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ARCHIVE: 2017 Voluntary Award Change: date, time, routing, airline, co-terminal, cost

Old Jan 5, 2019, 6:51 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: JDiver
Voluntary Award Changes Questionsfor carrier, co-terminal, date, destination, add / drop a segment, origin, routing, cancellation
AAnytime <-> MileSAAver and other changes


Link to the current thread.


NOTE: For involuntary award changes (caused by the operating carriers), see Involuntary Award Changes / What To Do (merged threads).

Ordinarily, one must call to request or make changes to award tickets.

Award changes, ordinary

NOTE: More extensive listing of terms and conditions are listed in oneworld and other all partner awards rules, Information 2015 on

Award carrier, connection, date or routing changes: As long as origin and destination (but read on for exceptions such as first / last segment) remain the same, change / award redeposit fees are usually waived for awards under certain circumstances when date, connection, routing or carrier changes are made But:
Airline / carrier changes incur no change or redeposit fees as long as you do not try to change between all AA oneworld airlines and non-oneworld airlines or vice versa.

E.g. an AA award such as SEA-HNL-SYD using AS can not be changed to use JL without requiring award redeposit. An award using AA LAX-HKG can be changed to JL via NRT or CX Without redeposit ing miles.

If Maximum Permitted Miles (usually 125% of the most direct available routing) for an award is exceeded, two awards may be charged

or

MSC fare requirements: The most significant or prevailing carrier, usually the one with the transoceanic sector, must offer an unconstructed fare between desired origin and destination; if a fare would require "married segments", two awards may be required.
Award validity: Awards must be used within one year of original booking. For travel beyond that, the award miles will have to be redeposited and new awards secured.

Award cancellations can be by phone or online, but online cancellation requires separate action to reinstate the miles. Canceling online does not request or result in miles redeposit.

Award miles reinstatement: Redeposit fees are waived for Executive Platinum members. See here for more information on award miles reinstatement.

"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes and fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)

Co-terminals: For award purposes, there are no co-terminals; changing co-terminal airports (MIA and FLL, PBI; JFK, LGA, EWR etc.) will incur a $150 change fee. See this thread for detail on award miles redeposit.

An award using AS, FJ, HA or TN to South Pacific (e.g. AKL, SYD) can not be changed to AA or QF without requiring award redeposit (or vice versa).

Dropping segments: Awards made on AA or / and "all partner" carriers will allow changes mentioned above without requiring redeposit fees. Instances of dropping an origin segment can be allowed, or a final segment - as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards); changing the mileage (miles required) of the award claimed or the number of awards claimed.

Segments can be dropped as long as doing so does not change the destination zone (or sub-zone, in the case of intra-North America awards). If you are refused, refer agents to the in-house memo/advisory dated 02/03/11 entitled "Dropping OWFA segments." (guv1976)

As JonNYC posted:

This document was current as of December 2014:

For permitted changes and fees, see this post in the airline partner award thread.

See TravelingBetter.com here and illustrations here.

If the award is AA and oneworld, changes may be made as long as the main / governing /Most Significant Carrier makes an unconstructed fare on the award routing and the governing fare's carrier is not changed to one not offering such a fare.

Close-in booking fee: Changes made to bring travel to under 21 days from award issue will incur close-in booking fees of $75.

Schedule changes: On international awards, schedule changes of two hours or longer, or those breaking connections by bringing them below MCT / minimum connection times, flight cancellations, generally may be cancelled and redeposited without fees, or engender greater flexibility in changes. With AA awards, it is possible award seating may be opened when there is none; with partners, AA can appeal to the Liaison to the partner to open seating in these cases (the partner airline may or may not grant the exception requested). Equipment change constitutes a schedule change and you will be able to get the fee waived pre this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Partner changes: If the award includes non-oneworld partners such as AS, EY, FJ or TN, or a oneworld carrier award is changed to include a non-oneworld carrier, or vice versa, significant fees will be incurred ($150).

"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this. (However, taxes may differ, such as going from the discounted U.K. Air Passenger Duty to the full APD if upgrading from Y / PE to J; if there are higher taxes abd fees imposed by the new fare, the passenger is charged for those.)



Changes that require different award type -

Changes to the itinerary which involve different AAdvantage award(s) than originally ticketed require a reinstatement of the original award ticket, payment of the applicable award reinstatement charge (see below), and a new award ticket issued (waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account). However, SAAver awards canceled for AAnytime awards, or changing to a higher class of service, will not incur redeposit fees.

