MikeShores

I was flying JFK-AUS on 6/20 and when the travel alert was issued the day before (thunderstorms) I began researching what options I might have available. Almost all of them (on AA/partners) would have been through LAX the next day, arriving in AUS in the mid-late evening. I then looked at availability to LHR, and then onward to AUS on the BA flight, and that would have netted a 4:15 pm arrival into AUS - the earliest possible arrival. Luckily, my flight operated as scheduled with no delays and this became a non-issue. I am curious, however, if this kind of reroute would have even been allowed. I'm an Admiral's Club member and I'm platinum pro, so those two factors might affect the actuality of this being possible. For the record, I did have my passport with me (That BA flight to/from LHR almost always has a couple of seats - though usually premium cabins) along with my paper voucher from a previous VDB and a reasonable amount of miles if I would have been able to use them to go Y->J or Y->PE or any of those options. The biggest bottleneck I have found traveling this summer and experiencing the IRROPS from all the weather so far is getting into/out of Austin, there's just not very many seats available and one cancellation can easily eat them all up.

ShortDog

No.

Still no.

Most definitely still no.

SEA-Flyer

I can't say I've ever heard of a reroute on a domestic-only itinerary to a international routing. On an itinerary that is already international, more crazy things are possible.

Craziest I've every been offered is when flying business class AF CDG-AMS / DL AMS-SEA and the CDG-AMS had a mechanical problem, AF proposed a reroute of AF CDG-NRT / DL HND-SEA as the fastest way to get back to Seattle. I declined that and flew DL CDG-SEA nonstop the next day.

fotographer

on a side note.. many many years ago, I needed to get to LAX from ATL. for some reason the fares at that time were over $1200 rt
found the following for under $700 , and much to the annoyance of my wife took it.
ATL to LHR to LAX to LHR to ATL... I know call me crazy, but got a few miles out of that one..

swingaling

TexasAussie

What you're describing would be a 6th freedom of air flight (cabotage). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt that BA could route you US-UK-US on a through ticket, as they do not have the right to fly pax from US to US. I know this was an issue in the past with JAL (i think) issuing tickets GUM-NRT-US, which is technically US-Japan-US, for which they received fines IIRC. Don't think it matters if you have seperate tickets for each leg, but on a through ticket I doubt it would be possible to even book.

Antarius

I had inquired about this a few weeks ago here as I was in a similar situation.

A few years ago, I got an IRROPS rebooking via MEX (USA-MEX-USA), however it sounds like that should not have happened.

cedric

Cabotage applies to *selling* a ticket via a 2nd country.
In this case, the ticket was not sold via LHR so the itinerary would not fall under this heading.
Back when US was in Star, they happily issued me an award ticket YYZ-ORD-YVR since it wasn't a revenue ticket. No cabotage there.

However, that doesn't preclude the itinerary from not being issued because it's not a logical connection spot between those two airports.

arlflyer

"And $5000 worth of doctor's bills later, I could even use my legs again, too!"

paperwastage

no, US law for cabotage doesn't say ticket has to be sold

It just says that if someone/something is transported between two points in US by a foreign carrier
​​​​​​

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/19/122.165

You can buy two separate tickets that triggers cabotage. Award tickets isn't mentioned, but I would expect it to fall in scope too. If you did JFK-LHR(AA) and LHR-LAX(BA), it doesn't count as cabotage
https://pro.delta.com/content/agency.../cabotage.html


https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-...-cabotage-laws

guv1976

But AA flies JFK-LHR too.

C17PSGR

Hmmm

"Those "straightforward cases" could include:

• Continuous transportation, including short stopovers that are incidental to or otherwise do not break the continuity of the trip."


Isn't that also called a mileage run ....

flyingislove

Haha, definitely should not have happened, but very nice!

IAHtraveler

A few years ago, I was going somewhere (don't remember the details)-PHL-YYZ. PHL-YYZ was cancelled for MX and no seats available the rest of the day. We were trying to piece something together to go PHL-ROC or BUF. The Admirals Club agents in PHL were convinced that I couldn't change an international ticket to domestic, even in IRROPS. After discussing with everyone there, and making a call or two, they finally agreed to reissue the ticket to BUF. So I'm guessing you'd have even more pushback going from domestic->int'l, even for a connection.

teemuflyer

Was it with AA? If so, no issue aside for a kind of wild rerouting. As AA is a US carrier, it would not be considered cabotage. And in the case of the OP, if somehow they "allowed" JFK-LHR-AUS, and the first segment was on AA, there shouldn't be a issue from a cabotage perspective.