spartanmu

Hello,
I purchased a round trip HKG-LAX ticket on AA website. When selecting my fare, I selected Business Refundable. In the order summary, one of the "perks" listed was no change fee (fare difference applies). I was booked into I fare class.

I am trying to change the dates on my flight, but am being told by AA that there is a ~$175 change fee. Am I missing something? Is their system booking "refundable" tickets into I fare bucket mistakenly? I am being told that the ticket is refundable, but with a fee to refund.

One side note, I am EXP and used a SWU to upgrade to F. Not sure if that would change my fare class and thats what's tripping up the system?

Any thoughts?

SeattleDavid

Its probably not a 'change fee' but the 'cost of changing' and the agent is being careless with words.

My guess is you're changing from a Monday-Thursday flight onto a Fri-Sun flight and the weekend fare for that route would seem to be about $175 more.

The I fare is just fine as it would seem to be a refundable, flexible I fare at a round $4500 round trip. The SWU should make no difference, but you may find it reverting to waitlisted after you've changed the ticket (if the upgrade isn't immediately available).

Dave Noble

Looking at the I,D ,R fares and the lowest J class HKG-LAX r/t AA fare on EF, (used 8 dec as date to check)

it appears that they have a HKD2000 cancellation penalty and a HKD1500 change fee

At today's exchange rate that is approx USD192

I class starts at around USD4101 with D class at USD5332 (both plus $106 in taxes)


The cheapest fare with no change fee is USD9769 plus $106 taxes

How much did you pay?

SeattleDavid

I dug deeper and this seems to be a bug in aa.com's booking engine - it clearly (and reliably) shows as flexible and refundable without charge (except for fare difference) on the booking page, but if you look closely at the fare rules (really hard to find now) it is in fact the fare that Dave Noble describes (IX08YN0 or thereabouts) with a 2000HKD cancellation penalty and a 1500HKD change fee.

I think you be within your rights to demand no change fee, but you may need a screen shot of the final booking page (maybe it shows in your email booking confirmation) to persuade a supervisor to override the fare rules.

(Of course its possible they'll tell you that the aa.com booking engine shouldn't have offered you that fare and that you need to upfare to J1A to get no change or cancel fees, which would cost you $9800!!)

Dave Noble

Looking on the HKG site

making a booking , I see economy, business and 1st with business benefits listed as

Larger, more comfortable seat
2 free checked bags
Priority security & boarding
Same-day flight change & standby when available on American flights


Fare conditions do clearly show HKD1500 / HKD2000 fees

The US site, does for some reason indicate no change fee

Where it was booked would matter in relation to this


Being refundable does not mean that there is no cancellation penalty - only that the fare can be partially or fully refunded
Being refundable does not mean that there is no change fe

Often1

It sounds as though AA's website marketing does not match the fare rules (for HKG origination).

I would send AA a note asking for a refund of the change fee and attach a screen shot of the website promotion.

spartanmu

Thanks all. You were all correct funnily enough.

I was changing from a flight departing on a Monday to a flight on a Sunday.

I did book the $4300 fare, which after reading the fare rules does indicate a change fee, although when I did book it, it did say explicitly no change fee (fare difference applies).

As mentioned, it does seem to be a glitch in their system, and after an hour or so of trying to explain that I was able to pull up the same language, got the agent to drop the fee (and found SWU availability to boot!).

The wording on the website does not match the fare rules, hopefully they fix it.

ijgordon

Don't hold your breath!

Theres been a lot of discussion here in the past about how obscure AA makes these change/cancel fees on refundable tickets (buried in the fare rules).
So it seems they're actually making an effort to show the actual fees during booking? They just can't get the details correct.

Dave Noble

Perhaps it will roll out the booking platform that it uses in Hong Kong to the US which is extremely clear.