Changes to your outbound travel date, resulting in a departure within 21 days -

Close-in booking fee: A $75 USD award processing charge will apply for a confirmed change to the date on an AAdvantage MileSAAver and AAnytime award ticket if the change results in a new outbound travel date that is within 21 days of the original booking date (waived for AAdvantage elite members using miles from their account).

Contact AAdvantage Reservations to change your itinerary, pay the applicable charge and have your ticket reissued prior to travel.

Canceling Awards / Reinstating Award Tickets
(Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their account)

Award class changes: MileSAAver to AAnytime changes generally incur no fees; conversely, AAnytime to MileSAAver awards generally will.

Award cabin class "upgrades" (e.g. Y to J): If the change made is an increase of miles to another cabin class, fees are not normally charged (but some government required fees such as UK Air Passenger Duty, airport passenger facility fees, etc. may change).

Redepositing awards incurs a fee of $150 other than for Executive Platinum members redepositing to their accounts. If two or more awards are being redeposited to the same account at the same time, the fees are $150 for the first award, $25 for every award thereafter. Note the awards do not have to share the same PNR, though some less knowledgeable agents will insist so.

Note: given a 120 hr / 5 day hold is offered, there is no right to Free cancellation (without redeposit) within 24 hours of securing the award. OTOH, mere date changes to a year from Booking are free of charge in most instances.

Please see: State of the award reinstatement fee (Nov 2015 - clarifying)

FAQ: Cancel award ticket / cancellation (time frame, taxes, etc.) (merged threads)

Link to ARCHIVE 2015-2016: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.

Link to ARCHIVE 2012-14: Award Change for date, time, routing, co-terminal, cost, all changes.




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ARCHIVE: 2017 Voluntary Award Change: date, time, routing, airline, co-terminal, cost

Old Mar 28, 2017, 1:05 pm
  #91  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
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Originally Posted by JJeffrey

Have you looked at Level, the new BA managed transatlantic LCC? They will serve OAK-BCN nonstop and look to have decent premium economy fares.
Level is not managed by BA.

Level is an IAG subsidiary like BA is.

Initially Level will operate with IB planes and staff.
UKtravelbear is offline  
Old Mar 28, 2017, 1:37 pm
  #92  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: San Francisco
Programs: AA EXP; Marriott BonVoy Titanium Elite, Marriott LT Plat.
Posts: 1,717
Can't seem to find Level's website (www.flylevel.com seems to be offline).

Info I see online says tickets are on sale. OAK-BCN nonstop in PE, will consider it...

Yikes is absolutely correct with regards to the charges. If it wasn't for a special occasion, I'd be all for just paying for Y tickets and hope of upgrades with AA status. I'd care less on who's metal we'd fly at that point.
Zacnlinc is offline  
Old Mar 28, 2017, 2:09 pm
  #93  
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Originally Posted by Zacnlinc
Can't seem to find Level's website (www.flylevel.com seems to be offline).

Info I see online says tickets are on sale. OAK-BCN nonstop in PE, will consider it...

Yikes is absolutely correct with regards to the charges. If it wasn't for a special occasion, I'd be all for just paying for Y tickets and hope of upgrades with AA status. I'd care less on who's metal we'd fly at that point.
I think that Level flights are (currently) bookable at Iberia's website.
guv1976 is offline  
Old Apr 1, 2017, 10:09 pm
  #94  
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Manhattan Beach, California
Programs: BMI Diamond Club Gold forever
Posts: 6,350
Award cancelation- Miles not redeposited

I have a recurring problem, where I make an award or two and then cancel and the miles seem to never get redeposited. It has happened again and after 2 requests, I am still not seeing my miles. I am on the road in on the other side of the planet for the next couple of weeks, so the EXP agent suggestion that I call AA customer services during US business hours is not an acceptable answer.

What is the best way to do this from half way around the world? Does it work to flog AA on twitter, can their twitter team take care of this?
stephem is offline  
Old Apr 1, 2017, 10:16 pm
  #95  
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
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Posts: 7,607
Twitter is often effective. A post vs. a DM calling them out usually results in a DM pretty fast offering to help.

Skype calls to the US 800#'s are free. Even if you are +12 hours their hours are long enough that it's not too much of a burden from anywhere on Earth to be fair.

