EXTREEEmely Flat Tires?
 

(... asking for a friend, of course)

Let's say a long time ago, you'd purchased a WGA somewhere. You then find out that you've now got a can't-miss meeting that's not going to end until ~6H after your original flight time, and of course, by now even WGAs are highly-priced.

You also may have heard (and had some experience with) that WN may not throw out WGAs as "no-shows" until after you'd missed the last flight of the day to that destination (which wouldn't have happened here).

While "suck it up and" pay the buy up (the delta being three times the price of the original ticket!) is the "right thing to do", I guess I'm asking (... again, for a friend :)) how flat has someone here's tires been yet still been able to SB onto a *cough*much*cough* later flight?

Supposedly 2 hours.

Or, as it's apparently a business meeting, act like a business person.

"Small" business, though ... the upcharge isn't insignificant. The trip is personal, but also important, so wondering if there's any battlefield experience out there.

You're gambling the WGA funds disappearing forever if you try this. It will be hard to find an excuse where it was the beyond the traveler's control to get to the airport for 6 hours.

If you went with the "suck it up and pay" plan, at least you won't forfeit the WGA funds.

This is a good time to burn legacy miles even with the close-in booking fee if it is possible. Honestly, this is a better use of legacy miles than the first class cabins the credit card bloggers keep pushing. Even on an inflated miles fare, it's better to use fast depreciating funny money than real money.

Before the no-show forfeiture rule I would have said gamble on it and I would have given you a 1/3 chance of success. But now the funds will vanish after 2 hours. That means much more work for the gate agent to bend the rules and put you on the later flight. Your chances of success are slim.

If AA or Alaska flies your route and have saver seats available, look into spending BA Avios. Otherwise DL has no late booking fee (although they increase the miles required at 3 days out).

Huh. I do have ~80K UAs sitting unused that are only not forfeited due to Mileage Plus Dining accumulation. That's a thought.

WN would want ~23K outright, about 8% of my available RRs, so I'd prefer not to do that.

They do, but I don't have any AS or AA miles (and big surprise, the cash price is within ~$5 of the WN price).

I'll probably just end up sucking it up and changing it day-of, but I'd figured I'd check with FT first. What really blows is for this trip I usually book the last flight and have A-List SB'ed 100% of the time to a mid-morning flight, but this time I'd booked the actual one I'd wanted. "No good deed goes unpunished :)"

If there are AA or AS saver seats and if you have Amex or Chase points you can transfer them to BA Avios. You can book AA saver seats online with BA Avios, but you have to call BAEC when they are open to redeem Avios for Alaska flights.

Throw as many emojis and jokes in your post as you want. But the truth of the matter is that unless you plan being 100% honest (by saying you knew in advance that you couldn't take your purchased flight) when you arrive at the airport 6 hours late, what you are describing is fraud.

It's not fraud that will ever get prosecuted. It's probably not even fraud that the airline will discover. But, that doesn't make it right.

Yeah, this sort of situation is EXACTLY why you accumulate Avios, or a points currency like Amex MR that transfers to them. There was even a 40% bonus last month Amex > Avios.

Flat redemption and they even tend to open up late. I am pretty sure there's no close-in fee.

Not generally extremely worthwhile for trips with a plane change or to cheap airports.

What is the route and date?

Huh? How does Avios help if you can't find saver availability on its USA-based partners? Just because it works for you from Chicago does not meant it works from every city. There is never saver availability from Los Angeles (where my flights originate) to anywhere I want to fly unless the fares are super-cheap, so I find Avios totally useless for domestic flights. (I have used Avios for flights overseas sometimes.)

Plus increasingly AA's saver awards are only "married segments" connections (no more nonstops), which means paying more Avios (per segment) if BA can even see those "married segments", which apparently they often can't.

:confused:

This makes no sense. It's not fraud. The airline will either do you a favor or not do you a favor, but no prosecutor in the world would remotely consider this fraud. (The act of asking for the favor.) Even the court of public opinion doesn't consider this fraud...even if we generally agree it won't work.

Others here are correct in saying they won't do you the favor. Not because WN isn't nice (they often are nice), but because this one would be kind of difficult for them to do even if they wanted to.

Sounds like OP is going to follow the more prudent course of action - not gambling on a very low-probability outcome - but asking the airline for a favor isn't a ethical problem and definitely not a criminal one. Obviously for the sake of all of us, behave nicely whether your request is accommodated or not.

As described by OP, it is fraud (either wire or mail or both).

As the poster and you note, it is extraordinarily unlikely to be prosecuted.

But, there is a vast difference between appearing and invoking the "flat tire" policy and making a truthful request. E.g., OP says he has a meeting.

1. "I got stuck in an elevator" False, but maybe flat.
2. "I went to a meeting very important to me, can you help?" - True and a request for a waiver.

Nah, I was gonna cut in front of everyone, whip out my A-List Preferred card at the CS counter and loudly ask "DYKWIA?!?!" and not move 'till they fix my ticket!

Tough room today!

It's things like this that make airlines tighten up their rules to prevent future abuse, forcing the rest of us to ultimately pay the price (and then of course complain endlessly on FT about the negative changes).

Hardly any airlines offer bereavement fares any more. Guess why.

Careful, that's how Rudy's "associates" got pulled aside. :p