metoo

jinglish

You'll have to pay the fee unless you're an MVP Gold or 75K.

channa

When's the flight? You could wait for a schedule change or find something wrong with a minor change (e.g., I booked on an Airbus and now it's a 737 or v.v.) to try to get them to waive it.

It just adds a layer of complexity to the game.

Happy

It is a change fee yes, you will pay if you are not top elite.

AS does not have any voluntary free change item a la AA.

However you can sit on it if the initial segment is still far away, in hope that some schedule change would show up so that it will get you off the hook for free.

CDKing

If it were AA award, change to origin or destination would have a fee.

Happy

Not 100% true.

Dropping a segment either at the beginning or at the end, IF certain conditions are met, it is free. There are actually a specific document with reference code to describe such changes.

Specifically, dropping the beginning segment or the ending segment, if it is in the same award region, it is free. I forget whether it is the beginning segment or the ending segment, also requires it is in the same country.
For the OP's case if it is an AA award, it is free to drop BOS.because both BOS and LAX are in the same region, and in the same country. Often this free change can be used to optimize one's itinerary when better routing becomes available.

In the AA forum this exception probably is found in the wiki of the AA partner award rules, or similar / related thread. JonNYC once even posted the internal document's reference number, in case the AA agent not aware of the exception.

Pretty sure you can google it and find the related discussion on this, as it comes up every now and then since it started being allowed serveral years ago.

EDIT
2 seconds google search gave me this gem

Dropping last or first leg of an award ticket - any repercussions? (merged threads)

Wiki has the pertinent information.

OP actually had a similar question in the above thread back in January 2016 - and the change s/he wanted to do, was free on AA award.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26033198-post62.html

What is not free on the O/D change would be in the basic examples below

MIA-LAX-HKG, replaced with ORD-HKG - this is not free. But dropping MIA and leave only LAX-HKG is free.

Same as HKG-LAX-MIA - dropping MIA is free but changing to HKG-JFK is not free.

Basically while AA charges a lot more than AS, there are some features, at least for now, makes AA awards still worthwhile in many cases. The most recent usage of such is to break the Married Segments curse. Apparently AA could do so with relatively good success rate while AS basically could not do anything.

Flying for Fun

However, probably the most coveted benefit with AS is the free stopover. AA charges more and doesn't provide the benefit. Of course, it depends on the individual. I flew CX J MEL-HKG September 7th, my next flight is CX F HKG-LAX on November 7th all for 80K. AA can't beat that. There is certainly a benefit to being MVPG+ for changes; however, does the difference in miles between AA & AS outweigh an AS change fee?

What is the lost opportunity cost of the extra AA miles required for the equivalent AS award considering that not all AA award changes are FREE?

James

Happy

As you said, it depends on individual, and often depends on the need of a particular trip.

One more factor to consider too, since now you are going a bit off topic into the Usage and Opportunity Cost - in US AA miles are far easier to accumulate than AS miles. This can make the pain of more AA miles required much easier to handle. On top of that, the AS benefit of stopover only work on the same partner award. While with AA (and thrown in other programs) you can build the stopovers that much better suit your needs / wants.

For example, I cannot do an itinerary such as US-EU, EU-Australia via DOH QR to QR, then SYD-BKK-HKG, (this portion was on an UA award flying TG F, a very sweet spot with daily availability but UA killed it last year), followed by HKG-LAX-US. Multiple awards of course. But worked well for what we set out to do - a late Spring road trip in Eastern Europe, then headed down to Sydney to revisit the Vivid Sydney Winter Festifal, spent a week in Hong Kong to visit family and friends on way back to US. Rather difficult to accomplish this even with multiple AS awards. and probably does not save meaningful miles.

