Jul 27, 2015, 9:19 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
Please feel free to add to or correct the information herein.
NOTE: For involuntary award changes (caused by the operating carriers), see Involuntary Award Changes / What To Do (merged threads).
Ordinarily, one must call to request or make changes to award tickets.
Award changes, ordinary
NOTE: More extensive listing of terms and conditions are listed in oneworld and other all partner awards rules, Information 2015 on
Award carrier, connection, date or routing changes: As long as origin and destination (but read on for exceptions such as first / last segment) remain the same, change / award redeposit fees are usually waived for awards under certain circumstances when date, connection, routing or carrier changes are made But:Airline / carrier changes incur no change or redeposit fees as long as you do not try to change between all AA oneworld airlines and non-oneworld airlines or vice versa.
E.g. an AA award such as SEA-HNL-SYD using AS can not be changed to use JL without requiring award redeposit. An award using AA LAX-HKG can be changed to JL via NRT or CX Without redeposit ing miles.
If Maximum Permitted Miles (usually 125% of the most direct available routing) for an award is exceeded, two awards may be charged
or
MSC fare requirements: The most significant or prevailing carrier, usually the one with the transoceanic sector, must offer an unconstructed fare between desired origin and destination; if a fare would require "married segments", two awards may be required.
Award validity: Awards must be used within one year of original booking. For travel beyond that, the award miles will have to be redeposited and new awards secured.
Award cancellations can be by phone or online, but online cancellation requires separate action to reinstate the miles. Canceling online does not request or result in miles redeposit.
Award miles reinstatement: Redeposit fees are waived for Executive Platinum members. See here for more information on award miles reinstatement.
"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes and fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)
Co-terminals: For award purposes, there are no co-terminals; changing co-terminal airports (MIA and FLL, PBI; JFK, LGA, EWR etc.) will incur a $150 change fee. See this thread for detail on award miles redeposit.
An award using AS, FJ, HA or TN to South Pacific (e.g. AKL, SYD) can not be changed to AA or QF without requiring award redeposit (or vice versa).
Dropping segments: Awards made on AA or / and "all partner" carriers will allow changes mentioned above without requiring redeposit fees. Instances of dropping an origin segment can be allowed, or a final segment - as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards); changing the mileage (miles required) of the award claimed or the number of awards claimed.
Segments can be dropped as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards). If you are refused, refer agents to the in-house memo/advisory dated 02/03/11 entitled "Dropping OWFA segments." (guv1976)
As JonNYC posted:
This document was current as of December 2014:
For permitted changes and fees, see this post in the airline partner award thread.
If the award is AA and oneworld, changes may be made as long as the main / governing /Most Significant Carrier makes an unconstructed fare on the award routing and the governing fare's carrier is not changed to one not offering such a fare.
Close-in booking fee: Changes made to bring travel to under 21 days from award issue will incur close-in booking fees of $75.
Schedule changes: On international awards, schedule changes of two hours or longer, or those breaking connections by bringing them below MCT / minimum connection times, flight cancellations, generally may be cancelled and redeposited without fees, or engender greater flexibility in changes. With AA awards, it is possible award seating may be opened when there is none; with partners, AA can appeal to the Liaison to the partner to open seating in these cases (the partner airline may or may not grant the exception requested). Equipment change constitutes a schedule change and you will be able to get the fee waived pre this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
Partner changes: If the award includes non-oneworld partners such as AS, EY, FJ or TN, or a oneworld carrier award is changed to include a non-oneworld carrier, or vice versa, significant fees will be incurred ($150).
"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes abd fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)
Changes that require different award type -
Changes to the itinerary which involve different AAdvantage award(s) than originally ticketed require a reinstatement of the original award ticket, payment of the applicable award reinstatement charge (see below), and a new award ticket issued (waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account). However, SAAver awards canceled for AAnytime awards, or changing to a higher class of service, will not incur redeposit fees.
Changes to your outbound travel date, resulting in a departure within 21 days -
Close-in booking fee: A $75 USD award processing charge will apply for a confirmed change to the date on an AAdvantage MileSAAver and AAnytime award ticket if the change results in a new outbound travel date that is within 21 days of the original booking date (waived for AAdvantage elite members using miles from their account).
