I have been holding a OneWorld award reservation in J for the past two weeks. When I went to ticket it today, I was told that the GVA-MAD-BCN portion was now just GVA-MAD since IB had cancelled my MAD-BCN segment as the flight was no longer operating. OK, I understand that schedules change, etc. However, what I don't understand is why I was not automaticlly reaccomodated on the next flight. To be a little more specific, I'll be arriving in MAD at 4:50pm, and my original, now cancelled, flight departed at 7:15pm. There is a flight departing at 6:00pm that should work, but I'm told that there's no J award inventory available on it. My question is, why was I not put on that flight, whether award inventory is available or not? IB is the one who cancelled my original reservation, not me! When I asked the AA agent this question, he said that "we(AA) take what IB gives us. We don't have a choice." Is this common practice with all OneWorld carriers in a situation like this? Does that mean that when a flight is cancelled, I'm at the mercy of whatever award inventory might happen to be available at the time?
If so, that sucks! I should add that the agent was able to find a J award seat on a GVA-BCN non-stop, but it leaves GVA earlier than I would like; certainly earlier than my original GVA-MAD-BCN reservation. And I know I can change, w/o penalty, if a later flight becomes available, but that, of course, involves calling many times to see if the availability is there. A bit of a hassle. In that regard, does anyone know if IB tends to release more award seats closer to the departure date? Thanks for any input you may have.