Award Change Rules
 

Hi All -

Please help! I have an award booking with Asia Miles on Qatar, NRT - DOH - JFK.

I would like to change it to CAN - DOH - JFK.

There is availability on the CAN - DOH but not on the DOH - JFK flight.

However, I already have the two seats on the current booking from DOH - JFK.

The agent is telling me that she has to cancel the entire award and start over and since there is no avail on DOH - JFK she can't make the change.

Seems pretty simple to me, every time I've made a change on AA, United or others, it's simple. She claims she has to cancel and start over.

Anyone with experience know if this is true?

Million THX!

As a general rule, if you change the origin then it's a cancel and reissue. If it was the other way round and you wanted to change the second flight then it would be possible.

You are meeting an incompetent agent. It is possible to cancel the e-ticket but not cancelling the reservation.

i.e. you can keep both seats, cancelling the e-ticket and issue a new e-ticket with the new routing.

+1

I've changed a multi carrier award to a straight partner redemption, by dropping a few segments and adding one, while 'holding on' to a segment that I needed.

As I thought! Thank you both, I'll give another call, fingers crossed!

Don't mean to hijack the thread but I have two PE to Business upgrades on my flight back to YVR on Dec 22nd and I wanted to change it to the 17th or 18th for family reason.

Would keeping both seats apply to my situation? Would I be able to cancel my e-ticket for the 22nd but not cancel the reservation?

I don't know if you can book Dec 17/18 without canceling the Dec 22 ticket. It is possible that CX detects that and randomly cancels one of your bookings (I know AA disallows that), but that may be a suggestion, a risky one. Eventually you have to decide quickly, as changes like that involve changing of the underlying tickets and the upgrades (and you have to pay for changes - change fees for both underlying and award tickets, subclass changes if needed, weekend charges, etc.).

What are you trying to keep?
Isn't your case merely a change of date (rebooking)?

Yes changing the date from the 22nd to 17-18th. but i was told I will lose my upgrade if i switch dates.

There is no guarantee you will have the upgrades on the new date.

In order to have your upgrades:
* You must have the underlying tickets switched to the new date and pay for the fare difference, if any, and change fees. Even if you can book the same fare class, you may still have fare difference because fare in the same fare class may not be the same, and December 17/18 is a weekend whereas December 22 is a weekday.
* There must be upgrade awards available for the new date, and you have to pay for the change fees too.

One more separate question... I have a multi carrier partner business class trip. If I begin travel and business opens up in a segment I have coach, will they make the change (and is there a fee)
Also, once travel begins, if routing and carriers stay the same is there any way to move a flight forward or backward by a day?

Thanks cxfan1960. I'm ok with the fair difference and change fees, but i guess i'll take the risk on the upgrade.

UGHHH, just got the same answer when I called again. They said that since the flight is seen as a connection and not as two reservations, they can't change it because there is no availability from DOH - JFK leg. They said that the two segments are "married" and can not be separated. Extremely frustrating.

Current one reservation:

NRT - DOH
connection time of 4 hours
DOH - JFK

Said they can't because there is no availabilty on the DOH - JFK leg even thought there is availability on the CAN - DOH leg.

UGHH, what am I doing wrong? Who should I ask for?

I asked if they checked with a supervisor and they said this is what they told them.

Any final suggestions before I give up?

If the ticket was issued by QR for they own FFP, they might have some flexibility. But on married segments, I don't see how AM could do it. With married segments CAN-JFK is basically treated as a single "flight".
Even on a paid ticket you would have problems.

So, at this point, is my only option to cancel award, refund miles and book a new reward with open availability? Has anyone done that before? Really appreciate the help and sorry for all the drama.