anchor79

cuz the agent said i can't since its exceeding the 6 hours connection time they changed from ticketed to pending.

ilovetofly

You can't. Read rule regarding stopover and connection in the first post. Once ticketed, you can't change the routing including changing a connection to stopover or vice versa.

Also, there is no such thing as change fee. However, you can cancel the ticket and redeposite the miles. Doing so will not guarantee that the award inventory will be still available.

anchor79

so for international flying. Anything that stops over 6 hours are consider as a stopover?

Austinrunner

The 6 hour rule being discussed here is unique to Explorer awards and does not apply to "oneworld and other airline" awards.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

I've been told by AA that I could not change a connection to a stopover on an already-ticketed Explorer award, but that I could change a stopover to a connection.
YMMV.

Happy

I was going to say, there were posts buried in this giant thread that change from a stopover to connection was allowed but not the other way round.

Hence, it is better to book any connecting points as a stopover if you could (i.e. you only have one stopover at that point) to preserve this unpublished change ability.

tys90

Perhaps that is the case, as I have not tried it before. I'm going off information in the first post, which has this line (emphasis mine):

"But at least one member of flyertalk has been allowed to convert a stopover at a particular airport to a connection at the same airport, or vice versa, after ticketing."

There is some talk starting at post #973 that leans towards not being able to convert a connection to a stopover but is inconclusive.

It's probably worth a few calls. Some flyertalk wisdom I've read is that you should hear the same answer 3 times from 3 different agents before regarding it as true

anchor79

Indeed. It was brand new to me in regards to their rules of 6 hours connection time limit and also unable to change OW carriers and can't even change with fee.

I previously changed one of my flight over the phone to over 6 hours connection and earlier today I received an email to contact AA where they found out that it is illegal to stay over 6 hours as its connection only, not a stopover for my LAX-HKG//HKG-KUL segment.

However, currently my flight arrives KUL is 4:45pm local time, then my next flight is 11:05pm which is barely over 6 hours. Can I safely assume that it is considered as a "stopover" at KUL and in the future if I do want to stay longer, I can call and change time assuming it is available?

Austinrunner

If there is no flight within that 6 hour window (regardless of availability), then technically you have a connection now. Whether AA would notice that rather complex factual situation is not predictable.

Happy

If it is over 6 hours, that is a stopover per the rule. AA once refused to count a 7 hours connection a connection but insisted it was a stopover (hence the mile calculation would change - that was under the pre 2009 rules which calculated the distance flown on a beeline, ignoring all connections.). I dont see any difference here in terms of classification.

Those brand new to you is because you have not learned the RULES of this award.

Explorer award is a completely different animal from your regular award.
Some are very restrictive such as the 6 hours rule and the no change of routing / carrier rule once ticketed. However the routing itself is much more liberal than the regular award.

People need to fully understand Explorer award rules before contemplating such because once after ticketing, it is extremely restrictive while the regular award almost anything is possible with a fee, not so with Explorer award.

Austinrunner

Explorer awards do not have an iron clad 6 hour connection rule. There is an exception to that rule if there are no scheduled flights within that window.

ourworldof3

We ticketed a first class award ticket but there are couple of segments in coach. Has anyone been able to get an upgrade the day of travel or at the gate? There seems to be availability in first for the flights, just not for SSaver Awards. Is there a hierarchy to day of travel upgrades? Since our ticket is for first, is it higher priority than someone with platinum status?

Austinrunner

AA would have to reissue your ticket. Relying on AA to do that timely on the day of the flight would be highly risky. I definitely would not recommend it.

You could fly in first only if there were available mileSAAver inventory. The mere fact that first class seats remain unsold does not entitle you to fly in first.

tys90

I'm in the midst of planning an Explorer Award for 2 people for next June, to be booked this July . I'm trying to squeeze every drop out of my miles as I basically only accrue any significant amount of miles through sign-up bonuses. I will have approximately 120k miles each in of mine and my SOs accounts, so enough for the 10,000-14,000 mile business class award.

The original plan was to hit Paris, Barcelona and Athens/Crete in about a 17 day period. I realize that it's not going to be enough time in any single place but once one gets to know the oneworld routing through Europe, you realize that stopping in Barcelona is nearly free from a total miles perspective.

The priorities are Paris, followed by Athens/Crete. I could forego Barcelona but just a few days there seems too easy to pass up. Seems easy with 14,000 miles right? Enter my honeymoon to the Caribbean this fall. We will probably be going to Cancun. So I started doing the routing and figured out a couple of different routes to include Cancun in with our Europe trip. Some of them got pretty crazy using Southwest Points or Avios to jump all over. This is the routing I keep coming back to though:

Option 1: includes a MDW-DSM-MDW southwest flight on points and a *A award on Aegean from CDG-ATH-HER-CDG.

Upside: fewest amount of flights to complete the goals and gets us back to DSM on AA
Downside: burns 50k UA miles (have about 70k) to get to Athens. Also is flying on a so-so AA 763 business product.

Option 2: This is where I need help, I feel like I'm missing a proper solution. Do I just take the hit to the wallet, buy Cancun tickets and use the 14,000 miles of Explorer award getting around Europe? This would probably allow me to get award tickets on the 77W to/from DFW or JFK or even do something like AB or AY with minimal positioning? Using Southwest to get to a hub is hit or miss for me in DSM. Getting to DFW sucks, JFK isn't fun either, ORD is okay. From DSM, Cancun tickets are enough money that it makes me want to use an award for it. Unfortunately, there are no economy awards on UA or AA for when we need them but plenty of business availability on AA, making it easy to tack onto the Explorer Award.

EDIT: Oops, meant to put this in the AA forum. Browsing too many subforums at the same time!

mia

Done