Sure, just have him call AA and ask to split their reservation into 2 PNRs. He might want to wait and do this after their outbound segments, so they'll still be listed together for that.

Or just leave it as is. The chance of anyone saying anything is close to zero. If someone does, the answer is 'he's really sick and can't get on this flight.'

I have a MIA-MAD-DOH-CAI flight sold by Qatar Airways. The MIA-MAD portion is operated by AA. MAD-DOH-CAI is operated by Qatar Airways. I am not planing on taking the MAD-DOH flight. If I check in bags will they be checked all the way through to Doha or Cairo? Or will I get my bags and clear customs with them in Madrid?

Also, I have my AA frequent flyer number for this flight. Have any of you had problems losing miles in a hidden city flight situation when the other flights are operated by a partner airline?

Is there any chance that AA would credit me the miles for the Qatar flights of MAD-DOH-CAI if I didn't take them? Have any of you had luck being credited for flights you paid for but didn't take with partner airlines? The MAD-DOH-CAI are business class flights so it would be great if I could earn these miles.

If you check bags they will be checked all the way to CAI, although depending on your layover time it might be possible to short check them to MAD only. You will have no trouble earning miles for the MIA-MAD segment that you fly, but you will not earn miles for the segments that you skip. There's no way around this, if there were then obviously everyone would be doing it.

I'd recommend not checking, or perhaps shipping or couriering, your bag. There would not be an opportunity to recover your bag for Spanish customs as it would be through checked, and unless you have a very long connection in MAD it's unlikely AA would short check.

As for miles, QR fails to report flown flights to AA possibly 10-20% of the time, so I think collecting EQD, EQM, RDM credit for the unflown (b.p. not read in at the gate) flights would be highly unlikely. In fact not showing for your MAD QR flight will likely result in your ensuing flight being cancelled.

I assuming this is a one way. If you don't fly MAD-DOH the rest of the ticket will be canceled.

As for the checked/bags/earning, the experts here have covered it already.

No you won't get miles for unflown flights. Also yourDOH-CAI flight will be cancelled when you miss MAD-DOH. You won't be able to fly to CAI without paying for a new ticket. Your bags will tag to CAI unless there's a long enough break for them to force you to pick them up at connection.

thank you all for your help. This is a return flight from a flight I am took back to the US 4 months ago. And yes I understand the rest of the flight will be cancelled once I don't take the MAD-DOH flight.

One last question, what constitutes as a long layover so that I could short check my bags? Does the layover need to be overnight?

Overnight is obviously less problematic to argue. Less depends on your story, charms and luck.
Airport change is my favourite, by the way.

Sorry in advance for all the abstraction, but I think AA could figure out who I am if I post all of the actual cities in here based on how specific this is. All segments are on AA unless otherwise noted.

I currently have a ticket booked through AA from AAA-BBB-CCC where BBB is a stopover and BBB-CCC is on a Oneworld partner. Call this Ticket 1
I also have on a separate ticket booked through AA CCC-DDD-EEE all on AA flights departing the day after flying BBB-CCC. I am already going to be throwing away DDD-EEE. Call this Ticket 2
I want to change BBB-CCC to the next day due to a friend meeting up with me in BBB. The change fee alone on Ticket 1 is more than the cost of booking a separate ticket for BBB-CCC on a different airlinee, so I want to just throw away BBB-CCC on Ticket 1 and book the other ticket.
​​​1. Should I be concerned about AA noticing me throwing away BBB-CCC on Ticket 1 and then the next day also throwing away DDD-EEE on Ticket 2?

Additionally, after taking the trip above, I also have a ticket booked through AA in the near future from AAA-FFF-GGG-FFF-AAA where I only plan on only flying AAA-FFF (the RT to GGG was way cheaper than just a OW or a RT to FFF). FFF-GGG-FFF is on a Oneworld partner. Call this Ticket 3
I then have a separate award ticket FFF-AAA ticket that departs after my thrown away segments in Ticket 3. Call this Ticket 4
2. Should I be concerned about AA cancelling Ticket 4 if I throwaway 3/4 segments on Ticket 3?
3. Should I also be concerned about AA noticing a pattern after doing throwaway ticketing on 3 tickets within 2 months and twice in 2 days? These trips will be the first time I have ever thrown away any segments.

Really?!?! You dont want to include any airport codes. Seems you are flying... YOU-ARE-REA-LLY-PAR-ANO-ID and back. :rolleyes:

My feeling is XXX about the ZZZ portion-- could lead to ABC or even 123!

Yes I am, but in all honesty it wouldn't be too hard for an AA employee to do a DB query to find all users who are flying those segments and the more specific it is, the more it narrows it down.

If no one is even going to try to answer this seriously, I'll repost with all the segments. I'm mostly concerned with the dumping of segments 2 days in a row. I'd rather AA not freeze my account and miles.

how -could- they??

What do you mean? Do you really need actual city pairs to give an informed answer? I don't see how the specific city pairs matters. Would it make any difference if you repeatedly throw away dca-lga vs dfw-ord?