Extending Return Date on AP Award Ticket?
 

I'm currently on vacation (family of 4) in BC; flights (YYZ-YVR) were booked using AP points. I'd like to extend the trip by a couple of days. Is this possible? What are the fees? I'm also Elite, if that matters in any way.

Many thanks in advance.

I believe change fee is C$55 plus GST. I suppose they might want more points too, if Classic award is not available, but I'm not certain (that might be only before first segment).

=aw

May be mistaken, but I seem to have read somewhere that flights cannot be changed once travel has begun. Do check it out before pinning your hopes on change.

I know that is the case for STAR awards but I do believe AC ones are a bit more flexible in this regard. Of course, finding four AE award seats between BC and YYZ at this time of year will be next to impossible at the Classic rate and Classic Plus might be as costly in miles as the initial return.

I had no problem changing the return date of my award travel, which was an aeroplan award but involved flights on AC, UA, and ANZ. I paid a change fee but it wasnt much. In fact since I was unsure of my exact return when I phoned to extend, the Aeroplan agent changed my ticket to open return date and then I just phoned to book the date when I knew it, that saved me paying twice to change the date.

You can change both a AC and a Star Reward, before and after departure, however conditions apply to Star rewards* and they'll ding you a CAD55 date change fee on each reward type.
*Star Rewards - once the journey has commenced, the only changes they will allow you to make will be those to date/time only and then only if you hold an E-Ticket. No changes of any kind permitted on paper tickets for Star once journey commenced.
No changes to routing on a Star Reward once journey started, regardless of ticket type. You can change routing on an AC reward even after journey has started.

Changes are permitted on Star Alliance awards after travel begun
 

Sh - this is no longer the case.

I'm in the middle of a rather extensive *A award and yesterday made a change one of the remaining segments. Had the pay the $55 change fee.

Thanks for clarifying the issue vis a vis STAR awards. The key issue remains whether there are any award seats available for such mid-trip changes.

From what I have heard from others who needed to change their dates on an AE award ticket, it is much easier to change the return date than it is for the outbound or any of the other sectors in between (if exist).

Maybe they made a mistake. They were very clear with me about this when I booked a few days ago (*A tix). Also ms. who is a SE couldn't change from AC SYD-HNL-YVR-YYZ to SYD-LAX-YYZ on UA (UA opens up flights closer to date) a few months ago because they said no routing changes allowed. Lucky you!

To clarify ...
 

1. I was able to change FLIGHTS not routing AFTER travel had begun

2. I was able to change ROUTING BEFORE travel had begun

3. I did not try and change ROUTING AFTER travel had begun so can't comment on if this is permitted.

Was in Italy with my family in May. They were returning home on Swiss Air from Geneva. While we were there, I tried to change their flights. I was told that no changes could be made to routing once travel had commenced. The rules quoted to me were:
On AC - if available, routing, dates, time, etc. can be changed for a change fee at any time - before or after departure.
On *A - if available, routing, dates, time, etc. can be changed for a fee BEFORE departure. Date and time can be changed after departure, but NOT routing.

I have made changes to *A aeroplan bookings in the past and in fact did that with these flights BEFORE departure. However, I only changed the departure dates, not the ROUTING, so I cannot attest to a routing change actually being allowed before departure. For sure, it is NOT allowed after the trip has commenced.