Ask: Is it possible to delay my second segment?

Background: I needed to secure a flight from Italy -> US east coast in mid-august and one-way flights were super expensive, I didn't mind purchasing a round-trip as I was okay visiting Europe again and so purchased the following:

(Priced and purchased on American Airlines)


Segment 1 - August:
Milan -> IAD Dulles (operated by BA)

Segment 2 - September:
Dulles IAD -> Madrid (operated by Iberia)
(Funny enough, I just received an email from Iberia that they had to cancel my original flight and rebooked me on the following day.)

I need to keep segment 1 in place and can't touch it, but I'm open to doing anything with segment 2.

1. Is it possible to change the destination? Could I change it from Madrid to somewhere else in Europe or anywhere that American flies to?
2. If I can't change the Madrid destination, I'd like to push the date as far back as possible, March/April/May of 2025
3. Is there a chance of just getting the second segment as a credit somehow? I think this is unlikely

Thanks!

First of all, you have three segments (legs), not two: MIL-LON, LON-IAD, and IAD-MAD.

Because the operating carrier of the third segment (IAD-MAD) is an EU carrier -- Iberia -- you have certain protections under EC Regulation 261/2004 when the carrier cancels your flight. You might have to cite the regulation when you contact AA to seek either a refund or a later departure date. But you should first familiarize yourself with the regulation:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_...hts_Regulation

(Scroll down to "Cancellation.")

Also, note that there is a validity period on your ticket. In addition, AA is unable to book anything more than 331 days in advance.

Since you haven't even started travel yet it is easy to change this to whatever you want (more or less). It is no problem to change the destination or date of your return portion, you will just pay whatever the fare difference is.

Just go to aa.com or Google Flights etc. and price out what you want to change it to, then call AA.

It is not possible to just get a credit to use on anything if you cancel the return portion after flying the outbound. You would have some value left on the ticket but that could only be applied to another similar US>Europe itinerary.

(Emphasis added.)

Under EC 261/2004, shouldn't a mere date change be free, since the operating carrier -- IB -- cancelled the originally-ticketed IAD-MAD flight?

I would think so (although I'm by no means a EC261 expert), so if the OP just wants to change the date of the return segment they could try that angle first.

Although even if this is supposedly allowed I would expect some pushback from AA asking to change the return segment from Sep. 2024 to something like Mar. 2025 for no charge.

Your return segment needs to be within a year of your departure segment. I moved my PHX-LIS return from October 2023 out to March 2024. Did that after taking the LIS-PHX leg. I paid the difference which was around $100 iirc.

You have booked roundtrip fares which permit open jaw bookings to any destination in EU (Area 2). "Roundtrip" fares still involve a separate fare in each direction of travel (the roundtrip part just refers to the travel requirements for combining these cheaper fares together on one ticket). So you can change destination in EU without a re-fare on outbound fare as it will still meet fare rule requirements for that fare. Basically, just have to continue to meet min stay (typically Sat night/7 days) and max stay (12 month) requirements for the outbound roundtrip fare to keep it which won't be an issue. There is a change fee of EUR 150 on many cheaper coach EU origin fares (EUR 200 for Biz fars) -- since you booked a roundtrip, both outbond and return fares are EU origin fares (similarly, US origin roundtrip bookings book into US origin fare filings for both outbound and return fares which have different pricing/fare rules/penalties from EU origin fares). Change fee would be waived due to schedule change. Suspect it will be a challenge to simply refund return fare while still keeping outbound fare since you would no longer meet roundtrip booking requirement of outbound fare (not clear to me that EC261 rules would require this).

Very helpful info

And yes guv1976 is right - it's Milan -> LON, LON -> IAD and the segment I'm trying to change would be IAD -> MAD

@xliioper - this is very helpful to know

I just spoke to an agent and somehow I ended up with this updated itinerary. I have no idea how these flight systems are coded, but the agent updated some stuff wrong on their side

As a hypothetical thought exercise - what would happen if I showed up and my previous segment had flown