Dad to Rei

I was booked in late December on the 77W DFW - HND in F. It looks like AA Just swapped out of the schedule for a chunk of time the 77W for 772.

I can't see yet when/how long it's gone from that route, but checked days a few prior and post and it's the 772.

I presume as I am on a miles ticket (it was a great reduced mileage award 58K), I am stuck (i.e. they won't transfer me to JAL). My plan at this point is to sit on it, and hope they swap back in the 77W.

firemandan9

Interestingly NRT-DFW has been up-gauged to the 789 from the 788 which of course still lacks first class.

I'd say their is a slim chance of getting your ticket moved to an open JAL award seat without repricing. Don't know if you don't ask

Often1

I would not even begin to be concerned about what aircraft and on what schedule, if any, AA will operate the route in December. I doubt that anybody at AA is even giving this much consideration right now. I would calendar this for November.

Ishrion

DFW-HND on AA will officially inaugurate on July 24 with the 787-8.

Then, on October 24, DFW-HND is on the 77W.

However, on October 25 it switches to the 772.

Not sure if the one-off is a filing error or hasn't been updated.

Looks like it'll remain on the 772 until March 28, 2021 when it upgauges to the original 77W.

Dad to Rei

This is sort of my thought. Really not pressed by this at the moment, and am very much not sure if we will even be able to go on this trip (what will travel look like in 7 months?)

I will be interested in what sort of impact that has on the miles for the flight assuming it stays as the down gauged bird. @ booking, it was 2 pax in F @ 58K Miles, and 1 pax in J @ 45K miles. All three are great mileage deals. Even if I fly in J @ 58K it's still a really good find.

Dad to Rei

That's really helpful and interesting information - may I ask how you found that detail? Id like to be able to find that kind of stuff myself sometimes and have never known.

Ishrion

Dummy bookings on aa.com. Usually helps to know major dates when aircraft are swapped around, such as July 7, July 24, August 18, October 24/25, December 18, March 27/28/29 and some others. Basically just a game of guess and check.

Flying for Fun

USA Nationals are currently not permitted to enter Japan so I don't know how official a July 24th inaugural flight really is. It is unlikely Japan will lift those restrictions in the next 68 days. The USA will likely be one of the last of the 49 nations Japan opens up to; suffice to say, probably not this year.

James

jcore

Using the last of my AA miles, I booked 2 R/T CMH (via DFW) to HND in Jan-2021 first class seats Outbound with return business class. We liked "only 2 rows" in First Class (fewer people). Still not sure about flying, but booked it anyway. I noticed the plane changed and our seats are now in Business class. I asked about (a) if the aircraft is replaced with a larger plane, would we be automatically rebooked back in first class, (b) would we be refunded the miles difference or (c) now I see other flights currently with first class service, been nice if they offered to re-book as we're flexible on departure cities. Thoughts?

I'm Gold. Flights are AA175/AA176. Aircraft was 777-300ER and now is 772-777.

Not sure about COVID, travel restrictions, self-quarantine in Japan, etc, we may not go but at least AA should of called or emailed that our first class seats have been downgraded. Granted the food and beverage probably the same but heck, it took a lifetime of saving miles for this splurge. I'll call Advantage desk but half thinking just to wait and if we don't go, assume we could get a full refund/redeposit without penalties because of the downgrade. Any thoughts appreciated.

platbrownguy

1. see above, wait until at least november (why change it now only to have to change again with inevitable schedule changes)
2. if there is first class availability on other AA flights (even if not award availability), your odds of getting those seats are pretty good when you call and ask -- there's no system that automatically offers alternative flights to you though, in a situation like this
3. i would think twice about spending a "life savings" of miles on covid-time travel. unless things are back to semi-normal, the experience will likely be, shall we say, a let down.
4. have you checked to make sure that similar seats aren't available now at lower mileage rates? if they are, you could cancel & redeposit your current awards (obviously no fee, given the downgrade if not because of covid policies generally), and then buy new cheaper tickets. i mention this only because your OP makes it sound like you paid a lot for these tickets which should only be 160,000 roundtrip per passenger if you got saver tickets. maybe that's a lot of miles to some, but given the memberships in your FT profile, it wouldn't seem like 320,000 miles would be a "life savings" of miles.

Tilto007

Thanks for the heads up,I am on this flight on March 23rd so I just picked my new seats ,I am a little disappointed with the switch.Let us hope that they switch back

jcore

Thanks for response and input. I used 55k (first) and 45k (bus), too hard to pass up! Agree with Covid risks, won't go if second outbreak. We are using Tokyo as connection (with some days layover) before on to Thailand. I have tons of miles on Delta but wanted to use up AA miles.

jcore

Similar experience here, except my flight is Jan-2021. I will wait a few months to inquire and would, if we go, request miles re-imbursed or (preferrably) put on First in another flight. We decided mostly cuz 1st class has 2 rows and the deal (55k) was too hard to pass up. Mostly, I am surprised not even an email or call notifying about the downgrade. Good luck!

apesanteur92

Same thing happened to me for a flight at the end of October, 55K mile booking in First was downgraded to Biz with no notification due to equipment change.

Waiting for the time being to see what happens since it's still many months away and there's a good chance that travel won't even be possible by then - does anyone know if it would automatically shift back to First if the plane changes again?

Biz was 45K at time of booking, going to push to either get the difference refunded and/or get shifted to the JAL direct from New York if nothing changes.

VF7

We also got downgraded to J for our flight in March which would normally be a bummer but ok. Our issue is that we will have an infant in a car seat (Lap child fare would have been $1,600 OW so we just redeemed 55k miles for another award ticket). With the retirement of the 767, there isn't a single business class seat on AA where you can use a car seat. Reps have been extremely unhelpful in trying to find a solution that can actually work for us (waive the crazy lap child fare, put us on JL).

We have plenty of time until the flight so we are hoping that the 77W comes back.