redtop43

Mods, relocate if appropriate.

My brother wants to take his wife and son to the Super Bowl. (Our family are life-long Eagles fans. My father died in November 2018, and I feel a lot better knowing that I was able to watch the 2018 Super Bowl with him where the Eagles finally won, beating the Patriots.) He lives near Lancaster, PA.

Somewhat surprisingly, I was able to find 3 award tickets PHL-SEA-PHX and return for the dates he wanted for 25K miles each. So of course I booked them. This morning he forwarded me an email which showed a new routing PHL-ORD-SEA-PHX and PHX-SEA-DFW-PHL. Strangely, the email only showed the travel to/from SEA with no mention of PHX. Perhaps this was because the SEA-PHX and PHX-SEA segments were on AS.

So I'm planning to call later today (I'm EXP, he and his family are gate lice). There are several nonstops. Cash fares are around $1300 RT (surprise!). Of course, normally they will be flexible when they've mucked up your travel plans. Any reason to think they will dig in their heels and say "No No No you booked SEA-PHX and PHX-SEA on AS and on AS you shall stay, no matter how hard it is to get to SEA?" It appears there is only one non-stop in each direction currently on AA and the times are not at all suitable to getting to/from PHX.

JJeffrey

Given that it was AA's schedule change causing the extra connection hopefully they will work with you.

As with any of these schedule change questions it's really a good agent bad agent situation, a good agent will have no problem switching you to something better while a bad agent will say they can't for X Y Z reasons.

If the first agent refuses just thank them and say you need to think about it and HUCA. When you call don't mention anything about the Super Bowl.

PHL

Agreed with above. When you call just tell them your routing significantly changed and you wish to be given a more reasonable routing that matches your original booking. You can ask about the nonstop, but if that fails ask them about a routing through ORD, DFW, CLT. Since, with AS, it's effectively a OW routing, they should be able to offer flexibility. Of course, this is all predicated on the Eaglets going all the way. It could all be moot by the end of December.

jtav559

Life long Eagles fan? And you fly AA? You are a glutton for punishment!

Agreed, would not mention anything about the SB on the call. HUCA till you get what you want. I would imagine a EXP line agent would be able to sort this out in very short order.
Of course, if you had some "pre-selected" routings available for the agent, in terms of what you would ideally want to switch to, that seems to be a golden ticket into getting what you want.

Tanic

Speaking of punishment, F9 has nonstops at very reasonable prices.

steveholt

If you had an initial booking from PHL-XXX-PHX and you were rebooked onto a routing that doesn't have you ending up in PHX, AA needs to and will have no trouble rebooking you on a flight that ends in PHX. Full stop. If there's no AS availability, agents should rebook you on AA metal at whatever the initial price you paid. If an agent says otherwise, HUCB or ask for a supervisor. You may also want to ask the Twitter team, which I've found to be very good about this stuff.

redtop43

F9 is an option, they flew that to Denver either earlier this season or last season, I forget. There was some reason it wasn't as appealing, I think because I got a good fare (25K points round-trip per ticket).

I called and got a song-and-dance from the AAgent. He claimed he couldn't see ANY award tickets, even though they're available on the website, and he said I could go book it myself but TBH I don't want to pay the big increase in miles. He also suggested I write to customer service, which I did, but I think they will likely tell me (and I'm using the polite form here) to go pound sand.

JJeffrey

As soon as an agent gives pushback like that just thank them and HUCA. Writing to customer service is a waste of time and won't accomplish anything for a reservations issue like this, they're just saying that to get you off the phone.

steveholt

Agent either didn't know what they were doing or didn't understand that there had been a involuntary schedule change. Hang up and call back. AA is not doing you a favor. They're obligated to rebook you.

Here is what you need to say:

1) I had a roundtrip routing from PHL to PHX on (dates). My ticket was purchased using miles and confirmed.
2) Recently, there was a schedule change initiated by one of the carriers on the ticket and the system did not automatically rebook me to my final destination.
3) AA needs to rebook me from PHL to PHX on these dates.
(optional)
4) These are the flights I would like to rebooked on, as my prior routing was one stop.

If the agent mentions anything about the price going up or no availability, reiterate: this was a schedule change initiated by one of the carriers and AA needs to rebook me. If they say the carrier has no availability, say that AA is obligated to rebook on their own metal, which they have unlimited access to grab. If you get bored of dealing with agents, either go to Twitter or ask for a supervisor. Any competent agent should take care of this in about two minutes.

iadisgreat

In these cases I always go to Twitter and the conversation almost always goes like this -

Me - Hi, I had a schedule change on <PNR> causing <issue I don't find acceptable>. Can you please rebook me on <routing that I looked up ahead of time>?
Them - This has been done and sent for ticketing. You should receive an email soon. Looking forward to seeing you onboard soon!

One time (on an award) the response was -

Them - There's no award space on your requested flights.
Me - AA caused this schedule change, so my understanding is that you can correct it regardless of award space.
Them - Oh, we didn't realize it was a schedule change, we have updated your itinerary and sent it for ticketing...

I have never needed to call in to get these kind of issues resolved (award or paid).

Cledaybuck

F9 nonstop beats PHL-ORD-SEA-PHX IMO. Especially in February.

redtop43

HUCA is your friend.

The second time I called, the AAgent got them moved to nonstops in both directions.

VegasGambler

booking award tickets (fully refundable) was definitely a smart move

bgasser

If the OP has to buy 3 Superbowl tickets, the $1300 will be the least of his expenses I can only imagine what hotels and game tixs will cost you.

redtop43

He tracked the prices last year, and found that the best time to buy tickets was the Friday before the game, and they were $3000 each. Clearly not 40-yard-line in the lower deck.

He was able to get a reasonably priced hotel room by buying IHG points and he found a LaQuinta that hadn't priced their rooms into the stratosphere, 25K points round-trip PHL-PHX is a decent price even for a non-peak period. About 3-4 weeks ago he was planning to go only if the Eagles qualified, and at that time I suggested he make a sizeable wager on the Eagles winning the NFC as a hedge, but they he decided to go regardless.

Now me personally, I'd have a hard time telling my kid "Sorry the college fund is a little light, becuse we dropped that 15 grand going to the Super Bowl when you were in the seventh grade." I mean, it's enough to move the needle.