it a few days to see how things look.

Thank you.

barelyelite

I just rebooked my flights from 25 Mar to 8 Apr under AA's travel waiver without charge. This will put me outside of the U.S. State Department's travel alert (which currently expires 1 Apr) and will (slightly) assuage my parents' concerns.

I pray that they are able to prevent the situation from getting any worse.

TheBeerHunter

Any word on the status of the lounges at NRT? The AA club and JAL 1st lounge, specifically. I feel sort of callous asking in the midst of everything else, but... I know that others have been shuttered due to damage, but haven't read anything about these two.

HNL

On Sunday 13 March, All oneworld airline lounges were open.
AA - Main Building
JL - Main Building Sakura and First Lounges
JL - Satellite Building Sakura and First Lounges
QF - Satellite Building
CX - Main Building

TheBeerHunter

Thanks very much HNL ^

Joe Butch

got upgraded to business class on flight 134 today because economy was overbooked.

techgirl

As a follow up, a quick phone call to AA's Executive Offices this afternoon made everything right for me. A very GOOD EXP AAngel who documented the resistance we received from tariff on my changes was no doubt very helpful in this case.

I am more than satisfied with AA's remedy (in the form of an immediate e-voucher) to my original rebooking dilemma.

monnyc

JDiver, thank you for your comments and additional information about Medicins Sans Frontieres. I have contributed to Red Cross via AA, but each day I feel I should be doing more, so thanks for that. I also found great information re donations and a reminder of how great Japan has been for travelers on "Wing and a Prayer":
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/waapbl...elief-efforts/

It is really touching to see how many people are willing to help out, I am particularly affected as we have not had news on relatives from Fukushima, but we keep our hopes up.

Thank you!

El_Chiflero

My flight is now in the waiver period...Don't know whether to go through with the flight or not...

JDiver

This week, I might try for some change; next week, it might be OK - and I suspect April will be much better. Mainly the power, logistics and perhaps HND issues.