brabb12

Hello I need some help. I booked 2 award tickets for my wife and son for next year from LAX-OKJ.(Okayama, Japan.) The routing was LAX-SFO-HND-OKJ in Economy on AA and JAL.

I noticed about a week after that the SFO-NRT had a bunch of award space open in business class so I switched there ticket to a slightly different routing.
LAX-SFO-NRT bus HND-OKJ.

This was booked over the phone since the miles were coming out of two accounts, one for my wife and one for my son. Not a problem, I paid the 5.60 fee per person for the taxes, but I noticed that AA also charged me $150 x 2 for a aaward changing fee. Is this correct? I believe I followed protocol and everything should have been redeposited and recharged a new rate for the miles but that's it.

arlflyer

Edit: Contained incorrect info.

But hey, they get a long flight in JL J - so a small price to pay I suppose.

JonNYC

Can you point to where you think you picked that up? It’s not accurate as far as I can recall.

As far as the OP, I guess it depends on that bus segment at the end, and how AA views that, if they viewed the destination as having changed from HND to NRT, the fee is due.

brabb12

After talking to AA. They told me that I removed the HND-OKJ part myself. That I would want my final destination to be Tokyo. Which I told them that is incorrect. My final destination is OKJ. I only changed the airports for a upgrade in class.

Also if Tokyo was my final destination, why wouldn't I just get off at Tokyo and throw away the HND-OKJ ticket part. That would make more sense since I don't have to pay for a change fee for stopping at Tokyo.

AlwaysAisle

My guess is that OP changed award ticket from LAX-SFO-HND-OKJ to LAX-SFO-NRT, which I suspect that resulted in OP changing the destination of the award ticket which resulted in change fee. If OP changed the award ticket to LAX-SFO-NRT/HND-OKJ, then will that result in change fee?

arlflyer

Well, it sounded vaguely familiar, so I did try to do some digging around and saw some posters commenting as such on blogs (e.g. last comments on https://onemileatatime.com/change-fe...ward-ticket/); the definition of "award type" is also escaping me at the moment - but if class of service is not a different "type" then the AA.com text is irrelevant.

I'll edit my original post - I'm now convinced that I was somehow making it up - I guess I just presumed that anything AA could do to make the program less friendly had already been done? Now I suppose we're giving them ideas.


Oh, is that in fact a bus segment? I'd read it that way too at first - but that's an 8+ hour drive and OP said they'd gone from Y to J, so I thought he was abbreviating "business". If that's in fact some sort of ground segment, then I'd think that would definitely do it.

JonNYC

You changed arrival airport from OKJ to NRT, correct?

JonNYC

Forget the bus segment thing, I was trying (feebly, as it turns out) to figure out why OP was posting “change of transfer airport”

SeeBuyFly

If the new booking was LAX-NRT rather than LAX-OKJ, then the fee is due. If that new booking was made due to agent error, you'll have to take it up with AA. Agents do make mistakes, you have to check and recheck.

PS The mysterious bus is probably from NRT to HND, not to OKJ. Although at this point, maybe the OP will have to take a bus or train to OKJ.

MSPeconomist

Can OP add back a HND/NRT segment to OKJ in order to get the 2 X $150 back? Of course, if it's a RT, these segments would need to be flown.

BTW, there is (limo)bus service between HND and NRT.

JonNYC

Ahhhhh, -that- makes more sense (the bus). Well, that being the case, his award truly -is- just a change of transit airports, so, back to the idea that it should have been fee-free, that it is still SFO-OKJ award before and after.

No.

AlwaysAisle

Re-read OP and I think you are right. OP meant LAS-SFO-NRT/HND-OKJ where NRT/HND will be bus transfer. But sounds like an agent removed HND-OKJ and reissued as LAX-SFO-NRT.

brabb12

Thats what they put down. But I did not. Now AA is trying to find award space to add the HND-OKJ part because they removed it. But there is nothing that is a award ticket. Also the agent said I would they are not refunding the $300 change fee because there was no availability onto the new day that I changed it too.

brabb12

My wifes original route was JUNE 8th for 2x lax-sfo-hnd-okj. I saw the business class avilabity on JAL for SFO-NRT on July 10th. So I changed their routing too LAX-SFO-NRT HND-OKJ.

BUT they didn't add on the HND-OKJ segment. So they just changed it to LAX-SFO-NRT and charged me $300. Also there is no award space for the HND-OKJ within the 24 hour time frame. If I want to add on the hnd-okj flight its gonna cost me 7500 miles x2. Also I had to pay the $300 for the lax-sfo-nrt flight change. Please help.

SeeBuyFly

You may need to remind the agent that there are no J awards on JL domestic; you will need to take a 'voluntary' downgrade. I've had agents look for J only and tell me that there is no availability.

But if indeed there is no Y award availability, guess what...you'll have to take the bus.