DaveInSFV

Yesterday I called to add a SWU to an August reservation. That agent said "Thank you for calling us, we have a schedule change". In fact an evenign flight had been cancelled and they re-booked me at 8 AM, so I lost my day of business on that segment. It took a while to re-juggle my trip schedule. I discovered that all my last August and September bookings had to be revised completely. An agent told me that ticket holders will not be notified of schedule changes until 30 days prior to departure - by then the good seats are gone when they've combined two or three flights into one. Just a word of caution to those who, like me, book far out in the future.

demkr

Also remember that nasty bug where upgrade requests need to be resubmitted via the EXP desk whenever there's a schedule change after booking!

brp

I just checked a September itinerary and it had minor changes- and an improvement on the way back as a 1:45 layover became :55. Of course the upgrade requests were gone and had to be reinstated, with original dates, of course. We also kept the exit row seats we had.

I mentioned that folks were told we'd not be notified until 30 days out. She confirmed and indicated that they didn't want to do it early as there might be more changes. I can somewhat see the point, but I'd still prefer to be notified in case seats had changed, and the flight time changes were more substantial. Trying not to excessively "bother" people is not the right approach in this case.

Cheers.

demkr

I just don't like how the requests have to be reinstated (and to add insult to injury, over the phone only!) In my one case when this happened, I ended up missing an upgrade on a vacation I booked in December for an April trip. The "Requested" info never left the ticketed reservation, and because I booked so long ago, I had no idea about the schedule change (never got notified).

They need to figure out a way to do this while automatically retaining upg requests.

BingBongBoy

Same happened to me. I have a 5 sector trip in October and November. 4 out of the 5 have been changed. A couple by only 5 or 10 minutes, but one by an hour and the other by 45 minutes. Flight numbers all changed too. I only knew that there had been a change because I logged on to change my seat on a sector.

I ended up having to change two of the sectors as I did not want to get into SFO after 11pm, I should have been charged a $150 change fee, but the lady in the Dublin office waved the fee for me.

I have never flown with AA before, the majority of my travel is with BA and I have always had an e-mail with a flight time change. Is it normal for AA to e-mail? But just at the moment they are not? Or they never do it?

spanishflea

There is absolutely no way there should ever have been any expectation to pay the $150 change fee.

AA changed the schedule on you, not the other way around. If that no longer works for you then they have every responsibility to realter the flights you are booked on.

I hope the agent didn't make out like she was doing you a massive favour!

LMB01

Would the schedule changes be reflected in the reservation? Meaning if I sign on to "manage my reservations" and select one to view, will it reflect any schedule changes?
Thanks

bdemaria

Yes. Furthermore, (IIRC), when you arrive at the actual reservation page, there will be a message written in red at the top of the page that reads something like "There has been a schedule change to one or more of your upcoming flights . . .

LMB01

Thanks so much for your quick response and additional info - this is helpful.

chanp

I had a July trip done to me, but it was very minor.

deac83

Just checked one of mine for Sept, it appears they changed the flight numbers. We were on an 11:45am flight, the flight number changed and they rebooked us on a 1pm flight, not the 'new' 11:45am flight.

Minor detail is this is a flight that gets us to our international flight to London. While I'm generally all for a reasonable connection, we are connecting through LHR to Europe, so we can't afford to miss the LHR flight meaning we want a longer connection time (i.e. 11:45am flight) to minimize a misconnect.

I'd call BS on the 30 days thing. The only thing that does is keeps AA from getting lots of phone calls. 3-4 months out it's not a big deal to get the flights you need, but finding out 30 days out seats on the planes the 'customer' needs could be gone.

fanch26

On the advice of my slightly OCD boss, I pretty much walk through any upcoming reservations every week or so looking for equipment changes, schedule changes and the dreaded unchecked upgrade box. Often pays dividends ....

Gatwick Alan

I had 2 of 4 flights changed in september and did get an email.
I didnt like the changes, which left me with a 3 and a half layover in ORD on the outbound, and only a 40 minute connection in DFW on the way back, which effectively scuppers duty free.

I called and they happily changed the flights, so im now going outbound via DFW and now have a 2 hour layover on the return

The agent was proactive in making the changes and did not ask for a change fee.

JDiver

Yep, that's how it works. Schedule changes, seat changes, aircraft change of gauge issues, it's up to me to check and assure it works out - and to AA to collaborate with me in making adjustments where they have unilaterally made changes with no fees - that's pretty much SOP.

sombrachinesca

But every week or so??? more like every day... lol
especially when there are better seats that might open up