vandykes44

My friend and I booked award flights from Krakow to Grand Rapids several months ago using AA miles. We are to fly from Krakow to Helsinki to Chicago on Finnair, landing in Chicago at 5:25pm and then to Grand Rapids on American at 9:00pm. American dropped their 9:00 flight and so their last flight to GRR leaves at 6:30pm.

I called American today to see what they were going to do because they dropped the ORD to GRR flight from our reservation. Both my friend and I have Global Entry and we won’t be checking any luggage, so it’s possible we could make the 6:30 flight to GRR. We know the drill at ORD and how to go from the International terminal to the domestic terminal. The agent said that she couldn’t book that because they need to allow at least 2 hrs. She said that the only flight she could put us on is the 1:23 flight the following day because that had award seats available. There is a 10:00am flight, but she said she couldn’t book that for us. I also said that I expected they’d cover hotel costs because they were the ones forcing us to overnight, but she said no.

I told her I’d call her back. I wanted to find out from Flyertalk experts what options we have for this final leg. Unfortunately, no other airlines offer later flights to GRR. Thanks for your advice.

Shelley

Antarius

Call back. AA absolutely has the ability to open space on their own flights and can put you on the morning ORD-GRR flight.

enviroian

You can ask them to endorse the 2122 flight to GRR on United. If they won't either spend the night in Chicago for the next morning flight on AA or look at either renting a one way car or Amtrak.

guv1976

(Deleted.)

Cledaybuck

It looks like WN usually has a late flight out of MDW to GRR (depending on what day we are talking about). You might look a taking a uber/cab and catching that flight if you want to be home that night.

Edgewater Folk

I'm infuriated just reading this. I'm sorry you were dismissed with such an unattractive solution. Agree with HUCA.

USFlyerUS

What day is this? I wonder if the morning flight is already booked due to the cancellation. Knowing the day would help research this further.

VFR

AA can open award space on its own flights, so if you can find award space within Europe on BA or IB you could fly KRK-(BA)-LHR-(AA)-ORD/PHL/CLT/DFW-(AA)-GRR. It will take an agent with some know-how to do this with a partner segment.

You can also ask to terminate in Chicago and book a separate ticket on UA (or Amtrak if you are budget-conscious).

They won't rebook on an OAL for an advance schedule change on an award ticket, unless it's a partner with award space.

aisleorwindow

Agree that AA should put you on next available flight, so definitely HUCA.

But if you don't want to spend a night at ORD (and who could blame you for that!), they should be able to put you on a flight to AZO or LAN instead - both of which are about an hour drive from GRR and have flights after 8:30pm (well at least over the summer they do, not sure when you're flying).

Worst case scenario, it's about a 3.5 -4 hour drive at that time of the evening. Might be preferable than getting home a day later.

Another "out of the box" idea is Southern Airways from ORD-MKG if you don't mind sitting on a Cessna for 90 minutes. It's only $79 one-way, usually. According to their website, they DO interline with AA.

UKtravelbear

'knowing the drill' will cut no mustard with the MCT which is what the agent will be seeing when trying to rebook you.

a 1 hr 5 min transit (closer to 50 mins allowing for 15 mins door close time) seems very tight to me especally involving a terminal change

SteveinA2

This is a false statement
AA will rebook on BA regardless of award space
You might be able to connect elsewhere and get to GRR

For the life of me, why do people who don't know what they are talking about give advice

If you don't know then SAY NOTHING

aisleorwindow

This is a good point - maybe try HEL-DFW-GRR

VFR

My best understanding (based on booking award tickets and reading FT threads) is that there is a oneworld liason desk that phone agents can call that can open up award space on partners in certain circumstances, most commonly when that partner cancelled a flight and there is another flight available on that partner. I have not heard of a program that lets AA rebook an award on BA due to an AA-initiated advance schedule change.

Having BA as an option does open up a lot more choices through LHR, so knowing this I would suggest OP research alternate connection points with an AA or BA on the transatlantic segment and have a list of potential options to ask AA for.

tkelvin69

Well, your statement is false. AA might rebook you on BA but will is another issue and certainly won’t overbook on another airline.

People give bad advice all the time, often unknowingly as demonstrated in an election a few years ago. You might rethink your comments.

vandykes44

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions! I knew that you would have some great advice for me. I was honestly pretty surprised when the agent I talked to earlier today was so unwilling to accommodate us after AA had caused the scheduling problem.

I am going to call back to push them to book us on the late United flight. That’s a great option. Otherwise, I’ll see if they will get us on a later flight to Lansing or Kalamazoo. I’m sure my husband will be happy to drive to see me after 2.5 weeks!

Thanks again. I’ve learned so much from reading Flyertalk regularly ever since I did the LatinPass run more than 20 years ago!