eethan

My parents already flew the CX segments in the award but their AS segments to Hawaii got canceled.

AS agent suggested canceling the reservation to get all the miles back. Really?

I asked about changing the Hawaii flights to a later date and the agent suggested my parents could apply 40k miles (cost of F saver award to Hawaii) to any flight available with miles.

Confused. What to do?

flyingstudent

This is a sweet deal to get 40k back given you've flown the CX segment.

eethan

Not 40k miles back. What the AS agent told me sounded too freewheeling to be true. That is why I want to verify whether anyone has experienced similar cases.

clarrkkent

Not real sure what you're asking here. Take the refund or take the discount. It's not as though flights are going to magically materialize.

Assuming they are not stranded somewhere, either option seems generous.

And for what it's worth, whether it "sounds to good to be true" or not, if the agent is offering those terms, then it can be real. Even if a mistake on their part, they still offered and will still follow through at THAT MOMENT unless the system prevents them from doing so.

zhaoyingzhe

I had a DP with HU (Hainan Airlines) segments back in Nov/Dec last year. My ticket was YYZ-PEK (stopover) - Changsha, all on Hainan Airlines. Flew YYZ-PEK, then I was really sick had to be hospitalized for two weeks, decided not to fly the rest of the ticket PEK-CSX.

Called AS to figure out if I could cancel, agent told me I could get some of the miles back and tax refunded. Went ahead and canceled - only ~$7 came back to my credit card no miles back. Went on the AS messaging portal afterwards and another agent told me the first agent gave me false information. No miles refund cause I already flew the main segment

PDXPremier

I think the "standard" procedure (pre-Corona virus days) is that if you cancel a partially used award on the AS website, you won't get any of your miles back. Given the circumstances, if you have an agent cancel over the phone, you may get your miles back. I cancelled the second half of 27.5K award (mix of AS/AA) and got all 27.5K miles back (same day I cancelled if I remember correctly).

spgardner

I am in a similar boat. I booked a one-way award from IAD-SFO-HNL with a stopover in SFO for 17.5k miles. I flew IAD-SFO in March and my SFO-HNL is scheduled in May.

I called and they basically told me my only option was to cancel the remaining SFO-HNL flight and have 5k miles refunded. What I want is to reschedule the outstanding SFO-HNL leg to sometime in the fall, but they said no. She said that to change the date, I would need to pay the difference in miles between a one-way SFO-HNL award (say, another 17.5k) on the date I choose and the remaining 5000 mile credit on my ticket.

Does anyone know if there is an official policy, or have any other data points? I feel like what I am asking for isn't crazy. My plan is to call back a couple more times over the next couple weeks to see if I have better luck before I just accept the 5k miles, but I'd prefer not to waste the time if it's pointless trying.

Flying for Fun

When did you book your award? The ticket has one year of validity. Does your fall date fall outside the ticket validity?

5K miles is the difference between the flown 12.5K IAD-SFO segment and the 17.5K miles for IAD-SFO-HNL.

I have had success in changing the date & later, the destination on two partially used partner awards. This has been discussed in another thread as well.

MVPG award stopover changes

James

spgardner

Thanks, James. I'll keep trying. The ticket was just bought in Feb, so I'm fine on the 12 months. The rep has told me that normally no changes are allowed to an award ticket once travel has begun, but that due to COVID-19 they would offer a refund of the 5k miles but not a date change. Fingers crossed I find a rep with a better answer.

eponymous_coward

This is why we can't have nice things; "We're offering an exception", "Sorry, no, not good enough that you're cutting me a break from normal policy, let me play the HUCA game."

s0ssos

It's not their standard policy to have their remaining tickets be worth anything. However, in this case they cancelled your flight, not you, so maybe there is an exception?
The problem is if the agent books you a new ticket that ticket is probably non-changeable. And right now it is hard to guess a good time to fly.

spgardner

Just to be clear, they weren't offering a special exception just for me, but saying that their new COVID-policy is to make this exception to their regular policy for all affected. I originally came on here to verify that what the agent told me was the actual policy, because they have not disclosed a written policy anywhere and I wanted to make sure I was not agreeing to something less valuable to me than what their current policies entitle me to.

Look, I'll take the 5k miles and not be upset about it if it's all I can get. But I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a date change, especially as they will likely end up cancelling the flight. (They've currently stopped selling tickets, but it appears to still be on schedule.) Frankly, I never would have used 12.5k miles for the IAD-SFO portion by itself as it would have made more sense to buy the cash ticket.

PVDtoDEL

Just wait until they cancel the flight and then they'll probably be willing to do the rebooking you want with no issues.