Canceling return leg (AA says this is ok?)
 

I have a (leisure) round trip ticket VPS-DFW booked next week and need to skip the return leg so I can do a business trip straight out of DFW. I called AA to see how much it would be to change my ticket to one way VPS-DFW, intending on postponing the second trip if it was too expensive or going all the way back to VPS and starting over. The agent said it would be pretty pricey to make it and one way and told me to just cancel DFW-VPS once I got to Dallas.

I'm all about saving money, but I thought this was frowned upon and the best, and a violation of the contract of carriage at worst. Has something changed? I know there are a lot of threads on this, but I haven't yet found one where AA says it was ok to cancel the return leg.

If only AA could get all of its customers to be as concerned about following all its rules to a T

Let's just say I have too much going on my life right now to worry about AA canceling flights on me because I didn't show up for a segment.

Presuming that you have a pretty standard domestic restricted ticket, cancelling is far from prohibited. There is typically a $200 penalty and a travel credit. If you are a regular flier and the segment is worth more than $200, cancel prior to departure and use the credit when you next fly. If the segment is worth <200, just abandon it.

But, don't do this until closer to the flight. If it is cancelled or if there is a significant change in schedule, you are entitled to a refund for the value of the segment to your original form of payment.

The AAgent was being helpful (more helpful than their employer would have liked) and giving you some grey-area advice which you can safely take.

You do not have to worry (although I certainly understand why you brought it up!) about any future ramifications from a one time action like this.

But if DFW-VPS return leg is the same day as the desired new DFW-XXX business trip, isn't there a risk of the new reservation getting canceled as a duplicate/impossible/speculative booking?

Definitely should be booked "defensively" ;)

I guess this is what I suspected. It was just an answer I wasn't expecting.

DFW-XXX is actually the day after DFW-VPS. Does that make me safe(r)?

Obviously I won't cancel the return leg until I make it to Dallas and know for sure I won't be using it, just in case there's a schedule change or the like (very unlikely, but hey).

As swag very correctly observed, no go, will very possibly get cancelled out.

Not necessarily - as long as it's possible to return VPS-DFW before the DFW-XXX flight the next day, it's not an impossible/illogical itinerary.

If the (new) business trip is the day after the soon to be cancelled return, why would AA cancel?

Hypothetically:

Friday - VPS-DFW
Monday - DFW-VPS (cancel on Sunday, or even Monday a few hours before flight)
Tuesday - DFW-XXX

I don't see the conflict trigger, but perhaps I misunderstood something (wouldn't be the first time!).:confused:

Possibly or even likely, but I've certainly seen a lot of "duplicates cancelled" where, in theory, both trips _could_ have been done (as you both point out, this one could, barring extenuating circumstances). But, since this is -not- a kosher plan, best to know all the possibilities. They can certainly see after the fact what happened-- NOT to say they'd ordinarily be looking.

The schedule is like this:

Friday: VPS-DFW
Sunday: DFW-VPS
Monday: DFW-XXX
Thursday: XXX-VPS

None of the flights conflict with each other. The only red flag to anyone is how I'd get from VPS-DFW on Monday, but there are other ways besides flying AA....

ETA: The first trip was booked on aa.com, the second through my company's travel agency. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

The standard duct tape fix is do not put your AAdvantage number on the second trip so as to make it less likely it would be flagged as a duplicate. You can always request miles later.

Or add the # before the flight. Of course, that does hurt one's upgrade chances.

Under this scenario (missed leg day before next flight on separate PNR), I would not worry one bit. If you want to be safer, call in day of flight and tell them you are sick and will be missing the flight.