Contact AAdvantage Reservations to change your itinerary, pay the applicable charge and have your ticket reissued prior to travel.
Canceling Awards / Reinstating Award Tickets
(Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account)
AAdvantage® mileage will be reinstated for unused and unexpired awards upon payment of a processing fee. For tickets booked on or after November 1, 2018, AAdvantage®mileage will be reinstated upon payment of a processing fee for unused and unexpired awards canceled prior to departure. 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.
Award class changes: MileSAAver to AAnytime changes generally incur no fees; conversely, AAnytime to MileSAAver awards generally will.
Award cabin class "upgrades" (e.g. Y to J): If the change made is an increase of miles to another cabin class, fees are not normally charged (but some government required fees such as UK Air Passenger Duty, airport passenger facility fees, etc. may change).
Redepositing awards incurs a fee of $150 other than for Executive Platinum members redepositing to their accounts. If two or more awards are being redeposited to the same account at the same time, the fees are $150 for the first award, $25 for every award thereafter. Note the awards do not have to share the same PNR, though some less knowledgeable agents will insist so.
Note: given a 120 hr / 5 day hold is offered, there is no right to “Free” cancellation (without redeposit) within 24 hours of securing the award. OTOH, mere date changes to a year from Booking are free of charge in most instances.
Please see: State of the award reinstatement fee (Nov 2015 - clarifying)
FAQ: Cancel award ticket / cancellation (time frame, taxes, etc.) (merged threads)
Link to ARCHIVE 2017: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
Link to ARCHIVE 2015-2016: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
Link to ARCHIVE 2012-14: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
NOTE: For involuntary award changes (caused by the operating carriers), see Involuntary Award Changes / What To Do (merged threads).
Ordinarily, one must call to request or make changes to award tickets.
Award changes, ordinary
NOTE: More extensive listing of terms and conditions are listed in oneworld and other all partner awards rules, Information 2015 on
Award carrier, connection, date or routing changes: As long as origin and destination (but read on for exceptions such as first / last segment) remain the same, change / award redeposit fees are usually waived for awards under certain circumstances when date, connection, routing or carrier changes are made But:Airline / carrier changes incur no change or redeposit fees as long as you do not try to change between all AA oneworld airlines and non-oneworld airlines or vice versa.
E.g. an AA award such as SEA-HNL-SYD using AS can not be changed to use JL without requiring award redeposit. An award using AA LAX-HKG can be changed to JL via NRT or CX Without redeposit ing miles.
If Maximum Permitted Miles (usually 125% of the most direct available routing) for an award is exceeded, two awards may be charged
or
MSC fare requirements: The most significant or prevailing carrier, usually the one with the transoceanic sector, must offer an unconstructed fare between desired origin and destination; if a fare would require "married segments", two awards may be required.
Award validity: Awards must be used within one year of original booking. For travel beyond that, the award miles will have to be redeposited and new awards secured.
Award cancellations can be by phone or online, but online cancellation requires separate action to reinstate the miles. Canceling online does not request or result in miles redeposit.
Award miles reinstatement: Redeposit fees are waived for Executive Platinum members. See here for more information on award miles reinstatement.
"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes and fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)
Co-terminals: For award purposes, there are no co-terminals; changing co-terminal airports (MIA and FLL, PBI; JFK, LGA, EWR etc.) will incur a $150 change fee. See this thread for detail on award miles redeposit.
An award using AS, FJ, HA or TN to South Pacific (e.g. AKL, SYD) can not be changed to AA or QF without requiring award redeposit (or vice versa).
Dropping segments: Awards made on AA or / and "all partner" carriers will allow changes mentioned above without requiring redeposit fees. Instances of dropping an origin segment can be allowed, or a final segment - as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards); changing the mileage (miles required) of the award claimed or the number of awards claimed.
Segments can be dropped as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards). If you are refused, refer agents to the in-house memo/advisory dated 02/03/11 entitled "Dropping OWFA segments." (guv1976)
As JonNYC posted:
This document was current as of December 2014:
For permitted changes and fees, see this post in the airline partner award thread.
