Long wait times at AA
 

I've noticed that the wait times for reaching an agent at AA seems to have become longer than normal. I seldom waited more than 5 minutes and have called at all times of day and night. Even during the Egypt rush, it was just a few minutes more. Now it seems that no one answers in less than 15 minutes. I usually give up after that amount of time and try again. Finally got thru this morning just to change dates to next year for the remaining 11 segments of my ex-CAI AONE4. Any one else having long wait times? Maybe everyone is calling in to change their ex-CAI or ex-MPM itineraries.

Very glad to hear BA was so helpful, and especially that the agent actually called you back. As an aside, it shouldn't have been necessary to wait until flying the first segment if all you were changing was date/time. I have an ex-CAI xOENx that I have yet to fly the first segment. It was issued by RJ. I changed the dates of all flights except the first. RJ said they couldn't reissue the ticket, but they happily revalidated it. It shows up correctly on RJ MMB, on Amadeus's Check My Trip, and on Sabre's TripCase.

I think they've been bad for a long time. The RTW desk now handles general RES calls as well, and AA seemingly has continued to cut back on RES staff.

I tried to apply an SWU on an ex-CAI DONE3 with first segment already flown. (for an AA TCON flight)

AA RTW desk turned me down and said no, can't take over ex-CAI stuff even with first flight flown :(

Is there anything I can do or am I SOL in this case?

aa has complimentary upgrade from d to a for exec plat, right?

Only for economy to business but not business to first on the transcons.

I wonder if I am missing a buzzword to make this work? RTW desk AAgent kept saying because the Cairo fares have all been removed, there is no way the 'fares department' at AA would allow this reissue. :( :(

was the original ticket issued by AA?

No, but the AA RTW agent said this wasn't the matter... (the EP desk actually was able to apply it - my res was showing F for a while, but it just could not get ticketed)

Did you purchase the ticket on a date when AA was still offering the fare? If so, it should be able to use fares in effect on that day I would expect ( otherwise those with AA tickets would be having issues making changes ) ; if it was after AA ceased offering them, then would make sense that the ticketing desk would have no fare to work with and I suspect that you will have to settle for business class

I called EP desk again to try my luck. A competent agent was able to apply the SWU. But she said this ticket could not be reissued as RTW desk didn't allow it. Instead, they would grant the SWU by notating on my PNR, but I would have to stop by JFK ticketing counter to pick up the BP and she said this is called a 'grab and go' in AA speak :confused:

Knowing this is AA, I'm not exactly confident/will remain cautiously optimistic. I can't see for sure on tripcase as AA shut it down as you may know. But so far checked my PNR on CX/QR/AA websites and all show confirmed in First (A), did seat assignment and EF shows my J seat released with F seat taken, I hope these are signs that it worked. Oh well. This could be interesting.. :(

Just for the sake of consistency, I'm happy to report back that I was able to fly in AA F using an SWU on an ex-CAI DONE without the need of ticket reissue ^

congrats G-CIVC, may I know were you able to credit to other program apart from AA after the SWU, or if you did credit to AA, was it by fare or distance? (Of this segment or other rtw AA segments)

indeed if Swu can be applied without "taking over" then it could be a good news afterall.

Yes, over last weekend I credited all 4 AA segments in my RTW ticket that I flew to CX.

Two months ago I credited another AA segment to AA; it posted under distance as I believe it was under partner stock. If it were 001 (AA) stock, it would've been some fare manipulated mileage amount.

BA ticket, AA qualifying dollars
 

Hello again folks,
Last year I booked 2 RTW ticket: an Aone4 and an Aone5 from CAI, during at the first drop in the Egyptian Pound. I thought an easy way to keep my EXP for a 5th straight year. I booked the flight on the One World web site and got an "Valid routing" and a record locator. I called the AA RTW desk to issue the ticket and Duane at AA RTW office said it was NOT a valid routing.
At the time AA was still issuing tickets. When I called back there was a note in the record that is was not a valid routing. I called back 2 days later, with another routing, and they said call back on a day or two, I called back 2 days latter and AA had put a hold on CAI RTW ticket tickets... I called BA and got the tickets issued (on the first routing) , with no delay. (in the last 15 years we have flown on over 10 RTW tickets, with no problems with the AA RTW desk)

All that is water under the bridge now, except the AA RTW desk delaying the ticket issue. This Merger has been a disaster for loyal AA customers. I got my Advantage card in 1988!

I now own 4 tickets for my wife and I on BA stock. Over the years I have on held Silver and one year even gold on BA. It is not my program of choice. I would like my wife and I to keep our EXP, but I do not believe even with the 40,000. plus miles on each ticket We will make The Elite qualifying dollars to keep our EXP. We will easily make BA gold . ( even on one ticket!) Do you folks have any suggestions? I know I cannot get the tickets issued on AA stock.

as a data point, do advice I its posted as paid J in CX or A. Many thanks.

First of all stock isn't really that important unless there are a lot of AA coded flights. Secondly, if you are doing two RTWs (AONE4 + AONE5) in a year then you shouldn't really have any problem clearing the EQD threshold. Unless you mean you are doing it over two years then 40,000 flown miles won't even make the EQM threshold let alone EQD (well, maybe for EQD yes @ 30% of flown miles for A class across most OW partners but definitely not for EQM). I'm not sure if you want to compare with BA Gold directly. Everyone knows BA is ridiculously easy compared to most other OW FFPs, and we know why Galleries First @ LHR (and the Pier/Wing @ HKG, GRRRR) is swamped all the time.

It posted as paid F (A class) in my CX account