Originally Posted by onetouchpass

I have an admittedly noob question for those more experienced please.

If I make a speculative booking for a route I know I want to fly in the future, will I be able to change date/time without repricing the award post devaluation?

My own example is flying Finnair J (57.5K AA) from HEL to N. America in late May, early June 2022. My understanding is that AY doesn't release J space to partners until 60 days out, hence making a booking for the mentioned dates would mean search starting late March/early April, which would be post devaluation.

I read this article from FM: https://frequentmiler.com/spending-5...nge_them_later

"Can we lock in awards now and change them later?

If you have the AA miles and you know now where you want to fly, and if you can find available awards, then it makes sense to simply book what you need now in order to lock in the current pricing.

I think there’s a reasonably good chance that this will work. View from the Wing explored this question the last time there was a major devaluation (in 2016) and he reported at that time that the following changes would be possible post-devaluation:

- You can change date and time without repricing the award, while keeping airlines and routing constant.
- You can change routing without repricing the award, while keeping the airlines constant, with a few caveats. Basically you cannot break the fare. You cannot add a stopover. You’re going to have to stick with a legal routing for the primary carrier on the itinerary.
- You cannot change award types, which means you can’t go from American only to flying partners. You can’t go from extra mileage award to saver award without a redeposit of miles and re-issue.

Basically, if things stay the same as with the last devaluation, we should be able to change travel dates and make minor routing changes as long as we keep the flown airline the same."

The above argues that it is likely that I can book AY J for some future random date with availability, then change to my desired dates come late March/early April 2022 for the dates that I DO want, WITHOUT it repricing. Worst case if not I can simply cancel for free. Does that make sense?

Appreciate any input