I am traveling tomorrow (Mon) from BKK trying to get back to SJC/SFO on a OW150C OneWorld award on AA miles. I have a massive layover in NRT that I'd like to avoid since for various reasons I'd very much like to get home as soon as I can.

I am currently booked on the 11:30a CX flight BKK-HKG (50-min connection - yikes!) connecting to NRT on the 16:10p-21:25p flight. Then I have a whopping 20-hour layover before the NRT-SJC AA flight on the 29th (17:15p)

My question is, what are my options for avoiding the layover / getting home sooner:

-(1) I was thinking I'd try to show up at the airport in time for the 8:00a flight to HKG, and try to beg for a boarding pass for the direct flight on CX from HKG-SFO. I'd be happy to take a downgrade to coach to get home a day sooner ... but as my ticket is thru NRT connecting to AA, and the OneWorld award rules don't seem to permit a change of routing (or class of service, at least on a confirmed ticket), is there any chance of this working? ... A related strategy involves the HKG-LAX-SFO routing.

Any other ideas?

Also, any ideas for what to do with my 20 hours in NRT without breaking the bank?

Best regards, and thank you for your help!

It is worse than that: the oneworld award rules do not permit ANY changes to your itinerary other than date/time (on the same airline/routing as booked), so it does look like you are stuck with the long layover.

Sorry - too late now I guess, but I would have gone to BKK and tried to beg my way onto the last BKK-HKG flight tonight (18:40), overnighted at HKG and then tried to beg my way onto one of the morning flights to NRT. Then tried to beg my way onto the NRT-SJC tomorrow (or NRT to SFO if co-terminals are allowed).

I'm not familiar with the OW Award rules, but given that it was bought with AA miles I doubt you're going to get anywhere begging for a transpac on CX - I don't see how they'd get any money for it. The only way I could see this possibly working (and then it's a very long shot) would be if you could somehow get booked on the AA codeshare of the HKG-SFO flight (AA6118). That flight is showing pretty open in business (assuming that's what you're booked in: J9D9I9 under the CX code; J9 under the AA code) so there are seats on it. Good luck!

No reroute is allowed on the ticket rules, as already mentioned. Your only hope is an irregular ops reroute, but CX rarely cancels flights or has a misconnect. AA has to reissue the ticket and won't do so on this type of award. CX won't get paid a penny if they do wind up flying you trans-pacific. All you can do is scrap the award and buy a one-way ticket (probably a lot cheaper from BKK than from HKG or NRT). In any case a 20 hour layover in Narita City is rather nice this time of the year, lots to see and quite enjoyable. Next time get the AA all-airlines award if you need this kind of flexibility; the OW award costs you this flexibility in return for its other benefits.

Thanks all for the further info. Sounds like one way or another I'll have plenty of time to post on how things go over the next couple days.