ultrasoul

BIG DEVALUATION- No changes to AA segments on International Partner Award Tickets

Hoping an expert or AA insider can chime in on this.

Ticketed in end of April an Advantage Award Partner 60K mileage award ticket- first segment NRT-JFK in Japan airlines U business and second segment connecting JFK-CLT in AA U business (3 hour layover).

Just today a shorter connecting JFK-CLT AA flight opened up but only in T economy

Was told by a supervisor who stated that as of May 4, AA no longer allows voluntary changes of AA segments on partner awards after ticketing.

Meaning that even if an earlier JFK-CLT opened U award inventory that I’m not able to switch it to this earlier connecting flight.

All that can be done is to remove the AA connecting segments from my international partner award and then book the new desired AA segments as a separate booking!!!

This is a BIG screw up to non-hub customers that require an AA domestic connection.

Highly disingenuous of AA to start forcing us to cancel and rebook the entire partner award when partner awards were not supposed to be affected as part of the mileage saaver elimination- especially when the mileage saaver devaluation was back on March 1 this new unpublished devaluation was an internal memo sent on May 4

chicago747

Yeah, the new rules that went in place when they went fully "dynamic" are super unfriendly to the customer. Seems these days the only way to get a change is if there's a schedule change....and even that will probably require HUCA.

As someone who is based in ORD, the compelling reason we've flown AA has always been their FF program. Recently it's felt very Delta-esque.

OP, if your flights are further out I'd sit tight and hope for a schedule change.

chuck1

What??
I have a JAL business class award KIX-LAX on JL then LAX-IAH on AA.
It's been tickted for a couple of months.
I figured it another city pair opened up than I'd prefer to go to (DFW or AUS, etc.) out of LAX at the right mileage/booking code, I could change for free.
This stinks.
By the way, how does one tell if the connecting AA segment is open when checking availability.
Lets say you want to go KIX-LAX on JL. You check dates and find the 60,000 availability in U.
What mileage level has to be open in economy or business to correspond with the long haul JAL award?
Thanks.

guv1976

Did the AA supervisor say that partner award tickets no longer permit same-day standby on earlier flights?

While I agree that this policy change is not customer friendly, if you can still standby for an earlier domestic flight, that could solve the problem in your particular situation.

Centurion

OP is complaining about not being allowed to switch to a shorter layover than a 3 hour layover!!! A lot of us are wondering how you got a layover that is the same day!! Aa had a devaluation enhancement log ago than purposely introduced painfully long overnight layovers.

SK AAR

I suggest to stick to your 3 hour layover at JFK; not the end of the world that perhaps you would have been able to catch an earlier JFK-CLT flight (but in Economy)

beachfan

I thought partner awards were still standard awards that allowed changes. Without 3or4 HUCAs, I wouldn’t believe it.

wylek

I've been trying to follow this across multiple threads. Recent reports in other threads are not encouraging...

Post #8 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35179141-post8.html
Post #9 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35179194-post9.html
Post #19 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35227403-post19.html
Post #20 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35227403-post20.html
Post #455 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35222482-post455.html

LowValueCustomer

Wow, this is despicable, and runs directly contrary to what AA seemingly told VFTW: https://viewfromthewing.com/american...-need-to-know/

aj411

I agrre with chicago 747. If the flights are more than 6 months out, the shcedule will likely change and you should be able to switch to a more preferred alternaitve at that time.
AA says they are trying to not do as many schedule changes under 100 days and looking at updating software to maintain equivalent connection times but as far out as you have to usually book to find the C availability, there will still likely be significant changes

And I agree with another post, the the FF program has been a mjaor reason I stayed with AA over Delta. I hope AA doesnt move to worse-than-delta usage

JJeffrey

Even before the recent award changes there were plenty of bad AA agents who would refuse to change a partner award unless availability existed on all the segments.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if in fact nothing has changed with regards to partner awards, however now there is just added confusion since AA "Flight Awards" can't be changed.

