Rules for changing origin airport of an award ticket after a significant award change
Sep 5, 2022, 5:00 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2022
Posts: 218
Rules for changing origin airport of an award ticket after a significant award change
Had a flight booked with an AA web special SFO to BNA via ORD leaving at 11 am. Following the termination of the 11 am SFO to ORD flight for AA, I was moved to the 6 AM flight. Is there any way to have AA change the departure airport to SMF tried once and no dice but wanted to see if it was worth it to HUCA
Sep 5, 2022, 5:53 am
#2
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,638
Had a flight booked with an AA web special SFO to BNA via ORD leaving at 11 am. Following the termination of the 11 am SFO to ORD flight for AA, I was moved to the 6 AM flight. Is there any way to have AA change the departure airport to SMF tried once and no dice but wanted to see if it was worth it to HUCA
Sep 5, 2022, 5:57 am
#3
Join Date: Jan 2022
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 1,472
Definitely call again. This is 100% possible with airports within 300 miles of each other. I tried yesterday to change BUD to ZAG but was told this wasn’t possible only because they were in different countries. I think even this is possible with the right agent as the EU is considered one country for this purpose.
Sep 5, 2022, 7:22 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2022
Posts: 218
Was definitely possible months ago. Try AA Twitter and mention there is a schedule change in excess of 4 hours and you like to change as allow by 300 miles radius policy. On a revenue ticket a change of more than an hour allows for changing to another airport within a 300 mile radius. YMMV with web special.
Sep 5, 2022, 8:19 am
#5
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,377
Definitely call again. This is 100% possible with airports within 300 miles of each other. I tried yesterday to change BUD to ZAG but was told this wasn’t possible only because they were in different countries. I think even this is possible with the right agent as the EU is considered one country for this purpose.
Edit to add: this is with revenue tickets, not sure if it applies to award tickets
Sep 5, 2022, 8:34 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2022
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 1,472
Browsing the AA schedule change rules: "If there are no acceptable options to the customer's original ticketed destination/origin, may book AA space only to an alternate AA airport, within a 300-mile radius of the originally ticketed city within the same country"...so on the surface it seems the agent was correct.
Edit to add: this is with revenue tickets, not sure if it applies to award tickets
Edit to add: this is with revenue tickets, not sure if it applies to award tickets
Sep 5, 2022, 9:07 am
#7
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 202
... unless it suits *their* needs: AA Wanted $30k Change Fee
Browsing the AA schedule change rules: "If there are no acceptable options to the customer's original ticketed destination/origin, may book AA space only to an alternate AA airport, within a 300-mile radius of the originally ticketed city within the same country"...so on the surface it seems the agent was correct.
Edit to add: this is with revenue tickets, not sure if it applies to award tickets
Edit to add: this is with revenue tickets, not sure if it applies to award tickets
Sep 5, 2022, 9:49 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,377
Yep. That's the same rules I've seen. Thing is that the EU is taken to be the same country in this case, even though the EU is not a country or member of the UN, while Croatia and Hungary are. Like I said, I've done it before a couple of times without issue or the agent needing to contact a supervisor. It makes sense this way as most EU countries don't have a second useable airport within 300 miles.
Sep 5, 2022, 2:24 pm
#9
Join Date: Jan 2022
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 1,472
I’ve had luck with it twice earlier this year with SOF and OTP. No problem. I’m sure with another agent I could have made this work. But the rebooking was complicated because of an earlier screwup that involved 2 hours in the chat getting the agent to clean up the mess. I didn’t feel like going through that again so I just accepted that I wasn’t going to get the change from BUD to ZAG. Might get some further changes and I’ll give it another go at that point.