FlyerBeek

But, again, I don't believe AA has any published LAX-ORD fares that permit routing though BOS. The fare was likely split to begin with. In that case, shouldn't the BOS stop be contractually honored regardless of whether it's timed as a connection or stopover in BOS?

To put it another way, if the OP had booked this routing via BOS and then called AA (or tried to do SDC) to get on a different (published) LAX-ORD routing they would most likely be denied because the fare was split.

-FlyerBeek

LINDEGR

So they load them once per week? Is that new - always thought it was monthly?!

seawolf

Schedule changes doesn’t necessarily happen every week but when it does happen it happens around Sunday 12:01AM. My prior response is to illustrate if one was concern about changes, they don’t need to check daily, they only need to check on Sunday mornings.

If it was LAX-BOS and BOS-ORD fare, BOS should be honored. From a ticketing perspective if BOS stop time is 45 min or 12 hours or 54 hours the fare construction would be identical.

ijgordon

I don't think you'd be able to book LAX-BOS-ORD with <4h connection on AA.com as a broken fare, it would probably revert to the through fare, unless, of course, there are no single fares that allow this routing, as was suggested. But the full facts aren't in evidence, so hard to say. The poster's comment that "The first flight I booked in my itinerary was LAX-BOS." doesn't really mean anything.

hbtr

Why are you saying that the ticket sold was from LAX to ORD? As others have pointed out I don’t think AA would even route an LAX-ORD flight through BOS. The first destination that I chose for my itinerary was BOS. And I know the CoC says they can change stopover cities, but that just means they can screw anyone with a multicity itinerary. Per the CoC they could have just as easily dropped ORD as BOS.

When I say “the first flight I booked in my itinerary was LAX-BOS,” that means my intent was to get to Boston and that’s what I booked for the first flight in my itinerary. I don’t know how the fare construction worked for this itinerary, but in the past when I have booked the same itinerary as an award it was booked as 3 awards..

This kind of itinerary change (dropping a stopover city after a schedule change) has happened to me three times, and AA has never pushed back on restoring the original itinerary.

hbtr

no idea how the fare was constructed, but just for laughs I compared the cost of LAX-BOS-ORD to the cost of booking LAX-BOS and BOS-ORD as separate one-way tickets and the cost was almost identical (and way more than LAX-ORD) so my guess is they were two fares combined.

LINDEGR

You have to LOVE airline pricing!

TravelerMSY

There’s a known bug in app rebooker for irrops. I don’t think it will show mixed cabin options as alternatives. It will show Y instead. Be sure to check with an agent before you give up and take the voluntary downgrade.

VegasGambler

Most likely the LAX-ORD fare had routing rules that did not allow transiting BOS, so you were seeing an end-on-end construction.

If you price it in matrix you can know for sure; they show you which fares are used and which segments they cover.

thunderdeacon

When I book web saver awards well in advance, before an impending schedule change, I can often find much cheaper options with a less than convenient connection. However, the majority of the time, they simply get switched to a Non-Stop if the non-stop is available. This is also true for paid tickets where I'm trying to get more segments or meet someone for a little while during a connection. For example, I bought five round trip tickets for me and some family members to go to a wedding in Atlanta in may. I was able to get the tickets for 12,000 mi around trip, which is super cheap, from DFW. However, to get that websaver amount, I had to book a 4 hour connection at ORD on the way there, and a 3 hour connection at DCA on the way back. After the schedule finalization, we were put on non-stop flights with better times. In this case, it worked out great.

Certainly a downgrade from first class is not acceptable, however, and for paid tickets where certain connections are intentional, it's inconvenient. Anytime I have had a paid ticket change the connecting airport or put me on a Non-Stop that I don't want, I have always been able to call and get it fixed. The agents are happy to give me any itinerary I want. I tried to avoid DFW if possible simply because I have zero chance of getting an upgrade. When a connection through another hub becomes non-viable, the algorithm likes to send me through dfw. I have always been able to get it changed to whatever alternate hub I want.