Knowing AA they probably provided minimal to no communications or training on the award changes. The same poorly trained agents and supervisors are just making things up or incorrectly assuming you can't make any changes to any awards now.

ultrasoul

@LowValueCustomer - AA’s conversation with VFTW was in early April about the elimination of mileage saver for all-segment AA awards and the supposed promise that partner awards were not affected (whatever that means).

Taking an extreme view of AA’s statement, eliminating the voluntary changes to AA segments on partner awards has nothing to do with what they said in April which was the promise not to eliminate partner award charts like how they eliminated mileage saver levels for AA only redemptions.

From an technical perspective, I’m wondering if the reality is AA IT taking the easiest path of implementation of the “no changes to AA award flights- only cancel and rebook is allowed” systemwide without considering this would have unintended downstream impacts affecting changes to AA segments on partner award bookings.

Then as a result of many complaints from customers, management not wanting to sink $$$ to fix this IT shortcut then issued this subsequent May 4 memo after-the-fact stating that AA segments cannot be modified on partner tickets as an explanation to customers.


@beachfan @JJeffrey I’m a master at HUCA and I’m sad to report your optimism is misplaced. I’ve HUCA’ed at least 10 times on various days both on weekdays and weekends speaking with different Advantage International desk agents of various seniority at AA as well as several supervisors.

To the agents’ credit, they always start with adding the T economy segment and push it for reissue at which point the system errors out and prevents the re-issue.

Some agents then try to get the helpdesk to override/ troubleshoot the re-issue error. Several other agents agents look at their resources and confirm the May 4 internal memo stating that AA segments on international partner awards cannot have voluntary changes after ticketing. Only partner segments are allowed to be changed after ticketing. If AA segments need to be changed, the entire ticket has to be canceled or the AA segments have to be dropped and booked as a separate ticket.

So this is clearly not an agent issue but a systemic issue that prevents AA segment changes on partner award tickets after ticketing.

Supposedly the only way around this as chicago747 mentioned is if a schedule change happened as confirmed by the different supervisors I spoke to. Knowing AA, I doubt a schedule change is a foolproof magical workaround to this especially when schedule changes are below a certain threshold.

Completely bonkers and a big slap in the face to non-hub flyers who require AA segments in their to connect to international gateway partner connections.

@chicago747 Unfortunately my flight is next week already and this is the window where AA releases a bunch of T economy inventory due to low load factors. Sadly we can’t take advantage of the better connection due to this ridiculous restriction that seemly started a month after the AA Saver elimination (which should have nothing to do with international partner awards)

@Centurion - Because this involved a partner flight, I placed just the international JL segment on the website on hold and then called to have an agent add the AA U segment 3 hour connection flight which was the only one flight option available at the time of booking.

Unfortunately I have the same issue with the return flight- the only available AA connecting segment at the time of booking was a 19 hour layover. Now that the flight date is closer, AA opened up more T economy inventory that can serve as better connections but we are not able to make any changes to the AA segments without canceling the ticket and losing the JAL U inventory

lrdpenn

Non-hub AND captive hub flyers. How many people out of CLT, PHX, PHL, even MIA and DFW to a degree, can fly non-BA partners without connecting in the US?
JFK, ORD, LAX will make out better just from being larger cities that have more partner nonstop service.

Regardless, it dilutes the value of the program. Many of us redeem AA miles for trips fully outside the US

aj411

This. It was already difficult to find combinations with repositioning flights. Now, without being able to add them later and not having through check on baggage/separate PNR. The FF usage is way more difficult and painful (and we already accepted that FF booking might not be the best routings and connections).
Maybe that is the point. You can get more points (especially with credit card) but you can't use them. That was one reason why we left Delta many years ago. Just too difficult to use points.

ultrasoul

crAApflation has joined the room with skypesos and UA'intSeeNothingYet