I had this happen and they returned the miles while I was on the phone.

They never refunded the taxes but on the other hand they did not charge the fee to put the miles back which was more than double that. I called them and they said don't worry about it since I was ahead.
ricktoronto is offline  
Old Apr 1, 2017, 10:42 pm
  #96  
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Manhattan Beach, California
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Yeah, I will give that public Twitter blast a try. I have no cost calling globally so that is not the issue. The problem is I have enough US timezone calls to make already and am furious they cannot internally create a ticket to get this done without me making another call at an inconvenient time. Their IT systems (and as a result certain business processes built on top of them) are weak.
stephem is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 4:31 am
  #97  
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 6,407
The last time I had a redeposit issue, customer service told me reservations was supposed to handle it. Reservations had transferred me to customer service. Customer service said many phone agents incorrectly believe that because CS has aadvantage in their name CS is supposed to handle award miles issues. Reservations had done the initial processing, but the miles hadn't reappeared. CS did finally agree to push through the redeposit. I have no idea whether anything reservations or CS told me is true.

Good luck!
richarddd is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 4:41 am
  #98  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,387
Originally Posted by ricktoronto
Twitter is often effective. A post vs. a DM calling them out usually results in a DM pretty fast offering to help.

Skype calls to the US 800#'s are free. Even if you are +12 hours their hours are long enough that it's not too much of a burden from anywhere on Earth to be fair.

I had this happen and they returned the miles while I was on the phone.

They never refunded the taxes but on the other hand they did not charge the fee to put the miles back which was more than double that. I called them and they said don't worry about it since I was ahead.
Wifi calls to the US are free as well, and it doesn't have to be to a 800 number. Was on the phone with AA RTW desk yesterday.
skunker is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 6:53 am
  #99  
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Sorry if this seems obvious, but did you:

1. Ask to cancel the reservation? Or
2. Ask to cancel and redeposit the miles?

1 is useful for people taking advantage of AA's free award date change.
3Cforme is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 7:13 am
  #100  
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It isn't obvious and is very, very useful. Most people presume that they will see a refund because they don't understand the difference between a ticket & a reservation as that difference may not routinely affect them.
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 12:07 pm
  #101  
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Manhattan Beach, California
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Originally Posted by 3Cforme
Sorry if this seems obvious, but did you:

1. Ask to cancel the reservation? Or
2. Ask to cancel and redeposit the miles?

1 is useful for people taking advantage of AA's free award date change.
When I said "after 2 requests, I am still not seeing my miles" I am curious, did you think maybe I made two subsequent requests to again cancal my reservation?
stephem is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 6:52 pm
  #102  
SST
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Posts: 1,960
It took me three attempts to get miles back for a cancelled itinerary with AA, QR and EY flights in it. What finally worked was an email which contained the QR and EY record locators, as well as the AA RLOC. THen, one day later they called me up, apologized for the mess up, refunded all taxes and miles and confirmed everything with both a call and an email.. Try that. I get the feeling that the low level agents that get to initiate mileage refunds have some trouble retrieving the partner carrier RLOCs.

I'm sure it'll work out.
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Old Apr 2, 2017, 10:14 pm
  #103  
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Originally Posted by SST
It took me three attempts to get miles back for a cancelled itinerary with AA, QR and EY flights in it. What finally worked was an email which contained the QR and EY record locators, as well as the AA RLOC. THen, one day later they called me up, apologized for the mess up, refunded all taxes and miles and confirmed everything with both a call and an email.. Try that. I get the feeling that the low level agents that get to initiate mileage refunds have some trouble retrieving the partner carrier RLOCs.

I'm sure it'll work out.
"RLOC". Revolving Line Of Credit? Or are you speaking of PNRs? I've never seen that term used in airline parlance, so I'm asking genuinely.
JDiver is offline  
Old Apr 2, 2017, 11:00 pm
  #104  
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Originally Posted by JDiver
"RLOC". Revolving Line Of Credit? Or are you speaking of PNRs? I've never seen that term used in airline parlance, so I'm asking genuinely.
Record Locator - the use of "reloc" is something I have heard used a lot across airlines
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Old Apr 3, 2017, 7:24 am
  #105  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
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I've been fighting to get some miles posted back for a trip that AA cancelled! For two weeks now.
akersnl is offline  

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