orvando

Newbie to Flyertalk here seeking advice. i have an AAdvantage award booking on AB (JFK-DUS-VIE, but i'll focus here on JFK-DUS flight 7481) in August on a late thursday evening. a friend of mine, not interested in the points game, was looking to purchase a ticket to fly with me as far as DUS.

the AB website displays a dash instead of providing a price for flight 7481 for all Thursdays for all weeks in july, aug and sept and cannot be booked in either class. 7481 prices properly on all other days of the week. the earlier of the 2 daily JFK-DUS flights, 7451, prices properly and is bookable on all days including thursday.

thursday's 7481 no longer appears at all (award or cash booking) on American's website for the same time period. also interesting is that 7481 was un-listed from the air berlin page that lists the flights on which the new business class is offered. it was previously on there. but 7451 remains listed. http://www.airberlin.com/en/site/lan...edule_alpd.php

calls to AB and AA got responses of 'the flights are sold out', which is unlikely given the rigid pattern of availability on all 7481 flights but Thurs.

what is going on here? is this a foreshadow of a schedule change? any insights, anyone? thanks so much!

seawolf

Chances are that the flight might not be operated as DUS-JFK also zeroed out.

orvando

thanks so much for the response seawolf. my main concern is this - if the situation stays the same for say, a month, do i have the right to call American and demand to be put on another flight (another flight that they or BA operate, as I can't make the AB flight earlier in the day b/c of work)?

i'm trying to formulate an argument, because i know that American's first response will be "your flight has not been cancelled. our system says its simply sold out". but i don't want to leave this until departure day. i've read too many posts about AB not communicating sched changes until one shows up at the airport. am i paranoid or smart to try to preempt this?

seawolf

If you are on an award issued by AA, you can make changes without fees as long as origin and destination airport remain the same (JFK/VIE). Connection airport can change without fee. Date changes are also free unless you move the departure date to less than 21 days from the date you request the change.

orvando

thanks again seawolf. very, very helpful to know that.

yes, booked thru AA. i'm guessing that unless they see an AB schedule change, i'll be restricted to flights w/ public award availability, as opposed to any flight with an open seat, correct?

also, does AA ever waive the fuel surcharge when you switch to a BA flight due to sched changes? (i'm assuming there is no way they would waive them when you're requesting a 'voluntary' change of flight).

seawolf

Even if there is a AB schedule change, AA will not put you on any flight with open seat other than AA operated flights which would be ORD-DUS.

AA will not waive fuel surcharge due to schedule change Only way I know of where fuel surcharge is waived if on day of departure, you get rerouted by the operating carrier.

orvando

update: somebody on twitter had @airberlinassist tweet-back to them that 7481 on thursdays will indeed be cancelled.

now that i can (hopefully) get either/both AA and AB to acknowledge this, who do i call first to try to sort this out? i'm looking to be placed on AA or BA metal because AB has no flights late enough to Europe that night that I could actually make (4 hour difference). AA showing no award space that night (8/6/15) in Biz class (in which i was booked on their miles on AB), and BA of course carries its fuel surcharges. i am not optimistic about this.

orvando

update #2 - coincidentally, later today, my reservation is finally changed to the 4 hours earlier flight (from 930pm to 515pm) in OW's reservation systems.

call to AB yielded "we're still getting you to vienna, that's all we need to do. call American if you're not happy".

call to AA yielded a phone agent who, while maintaining a very kind demeanor, was steadfast in her answer that she could not find a later-than-515pm flight. at outset i asked her if she was willing to 'create award space' for me, and she replied that, yes, she won't restrict my options to publicly available awards, and will look in all classes, BUT she still could find nothing! shocking because AA+BA+IB have from NYC many later-than-515 flights to LHR,CDG,BCN, etc. from through which i could connect to VIE. but she claimed that there was not a seat to be had on any of these flights on the evening of Aug. 6.

hmmmm...just hard to believe the AA agent, especially because she stated that there are some options available prior to 515, such as BA thru LHR and FIN thru HEL, on which i could be placed (with changes in taxes/fees being my liability, though).

arg. so it looks like i need to check back on this every now and then, but that i shouldn't bank on it working out in my favor, because AA and its OW partners have sold out everything they've got that night??? really?