First Class Worry
 

At the earliest possible moment last spring I booked four AA award tickets (F to HNL) for travel this March from my BA account. (Note that the airlines are really irrelevant to the story).

When I originally booked the tickets, AA had a non-stop STL-HNL in place that gave us about 2.5 hours to make the flight from our inbound connection. All was good until AA canceled their STL-HNL flight. AA automatically rebooked us on the first of two DFW-HNL flights (still in F). Now, however, our connection time has collapsed to 65 minutes. (AA Connection to AA)

My worry is that if we don't make the connection--which is possible in the spring months w/ lousy weather--we could miss our flight and 4 F class seats.

I called AA and BA to inquire whether we could move our 4 seats to the later DFW-HNL flight but was told that there were no F award seats available on that flight. My logic was that if we gave up 4 seats on the early flight we could talk them into moving us--afterall it nets out to the same--but no luck.

So...what happens if we don't make our connection? Any suggestions about how to minimize the possibility? I did think about seeing if we could fly to DFW the night before. Not convenient but perhaps worthwhile...

Again, it's not an airline specific question but rather...WHAT HAPPENS IF AN AWARD BOOKING IN F DOESN'T HAPPEN? Looking for thoughts, advice, etc.

Many thanks!

The same thing that happens when you misconnect on any other trip.

It's hard to say what's already happened with your tickets with the cancelling of the other flight. If you miss your connection, you will get rebooked on another flight, in First. HOWEVER, if there are no Award seats on that flight, they will have to put you in non-award seats... which in my past experience means you get miles! Of course, if there is no F inventory there is none and they will deal with that accordingly...

This is why they will avoid changing your itinerary unless absolutely necessary (like a missed connection).

Last year this happened to me where one of my flights got changed and I earned miles the entire return trip. On my trip to Australia in a month, on the return leg the flight changed and my ticket is now an F ticket instead of X or Z. Wooohoo! Double miles for a trip I didn't pay for! And to make things sweeter, that A/C is now a 777 Atlantic config http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Explain please.

I thought F gives 1.5 miles not 2x.

What is the 777 Atlantic config have to do with Australia trip?

I was erroneous, thanks for pointing that out. It is 1.5x miles for First. I am AA Gold so I get .25x mile bonus for a total of 1.75x (not quite 2x). I think the original poster was platinum so they get a 100% bonus yielding a total of 2.5x (or 3x?).

As far as the 777 coment goes, I should explain better. The LAX-DFW segment of my itin was F in Md-80. The A/C is now 777 Atlantic config, which is quite a change! It was a little bit of bragging but intended to reinforce the point that sometimes these changes can be GOOD!

News to me about earning miles on award travel if rebooked due to irregular operations. I wouldn't worry about a 65 minute connection - that's plenty of time unless something really bad happens and there's no way to plan or control for that. By the way, the AA F seating on 763s ex DFW to HNL is great- well worth the extra miles over Y.

I did. I experienced this last year flying YUL - Nashville on two AA first class award (mom and me). There was a mechanical difficulty on the plane and we didn't leave Montreal. Everyone was dumped off the plane, I raced up ahead of mom and was the first person in line to get tix fixed.

Our new flights were on US Airways via Pittsburgh, also in first class. we had enough time to get over to the gate and wait for boarding. Yours truly the card addict had her USAirways card with her and got full credit for the flights. Mom was signed up on the spot and her passes had to be mailed in but was credited. We didn't get fed though, so I lugged Burger King onto the flight.

[Homer Simpson impression... mmmm, chicken whoppers with free rum drinks....]

[Deleted because posted to wrong thread. My apologies.]

[This message has been edited by bedelman (edited November 11, 2003).]