skviolet98

I'd like to book a round trip ticket with a long stay but I'm not solid on the return date. Round trip quite a bit cheaper than one way, so just booking two one ways wouldn't make sense. But say I do book a round trip ticket and six months later I decide I want to stay longer before making the return trip, how far out can I move the return trip? And would I be able to cancel the return and get a credit?

Edit: Trip is LIS to PHX, depart on July 19, return (for now) is Dec 27.

VegasGambler

First, if you have miles, you may want to consider booking this as an award, if you can find reasonable availability. Be sure to look at partner awards since they tend to have better availability at more reasonable prices than AA awards. Awards are one way and fully refundable which seem like useful features for your situation.

Having said that, if you book a round trip for cash, and assuming that your ticket can be changed for no fee (don't book basic economy, obviously) but is nonrefundable, if you cancel the return your trip will be re-fared as a one way and you will get a credit for whatever's left over, if anything. As you point out, one ways are much more expensive than half a round trip so you won't get much back. It will be as if you booked a one way originally.

If you change your return after you start travel, it should be refared using historical prices. I'm not completely clear on ticket validity (one year from start of travel vs one year from original booking date -- I think it's one of those but I'm not sure which one)

Seriously, doing this using awards is by far the easiest way if there's anything available for a reasonable amount of miles. I would spend a long time trying to make this work with awards before considering buying a ticket. If you can't find anything with AA or a partner, look at other alliances and see where you can transfer credit card points from.

TravelerMSY

Before you fly the first segment, it’s a year from issue. After you’ve flown the first, AFAIK it’s a year from the date of the first segment. Call AA and they can clarify. Avoid basic economy.

Canceling the return is possible but you won’t get anything close to 50% back due to the disparity in the cost of one ways transatlantic.

guv1976

Unfortunately, the AAdvantage redemption options on July 19 are not very attractive:



(The 30K option on July 18 uses BA, and has a cash component of $262.)

There are 30K redemption options with low cash components currently available for the return trip on December 27.

VegasGambler

I would also look at flying in/out of nearby cities of possible with an award. For example you may be able to get a basic economy flight LAX-PHX for under $100, or a web special for 6500 miles. Same with SFO. When I want flexibility like this, I would much prefer to use awards. It will take some legwork to check all the options but IMO it's worth it.

xliioper

If you just want to be able to change return date, it shouldn't be much of an issue and fare differences shouldn't be that big. The cheaper roundtrip fares have minimum stay requirements (generally 7 days) and as long as you continue to meet that when you change, fare differences won't typically be that large (fares for midweek travel tend to be somewhat cheaper than weekend travel). If you wait too close-in to change, you may have issues with finding flights that still have bucket availability in lower classes. This can be particularly true for flights around Christmas when demand is higher. As others have noted, if you are hoping to simply cancel return and get credit, that is a different story as you will no longer meet roundtrip booking requirements of fare and you likely get little or nothing back as a credit (unless you use it for a return flight from US to EU to meet original roundtrip booking requirement of fares).

skviolet98

Interesting. If I were to cancel the return, it would probably be for something much further out (like the following summer). Are you saying that I could rebook the return to anywhere in the EU and it would still count as a round trip ticket?

skviolet98

I don't have enough rewards for two tickets, which is what I need. And a one way ticket as others have pointed out is much more expensive than a round trip for whatever reason, about twice the cost. I'd be better off just no showing the return leg over buying one way.

S80

It would depend on the exact fare rules of your existing ticket, as well as the one you're trying to book. Besides the stay requirements (or some limits that I've seen), there's also some seasonality restrictions, and those fares may or may not be combinable with your existing ticket, even if there is inventory space.

VegasGambler

Basically when you make your change (after departure) they are going to try to give you the same price as you would have gotten had you booked your new routing initially.

However there are some caveats, because while they will use historical pricing they will not use historical availability. So it may be that today there are extremely cheap fare buckets available but even you go to change it in 6 months there are only expensive fare buckets. They are going to give you today's prices for those expensive buckets.

xliioper

In addition to minimum stay requirements on fares, there are also generally maximum stay requirements on roundtrip fares. Looking at ex-EU fare filings, these generally look to be 12 months. So you should be able to rebook and retain full value of the return fare as long as return is less than 12 months out from departure. You would still have to pay any fare differences (which could be substantial), but you should still at least get the value out of the return fare. Note that BE fares also have change fees for ex-EU fares (currently 150 Euros). But at least they are changeable (ex-US BE fares are non-changeable).

seawolf

In addition to max stay requirements you also have to deal with flight date applicability (eg low/shoulder/peak seasons). So if your original return was winter and you changed your return to summer, you will have to pay a fare difference.

skviolet98

Ahhh yes! THIS is the information I was looking for! Thank you!
What are BE fares? Basic Economy?

I'm cool with paying the fare difference. Thanks!

xliioper

Yes, BE fares are Basic Economy.

S80

Correct