coleslaw

It does come down to which agent your get. But I was able to change two of these tickets under similar circumstances (although I pushed out the dates by about three months).

nldogbert

Seems like you had the same experience as me - they were very anal about everything - tried to get a BA operated flight from LHR to MAD on the return, no deal (because computer says no), tried to use RAM flights from MAD to RAK, again computer said no. All in all, AA has been very inflexible in schedule change situation, where they used to be so much more flexible especially in the great old times when AA was AA and not current AA = USAirways.

Glad though that it did in some way work out for you.

Cheers!

Travel-Quinten

Can you elaborate the word 'officially'? Does it mean that unofficially one actually can? This evangelist from UK confirmed it's possible. Maybe somebody can chime on to confirm?

Vasco Pridat

It could be. Obviously is, if you got it.
I have two concerns.. I had one agent change my sof Las ticket in October to sof Vancouver.. I didn't push I nicely asked cuz USA was still closed. And then was denied boarding in Sofia. Turned out he had screwed up and only one flight lhr yyr was left on the ticket. And besides frustration I just got a voucher.
And second I had someone flag my ticket quickly after I called three times to get a different agent. And no one wanted to help me.
Main question is..
Which phone number do you use? Maybe there are more skilled agents that don't need supervisor approval.
Mine didn't even know that ram is one world.lol

Vasco Pridat

When did the evangelist do it?
I can confirm I was denied twice. Last time was January.
I did it many times Pre covid officialy I mean. That was the reason of denial. By the agent

Travel-Quinten

Thanks for the info. Maybe times changed then. I will try on May 3rd and hopefully times change again by then

coleslaw

You also need to stay within the parameters that have been described in the thread.

The ticket has to be reissued after changing dates or routes. You need a new ticket number.

RAM isn’t allowed unless it’s IRROPS day of / close to departure.

Pushing an agent that’s not willing to bend the rules / accommodate you isn’t going to help. It’s just going to make it more likely that they’ll make notes on your reservation and warn others away from touching it. If you’re not getting anywhere with an agent within a few minutes, explain you need to rethink things and politely hang up.

Vasco Pridat

I agree. I had numerous schedule changes. First I only had 20min to change in mad. Then I arrived 1h later in lhr. The agent was working on changing everything to the 20th. And after more than an hour he said okm 3k.. I said well I said let's stay within the fare rules. Oh. That's not possible then... He obviously had just learned from his supervisor that he called in the end.
The next agent that didn't know ram was one world could not find any Iberia flights. Turned out she was looking for A and didn't know they don't have a First class. She couldn't find anyyyyy available A seat from jfk to lhr although on expertly everything was wide open.in the end she gave me the last 2 seats in F fare for Mia to lhr str8. I def didn't mind that.lol

anabolism

I haven't flown through LHR since the pandemic. Back then, no one checked my BP when entering transit security in T3 (unlike T5, where I needed to scan my BP to enter security). When you tried to enter T3 with a T5 BP, where were you denied? (Going to the transfer bus, getting off the transfer bus at T3, entering T3 security, entering the lounge?)

danger

Re T3 access: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34006405-post96.html.

andigoeskiwi

I just called and made sure the agent understands that for this fare historical fares are in place. Before that I checked that all flights have the right availability in eg. A bucket for TATL. If they quote more tha a few dollars means they did not use historical fares.

Pilot37

Just an update / close out on this, after checking with AA's twitter team that I could cancel my flights and just incur a $250 penalty (which I was fine with) I went ahead and canned the trip and submitted a refund which was deposited back into my account this morning for the whole ticket value (no $250 penalty!) even though I was on an A class fare. Maybe AA were happy to get 2 F seats back for the LHR-MIA-LHR route over the next few weeks which they could sell at better prices!

For all of those who end up taking the trip, enjoy and many thanks to the OP for the original notification, it would have been fun but I no longer need the points and have flown enough in January & February to rest up until April's trips!

Pilot37

anabolism

AA has suspended change fees on all fares except for Basic Economy. See https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...us-updates.jsp. (AA doesn't take the ability to resell seats at a higher price into consideration when charging or waiving change fees.)

keitherson

That wasn't a change. He canceled for a refund.

anabolism

Same thing.