AA Drops Many Change Fees, Enhances Basic Economy, Other Benefits,

Oct 17, 20, 4:41 am - Wikipost

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Last edit by: JDiver
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Effective immediately, AA has implemented a number of changes mostly beneficial to flyers. — link

* No more change fees. Change fees for all domestic and short-haul international flying on Premium Cabin fares and most Main Cabin fares will be eliminated.

* Fly standby for free. All customers will have the ability to fly standby on earlier flights for the same destination on the same day at no charge starting Oct. 1, 2020.

* More to Basic Economy. Basic Economy fares now come with the ability to tailor your travel experience including upgrades, Preferred and Main Cabin Extra seats, priority boarding and same-day flight changes.

* Same AAdvantage® benefits during your journey, no matter the fare. AAdvantage® elite members will be able to apply their current travel benefits on all tickets, including when purchasing a Basic Economy fare.

NB: Basic economy fares will no longer earn elite qualifying miles, dollars, or segments effective Jan 1, 2021.

See post # 1 for screen shots of the AA release and features.

See post # 99 for change fee waiver for ALL flights purchased by 31 Dec 2020

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Aug 31, 20, 11:13 am

JDiver

Moderator: American AAdvantage, TAP, Mexico, Technical Support and Feedback, and The Suggestion Box

Original Poster

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AA Drops Many Change Fees, Enhances Basic Economy, Other Benefits,

Effective immediately, AA has implemented a number of changes mostly beneficial to flyers. — link

ksucats, N830MH and nk15 like this.

Last edited by JDiver; Aug 31, 20 at 3:14 pm

Aug 31, 20, 1:41 pm

potus18

Join Date: May 2017

Location: San Francisco

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 311

AA Eliminates Many Change Fees, Other Benefits 31 Aug 2020

Also: fly standby for free, upgrades + MCE + AAdvantage benefits on BE tickets (though no EQD/EQM/EQS).

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...8/default.aspx

Last edited by potus18; Aug 31, 20 at 1:47 pm

Aug 31, 20, 1:57 pm

N830MH

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Location: Phoenix, AZ

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Quote:

Originally Posted by potus18

https://twitter.com/DeItaOne/status/1300518894357172224

Also: fly standby for free, upgrades + MCE + AAdvantage benefits on BE tickets (though no EQD/EQM/EQS).

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...8/default.aspx

Yes! Just like the old days. They will put you standby list and else. Remember the old days??? PPPM.

Aug 31, 20, 2:21 pm

flyerCO

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Quote:

Originally Posted by N830MH

Yes! Just like the old days. They will put you standby list and else. Remember the old days??? PPPM.

However the flights won't count for status.

Aug 31, 20, 2:23 pm

NYC Flyer

Join Date: Dec 1999

Location: LAX or NYC

Programs: AA Gold/MM; AS Gold 75K; Travel Leaders

Posts: 702

Quote:

Originally Posted by potus18

Well, AA has used the last day to more fully think through this vs UA. Sometimes following makes sense.

You have to fly main cabin to EARN status (NB: these fares to rise faster than BE fares as soon as the market can bear).

You can preserve benefits when flying with the kiddies or can't justify the main cabin fare.

Plus, they realized the customer service nightmare of voiding unused ticket value when the new ticket is cheaper. Smart, IMHO.

bedelman and Spanish like this.

Last edited by NYC Flyer; Aug 31, 20 at 2:24 pm Reason: grammar

Aug 31, 20, 2:29 pm

DMPHL

Join Date: Jul 2009

Location: NYC

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Posts: 921

A great one-up of the announced UA and DL changes, with AA issuing vouchers for the fare difference if the new flight is cheaper than the original.

the phoenix likes this.

Aug 31, 20, 2:34 pm

NYC Flyer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DMPHL

A great one-up of the announced UA and DL changes, with AA issuing vouchers for the fare difference if the new flight is cheaper than the original.

Yes!, and keeping bennies on BE fares is a huge bonus for lifetime status holders, unless they plan to devalue that (again) too. I fear lifetime status could become lifetime* at some point when we are not booking fares that are expensive enough for AA's taste.

LovePrunes likes this.

Last edited by NYC Flyer; Aug 31, 20 at 2:36 pm Reason: grammar

Aug 31, 20, 2:37 pm

swag

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Posts: 13,325

Compared to UA, AA:
- includes Canada & Mexico
- vouchers for price drops
- elite benefits on MCE tickets

Sweet.

GrumpyYoungMan and cuthroat like this.

Aug 31, 20, 2:41 pm

olouie

Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 2,416

Is the AA policy only for new tickets or previous issued tickets as well? I just had to pay a change fee so pretty annoyed at myself that I didn't wait it out.

Aug 31, 20, 2:51 pm

#10

stevej0531

Join Date: Jan 2008

Location: Boston

Programs: AA EXP, BA Gold

Posts: 24

WSJ: American, Delta End Domestic Change Fees

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they were removing change fees on most domestic flights, as the levies emerged as a new competitive battleground among airlines.
The moves by the two largest U.S. carriers comes a day after United Airlines said that it is permanently ending flight change fees for most domestic flights, in the latest effort to boost demand in an air-travel industry hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/america...=djemalertNEWS

N830MH likes this.

Aug 31, 20, 3:17 pm

#11

JDiver

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Quote:

Originally Posted by olouie

Is the AA policy only for new tickets or previous issued tickets as well? I just had to pay a change fee so pretty annoyed at myself that I didn't wait it out.

id suggest it’s worth a call or DM to try to get this reversed.

Aug 31, 20, 3:33 pm

#12

IADCAflyer

Join Date: Sep 2000

Location: DCA/IAD

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Posts: 5,749

Wow. How long will this last?

NYC Flyer likes this.

Aug 31, 20, 3:37 pm

#13

ChurnieEls

Join Date: Dec 2018

Programs: $9 Fare Club

Posts: 183

Interesting to see longer term how this shakes out, obviously its initially great for everyone but no EQM/EQD from 1.1.21 means you'll need to choose between paying more for status or being something of a free agent (with no benefits). Further curve ball if corporate travel policies pivot to B fares now you can change/standby them, that'd mean no status earning for road warriors.

Long term I see this reducing the pool of elites - lifetimers the real winners here I think.