Is an aircraft swap / equipment change enough to get change fees waived?
 

I'm looking at booking F tickets for a domestic flight in a few months - I have about 15 good times on my day of departure, but one of those flights will be on a 787 and I want to try out the product. However, that flight is one of the earliest that they offer and I'm not a fan of mornings, but I'll suffer it in this case.

I'm worried about them swapping in a 737 or 321 and if that's the case then I may as well take an afternoon departure. Would an equipment change be enough to merit a waiver of the change fee if I move to a later flight?

Per AA's terms and conditions, I believe it is even enough to get a refund

You can get a refund, but changing to a later flight may cause additional charges

See this

Oh that's pretty g-

Hmm...so that's probably the difference between what I pay now and what a seat is going for at the time of the swap. Less good...

I see your point, but people on FT have reported no fee changes were done before for changes in aircraft

I believe that is part of the T&C for international tickets, not domestic (as discussed in a similar thread). However, I have used it successfully several times when a 77W was swapped for a two class 321 on LAX-MIA. Not sure if my status made a difference.

It's good to have that section available to cite.

The 77W was 3 class right? So maybe thats why? I think this is on domestic tix as well. let me check.

Although as @mvoight says, it may be allowed overall despite policies stating otherwise

I'm sorry to say that my first J class 787 TATL flight last week was far, far less than I had expected. No trouble with the reported seat movement per neighboring pax but the seat was not comfortable and not spacious. I did not perceive it as much better than the awful Airbus planes that I have flown lately on TATL. All the talk about improved cabin air was lost on me when my ears went ballistic on descent (a first in my air travel experience). I won't avoid it because TATL travel in J is just simply not good but I certainly won't seek out flights on 787s.

As a data point, I booked LGA-PHL-BCN on an E75 (or E90) for the LGA-PHL flight. At some point after booking, the LGA-PHL plane was swapped out for a CR7, which I loathe. SWUs had cleared on both legs. I called and was able to get rebooked onto a nonstop JFK-BCN with SWU preserved, based on the equipment change, really with no trouble at all (it didn't sound like the agent was making any sort of exception), even though only the short domestic flight had the change.

That terminology only exists in the terms for international carriiage I believe. The query relates to domestic flights where istr that no such provision is listed

I mean, I've had free changes with AA (no status, economy) when the equipment changed, although to be fair the times slightly changed as well (less than an hour, but the AAgents were understanding of the matter).

Equipment Swap A321T to 737 BOS-LAX Official Policy?
 

Up until today, I've never had an issue changing times or even routing when there is an equipment change, even if the change is relatively minor. Today, I had an interaction with two agents after an equipment change on the BOS-LAX flight from a A321T to a 737. The first agent was willing to change routing to BOS-LGA/JFK-LAX, but couldn't find any space in J on the JFK-LAX flight. I monitored availability on that flight, and once it opened, I called back. However, the second agent said that the only option without collecting additional fare was to get a full refund.

I think the language she used is similar to the one on the International CoC. The domestic CoC does not even give the option to refund if I remember correctly. However, I thought their willingness to do this in the past was due to their customer service plan and not their CoC. Anyone knows what the official policy is? Especially for a route like BOS-LAX where the A321T is introduced in just some of the frequencies and often at a premium, it doesn't make sense to pay extra if the equipment can be changed without any recourse.

I was also on 2542 today upgraded to J. About 8am an agent from the "Day of Departure Desk" called me and left a voice message telling me that the equipment had been changed - I (luckily) had been in 6F in J on the A321T and I think that just translated into 6F in F. She gave me the option to change to connecting over JFK instead of BOS in J, keeping the original flight in F (which is a significant downgrade from A321T J), or cancelling and receiving a refund plus a $1000 voucher.

Unfortunately, I did not answer the call, and by the time I was able to address it at noon, there was no -R- availability out of JFK on 300, 302, or 185, although there was J. The first agent I spoke to wanted to reprice the itinerary and put me on the upgrade list, the Twitter team was willing to move me but not confirm me in J, and the AC agents in DCA were unable or unwilling to do anything since the calling agent did not put any notes in the record.

I'm incredibly disappointed by the lack of coordination between departments, having received three different answers from phone agents, twitter team, and the DCA AC. I felt that the initial offer given on the voicemail was fair. Especially with AA really promoting the new A321T service on this route via press release, I'm quite annoyed at their failure to deliver.

I've given up complaining to customer relations since the Parker regime and Oasisification, but this will be absolutely be followed up on. I'm not expecting much, if anything, though.

Going for great and missing badly.

Perhaps it's just you and not the plane?

Received a random call on Friday from the "Executive Desk" asking if there was anything I thought AA was doing well or could improve on in order to earn more business. I relayed the above poor performance, not expecting anything to really come of it, and today I see 30,000 miles posted as "Customer Relations - Recovery". There is a flicker of hope alive, it seems...