Jan 31, 2016, 10:58 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
FAQ: Award changes after 21 March 2016 - which incur redeposit, which not
Award prices in miles are changing effective 22 Mar 2016. Many members have been asking which changes can be made on pre-existing awards on or after 22 Mar 2016 without requiring miles redeposit and issuance of new awards at the new prices - and we finally have some answers as given by the AA spokesperson through a timely article by Gary Leff and a char set c/o Smiley90 from here
Mile changes in absolute numbers (k)
Mile changes in percentage
Mile changes in percentage
First award change chart as of 22 Mar c/o Gary Leff
NOTE: 22 March 2026, several agents are saying what Gary Leff's quoted Ms. Nedbal stated, or parts of it, are not being honored.
According to Gary Leff (View from the Wing, Boarding Area, 31 Jan 2016), Laura Nedbal, spokesperson for AA, said:
Gary: "I sought further clarification and learned:
- You can change date and time without repricing the award, while keeping airlines and routing constant.
- You can change routing without repricing the award, while keeping the airlines constant, with a few caveats. Basically you cannot break the fare. You cannot add a stopover. You’re going to have to stick with a legal routing for the primary carrier on the itinerary.
- You can not change Origin or Destination, even within the same region, without causing reissue at the current award rates.
- You cannot change award types, which means you can’t go from American only to flying partners. You can’t go from extra mileage award to saver award without a redeposit of miles and re-issue."
This will require re-issue at the new rates.
Q. What if I change routing, but use the same origin, destination and airlines?
No problem, even changing connection cities and number of segments. Laura Nedbal: "Origin/dest stays same and since all carriers are oneworld there would be no charge to change carriers. Provided again, the same inventory/award as ticketed is available for change."
Q. What if I want to change from a oneworld airline such as QR to a non-oneworld partner such as EY, but keep the same origin and destination?
You will be required to redeposit the miles and secure new awards at the new rates if after 22 March.
Q. What if I want to change the award type (AAnytime to MileSAAver, MileSAAver to reduced miles, etc.), but keep the same origin and destination?
You will be required to redeposit the miles and secure new awards at the new rates if after 22 March.
Q. What if I want to change class of service and keep everything else the same?
You will be required to redeposit the miles and secure new awards at the new rates if after 22 March.
Q. Is there a limit to the number of times I can change my pre-22 Mar award booking?
Many/most flyers have reported no issues with multiple changes for pre-22 Mar award bookings. Some AA EP agents and at least one supervisor have stated the rule is only ONE VOLUNTARY CHANGE will be allowed to keep the award at the pre-22 March level. A second or subsequent voluntary change will require conversion to the new chart and "paying" more miles.
Q. What would it cost me to redeposit an award? Two or more awards?
Redepositing an award costs $150 (plus $25 for each other award secured with miles from the same account). These redeposit fees are waived if the account is that of an Executive Platinum AAdvantage member. Link to FT thread: AA award reinstatement / miles redeposit fees, issues, questions (consolidated)
If they are separate awards on different PNRs they may require $150 each.
Q. If I purchase an award by 22 March, how far out can I change the award (within the parameters given)?
An award must be used within one year of issue.
NOTE: Region changes
- Bolivia and Manaus, Brasil: changing from South America 2 to South America 1
- Venezuela: changing from South America 1 to South America 2
- Guam: changing from Asia 2 to South Pacific
- Sri Lanka: changing from Asia 2 to Indian Subcontinent/Middle East
- Kiribati, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu: added to South Pacific region
FAQ: Award changes 22 Mar 2016 - incl. which incur new mile amt, redeposit, which not
Feb 2, 2016, 9:49 pm
#61
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No worries, I figured that might be the case. Thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm sure it will be a bit of an ambiguous hot topic until March, and then start creeping up again in the fall when people start incurring additional mileage by changing awards that they thought they had 'protected'.
Simple date-changes excepted (which will undoubtedly be 100% protected,) and segment drops (which I'd put in that category as well,) -- agreed, there's room for uncertainty about a lot of this. As even at present not all these answers are 100% clear 100% of the time.
Feb 2, 2016, 9:59 pm
#62
Join Date: Feb 2014
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United wasn't anywhere near 100% clear before their devaluation about what changes would be allowed w/o reprice. And post-devaluation, any changes that required calling in often triggered a reprice and involved negotiating with the agent not to reprice what shouldn't have repriced.
So I'm not surprised if AA is unclear because they don't actually know, and it's possible they haven't bothered to think of all the possible scenarios. AA's modus operandi is already a YMMV situation in many cases and I expect this deval to be more of the same.
So I'm not surprised if AA is unclear because they don't actually know, and it's possible they haven't bothered to think of all the possible scenarios. AA's modus operandi is already a YMMV situation in many cases and I expect this deval to be more of the same.