If the award is AA and oneworld, changes may be made as long as the main / governing /Most Significant Carrier makes an unconstructed fare on the award routing and the governing fare's carrier is not changed to one not offering such a fare.
Close-in booking fee: Changes made to bring travel to under 21 days from award issue will incur close-in booking fees of $75.
Schedule changes: On international awards, schedule changes of two hours or longer, or those breaking connections by bringing them below MCT / minimum connection times, flight cancellations, generally may be cancelled and redeposited without fees, or engender greater flexibility in changes. With AA awards, it is possible award seating may be opened when there is none; with partners, AA can appeal to the Liaison to the partner to open seating in these cases (the partner airline may or may not grant the exception requested). Equipment change constitutes a schedule change and you will be able to get the fee waived pre this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
Partner changes: If the award includes non-oneworld partners such as AS, EY, FJ or TN, or a oneworld carrier award is changed to include a non-oneworld carrier, or vice versa, significant fees will be incurred ($150).
"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes abd fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)
Changes that require different award type -
Changes to the itinerary which involve different AAdvantage award(s) than originally ticketed require a reinstatement of the original award ticket, payment of the applicable award reinstatement charge (see below), and a new award ticket issued (waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account). However, SAAver awards canceled for AAnytime awards, or changing to a higher class of service, will not incur redeposit fees.
Changes to your outbound travel date, resulting in a departure within 21 days -
Close-in booking fee: A $75 USD award processing charge will apply for a confirmed change to the date on an AAdvantage MileSAAver and AAnytime award ticket if the change results in a new outbound travel date that is within 21 days of the original booking date (waived for AAdvantage elite members using miles from their account).
Contact AAdvantage Reservations to change your itinerary, pay the applicable charge and have your ticket reissued prior to travel.
Canceling Awards / Reinstating Award Tickets
(Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account)
AAdvantage® mileage will be reinstated for unused and unexpired awards upon payment of a processing fee. For tickets booked on or after November 1, 2018, AAdvantage®mileage will be reinstated upon payment of a processing fee for unused and unexpired awards canceled prior to departure. 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.
Award class changes: MileSAAver to AAnytime changes generally incur no fees; conversely, AAnytime to MileSAAver awards generally will.
Award cabin class "upgrades" (e.g. Y to J): If the change made is an increase of miles to another cabin class, fees are not normally charged (but some government required fees such as UK Air Passenger Duty, airport passenger facility fees, etc. may change).
Redepositing awards incurs a fee of $150 other than for Executive Platinum members redepositing to their accounts. If two or more awards are being redeposited to the same account at the same time, the fees are $150 for the first award, $25 for every award thereafter. Note the awards do not have to share the same PNR, though some less knowledgeable agents will insist so.
Note: given a 120 hr / 5 day hold is offered, there is no right to “Free” cancellation (without redeposit) within 24 hours of securing the award. OTOH, mere date changes to a year from Booking are free of charge in most instances.
Please see: State of the award reinstatement fee (Nov 2015 - clarifying)
FAQ: Cancel award ticket / cancellation (time frame, taxes, etc.) (merged threads)
Link to ARCHIVE 2017: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
Link to ARCHIVE 2015-2016: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
Link to ARCHIVE 2012-14: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.
Voluntary Award Change / changes: date, time, routing, airline, co-terminal, etc.
Mar 16, 2019, 7:03 am
#196
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,498
I'm hitting a wall with trying to upgrade my award from J to F on my original routing for AA SEA->ORD, JL ORD->NRT. The agents insisted that the original booking was done in error, and that SEA->ORD->NRT should have been two awards from the beginning due to MPM. One agent tried to convince me that AA is doing me a favor by allowing me to keep my ticketed and confirmed reservation as-is. They would not budge about how the first class flight would cost two awards, take it or leave it. However, since my routing went through a couple months ago as one award, I feel like maybe I'm not asking the right questions here. Regardless, their official policy allows this kind of change. At this point I'm thinking of just paying the redeposit fee and rebooking on Alaska.
