Originally Posted by
lililolo
My spouse and I are flying back on award tickets from Bangkok to San Francisco in October, on the same PNR.
The original flight is BKK to HND on JL #34, with a connecting time 10 hour 15 minutes, connect to JL #2 from HND to SFO.
The changed flight is as follows: the first leg remains the same JL #34 BKK to HND, but the second leg is changed to JL #58 NRT to SFO. We remain in business class both legs with a connecting time increases to 12 hours 05 minutes.
I tried to see what my alternatives are by searching the award availabilities but to no avail. I thought the worst maybe I have to resort to fly coach. But if we have to fly coach, I would want the shortest possible flight time, but all the coach award tickets I saw are like I am going to a round the world trip, the shortest one takes more than 35 hours and 3 stops.
After spending a few hours trying to piece together something acceptable without success, I gave up but I have not called AA yet. AA did not give me any reason why the flight changed in the email, just ask me to call. I do not know what I can expect when I call. We are willing to fly back a day earlier, open to any route if we can keep our business seats. If only I can change the first leg arriving at NRT, instead of HND, then we would be super happy. Or Japan opens up by then but it's probably wistful thinking. Japan airlines still shows we are ticketed, but it just no way for us to travel from Haneda to Narita. Or I should wait, will flight/seat opens up closer to departure time?
Any input/advice? Thanks.
The good news is you are on one PNR all on JAL and JAL broke it so they should be able to work with AA to fix it if it is possible to fix and it looks like it is. You will probably not have much luck searching for award availability on your own at this point but JAL should be able to open space on their own metal to accommodate you if you request it through the proper channel. The proper channel is AA but they cannot do it on their own, they need to put in a request to their JAL liaison to do it and it helps if you can tell them what you need to fix it. In your case it looks like there is a JL flight JL708 BKK-NRT that arrives in time to connect to your JL58 to SFO. What you need to do is call AA (if they gave you a special number to call use that, otherwise call the main Advantage number), tell them that JAL broke your trip and to please put in a request to their JAL liaison to request they open up award space and put you on JL708 (instead of JL34), still connecting to your JL58. The request will probably take a couple of days to process but JAL should accommodate you if you request in this way since they broke your trip.