Again, which program to use, very much depends on the intended travel plans . Having good balances in multiple programs always help. Folks in US also have better opportunities to amass funny currencies of which AA is much much easier to get than AS, in order to reach a sizable balance. That, too, is an important factor because the equation has 2 sides. :

eponymous_coward

AS has actually managed to piece together the ability to make reasonably attractive RTW itineraries thanks to AY J adding Europe-India/Asia, plus a good price for CX J on HKG-Australia (30k) and existing CX Europe-Asia. USA-Europe's the weak spot for sure but I'd say 70k to fly BA F via AS AND get a stopover in Europe OR in the USA (aka "free one way", something AA used to offer out of international gateways) is better than 85k and no stopovers on AA. AA premium class awards USA-Europe are pretty fictional anyway unless you watch the inventory like a hawk.

It's way more miles than back when you could do RTW on US in F starting in the USA, two stopovers (Asia/Europe) for 120k miles (90k in J) less than five years ago, but that's pretty much true for ALL programs. AS has had less inflation than many.

Happy

Good charts do not mean seats are available.

It is very hard to find the HKG-Australia availability on each direction, at all the destinations CX serves, despite CX serves 5 or 6 Australia airports with 3 daily flights on at least SYD and MEL, may be BNE too (it at least has 2, ditto ADL).
On the other hand, TG availability using UA miles is abandon. It was the same price as AS before UA killed this sweet spot last year.

AY availability is pretty illusive to me, but may be others have better luck.

How much YQ you have to pay flying BA F with AS miles? That is another factor to consider. The saving in miles is actually paid for with cash in the form of BA YQ. I suspect many do not want to pay the BA YQ to fly BA F which is often dubbed "the best business class" one can redeem.

It goes back to what I said - one needs to have good balances on multiple programs.

Since you mention US RTW before it purchased AA (we did one on its last days when it became OW member but not levied YQ on BA and IB yet), I would suggest that Aeroplan still offers similar value.

Aeroplan R/T (dubbed miniRTW) is still a fairly reasonable deal with 2 stopovers and 1 destination on a R/T, Routing restriction is very minimal, like MPM, and cannot go thru same airport twice on same direction, but you can stopover at same airport as long as only once at each direction. If you start from East Coast, it is 150 to 155K to Asia, and add 5K more you can go to Australia. If it is only to Europe, (not miniRTW then but same 2 stopovers 1 destination applied), it is 110K.

Of course there are YQ to keen an eye on so one needs to know which partners Aerioplan does not charge YQ. Thankfully BR is among them. I would fly BR J any day over CX. not to mention CX F has gone downhill several years now. Even at its best days it is still overrated in many aspects, EXCEPT being one of the most comfortable beds in sky, and that was the primary reason we chose it. (Foods were always subpar even from years back)

That makes AMEX membership reward or the old SPG pts vaulable currency because these are the only programs transfer to Aeroplan AFIK.

Would not go into more obscure ANA R/T and the distance-based awards CX Asiamiles also has a distance-based award, but ANA's would be better due to it is Star Alliance, far more options than OneWorld.

The key is, one needs multiple programs.

eponymous_coward

I don't disagree much- I also use multiple programs. I've flown NH and BR J courtesy of AV Lifemiles in recent years, TG/SQ J using CO and UA miles (pre and post price jacking in Mileage Plus).

FWIW, as another example, JL/CX J intra-asia on AS is 25k/22.5k on TYO-BKK, UA for TG/NH J is now 45k. If it's XXX-TYO-YYY in Asia, you even get a Tokyo stopover on JL one way using AS miles- you used to be able to do this on UA miles with TG/SQ intra-SE Asia for things like HKG-SIN-DPS(dest)-BKK(stop)-HKG. Rather eye-opening how much UA has devalued their program in a few short years. Perhaps AS not going with someone like Chase has saved us from that fate.

BA F and J is at least available to Europe during US/EU summer, even if you are paying YQ. Good luck finding lots of AA J or F unless you hit one of their blue moon open season availability. LH F means M&M or waiting for T-14, which is rather tight for doing vacation planning sometimes, unless you have nerves of steel. LX F and J is not happening in my experience. I haven't seen tons of UA J.

AY availability on Asia/India-Europe and v.v. doesn't seem horrible (I've found some). Their paid fares can be OK though (problem being one ways aren't usually, and doing EU-Asia-EU means planning two trips ahead if you're US based). US-Europe, not so much (and there's some pretty solid backtracking in European business class for Western Europe).