Feb 3, 2016, 10:55 pm
#63
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1
I have the same question as a few others. Currently planning to fly from US to HKG on Cathay Business. Cathay typically opens up First the weeks leading up to the flight. If they do open up the same exact flight I'm already on, do I have to pay the extra miles?
Feb 3, 2016, 11:11 pm
#64
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Yes, you have to pay the extra miles (J to F) with the new award chart, because they have to redeposit your J award, then issue a new F award. But since is a class upgrade, you don't have to pay the redepositing fee.
Feb 4, 2016, 6:05 am
#65
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I have a F award DCA-MIA-SCL booked 12/1/16 but I want my ultimate destination to be PMC. LAN has not opened up any seats beyond 7/1/16. AA tells me will I be able to add this when it opens up but will it be repriced?
Feb 4, 2016, 8:06 am
#66
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas City, MO
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I can confirm that this is what AA does. I have had a J award on CX 881 LAX-HKG next week booked since last March. At 10 days before the flight I saw an F seat open up. I called AA to change to the F seat. They did not take out the extra 12.5K miles. They redeposited 55K and took out 67.5K and reissued the ticket. I was charged $38 additional in taxes but no phone fee or redeposit fee. This all happened about 3 hours after I called to make the change.
Feb 4, 2016, 9:11 pm
#67
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 291
If I book ORD-DFW-NRT-SIN with ORD-DFW on AA in F and DFW-NRT-SIN on JL J, the cost is 55k miles.
If later on I drop ORD-DFW, the itinerary becomes ORD-NRT-SIN all on JL J, will it require the miles to be reinstated, then repriced and redeemed?
Thanks
If later on I drop ORD-DFW, the itinerary becomes ORD-NRT-SIN all on JL J, will it require the miles to be reinstated, then repriced and redeemed?
Thanks
Feb 4, 2016, 9:34 pm
#68
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Your scenario is being put in the "protected" category per JonNYC.
Feb 4, 2016, 9:41 pm
#69
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If the current line of thought about - if free change, then no reprice. if fee involved (even it is waived) it would reprice, becomes reality, then adding PMC would trigger reprice.
Have you thought about fly into ZCO and then drive down to PMC? ZCO has plenty of availability despite it has much fewer daily flights from SCL comparing to PMC, but LAN is very tight fist on the SCL-PMC route in the high season. I spent quite some time monitoring the MIA-SCL-PMC and found that it was a total waste of time. MIA-SCL-ZCO on the other hand, do show up in reasonable availability.
BTW, MIA-SCL AA F is the old old old aircraft. LAN's business class probably is a far better product. Though LAN only releases the route as married segment - MIA-SCL has none but MIA-SCL-ZCO unearths availability.
Feb 4, 2016, 10:31 pm
#70
Join Date: Jul 2012
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I currently have ticketed the following:
Out: ORD-LAX-NRT(all AA, F)
In: NRT-ORD (JAL, F)
They are under the same PNR. As mentioned before, AA is on a oneway redemption system, i guess the outbound would be an AA saver award and the inbound would be an OneWorld Saver award.
I guess after 3/22 I will not be able to convert to JAL F once the seats open up.
I am just hoping for a schedule change or downgrade to a retrofitted 772 without F.
Out: ORD-LAX-NRT(all AA, F)
In: NRT-ORD (JAL, F)
They are under the same PNR. As mentioned before, AA is on a oneway redemption system, i guess the outbound would be an AA saver award and the inbound would be an OneWorld Saver award.
I guess after 3/22 I will not be able to convert to JAL F once the seats open up.
I am just hoping for a schedule change or downgrade to a retrofitted 772 without F.
Feb 5, 2016, 5:55 am
#71
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If there's something wrong with the wiki, please edit it. It is a wiki after all! I'm on my mobile for the moment or I'd do it, so I'd love for the community to chip in and help maintain this resource.
Feb 5, 2016, 6:38 am
#72
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Why would you hope for that? If there's no F, will AA allow changes without repricing? They might waive the $150 (if you aren't EXP) but wouldnt it be at the new redemption bc they have to reissue ticket?
Last edited by TravelLawyer; Feb 5, 2016 at 6:43 am
Feb 5, 2016, 7:00 am
#73
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Feb 5, 2016, 7:37 am
#74
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JFK-ORD-HKG (AA-CX F)
HKG-NRT-DFW-JFK (CX-AA-AA F)
I'd appreciate it if someone could sanity check my understanding here, but I presume changing the outbound for a CX F direct (subject to avail) should be no problem?
For the return leg, I understand that having a partner on there is the critical item since doing HKG-DFW-JFK (AA) would then hit the "All American" award reprice issue. However, with the return routing above would I be correct in thinking a post 3/22 change to HKG-JFK CX F shouldn't require a reprice since it's already a partner award?
Feb 5, 2016, 9:05 am
#75
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