Originally Posted by
davistev
I booked a few tickets SEA-ORD-SMF purely for the miles to be accrued with Alaska Airlines MP. American Airlines took it upon themselves to reroute me in such a way that I will no longer get the miles planned. My reservations are now SEA-PHX-SMF. A significant reduction in miles earned. Basically, AA rerouted me to a more direct route. Normally, I would be happy but not when the whole purpose of the flights were for mileage running. My new arrival times are within 4 hours and no extra stops were added.
Is this common practice with AA to do this? and what options do I have in such a situation?
Thanks in advance
I assume that AA changed the flights because of a schedule change to one or more legs, I don’t think they typically reschedule flights without a specific need to do so. To answer your question, it is not surprising that AA would choose a route that is cheaper or more optimal for them (if it’s also more optimal for the customer that’s probably coincidence).
I had a situation like this recently. I had a mileage run that included a JFK-BOS leg. AA stopped flying that route (gave the business to B6) and my new schedule simply skipped that leg, which would have been unacceptable if I actually wanted to stop in BOS, On the other hand, my ORD-DFW-XXX legs also changed flight numbers and times but AA kept the connection intact rather than rescheduling it to ORD-XXX.
If there is stIll a legitimate SEA-ORD-SMF route still on the schedule, with seat availability, you can try calling AA to see if they are willing to change to that route. Even though your routing is a tad out of the way my guess is that they will try to accommodate you, but YMMV.