Antarius

Chalk this up to a lesson learned - AA may cancel duplicate bookings.

AA agents dont know everything and some like to make stuff up. Regardless, the onus of following the CoC and T&Cs is on you, and you attest to agreeing to them when you check the box and book a flight.

tubulus

Well, this story just got even more ridiculous.

Logged in this morning and the flight doesn't exist anymore. We were booked on one of the 10:25pm flights JFK-FCO. (My kids and I were already booked in business on the flight). Now it looks like they took that late flight off the schedule and when I log in this morning we are now on the 4:55pm.

Only problem, I can't take that flight! We booked the original specifically because it was late, we need to work that day and the kids have camp. I burned 100k Starwood miles and spent $ to transfer miles between me and my wife for a flight that doesn't exist. They have no late night flights to Italy at all now. What the hell do I do now?

Also note I haven't even gotten an email from American yet about this! I only know because I logged in this morning to see what the dynamic award price was today.

chicago747

So you and the kids were in business and your wife was in PE? I'm gonna grab some popcorn for the forthcoming comments on that detail.

As for needing to take a later flight. Are there any later AA flights that connect to BA/IB/AY? As long as there is saver econ/bus on the partner flights you should in theory have decent odds to get AA to open up J or PE space on the long haul flights thru LHR/MAD/HEL. But since they accommodated you on the earlier nonstop it might take some HUCA to achieve this.

tubulus

Eh no popcorn needed. There wasn't a fourth lower level business available when I booked originally, so I put her in premium and assumed (correctly!) that something would open up later on. I have medical issues that make it unadvisable for me to sleep sitting upright, and she is a champion sleeper, anytime, anywhere, so she honestly did not care even if she ended up not moving up front (and hey, no kids to bother her! though our kids are pros anyway).

I will see what's available for us...Finnair has a single saver ticket available on a good itinerary.

Dave Noble

There are limited options
If there is award availability on a partner airline, you could book on that
For AA, you may be limited to the offered flight or perhaps ask for the next day's flight
AA may be able to rebook you on a flight to another destination - e.g. London and be able to purchase a ticket on to Rome
I suspect that the airline will not rebook you onto a partner unless there is award availability

JJeffrey

As part of some schedule changes announced this week AA did eliminate the 2nd daily late JFK-FCO flight starting in early August.

These changes are loaded into the system late Saturday nights / early Sunday mornings so they were just implemented a few hours ago, hence why you haven't received an email yet.

AA cannot force partners to open up award space but they can switch you to other AA metal flight options. Not sure what your schedule allows but there is a JFK-MXP departing around 7pm. And of course JFK-LHR at 10:30p. You would be responsible for getting from there to Rome.

Antarius

As in 100k Marriott or 300k Marriott using the merger conversion from Starwood?

theroz

Some said the aircraft for the 2nd flight came from the TLV route which AA pushed off to restarting till late Oct. So now with the Xing of the 2nd FCO flight wonder if AA will move up the restarting of TLV , since the aircraft will be available

npretnar

Okay, don't go canceling these tickets and rebooking ...

so the way I understand this is as follows ...

- You currently have 3 confirmed tickets in J (for children and you)
- You currently have 1 confirmed ticket in W (for wife)

Since AA moved the flight time, you can call in and request the tickets already booked be honored on later flights, probably connecting thru LHR, HEL, or MAD on either BA, AY, or IB. That means AA should be able to rebook your 2 children in J, yourself in J, and your wife in W on a partner airline because they changed the schedule and those tickets were already confirmed.

USFlyerUS

Is this true for award tickets that would require partner availability?

Antarius

In IROPS, AA can put your anywhere. In advance, if it is a partner airline change or cancelation, AA will not put you on revenue seats on partner airlines.

They are flexible and will re-route you. For example, I was flying DEN-ORD-LHR-BUD and BA whacked the LHR-BUD flight. AA couldn't put me on the other BA flight that was sold out, but let me route to nearby areas on their metal.

view-with-a-room

The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

I think the OP is at the bargaining stage...

Dr. HFH

That's unnecessarily harsh. The agent made a mistake, but that doesn't make him/her an idiot. Have you ever made a mistake at work?


Right, easy. Agents cannot alter the Conditions of Carriage, which say, in relevant part, "This contract cannot be modified or waived unless authorized in writing by an American Airlines corporate officer."


Yup, airlines make changes to their schedules all the time. People are inconvenienced by this, but it happens regularly.

Smiley90

There were two possible outcomes here

a) The agent made a mistake and told you it was possible, leading to the cancellation
b) The agent tells you it's NOT possible and doesn't put it on hold

Both a) and b) lead to you being unable to secure the cheap Business award, so there's no "resolution" here. Both possible outcomes are identical. You didn't "suffer" or "miss out" on anything, because either way you'd have been unable to secure the cheaper price.

cmtlatitudes

OP, I feel for your situation. A month or two ago I expressed concern one of the non-stop JFK-FCO flights would go away. Only by sheer happenstance I booked July instead of an August birthday trip.

A plethora of 62K and 72K business & first nonstop awards were available for at least a solid month, on the evening flight, 6-8 weeks ago or so. Then AA jacked up the F awards to 400K +. I've been checking it every day since, because due to a stupid mistake entirely my own fault, I lost the hold on my F ticket return before I purchased.

I think AA's having trouble filling these twice a day flights. This morning, AA brought back the 62K and 72K nonstop awards for July and early August. There's a lot of J and F awards available at these levels through August 5th.

It sounds like you have a lot going on with timing, but if you have any kind of flexibility in July, there's great award values JFK-FCO-JFK today.