changing a reward flight with no points?
 

I just booked a flight to the US next year using my points and when I rang QF to confirm that I am able to change my flights at a cost of 5000 points I asked her “what happens if I need to change my flight but I don’t have enough points can I use money?” The response was "No you may only use points". Is this right? If you don’t have the points are you simply unable to change your flights?

Also I am flying from DFW-SFO what would happen if I missed my flight booked on points from DFW would AA bump me to a later flight or would I have to purchase a new ticket? I guess I would have to purchase a new ticket or use 5000 points.

Yes, that is correct. No points, no change. And you cannot purchase the points since you can only do that in order to make the initial award booking. So if you need to change, you will need to find a way of getting the required number of points into you account. Some options include a Family Transfer, taking a flight, laundering points via another program such as Starwood, using a partner service such as hotel stay or car rental.

AA is pretty reasonable about missed flights. As long as they don't think you deliberately missed it (and for award flights that isn't really a consideration), AA will rebook you on the next available flight. However it has to have award inventory (so could be days later on some routes). If you missed the flight due to the fault of another airline (e.g. mis-connect from another ticket), then you would be re-routed in any available fare class (not needing to have award inventory). Not sure if there is a change fee (it is waived for EXPs, but I suspect there is a USD 100 or USD 200 fee involved for AA award changes like this).

Would this only apply if the late inbound flight was on the same itinery?

Legally yes, but in practice AA is quite lenient about this and I've had separate tickets with missed connections and was rerouted by AA at no charge. But it depends on the circumstances and the only sure thing is if it is a single ticket.

AA allows changes to its own AAwards for no fee if the origin & destination stay the same. Changing to a different city requires a US$100 fee. However, on awards issued by QF or any other partner, AA is supposed to refer U back to that partner, but some AAgents may ignore this.

I had no problem last summer changing a leg on AA (LGA-DCA) issued with QF miles. ;)

Thanks all for your answers. Sounds like I have a better chance of a new flight at no charge than I thought. Time will tell I guess:eek:

The fun might be over with this one... I've had three, maybe four AA resv people tell me they can't "touch" my current AA-operated reservation on QF points.

That just precludes changes in advance (which weren't supposed to happen but did; now computer enforced). Presumably the "missed flight" process still works.

I guess QFF was a bargain for some short routes in the US, much cheaper than AA due to the banding. LGA-DCA is only 8K QFF points (while AA is 25K points as it is same cost for entire continental US).

I have to imagine odds of standing by for a different flight at the airport would have better odds than, well, the *zero* I found in the past few days over the phone. ;) I'll be curious to hear about anyone's experiences with this, although I'm nearing the end of my QF stash (obtained during the IF Magazine>*wood>QF>BA Concorde days). Sigh...

Hold on

firstly its on 2500 to change a flight its 5000 to re route
second

you are silver so you pay no penalty for changing a flight so if you look like you are going to loose silver then really think about changing before the silver runs out!