I booked a oneworld RTW ticket during the 10% discount period which ended at the beginning of November.

My trip starts out by the following:

YYZ (Toronto) -> MIA -> GUA -> DFW -> TYO.....

Both MIA and DFW are layovers.

I want to change the Guatemala stop to Costa Rica, therefore it will be:

YYZ (Toronto) -> MIA -> SJO -> DFW -> TYO.....

I talked to two agents at the AA RTW desk, each told me the something very different.

Agent 1) Since I am not changing the first international coupon (The Toronto to Miami leg), I need to pay $125 fee to change from GUA to SJO

Tonight, I talked to Agent 2

Agent 2) Any change in North and Central America will trigger a "rebooking". This includes any change up till Tokyo. Therefore, I will be penalized 10% to rebook and I also will have to pay 10% extra for the non-sale price. Resulting in a 20% charge + $125.

I am going to talk to manager tomorrow, but I want to get feedback on what people think before I talked to them.

Also, they changed the date of one of my flights that is towards the end of the RTW. Does that give me any ammunition to fight for a no-fee change near the beginning of the trip? I doubt it but I was wondering.

One option is to make your 1st flight. Then, say when you are MIA, call the RTW desk to make the routing change. AA has a city ticket office at American Airlines Arena which is at Biscayne Blvd. & NE 8th street downtown. Only 4-5 miles from the airport should you need to have the ticket re-written or such; not sure what policy is with new e-tickets, I'm still on a paper ticket for current RTW!

From the rules(see Rule 16(1)(b):

Jerry,

Thanks for posting that. Is changing GUA to SJO on my second leg fall into 1A or 1B?

So in other words is changing GUA to SJO a oneworld carrier/inventory change?

thanks

You are looking at a routing change, which is 1(b), if done before departure from YYZ.

I would recommend going with MiamiPrep's suggestion, so that this re-routing becomes a change after departure, and hence subject to rule 16 2(b), so you should only need to pay the $125 fee (plus any service charge AA might find). If you have an e-ticket, you won't even need to get it rewritten.

There used to be a rule about international segments, but these don't seem to be in the current rules, and, for a different purpose, USA<>Canada was not deemed to be an international segment, so I wouldn't go there!

Thanks satprof and MiamiProf.

The rules state "For fares originating in TC1, changes to the first international flight and preceeding flights are not permitted less than seven days prior to the date of the first ticketed flight. "

This implies that I cant change the routing from GUA to SJO in the airport in MIA or Toronto because TC1 includes north and central america.

If you change the routing when you get to MIA, it's after your first ticketed flight. If you're still in YYZ, you will not yet have taken your first flight, & so the sub-para. 1 rules apply. Once you get to MIA, you've departed, & hence it's sub-para. 2 which is applicable.

The rule is still there:
I'm not sure your plan will work as US-Can has always not been considered an international segment and TC1 has always had that limiting rule for changes(another reason not to start in TC1).

Tied in with the 7 day no changes rule is the 7 day reservations rule:
AA might stick to their guns and make the OP fly that MIA-GUA segment before allowing changes.

I talked RTW desk today. They said that I couldn't change my routing in MIA airport because I cant change the first international outbound flight within 7 days of the flight. I also cant change that flight without paying the change of fare difference.

Since they cancelled a leg towards the end of our flight they are allowing us to cancel for free. I am going to ask another question on this forum about rebooking RTW the cheapest way.

I wasn't familiar with T1 rules since I originate my RTW's in CAI.
Consider keeping your RTW routing & buying a separate ticket SJO-GUA-SJO. I see fare around $300.00 for this, perhaps you can get cheaper.

That would be my advice also especially considering the costs(new xonex with no discount, positioning flights) you are considering in your other thread.