italdesign

Are there any DPs on changing the inbound of a Reduced Mileage Award to outside the reduced window, and no longer having a Citi card that offers the discount at the time of the change? I have my suspicion on what would happen, but DP is always appreciated.

JJeffrey

That is a very specific scenario so I'd say it's unlikely anyone will have an exact data point on what you're asking.

That said, one of the core "rules" of the reduced mileage awards is that they are only valid in the given monthly windows, so on that basis alone it will not be possible. I've booked a number of these and the agents always cross check both the city and travel date. Not to mention the fact you no longer have a corresponding Citi card.

All awards are technically one-way, so it should be possible to change your inbound flight though, and pay the higher required mileage, without paying a fee or affecting your existing outbound reduced mileage award.

italdesign

So if I change inbound and must pay regular redemption rate, it would be half of 7500, so 3750, yeah?

JJeffrey

It's impossible to say without knowing your itinerary, dates, and award you booked.

hyperzulu

Curious about something. I've spoken with an AA agent that says CX is not a valid carrier to book flights out of Australia using AA miles - only Qantas or AA metal. Is this true? The only restriction I see in the partner award chart is that Australia to USA requires transpacific travel, but nothing is said about which carriers can be used. Is SYD-HKG-LAX not a valid route?

guv1976

CX is certainly a valid carrier for booking flights out of Australia with AA miles. But AA routing rules for award travel between the South Pacific and North America do not permit any third-zone transits, so if you want to fly SYD-HKG-LAX using AA miles, it will cost you two separate awards. Since it is two separate awards, you could have a stopover -- not just a connection -- in HKG, if desired.

scottinaz

This turned out to be a benefit for us last year since we were able to spend 5 days in Hong Kong between our flight from LAX-HKG and from HKG-SYD. Had it been a single award we would not have been able to take a small vacation in Hong Kong and break up the trip.

cagcag

As lifetime gold AA, I need some basic info about award travel, please.
1. What are the rules relating to cancellation/rebooking/redeposit of AA award ticket?

2. Checked baggage allowance on award travel for domestic and international travel?

3. Does my status confer any benefits for a general member flying on award ticket redeemed from my gold account?

Thanks for answers to such basic queries.

guv1976

Re: #1 . Golds get no special benefit for cancelling or rebooking an award ticket, and are subject to the same redeposit fees as non-status members.

Re: #2 . Your first checked bag is free on all AA flights. If your flight already includes a first checked bag (either because of route or class of service), your Gold status gets you no additional checked-bag allowance.

Re: #3 . A non-status passenger traveling on an award ticket redeemed with your miles gets nothing unless you are accompanying the passenger on the same PNR.

cagcag

guv1976. Thanks for the prompt and thorough reply.

iahphx

So I trying to play the last minute domestic Saver availability game with some Avios miles. I'm looking for a flight between PHL and MIA. Two hubs, so there are a lot of flights and a lot of seats -- especially since they're running some 767s in that market. I don't have Expert Flyer (seems like I should, but I'm not sure I can justify the cost for just a handful of uses a year). But I'm looking at the seat map for one 767 flight that I'd like to take and there are 60 unassigned coach seats. I assume they've sold some Basic Economy tickets to pax with no seat assignment, but that strikes me as a less-than-full flight, with less than 7 days to go. Does AA program its award seat algorithms to notice last minute empty seats? Might they prefer to fly empty seats to making them available for saver award travel? I assume there's no way to know?

JJeffrey

Traditionally this would be no problem, however AA is playing lots of games lately with award availability including eliminating sAAver seats all together on some routes within 7 and 14 days of the flight no matter how wide open the flight may be. It really is becoming a joke of a program and I can only hope this was some last ditch effort to drum up a few more dollars of (short term Q3) revenue before the earnings call on Thursday.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...-days-out.html

iahphx

Well, I assume somebody at the company applied some logic to all this, but I'm not sure what it is. AA isn't "blacking out" all last-minute PHL-MIA nonstops, but award seats are obviously MUCH scarcer on the weekends (busy leisure travel days). I'm guessing the flight I'm looking at is busier than it looks. The narrowbody flights that day don't seem to have a ton of seats. With Basic Economy, and without Expert Flyer, I don't know how much insight I can get from looking at the seat map these days. I would certainly hope AA would release empty seats for last minute saver award travel (heck, they charge most travellers a hefty last-minute ticketing fee), but I don't know what the actual policy is.

3Cforme

That's just an unspeakably rookie move, particularly in the era of Basic Economy.

I can point to lots of instances where BA's online Avios ability didn't match up with AAdvantage saver availability on AA.com.

iahphx

That's not the problem: at least right now for this route, AA's inventory is EXACTLY the same as BA's (although AA does seem to sometimes show phantom award space that's not actually available if you click to book it).

What is certainly harder these days with the advent of Basic Economy is measuring the "crowded-ness" of a flight without more sophisticated (paid) tools. Before Basic Economy, most US airline customers who were booked had a seat assignment. So if the seat map showed lots of available seat assignments, that was an excellent way to predict a flight with plenty of availability. These days, you can have plenty of unassigned seats and a busy flight if there's lots of Basic Economy traffic.