JL's published fares from SEA-NRT have both routing and MPM requirements, and SEA-ORD-NRT doesn't conform to either. The routing requires a connection in SFO or LAX (no), and for MPM, SEA-ORD-NRT is over the MPM +25% (also no).
However, AA's computers are finicky, we've certainly seen lots of instances where an award gets ticketed as a single award where all other factors would point to it not being allowed. But just because it went through once doesn't mean it will go through again.
So in this case, unfortunately I would say that if you want F on ORD-NRT, I would just shell out the extra miles for 2 awards now, or cancel and go with the AS award. If you go that route I would book the AS award before you cancel the AA one to make sure you grab the space.
Mar 16, 2019, 11:55 am
#197
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 183
I just called about changing an AUS-DFW-ORD flight to an AUS-ORD flight on a new date, and the rep said there would be a $150 fee if you change from a connecting flight to nonstop. Is this correct or HUCA?
Edit: Called again and went through fine. First guy must have been new and playing it safe.
Edit: Called again and went through fine. First guy must have been new and playing it safe.
Last edited by quitecryptic; Mar 17, 2019 at 12:17 pm
Mar 16, 2019, 2:12 pm
#198
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
I would HUCA. This should be a no-fee change, assuming everything is on AA.
Mar 20, 2019, 9:44 am
#199
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
AA change fee for award flight question
We currently have 4- one way economy tickets, booked under 2 reservations, using points. My husband and son are booked together (Plat. Pro status) and daughter and myself together (no status but advantage card holder). The tickets were booked in Dec for a early morning May flight. Recently AA changed the plane from one of the newer A321's to the older "United" models and the time of the flight was pushed back slightly (less than 30 min). Which is not a huge deal by any means. However we are playing with the idea changing the early morning flight (7:15am) to the night before (8:10pm) and using extra points to fly first class instead of economy. My question is would this scenario cost us a change fee to do this?
Mar 20, 2019, 10:15 am
#200
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,498
We currently have 4- one way economy tickets, booked under 2 reservations, using points. My husband and son are booked together (Plat. Pro status) and daughter and myself together (no status but advantage card holder). The tickets were booked in Dec for a early morning May flight. Recently AA changed the plane from one of the newer A321's to the older "United" models and the time of the flight was pushed back slightly (less than 30 min). Which is not a huge deal by any means. However we are playing with the idea changing the early morning flight (7:15am) to the night before (8:10pm) and using extra points to fly first class instead of economy. My question is would this scenario cost us a change fee to do this?
Mar 20, 2019, 10:31 am
#202
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
We currently have 4- one way economy tickets, booked under 2 reservations, using points. My husband and son are booked together (Plat. Pro status) and daughter and myself together (no status but advantage card holder). The tickets were booked in Dec for a early morning May flight. Recently AA changed the plane from one of the newer A321's to the older "United" models and the time of the flight was pushed back slightly (less than 30 min). Which is not a huge deal by any means. However we are playing with the idea changing the early morning flight (7:15am) to the night before (8:10pm) and using extra points to fly first class instead of economy. My question is would this scenario cost us a change fee to do this?
2) Generally, if your “upgrading” an award to a higher class of service, the original award will be redeposited without charge, and a new award ticket issued (of course, award seats need to be available in your desired class of service).
Mar 21, 2019, 7:58 am
#203
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
Someone please help. On hold now with American Airlines. Called to change my flight and use the additional 10,000 in both accounts to change from 20,000 point economy ticket to a 25,000 point first class ticket. The reservation lady last night told me it was good to go and now they are saying the ticket change did not go through because when the agent last night transferred the 20,000 points for each original ticket to the new ticket, I was penalized 2,000 points for each ticket which made the transaction not go through because of insufficient points.
Mar 21, 2019, 8:02 am
#204
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
Basically we had 4 tickets booked with points totaling 80,000 points total (20k each) called to change to another flight at 25k each. (100k total) we had the extra 20,000 points in the account to do this. Agent confirmed all of this last night when she made the change and told me we were good to go. This morning I noticed the tickets said "pending" so I called back and they said that when she moved the points from our original flight to the new one, we were penalized 2,000 points each which made insufficient points to make the new reservation. So as of now I have no flight and 4,000 loss in points. Freaking out.
