AA says no date changes to first flight - is this correct?
 

I'm trying to ticket an Ex-CPT DONE5 for next May.
I know AA can't book that far out, so I'm just trying to put in a placeholder date for a BA flight CPT-LHR. However, BA has limited D availability that far out.
I'd be happy to book for March if I knew I could move the flight out, but AA's telling me no changes to the first flight without reissue.

Is this really the case?

Also, she's asking me how I plan to ticket this in the next 2 days. I assumed they would just submit it to CPT, but do I have to confirm this with their GSA there? Am I crazy to think this can get done that soon?

so much for well laid plans...

AA are incorrect, if you were originating in the US (or TC1) they wold be (sort of) correct. However since you are originating in TC2 the rule 16(a)(1)(b) applies:

From the xONEx rules:

This is exactly what I quoted to them and they still insisted it doesn't apply to the first flight. I might have just got unlucky with the rep I landed as at one point (when I insisted that I could transit Europe a second time on my way to DAR), she asked "are you just trying to challenge me or are you actually interested in booking?".

I the end I just decided to ticket our SA portion over the long Easter weekend in April.

Still good to know.

I received exactly the opposite opinion from the CPT agent to that given to the OP. I am booking a DONE4 out of JNB and was told specifically that I could change the first flight date without any problem. In my case, I am departing on CX and managed to get CX to book a D class seat for me on my desired date when AA said there was no availability. I plan to get the ticket issued by AA tomorrow with an earlier departure date and then give the tiicket number to CX to keep my desired (later) date.

I have not come across changing the 1st coupon of an itinerary not requiring a reissue even where unlimited changes are permitted

Dave

All sorted in the end: went with the Easter departure. Ticket is rated and Mindpearl will issue tomorrow. Taxes came out a bit high ZAR8640 (19%), but considering that I have 2 LHR stopovers (technically one is just a transit, but open-dated), I guess to be expected.

One question. If one of the LHR stopovers becomes a transit, do I get a refund on the APD? This will definitely happen with my BKK-LHR-DAR legs as I need to transit within 24 hours.

Now I'm getting the opposite info from Mindpearl:

2/ .Message of our Tariffs Desk regarding your question:
******** IF PASSENGER CHANGES THE FIRST COUPON (DATE OR ROUTING) IT WILL BE REBOOKED AND REPRICED SO, THE NEW RULE WILL APPLY (16segments), BUT IF THE CHANGES ARE FOR AFTER DEPARTURE, THE OLD RULE WILL BE VALID ****** REGARDS / DUBTRF / 3FJ

Which seems to be contrary to what is stated in the RTW rules.
Do we have to wait until somebody tries to change a first flight date, to see which way the rule will fall?

Happy Travels.

It does fit in exactly with my experiences to do with changes

Dave

For what it's worth, I booked a new DONE4 just before the deadline, and I was also told that I couldn't change the first flight without a reissue.

However, they didn't say anything about not getting the 20 segments if I did that, just that the reissue fee would apply.

If it needs to be reissued prior to first flight, it will be issued under the new rules and therefore max 16 segments.

The other thing that bothers me is that the quote from Dublin says that it will be "rebooked and repriced". I think we can all be fairly sure that the RTW prices will be going up again in the not very distant future.

Happy Travels.

I am thinking that AA in Dublin have an AAcentric xONEx bible that may not highlight the different rules application between TC1 and the rest of the world.

Yes, I do see how that argument could apply, but it also seems strange that you would then effectively not be able to change the first flight at all if you have a 20-segment ticket. Based on the different experiences people are having with this, I suspect in the end it will come down to how one specific office chooses to interpret or apply the rules.

Anyway, hopefully I won't need to change the date and that will be easy, but it is ex-CMB and I'll be coming from JNB via HKG, so a few things could go wrong. We'll see.

I had asked Mindpearl to check again, and she sent me this:

So it seems that our "Headquaters in the USA" concurs with the rating desk in Dublin.
It's not that you can't change the first flight; you can, and they accept that there will be no change fee, but it will be reissued under the new rules (which means only 16 segments) and, it will be at "current fare levels".
Which could be much worse than a change fee, given the way rates are likely to go!

So one way or another, I'd better get myself to JNB for Jan 28th!

BTW I have been very impressed by [employee name removed] at Mindpearl; very responsive to emails, promptly issued tickets, and dispatched them by UPS when she said she would.
All at a time when she must have been unusually busy.

Happy Travels.

As you know, a ticket is valid for x days from the first flight. So if first flight date changes, the end validity date also changes.

Some airline systems decided to automate this re-validation, but most systems (including Amadeus and Sabre I think) decided that the logic to do this wasn’t worth it, and that with ET, re-issuing rather than re-validating is a simpler approach. But a re-issue triggers checks on new fare, tax & fuel surcharges. Which, again, is not a bad thing from an airline POV.

Once you’ve started the journey, then any changes won’t impact the final validity date, so not a problem

I have changed the first flight for an AA issued paper ticket without any problems, just a sticker on top of the original date/time and that was it. No charges whatsoever. This was TC2 and in mid 2007.