hurnik

Currently have 2 Etihad First class tickets booked from JFK to AUH continuing onto MLE (business on that leg) via AA miles on 4/13/21.

Yes, a long ways away, but trying to plan (as best as possible) for any issues.
Will they fly their A380? Unknown. Will they even fly their 777? Unknown. I've seem some reports that a week before departure, EY has cancelled the entire flight (ugh), or they'll book you with an illegal layover (due to COVID apparently you can only have an X hour layover and it continually changes).

IF I book a backup set of AA awards on QR, (there seems to be currently J awards from JFK to DOH continuing onto CMB and then Sri Lankan from CMB to MLE I believe), what would likely happen if:

1) I book the same departure date of 4/13/21? I'm guessing AA's system would see I'm double-booked and cancel one of the flights?

2) Book the QR flights like 2 days ahead (ie: 4/11/21)? (I'd rather have to spend 2 more days in Maldives--haha) vs. waiting and having my entire flight cancelled a week prior and not be able to get any J/F Award tickets there.

Now, you may also ask, why not just cancel the EY tickets and just book QR? Well, we'd really like to try the A380 apartments if possible (again, no guarantees). And no guarantee QR won't cancel the flight either (thought I just read somewhere, either on FT or Trip Advisor that QR cancelled someone's entire flight so they had to leave the day before or after which threw a monkey wrench with the Maldives 72-hour COVID test requirements).

Thanks for any advice, just trying to hedge my bets as best I can.

GlobalMatt

First off, I hope you get the Etihad apartment!

There is another FT thread here that has been tracking what's going on with F inventory as a whole. Seems like per COVID they have stopped the apartment service, and blocked F inventory. It also looks like on a weekly basis they have been swapping to their 789 fleet in some markets.

According to OMAT in a now slightly outdated article, they've been flying 77W's with F out of JFK (at least they're suites?) while the entire A380 fleet remains grounded or used for cargo ops. A recent article mentions that Vincent Frascogna (VP of Americas, Etihad) may begin phasing the A380 routes back into the US market in Q1 of 2021, but they have not announced anything concrete as of yet.

JJeffrey

As long as your flights are not on AA metal then nothing will happen in either scenario, as long as you immediately ticket the duplicate QR reservation (don't leave it on hold).

For scenario #1 (same dates) about the worst that would happen is AA might call and ask which reservation you intend to use. Even this is unlikely with the flights being on EY and QR (not AA).

For scenario #2 (different dates) absolutely nothing will happen.

In spite of the often repeated internet lore AA's systems typically do not just arbitrarily cancel an overlapping reservation as long as they are both ticketed, not on hold.

hurnik

Thanks all! Very helpful/useful information. Much appreciated!