rickintul

This is going to sound dumb, but how do you find out there is a chedule change? Does AA notify you, or do you need to keep looking at your flights on AA.com?

MADPhil

They will usually notify you eventually but it is a good idea to check regularly as alternatives may fill up. As others have pointed out, you can ask for any reasonable alternative routing and timing. The process runs most smoothly if you already know what you want. They should open up seats in the same class of service for you as long as there available seats.

It's a bit of a pain but I usually adjust flights when there is a change to ensure that I always have a viable itinerary. If you want to reserve the right to cancel then don't make an optional change.

satman40

They call me or send an email.,

Never seen any money for a change of departure,

hogo74

Here is my situation for a trip starting on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend:

Ticket 1 (Avios redemption, positioning flight): RDU – DCA changed from 14:25-15:37 to 15:22-16:30

Ticket 2 (Mileage run, DCA-PHL-DFW-MIA-PTY-MIA-DFW-ORD-DCA): DCA-PHL changed from 18:45-19:47 to 14:51 – 16:00, and PHL-DFW changed from 20:55-23:24 to 18:00-20:56

Ticket 3 (Avios redemption, positioning flight) DCA-RDU minor change, no impact

Given that the changes to ticket 2 create a missed connection in DCA (exacerbated by the backward shift in ticket 1), I have two questions:

- May there be some latitude to apply the 300 mile radius rule to change Ticket 2 to originate (and potentially terminate) in RDU rather than DCA? Based on my reading of the rules, the answer is probably no, but I’m wondering if it might be worth asking and if someone else may have been in a similar situation.

- Do MPM limits apply to itinerary changes due to schedule changes? Since ticket 2 was booked as mileage run, I’m obviously trying to maximize the mileage, and the original routing was fairly close to MPM. Now that DCA-PHL-DFW will not work due to the schedule change and I’m only arriving in DCA at 16:30, the most logical re-route within MPM that’s available that evening (alternate flight options on that Saturday are fairly limited) would be DCA-CLT-DFW but it’s fewer miles. There is a possibility through PHX (with a miserable 2 am DFW arrival and 3 hours layover before my 5 am DFW-MIA departure, though, rather than a few hours in a hotel at DFW with the DCA-CLT-DFW routing, so I’m not sure I want to do it) which would exceed MPM but otherwise work with the rest of the ticket. Would that even be an option?

Stgermainparis

Recently booked RT on Amextravel.com for AA flights for July that have now had a schedule change. Can't make earlier outbound flight now but there are some later ones that work. However, they moved up my inbound by 7 hours (from 5pm to 10am). This will not work b/c my meeting won't be over until 1. The only later flights have overnight layovers, which I'm not doing. At this point I need to get a refund. Do I call Amextravel or AA and will they give me a hard time?

UPDATE: AmexTravel worked with AA over the course of a 30 minute phone call with me back and forth on hold. I then had to formally request refund on AA "refunds" site. Was approved after 10 days and credit hit Amex the next day.

djibouti

If you really want a refund then you'd have to call your travel agent which is amextravel.com. They should not give you a hard time.

If you want to just get on a different flight you might be able to call AA directly and I can't imagine they'd give you a hard time about that either especially if you know which alternative flights you want and it's the same day and same origin/destination airports. If the first agent gives you grief, thank them kindly and hang up and call again for a different agent.

ETA: Well, if the agent gives you grief because it's through a travel agent, then you might have to handle it via amextravel.com as well.

djibouti

Hit quote instead of edit. Disregard.

pittfan

Question....

I have a flight on AA (obviously) and there was a schedule change. I was scheduled to leave at 7 pm at night and the computer put me on a 7 am!!!!!!!!! flight (it was the only direct flight).

Can I ask for a change A DAY earlier? When I had asked before, the AAgent said no way.

