rdlmitedu

I can't tell if this is intentional or not but they're making it incredibly difficult to change A fares to anything. There is ~no availability in the 17-22 May period where I'd fly (to meet up with a one-way return on 27 May). Even a J flight is +$2k? It has to be an exactly matching A fare. I'm probably just going to move it out to August for now and cancel my one-way CMN-MAD-LHR-MIA since I'm pretty busy with work this month. I think I'm going to pay flightfox or a PA or something to rebook the rest of my flights for me, this is in sane, it has been 3.5h on the phone to no conclusion yet, with 4 different people.

our_kid

Greetings from JFK Concorde Room - firstly thank you and huge FT kudos to the OP for posting this sale fare, I am really glad I booked one on the A fare basis.

My ticket has had so many changes, some INVOL, the first one being that daft 15 minute misconnect upthread in MAD (which did me a huge favour) then after Morocco 'closed' I ended up with AGP-LHR-ORD-MIA-JFK-LHR-AGP - I was really glad to take CMN out of the loop and I used that to move my return dates too. My TATL ended up outbound with BA on the 787-1000 but in Business (J class), and wasn't that fussed to be honest as the new Club World is lovely. When I arrived in the US I contacted AA to bring my return legs 72 hours forward as originally I was going to do a few internal hops here to rack up a few TPs but given work travel has picked up for me I spent some time with my friend in Florida instead which was lovely.

As the ticket had so many changes AA had put me in full fare F for the return so finding a seat home was easy and now I'm here waiting for my flight back across the pond home, BA metal again. I've kicked the AGP leg out into the future given work commitments.

I hope everyone will enjoy this fare as much as I have

I have to hand it to American Customer Service - they've been really good to me - maybe I've lucked out but this really really was a great fare and relatively easy to move around to suit me.

rdlmitedu

I lost; ended up rescheduling my inbound flight to 1 September (since only 'A' availability in close was low, and my scheduling was constrained.). I may cancel/refund my 27 May one-way TNG-MAD-LHR-MIA, or find a cheap positioning flight and do a very short trip. I realized just how much I hate being on the phone with CSRs.

Keter

This is not a loophole. The rules are clear that you have to fly at least one AA or AA/ IB flight via Europe - if you figure out to get this the system will hapily reward you with an AA/ BA flight.

Flying Yazata

No, you've got it wrong now. This paragraph covered the TATL segments for both the A(lpha) and F(oxtrot) class fare:

It's not as clearly worded as e.g. the TATL JV fares, but it's that "via Europe" that is the important part. The segments within area 2 fall under the paragraph before that one.

danger

Are you saying that "by Europe" is satisfied by MAD-LHR in IB and therefore BA-coded and operated on the TAtl is perfectly acceptable under the rules?

Flying Yazata

No, I didn't insinuate something like that. Essentially the fare rules permitted only AA and IB at any point.

danger

So those that got BA have been lucky?

nldogbert

Were these BA flights AA-coded? I believe if it was AA coded for the TATL this should be fine. When I had changes to my (now already flown) ticket, I did manage to get the agent to put me on BA operated, but AA-coded flights from JFK to LHR (or even MIA-LHR, too bad my LHR-MIA leg never had any changes, so I could not switch it to the BA operated flight)
They were however very strict on the European legs - ONLY IB operated, no BA nor RAM.

Cheers!

danger

In my case, no. BA-coded and operated but that was following an involuntary schedule change. I was also able to voluntarily change to a BA-coded and operated LHR-MAD.

Flying Yazata

Not for the original booking or a voluntary change. Again, it's down to fare rules.

For future reference: AT, not RAM.

anabolism

My reading of the fare rules is that before departure, voluntary changes to the inbound, with no changes to the outbound, are permitted and are repriced using historical fares as of the previous date of ticketing:

(Emphasis added)

I haven't tried it, but as I read it, one should be allowed to change the return portion without repricing at current fares.

danger

AA told me that the first fare component is CMN-MAD so, before departure, as long as that sector isn't changed, voluntary changes elsewhere are at historical fares. This is how I was able to change LHR-MAD to BA when I haven't yet commenced travel.

Perisai

After letting the case rest for a while, I ultimately managed to get the return rescheduled for later this year. Didn't even bother to have the routing changed as my main goal was really to push out the return.

It seems that it helped to explain that they won't find any A class when they are searching for a oneway - or the lady I got on the line this time was just more competent. She once again wasn't able to find any A class but understood / agreed that this is because the required search is beyond what she can do in the system. Hence she handed it over to the specialists (as multiple times before), but this time they were able to find A class.

The ticketing of the new return took a while longer, but ultimately came through.

Happy flights everyone

anabolism

That's excellent.