Looking to redeem points IAD-LIS via MAD and IB on J and while I'm finding decent itineraries (115k), after pricing it out I see total taxes and fees totalling $244 per ticket. Is this an IB/partner airline thing?

Flying LAS-JFK on AA and then JFK-LHR on BA. All on one ticket
Will have checked in luggage. Do I need to collect it from Terminal 8 and check it in at Terminal 7?

No, not as long as the AA agent at LAS checks it through to LHR. But if you have an *overnight* connection at JFK that exceeds 12 hours, AA will only check your luggage as far as JFK.

Sign into aa.com, then go to "Your Trips", at the bottom there will be a link to "Search For Another Trip" where you enter the details.

It's definitely not an all partner airline thing, just a "few" partner airlines thing. Awards involving BA & IB incur fuel surcharges. The BA charges are extortionate (think $1k in fees on a roundtrip business award from the US-Europe), while the surcharges on IB are less, but still there.

Thanks! Did that but no luck. Received "We are unable to retrieve your reservation with the information provided". I'm pretty certain my flight information and date provided is correct. Credit card is still pending. Oh well, will just wait it out and dispute since the first flight has already flown.

Given that both an AA agent and aa.com cannot find a reservation for you I highly doubt that your card will end up being charged.

premium economy long haul
 

I'm trying to decide between flying premium economy transatlantic on AA (ATH-ORD on a 787-700, 2-3-2 configuration) vs. AC Rouge (ATH-YYZ on a 767-300, 2-2-2- configuration).

Online reviews of the product & services of AC "Premium Rouge" are quite mixed. Does anyone have any insight as to how AA compares with AC in this case?

Rouge is low cost subsidiary of Air Canada. Plane is old crappy 767 and I don’t think they have IFE.
AA 787 is much better plane in PE

You’re not going to get much input on Air Canada here, I suspect, but read

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...completed.html

787 of course has lower cabin altitude and moister cabin air, so from that perspective - long haul, dehydration , jet lag - the AA 787 will be better for you. Now read about the MiQ PE seat, used in all AA premium economy cabins.

cancelled TATL segment w/o notice, on future trip: normal?
 

AA usually notifies me about small schedule changes on future trips, booked months out. This week, I checked my April RDU-PHL-EDI itinerary and AA had removed the EDI-PHL leg. I called Res; AA279 was cancelled for 4/14, still available surrounding days. The flight was cancelled over two weeks ago. No notice at all. I got it worked out (switched to 4/15, extended hotel, etc.) and filed a complaint re: cancellation with no notice. My question/questions: is it normal to drop a leg for a period of time before doing an actual schedule change? When this has happened before, I would get a notice and a proposed change. Not this time. Is that SOP for cancelling a TATL segment if it's months out? Or is that not a cancellation, but actually a "schedule change"?

2nd question: the response I got was a condescending (to me, anyway) "Sorry you're disappointed about the minor schedule change. we can't notify passengers of each and every, usually minimal, change in schedule as that happens so frequently in airline flights and it would be frustrating and confusing to you, so we only do that much closer to departure. We don't consider goodwill gestures for minor schedule changes because "due to the many variables that impact airline operations, schedule changes are sometimes a necessity." Does that warrant any push-back, or is this just the new "going for great?"

All of that is completely normal, sometimes you get a schedule change notice and sometimes you don't. If you do get a notice, then just adding to the inconsistencies is that sometimes it will come right away, and other times it can be weeks/months later depending on how far out the flight is.

And a flight cancellation like this months in advance is considered a schedule change. AA has changed the schedule so that the PHL-EDI flight does not operate on certain days of the week.

Forget about pushing back or anything like that, again this is all completely normal and you're not going to get anything more than a shoulder shrug. Just be glad that you caught the change in advance and were able to adjust your plans accordingly.

Need help with a SWU - going to CDG on December 6 (Friday) from MSP. Can connect anywhere and want to use a SWU. Am I better of with ORD with a 788 (shwong 6 open seats) or DFW on the 789 (showing 9 open seats) knowning that seat maps lie.

I would honestly just pick whatever works best for your schedule, both of these are about the same.

Looking at EF, ORD-CDG is J2 while both DFW-CDG flights are J3, so not good odds either way.

So u wanted compensation for a minor schedule change???
really isn’t something that is done.