olouie

Yep - right now they are trying to get me onto the LAX-AUH flights. But the liaison has to work to open up space. Cuts my time in AUH down for a nice 1/2 day connection to less than one hour.

ukinny2000

makes sense, though my only worry would be that AA may not rush to put a policy in place

JonNYC

No doubt. Maybe the best plan is essentially the one you guys have come up with; call in soon see if anything can be cobbled together before the bulk of people call in (although it has already been on the blogs this morning,) but, keep in mind that, of the most part-- certainly with exceptions for fixed-date travel-- it doesn't make sense to take something awful out of desperation as options -may- get better after/as the dust settles.

captainamerica

Was able to switch my F class MLE-AUH-SFO flight to F class MLE-AUH-LAX-SFO flight. At first they wouldn't add the LAX-SFO flight because there was no award availability but after I called a few times someone added it for free.

I'm tempted to try to change it to MLE-AUH-JFK-SFO to try the first class apartment. But since there is no F class award availability between JFK-SFO I don't know if I'll get luck again and have AA force an opening for me like they did with LAX-SFO.

cmd320

Data points...

I had MEL-AUH-BOM booked in December, all A380 at the time of booking. Obviously since then EY has downgraded MEL-AUH and AUH-BOM to 77Ws. Not wanting to endure the 77W for 14+ hours, I called AA in the US to see if I could just switch to SYD-AUH-BOM as there was GF available for the same day. AAgent saw the availability and said she was able to book it, however wanted to charge the $150 change/redeposit fee due to change of departure city. As I was uninterested in paying the redeposit fee, I thanked her, said I would do a bit more research, and hung up.

To avoid the $150 fee but still get back on A380 equipment for the intercontinental segment, I decided to just add a domestic QF flight in from MEL-SYD and then onward on EY SYD-AUH-BOM. Called the US number back, however this AAgent could not see the F availability on the SYD-AUH EY flight that the AAgent 15 minutes earlier could, interesting. Again, I thanked her for her help and hung up.

For my third try I decided to call NZ and ask for the same thing. QF from MEL-SYD and then EY SYD-AUH-BOM. NZ AAgent was able to see the availability on all legs and change the ticket, plus the additional taxes which ended up being roughly $16.

I guess the moral of the story is just keep calling and eventually you'll likely figure out some kind of a desirable outcome.

NecessaryIndulgences

Great end-result. Definitely reinforces the notion to keep trying until you get the right answer.

Yours is also is consistent with the experience of most that the US call centers are pretty much worthless for anything having to do with EY bookings. I've stopped even trying anywhere but the NZ/AU/Fiji call center. International LD calling is nearly free these days, so it's not worth the hassle of trying the US folks first.

captainamerica

I'm debating between 2 routes to get from MLE to SFO in F class.

My current route is:
MLE:AUH(9 hr layover):LAX(3 hr layover):SFO
The LAX: SFO flight is on AA metal

The other route I can take is
MLE:AUH(4 hr layover):JFK(9 hr layover):SFO
The JFK:SFO would be AA metal.

The advantage of the JFK route is I get the etihad apartments. But then I'm stuck on a a 7 hr AA first class flight that wont be as nice as Etihad. Are the apartments worth it enough to go that route or should I stick with the LAX route?

tlott

if you value the flight experience, I vote for apartment, especially since you have to have a connecting flight anyway - albeit a long one.

imo apartment experience is much better than 777. have flown both multiple times.

cmd320

I would go via JFK for the apartments. No, AA F isn't anywhere as nice as EY, but the apartment is a lot more exciting than the 777 F suite IMO. Plus you would at least have the A321T for your AA flight so it isn't like you'd be stuck on crap domestic equipment.

bdhaliwa

Really bummed that EY is axing SFO flight, I never had issues getting award seats from there. The writing was on wall when they went 3x/week few months back.

olouie

My change is still pending the EY liaison getting approval to move it to LAX. Called Australia call center and they said they could not change it until the liaison takes action. I guess HUACA in a few days?

olouie

My change is still pending. UGH.

Hopefully EY brings back the SFO flight given the electronics ban has been removed. One can dream right? :-)

MDtR-Chicago

Huge thank you to the folks in this thread... Never would have been able to do this without you!

The lovely Australian AAdvantage team has a reservation on hold for me, 2 people, MLE-AUH-JFK-SFO in February. Start to finish took only 12 minutes!

Managed to confirm First on MLE-AUH-JFK, with the A380 over the water. Unfortunately, could only get one J and one Y right now on the JFK-SFO but we'll see what opens up.

US agent could only see the MLE-AUH segment but the Australian agent saw exactly what ExpertFlyer saw.

JY1024

Pre-July 2017 posts have been archived in this thread. /Moderator

Phasers

Just added this to the Wiki:

Effective immediately, the Electronic Devices ban has been lifted for Etihad flights to the USA. (July 5, 2017)