Flying for Fun

The OP has already "amassed" the required Mileage Plan miles and has his AS Award. You are saying that he could have prevented a $125.00 AS change fee by dropping 110K AA Miles on the same award. The extra 40K required for the AA redemption, if you value AA miles at 1.4 cents each, is $560.00. Saying you should "spend" an additional $560.00 worth of AA miles to save a $125.00 AS change fee is absolute nonsence. How is that off topic? I have a few hundred thousand AA miles. I would NEVER use them to book an award I could get with AS.

This is completely irrevalent and totally off topic? How does multiple awards on multiple airlines in multiple alliances have anything to do with the requirement to pay an AS change fee?

Although also totally off topic I would respectfully ask that If you are going to make a claim, be at least prudent for the newbies and add the appropriate "disclaimers." Your statement that AA Miles are easier to amass than AS Miles is only true "if and only if" you don't fly the respective airlines. With AS it is significantly easier to amass meaningful RDM than it is with AA if you actually fly. Full Stop! I have booked 13 premium awards on QF, CX, JL & EK in the last 10 months. After my last two JL F award bookings I was nearly depleted, now back up to 377K. I will be 450k by mid November and pushing 500K by the end of the year. RDM is so easy. No need to churn credit cards, manufacture spend or max out those bonused categories. I am very familiar with the "funny currency" you talk about. I choose not to bother with it. While you may be HAPPY flying only on award tickets, I am happy to earn RDM hopping around the world when I am FLYING FOR FUN.

James

OK, back on Topic!

Happy

@Flying for Fun

You are going way off the tangent here.

This thread is started on change fee AS charges on AWARD tickets. Therefore the discussion even though has gone way outside the original question, should be LIMITED on Award redemption, and how each program has its advantages and disadvantage.

For example, some may not know the dropping segment for free when conditions are met, with AAdvantage program. This kind of info is why we compare different programs on their AWARD structures. If you want to discuss which program's Revemue tickets, and the earning of status etc there are other threads for it.

So please dont drag the thread out of the initial focus even though it tends to be what you always try to do to get a "win" feeling.. There is no absolute right or wrong or which program is better - Again, it is very individual,

Heck, I have a friend swears Delta is the best program for him that he can always find what he wants, incl 3 business class seats award US-Asia or US-Europe while another friend insisted DL is useless - UNTIL now he sees he can redeem very cheap awards to Caribbeans (this guy does not care for business class at all.)
Both have their good points because the first friend lives in Oregan while the second friend lives in Delware. Different locations and different needs determine how they feel about DL's program.

That is why the famous or infamous expression - YMMV, in capital letters.

On a parting note, I am indeed very HAPPY that we dont have to chase status because most of what comes with status, we get it from Class of Service, with 100% flexibility to go anywhere at anytime that please us. The feeling of no need to chase status is wonderfull. May be you can try that in your future.

metoo

PHL to SEA to LAX would be for October 6, 2018 but was only able to secure economy class where as the LAX to HKG to ICN is on CX Biz class.

Since I had to cancel PHL to LAX for $125 , I added a domestic segment for March from YVR to LAX on Biz class.

At least I don't feel bad about the $125 change fee.

I lucked out on the Jetblue award cancellation. I had a Mint seat from SEA to BOS for October 2nd. I cancelled on October 1st and the CSR I spoke to said I paid points for it so I would see my points back in my account and my $5.60 in my travel bank account. Done within 10 minutes so I lucked out on not paying a cancellation fee of $150 (?)

Happy

I thought your original question is to drop BOS-LAX?

So you basically changed the Origin from whatever before (BOS or PHL) to YVR so you get back some value on the $125 fee. That is a smart move.

No idea on how JetBlue operates but IIRC neither JetBlue nor Southwest charge fee on some changes. May be the cancellation fee needs to be manually charged, versus in some programs it is a default set up, the CSR has not made the charge so you luck out. May be you can find out more in the JetBlue forum? After all this is AS forum therefore the JetBlue related info while appreciated but would get better feed back in the B6 forum.