Changing or dropping last segment of a AA partner award...Possible?
 

Hi all,

I booked my family ORD-CLT-LHR-BCN in business class with AAdvantage miles. The first two segments are in AA metal, and the last segment with BA. Due to lack of miles, I had to book mine later and there was no availability of the same flight. So I booked ORD-CLT-LHR-OPO instead, and called to change the last segment of the flight to BCN. The agent said there was no availability for LHR-BCN award. I then asked if I could drop the last segment of the flight, thinking I'd just book the connection myself. The agent's answer is that it cannot be done, as the reservation would become "Flight Award". My questions are:

1) Is the agent right in that I cannot simply drop the last segment of the itinerary? Or should I HUCA?
2) From the reading I've done, it seems that changes to the AA partner award can be done if the change does not involve the AA segments (which is my scenario). Is that correct? Does this mean if/once a BA flight LHR-BCN becomes available on AA, I can call to change the last segment?
3) Can I just abandon this last segment and buy a separate ticket to BCN?

Thank you!

1) It makes sense that you can't just drop the BA segment off the end since that would in fact change the award type from a partner award to a flight award.

2) In theory yes, if LHR-BCN opens up then you should still be able to change the last segment to that. However many agents are poorly trained and either don't know how to do it or insist that changes cannot be made to any awards at all. So this may take a lot of HUCA to accomplish.

3) It won't be any problem if you throw away the LHR-OPO segment and just book a separate LHR-BCN. Obviously don't do this if you have any checked bags as they will be tagged to OPO. When you land at LHR pull up your reservation at aa.com and cancel it, this will remove you from the LHR-OPO flight. Then just go through flight connections like usual with your separate LHR-BCN boarding pass.

I just did something similar and you cannot call and ask to drop because it would reprice as a dynamic AA award, probably 100k more miles 🤣

I found on our Christmas flight 2 weeks ago that you can no longer cancel from the app, so the pax just no-showed the last segment. Be careful that all the bags get tagged to the BCN travelers!

Thanks for the info. Perhaps I just have to abandon that last BA segment. However, looking at flights from LHR, only BA flies LHR direct to BCN around that arrival time. If I book a separate flight, would that make my "intention" too obvious? Should I pick a different airline (i.e. easyJet, but that means I'd have to travel to LGW)?

If you don't want to take that chance, just don't put your AA FF# on the flight.

Don't worry about it and just follow the instructions I laid out above, i.e. just cancel your original itinerary as soon as you land at LHR.

Since it will be booked with BA (afaik AA won't sell you a cash ticket LHR-BCN), they only pull the FF# for purposes of status (for benefits) - they only send the information over for credits after the flight has been flown. So yes, AA will know about it eventually, but I wouldn't worry as it won't appear as a duplicate reservation.

My recollection is that even when dropping segments was more commonplace there is/was a requirement that it cannot cause a change in the starting or ending country (possibly because it almost always causes a change in taxes/fees).

Thanks you all for the suggestions. I've learned a lot from this process. This morning I was able to find a business ticket LHR-BCN on the AA website site, so I just called to change the last segment from LGW-OPO to LHR-BCN. So I don't have to abandon that last segment after all! Thanks again!

Thanks. I have found on the AA website a business award LHR-BCN on BA, so I called to change the last segment from LGW-OPO to LHR-BCN. Now I don't have to abandon the last segment anymore! Thanks again

The rule was that you could not change the starting country, or the ending zone (award region). So changing U.S.-BCN to U S.-LIS would have been permitted; but changing BCN-U.S. to LIS-U.S. would not have been.

For an award ticket, I want to fly CDG-LAX all on AA, which is pricing at 180k in J
CDG-JFK is 100k in J
CDG-JFK-MIA is 70k in J

Can I book CDG-JFK-MIA at 70k miles, cancel or no-show for the JFK-MIA segment once I arrive in JFK and pre-book now a JFK-LAX revenue ticket?

Keep in mind a few things, you bought a ticket to MIA, if there is an issue along the way you could be rerouted to MIA in a way that you don’t go thru JFK, skipping the last segment is actually against the rules, you aren’t too likely to get caught but if you do there are penalties, you have no real protection if you are late and miss your jfk to lax flight, many people would probably book the lax flight on delta to remain under the radar, if you book on aa don’t put in your ff number as that will greatly increase your chances of getting flagged and having the overlapping flight cancelled

in the end the answer is what you are doing is not permitted though often done but it comes with risks that might not be worth 30,000 miles of savings

I’ve dropped the last leg of an award and flown something else before. It can work, but note the drawbacks below.

I searched for an award on JAL, HND-ORD. No go. But there was an award HND-ORD-EWR on the date in question. I booked it since any award to the DC metro area does not route on JAL. Instead of taking the train from EWR to DC, I want to cancel the last segment after arriving in ORD and fly on a separate ticket to DC. I will check 1 bag in HND, but since I have to collect the bag in ORD, is there an issue if I then cancel the last segment after collecting my bag?