AA schedule changes. How often?
 

I just booked a flight on AA for next May. My question is how often do schedule changes happen? Most of my recent flying has been on either WN, where they hardly ever happen (and the one time it did, I got a phone call with a live person on the other end, twice) and DL, where they happen all the time (sometimes without any notice at all). So my question is, how much to I have to babysit my flight? Thanks.

Generally schedule changes occur quarterly, although there isn't any set schedule. For a couple of years during the merger, they were happening monthly. The best advice is just to monitor your reservations on aa.com for schedule changes, equipment changes, seating changes, etc. I generally do it about once a week.

Also, note that while Southwest rarely made changes after it opened it's schedule, there have been reports in the last several months of schedule changes on them as well. It's best just to monitor all your reservations for all airlines.

Schedules generally change with the season, however, your individual flight may not change, or not change materially. In theory AA is suppose to notify you of any flight changes but doesn't always do so. I'd say check your reservation once every 4-8 weeks to be safe. Equipment can also change meaning possible loss of your assigned seat.

IIRC, schedules are finalized about 90 days out. Up tomthat point, there could be a slight schedule shift in either direction. Happens all the time. Could be 5 minutes, could be an hour.

I booked a December trip last June, not 2 days later they shifted the TATL leg back an hour. A couple weeks later, they moved my connecting flight to that one forward an hour. I could ask for a re-route, and they are pretty good about that provided the start/end points don’t change. (IIRC something about a 150 mile rule, but no idea how/when/if that plays into it all.)

The only reason I have yet to seek a change is the connection is through ORD, and well, the Flagship Lounge beats what they have going on at DFW right now by a country mile. If the FL was open at DFW, I’d have switched the connection as soon as the change happened.

AA and DL have more than 3x the destinations of AA, and much more fleet variety. They also book out farther - to 330 days. I might have said that schedules are firmed 60 days out, not 90 but won't press the point. Don't expect AA to inform of a change more than about 30 days from your flight. Unless you bought tickets directly from AA it isn't AA's duty to inform you (nor rebook you) at all.

Seriously? Even if they make a flight change 90 days out they wouldn't inform me until about 30 days out? Why? To make sure my options are more limited and make it harder to select seats that I paid an extra $50/pp for? Why wouldn't an email automatically be generated when changes to my flight happen?

You clearly haven't been hanging around in the AA neck of the woods long enough ;) It should be that simple, but AA's IT systems can be downright awful at certain things. It really is all over the place with regards to schedule changes, sometimes you might get an email right when it happens, other times it might happen 3 months out and you get an email 30 days before, and still other times you might not get any notification at all. When booking flights months out it pays to be vigilant.

Got it. Sounds like I should keep on eye on it just like I would a DL flight.

I wish they occurred more often! I, too, tend to book a handful of flights pretty far out, oftentimes an award flight that might have multiple connections (when the more convenient routing isn't available). My hope is that something changes on one of those flights letting me book the more desired route. For example, I'm have a BOG>MIA>DTW>ORD award in June. The MIA>DTW>ORD are very tight connections. I'm sure something will change with that and let me move to a direct MIA>ORD flight.

Exactly! Schedule change functionality is NOT a money-making activity -- so airlines have not invested in it. It is basically the same logic/process that has been used for several decades.

Yeah, it's a customer service activity. So that pretty much explains it.

The easiest answer is that more changes might be forthcoming and they don't want to expend the effort to rebook you again.

There are many, many things to complain about in the world of AA IT and service/self-service functions. If you get to EXP you'll probably find mostly experienced, well-trained phone staff. The rest of us...

Is that really any different than DL, WN, or really any other airline? I see IT complaints all the time on just about every other airlines forum (we wont even get into Marriott right now).