Newbie here but I wanted to thank you all for leading me to a decision that has gotten me back to enjoying planning my vacation instead of having a non-stop worry knot in the pit of my stomach.

Way back in December I booked a trip using AA miles, arriving in Milan end of May and returning home from Vienna the second week of June. I would arrive at Heathrow from US first, then have a short flight between there and Milan on British Airways. Same on the way back - short flight between Vienna and Heathrow on BA, then homeward bound on AA. All was good until a month ago when I got the first of those dreaded emails from American Airlines - "please call immediately; must talk to customer service to be reticketed, can't fix online" etc etc. BA moved my flight so I would arrive in Milan four hours later than planned. Well, there goes a planned afternoon in Milan, but I can deal with it. When we think of the suffering and real stress the war is causing for so many, I'm not going to be a diva and complain about that. Then, a week ago or so they cancelled that flight and I got dreaded email number two. AA had to jump through hoops to get me on the last flight of the day between Heathrow and Milan as it was not showing up available as an award flight. However, it went into "under review" status for several days. That is when I started trying to figure out what the heck was going on - never have had this happen before, BA "under review" status has always changed to "ticketed" in less than 24 hours before. Here I am a month from start date with no confirmed ticket in hand through no fault of my own. Google led me to multiple posts here in Flyer talk, which made me realize my ticket might not get out from "under review" status for a long time, and I had a way better shot at starting my vacation on schedule if I just flew to Zurich straight from the US on AA and did the three hour bullet train to Milan, skipping that whole Heathrow/BA leg. I will arrive in Milan at the time I planned way back in December Great!

Unfortunately, the story does not end there. AA booked the new itinerary for me using my original mile cost, and it all looked great. Then, that ticket went into "under review" status for two days, no end in sight. Seriously? Again though, thanks to what so many of you shared here, I pretty much guess what happened. That last flight on BA from Vienna to Heathrow was the culprit. Sure enough - that flight suddenly was gone from all search engines. Probably cancelled. That is when I decided it was time to just remove BA and Heathrow from my trip itinerary completely. Had I waited to get the dreaded email to call AA and spent yet another two hours of my life on the phone , I probably could have rescheduled without cost, but I knew from what I had read here that they may not announce it was cancelled, triggering the reschedule email, until I was down to the wire with very few options. I decided it was worth it to give up fifteen thousand more airline miles just to release myself from the grip of BA and Heathrow. I completely scrapped original ticket online, and booked a new one both into AND out of Zurich. I will be enjoying Europe's bullet trains to get me between major cities. Technically slower, but not as slow as an unexpected overnight layover. I now can relax and enjoy preparing for my trip the way the last three weeks before a long planned trip should be enjoyed, instead of having that nagging worry that I'll suddenly find my plans blasted to pieces with just two weeks to go. Extra bonus - on my longest train journey a huge first class reserved seat was just $25. If all goes as planned I will be watching the German/Austria countryside and Swiss Alps from my window at ground level, sitting in comfort with a nice glass of something in my hand instead of way up in the sky, cramped in a plane seat.

Side note - though I spent so much time on hold with American Airlines the past month that it took several days for the hold music to finally stop playing in my head, I have nothing but good to say about the customer service reps who helped me at AA. They really did their best, and have been suffering mightily from BA's issues themselves. On one call, when I mentioned "....because of what is going on with British Airways...." the rep asked "what IS going on?" She did not know herself, but seemed relieved to finally have an explanation. I can only imagine what they have been facing in the form of angry customers. If there is a next time I go to Europe (I keep saying this will be my last - I need to do home improvements instead - but then the travel bug bites ) I will give BA a chance again - but not until I get plenty of confirmation that they have their act together.

I hate it that so many of you have had to suffer so much lately while BA sorts itself out, but I'm grateful you shared and helped me get back on track to enjoying this trip. I will try to pay it forward someday!