Help with fee to redeposit miles when cancelling an award flight
 

I booked award flights for myself and 10 family members that I need to cancel. American is telling me I need to pay $150 for the first reservation and $25 for each additional reservation to redeposit the miles into my account. Has anyone had any success talking American into reducing or waiving these fees? Does Platinum status help?

Best case is they want to charge me $150 x 1 and $25 x 10, but the reservation is split into 4 record locators and miles came from both my account and my wife's account. They may want more of the $150 charges and less of the $25 charges. I didn't take it that far yet.

get ready to pony up $750 beans

Welcome to FlyerTalk, waldvogelmj.

The mileage redeposit fees are pretty standard, and if you can get one $150 and $25 for the other nine you are doing very well well for a total of $375 - I'd think $500 will be more like their final offer, however, as the miles came from two accounts.

I take it nobody read the terms and conditions or thought of a trip cancellation / interruption policy sufficient to cover these fees when booking?

It is what it is, I think you're stuck paying the fees.

If I were to get into a negotiation, who would I ask to talk with?

I knew there were costs to redeposit miles, but didn't know they were this severe and can't find anywhere on the website or Advantage terms what the actual fees are. Who would have guessed the cost is almost the value of the miles?

Do I have any leverage with the fact that they changed my schedule subsequent to the booking? My flight home now leaves 2 hours later and I have a 2 hour instead of a 4 hour layover.

You would think the fact that I fly 150,000 miles a year would give me some consideration, but they don't seem to care. I had a contact in the executive office that has been very helpful in the past, but unfortunately she retired.

Maybe I can bribe someone with the 30+ Applause award certificates I have sitting here? Do the employees care about these?

[QUOTE=waldvogelmj;11960746

Do I have any leverage with the fact that they changed my schedule subsequent to the booking? My flight home now leaves 2 hours later and I have a 2 hour instead of a 4 hour layover.[/QUOTE]

Maybe.

But is this a material alteration?
Now if it was leaving two hours Earlier then no fees,

OR if it was non stop and leaving two hours later , you's be good to go or good ro stay as the case may be

OP fllies 150,000 miles a year and is PLT? Must not all be on AA.

And didn't know about redeposit fees?

I don't think the applause certificates will get you anywhere. The schedule change is your best hope for avoiding the fees, but you'll have to call.

I didn't say the miles I fly are all on American. My Exec Plat expired 2/08. I've never cancelled an award flight. Heck, I haven't taken many award flights. I'm in Milwaukee and fly from Chicago for international flights. When I fly for leisure, I can usually get a direct flight on Airtran for under $200 and it doesn't make sense to book an award flight when I have a layover.

Then don't expect all the consideration either :)

You've had the best answers you are going to get though.

Phone up and try to convince them that the schedule change has made the trip unworkable for you and so the redeposit should be free.

Personally I think you will have difficulty with this as a flight two hours later than serves to reduce a lay-over from 4 to 2 hours would be an improvement for most people ...

Why would this get you any consideration with AA if most of that flying is on Airtran or other carriers? :confused:

This is starting to sound like DYKWIA. But in any event, OP's best leverage is still the schedule change.

Thanks for the replies. I think its a tough sell that making my schedule better should allow me to cancel for free, but I'll try. My need to cancel has nothing to do with the schedule change.

You really didn't look very hard did you?

http://www.americanairlines.co.uk/aa...servations.jsp


'Reinstating Award Tickets
You can request to have your AAdvantage mileage reinstated for an unused AAdvantage flight award if your ticket has not expired. Partially used awards cannot be reinstated.

When requesting a reinstatement, a $150 USD processing fee will be charged per account for the first award ticket. Any additional award tickets reinstated to the same account at the same time will have a $25 USD per ticket add-on charge.

If you wish to reinstate your AAdvantage mileage, please call 1-800-882-8880 or your local American Airlines office to cancel your reservation and request your mileage reinstatement.'

I looked under Advantage terms/conditions and this is all it says:

Reinstatement/Reissuance Fees
Prior to ticketing, you may change your AAdvantage travel award reservations with no charge incurred. However, if your tickets are reissued after the original ticketing, a change fee may apply for each ticket. This service charge is paid at the time your ticket is reissued and is subject to change without notice. The charge does not apply to the reticketing of AAnytime® award tickets. Upgrade, companion and discount award travel is subject to restrictions of fare purchased.
AAdvantage mileage will be reinstated for unused and unexpired awards upon payment of a processing fee. For each additional award reinstatement from the same account at the same time, an additional charge will be collected. These charges are payable by credit card or by check.
Expired tickets will not be reinstated. If a portion of the miles used to claim an award ticket has expired, only those miles that have not expired will be reinstated. Partially used tickets will not be reinstated.
Once ticketed, the oneworld™ awards cannot be reissued any time.

You're looking at an average of $50-75 per award. Even if these are low level 25K awards, the miles are still worth a lot more than $75.

In any case, if you don't need the miles right away for another redemption, you might try changing the dates of the trip to the far future (up to a year from when you redeemed). Then, hope for another material time change, and you should be able to cancel and redeposit for free.