Mar 21, 2019, 8:35 am
#205
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
Basically we had 4 tickets booked with points totaling 80,000 points total (20k each) called to change to another flight at 25k each. (100k total) we had the extra 20,000 points in the account to do this. Agent confirmed all of this last night when she made the change and told me we were good to go. This morning I noticed the tickets said "pending" so I called back and they said that when she moved the points from our original flight to the new one, we were penalized 2,000 points each which made insufficient points to make the new reservation. So as of now I have no flight and 4,000 loss in points. Freaking out.
With regards to the 2000 point penalty, if you had the AAviator or Citi Platinum Elite card when you booked, you received a 10% rebate when you booked your original tickets, so when you redeposited you only would get back 18,000 points each. (If you don’t have either card, I have no idea why you were penalized 2000 points). If you are short points, you can always purchase the missing points over the phone with the agent, and the points should post instantly.
Mar 21, 2019, 9:28 am
#206
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
It sounds like you were trying to change from an AAnytime Y award (20k each) to a MilesAAver J award (25k each). Generally this type of change would incur a redeposit fee of $150 for the first person + $25 for each additional person on the same PNR. Since it sounds like you had 2 sets of PNR’s I would say you probably had to pay a redeposit fee of $350. At this point, if you haven’t been charged the redeposit fee, I would consider yourself lucky. You probably won’t be charged.
With regards to the 2000 point penalty, if you had the AAviator or Citi Platinum Elite card when you booked, you received a 10% rebate when you booked your original tickets, so when you redeposited you only would get back 18,000 points each. (If you don’t have either card, I have no idea why you were penalized 2000 points). If you are short points, you can always purchase the missing points over the phone with the agent, and the points should post instantly.
Last edited by Jenn0625; Mar 21, 2019 at 9:51 am
Mar 21, 2019, 12:22 pm
#207
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
My post was all over the place and probably extremely confusing. I am new to this and did not understand what was happening. My husband and I both have the Citi Advantage card. Basically from what I am understanding when the flight change was made the old flight was including the 10% off but the new one was not including the 10% off so it would not process because it was saying I needed to have a total of 50K points in each account when really I only needed to have 45K so it would not process. Hopefully they can get this fixed and the ticket will go from "pending" to fulfilled.
Mar 21, 2019, 1:50 pm
#208
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
The problem is that the way the 10% works is that you need all the points in your account and then you get a refund of 10% of the points (thus why I call it a rebate). The other problem is that the 10% rebate is limited to 10,000. If you booked your original tickets this year, you’ve used 8,000 already. In the past when I’ve cancelled tickets, I’m not sure the counter resets.
Mar 21, 2019, 1:55 pm
#209
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
Yeah the issue was not realizing that the original tickets included a points rebate. So we didn't have all of the points to "float" the points temporarily from the old reservation the new one since AA won't let your account go into negative even if it's just to do a reservation change. That was my fault for not realizing that. I ended up just purchasing the extra miles to get both accounts where they needed to be to make the reservation change. Agents were able to go ahead and push my husband and son's new tickets though but I have been off and on the phone with ticketing agents for several hours now trying to get the tickets under my account (for my daughter and myself) to go from pending/hold to ticketed. There is some sort of system issue and they can't seem to find a work around. All day long on the phone. I am so tired lol. Next time I will just leave my reservation alone. Hopefully after all of this they won't come back and say they can't get to go through and we are 2 tickets in 2 out :/
Mar 21, 2019, 2:31 pm
#210
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 258
Thank you. Just got off the phone with another agent who said it's now officially ticketed, and I did receive an email confirming a ticket number for both myself and my daughter this time, but when I log into my account it still shows under the record locator as ticket pending (where as my husband and son's shows ticketed) and they only took out half of the points needed for the new reservation. So I don't know what is official at this point and I hate to call for literally the 4th time today. But my fear is assuming it's good and lose the ticket and the locked in points if I don't make sure on all ends everything reflected accurately. Should I call back again?