Gift cards cannot be used to pay for the taxes/fees on award tickets, so even if your flight was originating in the US you still wouldn't be able to use it. But to answer your question no, there are no real workarounds to use gift cards on flights that don't originate in the US etc.

i am flying business class to bcn but stopping in phl , would i have access to lax flagship lounge? My leg from lax to phl is first but phl to bcn is business

PHL-BCN in Business should get Flagship Loungevaccess at LAX as well.

Thanks for info. I plan to fly to Barcelona but have layover in PHL for 12 hours, can the airport store my luggage during that time?
My final destination is BCN. But since I am flying from LAX to PHL , i arrive to phl at 6:00 am , but my flight to bcn is at 7:00 pm the same day

AA usually has a baggage connection cutoff of 12 hours. Try through checking, but they might deny you.

Is that 12 hours from the time you land or the time you fly? I plan to land on PHL at 6:00 AM. But that say day I will fly to BCN from 7:00 PM. So it is about 13 hours. But is it possible for me to stay in the centurion lounge for an hour and then drop off luggage from the 12 hour mark? Also, one of the passenger is Platinum Pro but not sure if that makes a difference

Suggest that you call AA and ask. The fact that AA will allow you to through-check a bag on a less-than-12-hour connection does not necessarily mean that AA will let you check bags in at PHL 12 hours before departure time.

I'm flying ORD-DFW (AA 1106) on April 16th. The flight originally left at 11:45am but now leaves at 10:50 (55 min net change). I booked through American Express Travel so I called them up and requested to change to a later flight that day. They are insisting that because the change is under an hour that a fee will apply. My reading of the guide here is that "If the Schedule Change is: 59 minutes or less - May book AA or AA* (any AA Codeshare) flights for the same travel dates, origination/destination, same inventory as originally ticketed" means they should rebook me without fees. Am I reading that correctly? Is Amex wrong?

I would certainly try a few HUCAs with Amex.

AMEX Travel sells some changeable fares, actually more than AA. But as a travel agency, they can superimpose other requirements to the airkine’s. So you can have a fare AA detailed fare rules allow specified changes on, but the selling travel agency as “ticket owner” can impose more restrictive rules.

That’s one of the problems one can expect with OTAs - some may not refund cancellations even though the airline might have refunded or vouchered all but a change fee.

Hello,

When is the best time to check in for a Basic Economy fare to try to score the best seats? I know with Frontier I always check in as late as possible (like an hour before takeoff) and it usually works pretty well. Is AA Basic Economy set up the same way? Or should I try to check in as early as possible?

Thanks!

Hi - Probably a Newbie question;

Hoping I'll be able to make a SDFC to my current booking IAD>CLT>MSY. I know you can only make those changes 24hours in advance of the flight you want to change to. I want to check if that 24hours is from the first leg or any flights in the booking? So;

Does that mean it needs to be T-24 to the new IAD>CLT flight or the 2nd leg CLT>MSY?

Thanks :)

Hello Folks,
AA Platinum traveling economy for my employer.
Just found out I need to be in Sydney (Dep from PHL Sat) Monday morning, have to be home Thursday. Trying to decode best rate of return booking straight AA or straight Qantas. See the flights but don't want to miss out on the most. Looks like class K on AA flights, not sure what economy class is on Qantas. $2900 on AA, $3500 on Qantas.

Help appreciated.
Dave

Money matters, even if its your employers
Can your employer pay for premium economy? (not economy plus)

QF do not fly from PHL so the first flight will be an AA codeshare
QF fly from JFK(via LAX), DFW, LAX & SFO to SYD

Most(all?) the flights ex USA land at SYD very early morning.
You would probably earn more AA miles/status on a AA ticket/flight number than QF, but will need to do the calculation.

With AA you could upgrade with AA ff miles/instrument. But hard. AA thread--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...iscussion.html
On QF you will not be able to upgrade with AA ff miles.

Be aware of the date line changes USA<----->Australia
You skip a day going to Au.

Information

• Airport info SYDNEY (SYD) - amenities, transfers, transport Click to open the wiki
  
• Australia immigration (incl ETA visa) & customs
  
• Smartgate at Australia & NZ immigration Click to open the wiki
  
• Free Australian ETA Visa application* Click to open the wiki
  Processing Australian ETAs for free * to FT members (and up to 3 more friends & family) who have more than 80 posts, AND have at least been members for more than 12 months! Please read post 1. Thanks to Guy Betsy for his service to the FT community
  
• Au Government web site link --> Australian Electronic Travel Authority AUD$20. For passports holders from Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Hong Kong (SAR PRC), Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and United States. Beware of non government 3rd party look-a-like web sites that charge more, often found with a browser web search.
  

Thank you,
I cannot find a PE fare less than $6k so suck it up on AA metal it looks like to and take their 380 to DFW back.

Best Regards,
Dave