m44

My friend holds a reservation on AA: PHX-DFW-LHR-WAW-FRA-DFW-PHX. There is no upgrades available on DFW-LHR, but plenty through PHL, MIA, and JFK. The only change required is to change how my friend gets to LHR on AA. Other flights do not need changing. AA refuses, claiming that they cannot reserve a new ticket because there is no inventory for LHR-WAW and for WAw-FRA. Of course, I can buy the tickets for those legs on BA or LH, but somehow AA cannot. Why is this so complicated?

arlflyer

Nowhere near enough information to even begin to discern what is going on here. First off, AA doesn't fly LHR-WAW or WAW-FRA, so there are certainly other airlines involved. Second, we have no idea how this ticket was procured - award redemption, AA.com, travel agency, or OTA. Third, I am not sure what LH has to do with this, or why you would insinuate that AA would buy your friend a ticket on LH. However, the only airlines that I know of who fly WAW-FRA are LH and LO, so it makes me wonder if this ticket is entirely AA-related to begin with.

There are definitely clarifications needed. At this point I am not convinced that the entirety of the "total nonsense" lies with AA.

JJeffrey

Your friend needs to HUCA, and hopefully get a competent AAgent that knows how to change the outbound routing without affecting the return. Make sure your friend understands that the entire itinerary will be repriced to the current fares.

enpremiere

It's not clear if you're looking to change dates as well or just routing. The comment about buying legs on BA or LH makes it sounds like you're trying to get seats on days when award inventory (if we're talking about an award ticket here) is not available which isn't something that American can force British Airways (or any other OneWorld partner for that matter) to open.

If you provide more detail, it could help to understand your friend's situation.

arlflyer

Again, I am not buying that this is AA's deal until OP comes back and explains that WAW-FRA leg, unless the case is that it is not a single flight but rather a nested connection (how many legs can this itinerary have?!).

ijgordon

No, it sounds like this is a cash ticket he's looking to redeem a mileage or SWU upgrade. Apparently there's no availability on the BA LHR-WAW leg or the LH/LO WAW-FRA leg, but he can individually buy those legs from the respective airlines.
On the BA leg, it could have originally been booked as an AA codeshare which now has no availability, but that wouldn't be an issue with LH/LO. Sounds to me like married segment availability (although I'm somewhat surprised to see it on an offline connection).

I agree with hang-up-call-again, a competent agent should be able to just change the segments that need to change.
But yes, the itinerary will be completely repriced at today's fares (could be higher or lower), plus there will likely be the change fee.