nickvora

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.60 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11355/670; U; en) Presto/2.2.0)

No. They will let you change ur flights or possibly refund your miles and waive redeposit fees.

brp

Welcome to FT.

They will definitely waive the fees for redeposit, if you choose to do that.

Better yet, research flights that better fit your schedule. Going in with actual data helps quite a bit. Even if there is no award availability, it is not uncommon for them to grant the change- particularly in a case like this where the change has forced an overnight. Be nice about if, of course, and not demanding in tone- they don't actually have to do it. Also, it may take more than one call, but it should be very possible.

Cheers.

jrw8127

Does anyone know if there is a standard for when a schedule change on an award ticket will permit a redeposit of miles without a fee? A change that creates an overnight layover would have to satisfy that standard, but is there a brightline of a schedule change meaning you'll now arive X hours later in order to qualify or is it just at the discretion of whoever you get when you call? Thanks.

gemac

Don't know about award tickets, but they definitely seem think that for revenue tickets, a 2 hour change is significant enough to permit you to change without a change fee.

idayvuelta

This has happened to me, and in general it's great news. I've simply found whatever the next best routing is and asked (politely) to be reaccomodated. This has usually resulted in a better schedule than I originally had. If you're going to ask for something other than the next earliest or next latest flight, it's useful to have some excuses, er, reasons why that might not work (schedule doesn't work, trying to fly with a friend etc), but in my experience they've never hassled me. Asking to be reaccomodated on a direct flight (assuming there is one) should be easy as well.

Blumie

I have not seen any evidence that AA treats award tickets any differently than they do revenue tickets when it comes to schedule changes. Certainly you get the occasional agent who thinks s/he needs to find award inventory to change your flight, but I've always had success either reminding the agent of my "involuntary reroute" status or politely hanging up and calling back to get what I've wanted. And I've never had to make any excuse for making the change, other than that the flights they've chose to reaccommodate me on don't work for my schedule.

jrw8127

So it sounds like there is no specific guideline and that changing flights/redepositing miles without a fee can be done as long as some reasonable basis exists for saying the change doesn't work for your schedule. Thanks for all the responses.

Deltahater

There are very specific guidelines that apply equally to award and pay tickets.

http://www.aa.com/content/agency/Boo...e_240_80.jhtml

ANY change made by AA that qualifies for a schedule change is a basis for a refund/redeposit or adjustment to flights that you actually would like to take.

The magic words at times are "involuntary reroute".

Do a search on here and call AA with the flights that you want. This way it is much easier for the agent to say yes to you.

Good Luck

jrw8127

Thanks! I read the rule and see that it states a change in flight times of 90 minutes or greater permits a refund in the form of payment, but a change of less than 90 minutes permits only a refund to voucher. If it is an award ticket, does that mean a change of less than 90 minutes permits re-depositing the miles without a fee?

Deltahater

Yes, if that is your objective, just call AA and ask them nicely to just redeposit them for you. If the first agent won't call back

mvoight

It might be better to clarify when a refund to the "form of payment" is permitted, for non-award travel.
It isn't clear whether this would be applied to award tickets.

It is not for all schedule changes.

From the web page at the link you posted.

2. If available reaccommodations are not acceptable to customer.

A. If schedule change is from a nonstop to a connection, a refund to form of payment (FOP) is allowed.
B. If schedule change is from a through flight to a connecting flight, a refund to the FOP is not allowed unless "C" applies.
C. If schedule change results in change of flight times of 90 minutes or greater, refund to FOP is allowed.
D. If schedule change is less than 90 minutes, refund to voucher only is allowed.

Deltahater

Yes, but you missed the most important part...

"Change fee does not apply"

Assuming the OP's situation meets the schedule change criteria as outlined by AA and he does not want to fly anymore, he can get the miles redeposited without a fee.

Happy

Redeposit fee is waived when you dont accept the involuntary schedule changes.

However phone booking fees are not waived. Or at least I have never had success in this. Though I also never truly pursuit such, but simply accepted that phone booking fee is not refundable, despite there is no way to book a partner / OW award online.

AA is a lot more accommodating if schedule change is AA flight(s) only. AA would not do a thing for you if schedule change is partner airline's, like would not try to get award seats on different flights if it shows no availability. That is my experiences. Others may have better luck.

dldkjones

QF has had a schedule change on my return flights that has now caused a 7 hour layover. There are 4 pax traveling in QF int'l business and AA domestic first. AA has no normal award availability at this time to change this. Will AA put us on earlier flights that do not have normal availability to avoid such a long layover?

beerup

Normally AA are fairly helpful at accomodating you when there are inconvenient schedules changes. However, without the details of your booking, it is difficult to know. Usually a quick phone call will get you resolution.