tylerdurden4543

I believe we're comparing apples to oranges here -- the first chart is of general change fees and the second is a statement about close-in booking fees on AA.

ramalama8

First of all, I'd have really liked to have known about the loophole before they closed it. I wouldn't have blabbed it all over the place, but I probably could have used it once or twice. Where do I go to find out about awesome things like this?

And second, a couple of people further up in the thread mentioned that they don't mind paying more fees so long as it helps keep AA afloat. That just plum doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, I want to keep AA flying, but I don't want that to come from more $$ out of my pocket. I want to see AA keep flying by operating more efficiently and by reorganizing their cost structures.

bostonoski

Hmmm doubtful. Since the thread is about fees for <21 day changes, the post appears to pertain to said fees. Only Overtheretoomuch knows, I suppose, as the OP from them has no explanation.

dayone

"We can balance the budget without increasing revenue."

jonny1

I just booked ticket for 2 from ORD-LGA using my advantage miles and it was 25k miles total , economy plus $5.
If I have to book hotel stay or , car rental or return trip around late march, I still have to book 21 days in advance?
I applied for these cards back in Around November 2011 and the offer was 75k bonus miles after $3k purchase.

RewardTraveler

Nope, the close-in booking fee only applies to airfare.

tylerdurden4543

Overtheretoomuch's post is indeed about award change fees (when you click their links, that's what you see), but it is not making a statement that those are the fees for <21 day close-in fees.

Then akcae made the statement that everyone but Delta charges a close-in booking fee, which is not disputed by Overtheretoomuch's post.

It really doesn't matter but I wanted folks to realize that DL does not charge a close-in fee and that Overtheretoomuch was not implying they did.

bostonoski

Ok but if that's the case, why did Overtheretoomuch even post a link to Delta and state that they have a $150 fee in a thread about fees for <21 days etc....?? This is not a thread about change fees in general. (Would be good if Overtheretoomuch clarified, but it's not all that important, I suppose.)

f18superhornet

I booked a trip to Miami for my wife and I back in January using Business MileSAAver awards. Unfortunately at that time there were not two seats on the same outbound flights for the day that we wanted to travel. So i booked them anyway and hoped that AA would open up an additional seat on one of the flights at some point.

Fast forward to yesterday and after months of checking with no success I finally saw 2 seats on the same flights, only they were for the day before our other flights. I had remembered reading that 21 days out was the magic number for not incurring change fees and unfortunately our flight was now only about 2 weeks away. I went to AA's website to verify this and felt that the wording was slightly ambiguous, so i figured i'd give it a shot. I put the new reservation on hold and called the aadvantage desk.

I explained my situation to the lady who answered and she immediately said that since i was trying to change the outbound flight to a different day and my flight was within 21 days i would incurr the $75 fee for each ticket (If i had been changing the return date it would not have a fee, though i had see that in other forums). I told her a little more detail about why i originally booked it the way i did back in January and she asked me if i would hold.

A couple minutes later she came back and said that i was in luck. Since my original booking was made back in January and the policy regarding the $75 fee had changed in February, i would be able to change without the fee. I was obviously very happy and appreciative that she looked this up for me. She could have easily told me I would not be able to do it and i would have never prodded her to look at policy changes.

Anyway, so morale of the story i was able to make the change and get my wife and I on the same flight. I figured i would post this because when i did a search yesterday after I found the flight option I could not seem to find a situation like mine in 2012 (found some a year or two ago). Hope this helps someone else in my situation

sukn

Sadly, you got a really uninformed agent. Since you originally booked your tickets in January (more than 21 days ago), there would be no fee for you to change your travel dates today to within 21 days.

The new rule went into effect to close the loophole of people booking more than 21 days out and then calling right back to change it to within 21 days to avoid the fee.

Since your original reservation was made more than 21 days out, you would not incur a fee today to change the travel to within the upcoming 21 days.

f18superhornet

Thanks for the info! When i mentioned the ambiguous lanugage in the change policy this is exactly what i was referencing. I assumed that the term "original" used in the policy meant the date that the reservation was first booked. However, i could have seen them saying that it meant the date you were trying to change it (so yesterday in my case).

Thanks for clearing this up though, cause i definitely did not find a straight answer to this in my searching yesterday so, again, hopefully it helps someone else

travelsg

Have you tried that online and confirmed no $75 added? or the change must be done over the phone?

ual902

Hi,

So I have no status with AA, this means if I ticket an award seat within 21 days I'm slapped with the $150 Fee, my question is if I book the Award ticket after the 21 days, example CX JFK-HKG for June 20th 2012 but after booking the award ticket can I call AA to change the Date for March 23rd 2012?, will AA then charge the $150?.

Thanks-

Science Goy

From AA's award reservation website:

ual902

This is for CX First Class award, I thought AA does not charges for date changes, just charges for route changes?.