Lemonade out of lemons...advice wanted
 

I know this probably doesn't belong in the general forum, but thanks to Iberia pulling out of South Africa, my honeymoon tickets have been altered greatly. It makes sense for us to get a full refund (130k points on AA) and just buy our tickets now. So given that, we have to plan a trip of lifetime that departs on June 11.

Our situation is as follows:
1. We must spend 2 weeks in Cape Town (already rented an apartment there)
2. We have 10 days to go anywhere and use any combo of $$, points, or travel deals. Our budget for those 10 days including our flights, food, and lodging is about $5000. We could always stop lay over somewhere on the way to Cape Town, but in reality we could go anywhere.

How would you approach this? Would you use a travel agent? Would you use a group travel site (luxury link/expedia/living social)?

I have the following points-wise:
80k US Air (Silver)
30k SPG
150k AA

Advice is much wanted

Couldn't you be rerouted via LHR on BA metal? I would inquire about that before redepositing points.
Cheers
Howie

Yes, that was AA's original plan but it caused two problems:

1. Downgraded to coach (made the oneworld ticket which used the same amount of points far less valuable)
2. Added $1200 in fees (also makes a oneworld ticket, which is now in coach, far less valuable)

Just don't think it's worth it now to use 130k points for a ticket that over $1000 in fees in coach when I can buy it for $2000...

Play the sympathy card and see if AA will eat the fees/upgrade you due to their partners exit? If it's really your honeymoon and you have good people skills I'm betting you could guilt someone into hooking you up.

It is really my honeymoon, I tried this all day, spent like 5 hours talking to people and they can't do anything. We emailed everyone and tried to roll this up to anyone who would listen, but they are playing the "hands are tied" game and really sticking to it. I tried so so hard.

Agreed.



What actually happened? Did they cancel your reward tickets?

You try going thru the Oneworld desk (as opposed to AA)? Sometimes you get some killer (aka super-knowledgeable/friendly) foreign reps that are much more accommodating.

Iberia stopped flying to South Africa, so they moved my oneworld ticket to British Airways flights. BA did not have award availability for "U", so they sent me down a cabin to coach. They did not cancel the ticket, instead they asked me for $1200 because BA has higher fees than Iberia on award travel. Net effect: I fly coach for $1200 more than my biz class award ticket.

They had ZERO sympathy for me. Am I talking to the wrong people? Is it different at a preferred desk? It seems ungodly fair. After 6 hours of fighting for it, I am kind of numb to it now.

YMMV but I had a pair of Oneworld tickets which went through BUD. Malev went bankrupt and I though I was out of luck. I was able to change to other airports within the same distance and I ended up choosing GLA instead of BUD. My route changed to have a LHR connection but AA waived all change fees, fuel charges, etc. They even let me change my US departure airport to find availability in business to LHR.

Though, I ended up with totally different plans, it was better than nothing

Do note that I had already flown the first few legs of my trip when Malev when under.

I almost gave up after 3 calls for an hour each, but my 4th CSR was the charm.

Agreed, need to persevere. Here's the website w/good phone numbers:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/inter...oneContact.jsp
The one you want is 1-800-433-7300 and then you may have to say you're calling about a Oneworld award to get to the right spot. I usually called at night while setting up my RTW award (49,xxx air miles for 160k) and often got hooked up to people with an Asian accent - and they usually knew their stuff better than anybody I got who sounded more like my simple midwestern self.

Oneworld desk is WAYY smarter. on the line with them now.

That's the spirit!

Good luck! Sounds like AA is really trying to give you a raw deal here. Don't let them! Be insistent that you had a business class ticket for a certain amount and you need it to stay that way. Their customer service *should* be dynamic enough to honor the agreement you previously had with them.

Won't work. NOthing works. This sucks. Rebooking completely. I fly a lot and it won't be on AA anymore.