soonerfanatic

We are on a US business award in Feb. 2015 from JNB - FCO - PHL - SEA booked back when US had star alliance awards. US 719 is now cancelled, no longer on the schedule.

We are now stranded in FCO and US is saying they cannot add or change flight portions to one world flights on a star alliance award. There is availability from FCO through LHR on oneworld. Shouldn't US be able to do something special in this scenario, or book a separate one way from FCO-PHL on their dime?

After talking to a supervisor, the only option they are giving us is JNB - FRA in coach, and then FRA - PHL - SEA in business on an earlier date.

Any suggestions or a different contact I should try?

JDiver

American Airlines and US Airways continue to operate as separate carriers (though both are part of the same parent company through the merger), and will continue to do so for some time.

As this question relates to current American Airlines or US Airways practices, policy or operation, it is being moved to the proper pre-merger forum.

/Moderator

JonNYC

This tense is confusing-- we're still talking about your award commencing in Feb 2015, correct?

Fanjet

What they should do is cancel your existing Star award ticket and re-issue you with a OW award ticket. However, that may make you be succeptable to the BA fuel charges. But this was one of the warnings I was giving out. If you planned on making an award reservation using Star Alliance beyond the time US was going to be in Star, you had better hope that nothing changes with the flights you have booked. Otherwise, things just like this example will happen.

Often1

Unfortunately this is not a special circumstance. It is happening and will continue to happen with some frequency. Anytime a *A award was booked on US miles and a *A is cancelled or otherwise changed so as to require a change. A number of us warned about this back at the time of the switch to OW.

Your options are to accept a reroute on *A or a refund without fee. You may want to do some more research and come up with *A options yourself and propose those, rather than relying on a US agent to do the legwork.

While you will likely be told that they cannot help you as they are not the ticketing carrier, it is worth calling UA to see if they will help. UA at least can force award space on its own metal.

soonerfanatic

Yes, upcoming travel in FEB 2015.

We booked all the way back in March of this year because business awards were available at that time, and now they are not.

Regarding the risk, never would of thought it would be due to a US change, in this case a total removal of the flight.

As it stands right now, we will be stranded in FCO since 719 no longer exists, but we still have our PHL - SEA segment.

Since US award desk seems unwilling or unable to do something special in our case, does anyone have an idea on who else we could contact?

JPG3392

On what airline are you flying JNB-FCO?

Fanjet

The FCO-PHL actually goes dormant for 4 weeks from early Feb to early March. If your travel plans are flexible, you can try and book outside of that time period. I take it you are flying South African out of JNB to FCO. Try picking another city they fly to. They even have a flight to IAD. However, your options are going to be limited if you want this to remain a Star award.

soonerfanatic

JNB - FCO is Ethiopian Airlines

Fanjet

Then I suggest trying South African as they seem to be remaining a partner airline with US next year (at least for earning miles, not sure about redeeming miles). If you go to their website, find out all of the destinations they serve from JNB which are also served with US. Then give those options to a US award reservation agent.

soonerfanatic

Thanks everyone.
Yes, been looking at both the SA website and UA to search inventory. For instance, we could do JNB - GRU Sao Paulo in business on SA, but there is no way back from there. They can't book any star alliance nor oneworld from Sao Paulo.

They can get us on an SA to US connection city (like Frankfurt) but the problem is there is no more business award from JNB to any of these cities.

Why cant they book a separate oneworld ticket on their dime.

Fanjet

AA has plenty of flights from GRU to the US. You are probably going to have to have your original ticket cancelled; and issued a new one. I believe since SA is remaining a partner airline outside of Star Alliance, US can ticket you using SA, US, and AA. However, I don't see how they could incorporate a UA flight into the equation since this ticket was never issued with a UA flight in the itinerary. And they are no longer a partner with US.

Also, since you are on Ethipian from JNB-FCO, see if there is availability on them from JNB to IAD as well. I take it that the flight from JNB to FCO connected in Addis Abbiba and was not nonstop?
Because they would have to issue a ticket with no form of payment. And airlines aren't in the habit of doing things like that. Ticket re-issues, yes. Endorsing a ticket over to another carrier, yes. But both of those are working off an existing ticket.

1353513636

I would try asking them to keep JNB-FCO the way it is, book A3 from FCO-FRA or somewhere via ATH (these flights are so short you probably won't care whether they are in C or Y), force US space from FRA-PHL, and keep PHL-SEA. They might tell you too many segments but I would argue that they should allow that as they cancelled the flight. That way, your whole itinerary stays Star Alliance.

Air Rarotonga

The answer is very simple: A combination between post *A flights and OW flights is not possible accoring the USDM rules...

Awards with the remaining USDM partner airlines (such as SA), a combination is only possible with US but NOT with AA....

soonerfanatic

OK Thanks!

So, conceivably, we should be able to reissue and leave our outbound as it is on US and SA and then have the return on SA from JNB-GRU and then GRU-SEA on oneworld?