fredwooch

I am still a bit confused about how the "waitlist" works. I have an outbound flight scheduled in business class, with a dummy return for two days later, waiting for the award schedule to open up for the true desired return flight. If no business seat is available for the return, will they still let me change my original return flight and put it on the "waitlist" for the date I want? And if no business seat opens up for the desired return flight, will they automatically cancel my whole reservation when the waitlist expires if I have not flown the outbound segment yet? Do they give you sufficient notice that they are about to do that, so that I can at least try to change the return flight to another date that has a business seat and save my outbound flight, even if I don't plan to use it and am essentially willing to waste the return segment? Finally, and I apologize if this has been asked and I couldn't find it by going back through the thread, but how long is the "waitlist" maintained before it expires? Thanks for your help.

Wasabi Tofu

I posted this topic in detail, however, I couldn't find my post. So, I'm rewriting.

At first, you have to distinguish before ticketing and after ticketing.
Before ticketing:
You can have a wait list. the wait list has to be cleared 14 days before flight, i.e. ticketing deadline
If the wait list isn't cleared, while reservation is cancelled.
No ticket has been issued, so you don't lose any mile.

After ticketing:
After all segments are confirmed, you have to issue the ticket immediately.
Basically, you couldn't request a wait list. Because the rule says if you have a confirmed flight, you can't wait list for that segment.
Now, thing becomes tricky situation that isn't described explicitly in web.
You can request a wait list IF you cancel the flight that you want to change.
The ticket has been issued. So, you have to use it within one year from the issuing date.
You may fly the first segment. If wait listed second segment isn't cleared, you may not use that flight segment. In that case, you will lose that part of mile. A ticket validity is one year from the first flight after you flew the first flight. Theoretically, you couldn't find any availability during that period.

I hope this explanation answered your question.
In your case, you can't wait list for new return date, because you have a confirmed dummy booked return flight.

fredwooch

Thank you, but I am still a bit uncertain:

1. Will ANA let me change my return flight by canceling ONLY my return leg and letting me book a different, waitlisted flight for the return leg, or would that require canceling my entire existing reservation, including the outbound flight? In other words, in order to be put on the waitlist for a different return flight when I already have a confirmed return flight for a different date, will ANA cancel my existing outbound ticket or will I still be able to fly the outbound leg if it is more than 14 days before the return leg and therefore the waitlist for the return leg has not yet cleared?

2. If I cannot find availability for any return flight on the dates I want to travel, is the worst thing that can happen is that I simply paid the RT award price and ended up with only a one-way outbound flight?

Wasabi Tofu

You can change any flight in your confirmed and ticketed itinerary.
You can cancel one of your confirmed flights in the ticketed itinerary, and request wait list for another date of the canceled segment.
Furthermore, as the ticket is already issued, you can change a flight before the original departure time and 24 hours before the new flight.

Theoretically, yes.
But, you can change that inbound flight to any date within the ticket validity (i.e. 1 year from the first flight).
Even more, if your ticket is a business class award, you may downgrade that inbound to an economy without refund of miles for finding award space(so bad, but better than nothing).

Dean19

Very useful information in the posts above, thanks for the explanations.

I'm in the same predicament - we were able to snag 2 outbound F seats (JFK-HND) in mid March, 2022, with a dummy waitlisted return. I've been monitoring everyday the return availability in either F or J but it seems like ANA is only making available 1 award seat or none at all. We are looking to return at the end of April 2022, but by the looks of it now, trying to get 2 F or J returns doesn't seem likely, unless ANA opens up more award seats towards the end of April 2022..

I would think that since ANA lists April 2022 as Low Season there would be more award availability, but obviously not.

Premium Economy award seats seem to be more available, so may just have to settle for those on return.

blitzen

end of April is still more than 365 days out

Dean19

Yes, I am aware that ANA seats open 355 days out. I plan to finalize my booking next month when my preferred return dates open.

I am monitoring everyday just to see what kind of award availability is trending.

fredwooch

As I understand it, if your existing reservation has a waitlisted return, then your outbound flight isn't confirmed and will be cancelled if you aren't able to find a confirmed return seat by the time the waitlist is cleared. Is that correct? I guess you just need to make sure you change the waitlisted dummy return flight for some actual reserved seats before the waitlist clears.

Did ANA subtract the full RT miles from your account when you made the initial reservation, even though the return flight was waitlisted?

Dean19

ANA hasn't subtracted any miles yet. I guess they don't subtract the miles until all legs are confirmed? I don't plan on waiting for the waitlisted seats to become available as that is not probable. I am hoping to find 2 J or F seats on my return once the dates open up, again not very probable the way it's been looking.

If I can't find any reward seats in J or F for my return, I am trying to figure out what my options could be.

fredwooch

I feel like it's the blind leading the blind here, but if ANA hasn't subtracted any miles yet, I don't understand what the status of your outbound seats is at this point. Did ANA at least require you to have the necessary miles in your account in order to make the reservation? I had thought that I needed to have the miles in my account and have them taken out by ANA in order to have any confirmed seats on my outbound flight. But if that's not necessary, it seems that in your case ANA is holding the outbound seats for you (and making them unavailable to anyone else,even for purchase) until the waitlist clears for your return flights, which doesn't leave them too much time to sell them. It's a very odd and inscrutable system. I wonder why they haven't just gone to one-way awards like almost everyone else, even if they have to jack the mileage a bit.

At least in your case, if you can't find any suitable seats for your return and you decide to cancel everything, you won't be out any miles. I think I will have to pay 3,000 miles to cancel my award if I can't find any suitable seats for my return since I went ahead and booked confirmed seats on my dummy return.

Dean19

I did need the necessary miles in my account when I made the booking, but ANA hasn't subtracted them yet. I believe they will be subtracted when all segments are confirmed and I get ticketed. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct if I'm wrong but I assume my outbound seats are safe and ANA won't give them up while I wait to get all segments confirmed. Also, I'm not really sure that if I cancel my itinerary now I may be charged 3000 miles as well.

Wasabi Tofu

Yes.
Until all segments of an award reservation are confirmed, the ticket can't be issued, and no miles are deducted. (an open segment isn't permitted).
And, if award ticket hasn't been issued, cancellation doesn't cost 3000 miles.

icejan

I have an ANA only itinerary with all segments confirmed except the last one, which is waitlisted. Would it be possible to call in and move the routing to a partner instead (with space available)? What about if I change the destination city(with space available)? I know you can't change the routing once it's ticketed, but I'm not sure if its possible in the waitlisted state. Thank you

THECLIPPERS

If I book a waitlisted F ticket for July, when will it possibly clear?

CPH-Flyer

Any random time between now and departure, or not at all. ANA is not necessarily releasing all F seats for redemption.