RogerD408

Given the massive time change, do call in and ask. Since you have been moved to the 7am flight, you should be able to ask for as early as 7am the day before.

ashill

With that big a time change, you're eligible for a full refund; in that situation, it's reasonable to ask for pretty much any date change (or change to nearby airports) you want. I'd first check if the flight you want is available for the price you originally paid (or less). If so, put the flight you want on hold and call AA to cancel and refund the original booking. Otherwise, I'd bring up the full refund and see what they can do. They'll probably prefer to keep your money.

ty97

Does anyone know what date the current schedule is 'locked' through? i.e. at what date does the schedule go from 'updated to reflect what AA plans to operate' to the 'placeholder schedule'?

I realize there can always be some changes within the 'locked' window, but these tend to be minor after AA updates the placeholder schedule to the 'final' schedule. In my experience, this the schedule is normally locked (very roughly) 3 months out, but does anyone know that exact current date that the current locked schedule ends?

canadiancow

I had a ticket that ended with LAX-SFO-YVR, on 001 stock, but SFO-YVR on AC metal (and AC flight number). It was a through fare, so a stopover was not permitted in SFO.

I needed the overnight layover in SFO for laundry, etc. The SFO-YVR was cancelled, and none of the alternatives worked (can't be flying during work hours, but can be in YVR all day, and was going to YVR for a personal dinner).

My issue was that sending me the next day, or even the next week, didn't really help, because it requires lining up the schedules of various people, otherwise there's simply no point in going.

I spent far too long on the phone yesterday, and at the end, was told all they could do was cancel the remaining segment (I had flown all but the SFO-YVR by this point, but it was not my first time calling) and request a partial refund, with no guarantees there would be any refund (I assume due to the SFO fare being more expensive than the YVR fare).

From my perspective, I booked this ticket because it allowed the overnight at home SFO, which was necessary after being gone for a while, and then let me continue on to YVR.

Is it completely unreasonable to expect a new SFO-YVR flight to be booked at some point in the future?

They said they could only rebook it within 3 days, but I have commitments in SFO Thursday and Friday, and LAS Friday through Sunday, in addition to having no reason to go to YVR on any of those days.

I'm well versed in booking and cancelling entire itineraries, but this is the first time I've had an issue with part of a fare, so I'm not sure how anything works.

Exec_Plat

In my experience you should get a partial refund based on the price of the LAX-YYR segment, minus the value of LAX-SFO which you already flew. I believe they use a % calculation based on the relative miles. (you CAN press them on this, maybe ask to have them contact the rate desk? Or at least you should know the components of your fare, and the relative miles f each)

This has happened to me in the distant past with weather cancels/diversions where they couldnt get me to where the ticket required, and they could offer no alternatives.

The +/- 3 day window does feel reasonable. Holding an open ticket for weeks months or a year does not.

canadiancow

It was an international ticket (the last two segments were LAX-SFO-YVR), so if it's based on miles, it's a negligible amount.

I still need to get to YVR sometime, and that's going to cost me roughly $300. So I just don't feel like I've been made whole if they offer $50.

But I guess we'll see what happens.

aeo

Hi all,

Have been meaning to ask this for a few months. Has there been a change in policy preventing flying into co-terminals after a significant schedule change? I've always understood that significant (something like more than 90 or 120 mns?) will allow a reroute into a co-terminal? I've done that sort of thing many times before.

In Jan., though, I was scheduled to fly KOA-LAX-DFW-EWR. Original ticket had the KOA flight arriving in the evening, with a redeye into DFW, picking up an morning flight to EWR that would arrive late morning. The day before I was to fly, a schedule change had me overnighting in LA, with a morning flight to DFW, meaning I wouldn't arrive into EWR until late afternoon. Accordingly, I asked the EXP desk to put me on the redeye from LAX-JFK so that I could still arrive into NYC in the am. I assumed this would be an easy no-brainer since the schedule change resulted in both an overnight AND got me in 5-6 hours later that the original schedule. But the agent I spoke to was quite adamant that I would HAVE to fly into EWR. I thought this would be a simple matter of HUAC, but the next agent, and the agent after that, both also refused.

Eventually I found an old post on Flyertalk linking to an AA policy explicitly allowing co-terminal changes in response to a schedule change, and called a fourth agent and read it to her. She seemed unsure but went ahead and made the change for me. Still, that whole thing was frustrating and left me unsure of the actual rules. Anyone know?