AA cancels flight with my T class seats - now what?
 

Merry Christmas! AA has rebooked my T class Economy Off Peak Miles Saaver DEN-ORD-DUB/DUB-ORD-DEN to something completely ridiculous. Aside from not particularly wanting to do a JFK-LGA hop on the return trip, the DEN-ORD and ORD-JFK/LGA legs take place at the same time!

I've received a free international rebooking before when AA dropped my route, but do my rights change because it's a T ticket with SAAver? How much leeway in terms of dates and routes can I get? Do I have to pick another ticket in the saaver class on the same dates or can I move them one day? Can I make them give me an option that is only available for purchase without miles?

I am GLD right now, but did not make it this year, so I won't be when I fly this ticket.

Your rights do not change based on the booking class or your status. But with a schedule change your options are limited to negotiating alternative arrangements with AA or getting a full refund of your miles without penalty. Of course higher status pax are likely to get more consideration and flexibility, but the rules are the same for all.

That's good. I'm hoping I could choose flights on a different day that are not award flights.

These re-bookings tend to go best when you know prior to calling what flights you want. Anything that basically restores your original itinerary (or as close to that as possible given AA's schedule) should be allowed. Under this circumstance, I've never had AA require T availability to re-book. I recommend sticking with AA metal flights, as they have plenty of flexibility with those.

I suggest that you call AA with the flights that you have in mind. I think you should be prepared to offer flights that you're willing to (want to) take on the same day as your original itinerary as I seriously doubt that AA will let you change dates without T availability, but of course you can try.

IME, I try to be reasonable in my requests and AA has ALWAYS reciprocated. YMMV.

Good luck.

just to be sure - you say 'hop' between JFK and LGA - this is not a flight but rather ground transit that you are responsible for.

Yeah, I'm aware that JFK-LGA is a ground change, and I don't think there are many circumstances that I'm comfortable even trying to pull that off. I'm curious how many people they even book like that per day, and what percentage of the fools who do eventually blow their connection.

Both of my (potential) new flights are codeshares on British Airways metal-- the return would be a day later than the original return. It's the only option with one plane change.

Well, moving from AA to BA is definitely a step up, so at least that's something.

My first trip to Israel in 1990 routed me ORD-LGA on something (I think AA) and then JFK-TLV on LY. But I had something like a 5-hour window. And I was a young college student on my first international flight by myself, so I didn't know any better :p

LGA-JFK is completely ludicrous.

If they're putting you on BA anyway, see if they'll do DEN-LHR-DUB. It's a reasonable request and it can't hurt to ask.

And don't let them charge fuel surcharges for an involuntary reroute.

Please report back once you call!

So... after 80 minutes on the phone. I may be rebooked. I need to get an email and things need to happen on actual business days.

I had two main goals calling. 1. Move my return flight back one day (everyone else in my party is arriving and leaving a day later- I had picked my dates to get the MileSAAver fare.) 2. Get new flights that had one connection, or failing that, didn't have tight connections or involve switching airports. A bonus goal would have been to get the departure flight moved one day or at least have it leave late at night. The BA flights that I picked out would have done all of this.

I was able to move the second flight back a day, but I had to keep the first flight on that day, otherwise it would become "voluntary". I was told that I could not book the first flight on BA because the LHR-DUB segment was not available in award all day. The person I talked to was convinced I was going to have to pay the BA fuel charges at $283. (I kept trying to point out that this was all their fault). We could reduce it to $50 by adding in two more AA flights. (LHR-JFK-DFW-DEN), landing at 11:05 pm local time. $230 is a lot of money for me.

Anyway, we finally found something that was reasonable in the sense that I would not be switching airports, nor arriving in the afternoon somewhere but not flying out until the next day, though the departure time at my home airport is way too early and the return time is way too late. But oh well. And when it goes through I pay $50.

She calls back and says her supervisor says I don't have to pay (I had been saying that!). But it's too late for me to get the two-flight return (with the $283 charge). Ugh.

I also asked why I hadn't gotten an email about this change. Apparently the ORD-DUB route was cancelled today. Merry Christmas and coincidental catch on my part?

Mourning the loss of my $50, 40000 mile tickets with convenient times. My mom is thrilled because they don't have to drop me off at the airport one day early on our trip.

Schedule changes, aircraft "change of gauge" etc. happens; it's much easier when the tickets are AAnytime awards, of course, as MileSAAver tickets must be available (and though AA can and will make them available in some circumstances, it's not likely they can influence other carriers to create T award seats when they do not offer them).

Sorry you got caught in the middle here, but it sounds like you are making some progress in getting more convenient flights. They may not be exactly what you want in terms of departure or arrival hours, but then again, they're at 50% savings.

How is it "too late" to get the one-stop option? Sounds like you could call back and ask for it again.

So I got an email telling me to call AA. They want to charge the fuel charges! I'm on hold waiting for a supervisor. What can I say to make this not happen!

"Don't put me on BA"

It's INVOLUNTARY, you don't have to pay a dime. :mad:

Supervisor should straighten things out.

I've done it before and had no issues, but I had my car parked at LGA, and flew MCO-LGA and then JFK-LHR. Advantage of being a local. :)

I've had a friend doing that transit though, with a 2 hour transfer on DL, and when they told me that I just rolled my eyes ... and picked up one serious IOU when I drove down there and drove them JFK-LGA, and then the reverse.

At least they didn't give you an EWR-JFK or EWR-LGA hop to deal with. AA has offered me SEA-EWR/LGA-MCO before. Depending on the time of day, that's a nearly impossible transit to make in under 4 hours.

No helpful advice on the T-class rebooking, just a bit about the NYC airports.