stephanos99

My wife and I have a trip planned to Bali (DPS) from the US on AA/QR 5/11-5/26 (booked thru AA). Itinerary is in business class (paid ticket). Both my wife and I are AA platinum.

My wife felt symptoms and tested positive on 5/5 (as of now, I am negative). She's already on the Covid pills and feeling much better, butI doubt that she'll be able to get a negative PCR test by 5/10 (PCR test required by Indonesia within 48 hours of departure). If we wanted to change our ticket by a few days (PCR test can be waived if you have a recent recovery letter, but you typically can't get that letter prior to 10 days after positive test), does AA treat this as a regular ticket change (i.e. no change fees but you have to pay fare difference), or are there different rules if you need to make a last minute change due to a positive test? We have travel insurance, but all they would cover is refunding anything we can't recover if we canceled the trip. There is no coverage for changes before the trip has commenced. If it's just a regular ticket change, anything that I look at 5+ days out from original departure date is almost 4 times the original ticket cost (or more).

Note to moderator: I searched the "AA Trip Cancellation & Coronavirus: Discussion & Questions" thread but I didn't find an answer relevant to my question, plus the last few questions on that thread have gone unanswered, going back for 2 months. If there's another relevant active thread, please feel free to move my question there. Thanks

DFW_CK

Sorry to hear about your wife and hope she feels better soon. Your hit will be fare difference unfortunately; no accommodations made for the positive test:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...us-updates.jsp

stephanos99

Thanks for the well wishes. I wasn't sure there might be something; I was going by memory from something I saw on United's website when getting ready to check in for a previous trip. It seemed like there was reference to something along the lines of "if you're not feeling well right now, there are options for you to make changes to your trip". Since this issue hadn't come up for us before, I never followed those links to see whether United had a specific policy, and since I'm not within the check in window for the Bali trip, I can't see if American has a similar link in their check in process. I've gone through the various FAQs for both airlines and all I've found are things similar to your link. For both airlines, those links include a lot of outdated information and nothing specific about what to do if something comes up at the last minute. I guess I could go through the motions of buying a fully refundable ticket for a flight within 24 hours to see what might come up, or alternatively get on the phone and stay on hold for ours waiting my turn to talk to an agent. Thanks again.

sexykitten7

I thought there was a meal deal? Didn't gleff cover this yesterday?

DFW_CK

What does this even mean?

mastertrust

I have been told by my internal medicine DR that I could test positive with an antigen test for at least 60 days after my original positive test, even longer for the more sensitive PCR. My Dr. crafted a recovery letter after 5 days with no fever. Double-check with your medical provider on their timeframe for the recovery letter because its very unlikely she will get a negative test anytime soon.

thatmikereed

For the right money, there are doctors out there willing to issue all sorts of letters.

RichieMc

You CAN get positive tests well after infection. But it is mind bogglingly unlikely. If it happened regularly, there would be posts all over this forum. I had a positive test over Christmas and 5 days later I took my fit to fly PCR test and it was negative. And I was pretty sick on days 1, 2 and 3. Can’t guarantee she’ll be negative, but there’s a good chance. And a way better chance than still giving positive result after 60 days. So maybe wait until your day before test comes back before cancelling anything.

cmtlatitudes

JonNYC and Gary Leff just tweeted about the positive circumstance 3-4 days ago. I thought Gary said something about AA's policy being a passenger is able to reschedule a flight without additional cost within 7 days of a positive covid test?

Of course, that wouldn't help if a passenger isn't able to get a negative test result within 7 days, or a letter (if accepted by the destination country).

There was some discussion in the tweets about whether the test had to occur at the airport. But if that's the policy, it's a bit short sighted. My guess is that a fair number of people who tested positive at home, unless deathly sick, would drag themselves to the airport to repeat the test. Even knowing it would expose people, to save significant $$$.

FlyingEgghead

Yes, see here:

awayIgo

Does Indonesia allow entry to individuals with a certificate or letter of Recovery AND proof of an earlier positive test. You need to check it out - a year on the Indonesia forum of Trip Advisor - just an idea.

IggySD

Per Timatic, yes, for a month after your positive test.

”3. Passengers must have a negative COVID-19 PCR or RT-PCR test taken at most 48 hours before departure from the first embarkation point. The test certificate must be in English.
- This does not apply to passengers with a COVID-19 recovery certificate stating that they are no longer contagious. They must have tested positive at most 30 days before departure.“

stephanos99

Most of the information we've come across is that a recovery letter can be provided without further testing (and regardless of any test results) at 10 days after the original positive test. My wife is planning on reaching out to her doctor on Monday morning to check her options.

Yeah, it definitely seems to be random, with the extended positive tests being the exception versus the norm. Though there seems to be no "norm" out there either! I have no plans to cancel until Tuesday night.

Thanks for sharing. I believe in the article (and the related twitter discussion thread) they were talking more about people being stuck overseas due to a positive test right before returning to the US. There didn't seem to be any reference to scenarios of people not being able to initiate their outbound travel to an international destination with testing requirements. Even if the mentioned policy in the article of one allowed change could be applied to outbound travel, what happens then if I catch it while we're in Indonesia and we need another change to return back home? My guess would be that this policy applies only to re-entry to the US (though it is just a guess). If anyone has different information, I'd definitely appreciate it.

Yes, as @IggySD mentioned, a recovery letter (with positive test attached, dated within 30 days of travel) is accepted in lieu of a negative PCR test. But if we can't get that letter at 5 days (or her last minute PCR test still comes back positive), we'd have to cancel. And I wonder how the Indonesian passport control officer would react to a recovery letter issued only 5 days from the positive test (we'll be entering Indonesia 8 days after that original positive test). FWIW, a home antigen test she took today still came out positive, though she only had fever for about the first day (she started feeling better after starting to take the Covid pills).

Right now, I think that everything hinges on either a doctor giving her a recovery letter at 5 days or her getting a negative PCR test on Tuesday. And while she's feeling better already, there's still a difference between "better" and "well enough for a 35+ hour journey"! Keeping our fingers crossed! Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

stephanos99

I reached out to the AA Twitter team and referenced the article and the quote you provided above. They responded that they are researching this and will respond to me by tomorrow.

VegasGambler

Best wishes to the OP, his wife, and their health.

Related topic: Has AA been flexible with international BE tickets in case someone tests positive and can't take their flight back to the US? I'm EXP in case it matters (I know that airlines are often more willing to bend/break rules for higher level elites).

Not that I'm sick or anything, but currently on my way to Mexico on a BE fare and there's always a chance I come down with covid while there. I do have travel insurance (RT booked through Amex Plat) but honestly I haven't really researched whether it would be covered.