epicurus

anyone knows the likely change policy of US award ticket after the merger of the two programs? would it be fair to assume it will be like AA, free of charge as long as the same departure and destinations?

I booked a family trip to Australia (from JFK) using US miles. I have to split 5 passengers into 4 reservations to ticket from four US accounts. And it took me almost a week, every night, to talk to US agents to finally get all 5 people on the same flights on every legs of this trip. Then I ticketed all.

My own oversight that I didn't line to line compare all the itineraries right after ticketing. We are supposed to fly MEL-HKG-NRT-JFK together, but two days later I noticed that two kids (4 and 9)'s ticket shows a direct flight from HKG-NRT on CX.

I called US immediately, and was told they can cancel the tickets free of charge, but cannot change without a fee. The original HKG-NRT-JFK is no longer available. The only way I can get all 5 on the same flight is to change the return trip for all 5 passengers, and that's $150 x 5, if I am not mistaken.

Shall I wait to call after April 1st and hoping AA fee schedule may apply to US ticket at that point?

aamilesslave

I think we'd all be guessing but that it will be like it is with AA probably isn't a bad assumption. But it's just that, an assumption absent any other information.

As for "April 1", the plan is to merge the FF programs "some time in Q2". That doesn't necessarily mean April 1 and could just as easily mean June 30 or any date in between.

PDXPremier

According to the "merge accounts" thread...there is *some* indication the programs will merge next week (March 20th specifically)...*fingers crossed*

aamilesslave

I'd mark info between 'highly unlikely' to 'out of the question'. It goes against the little information we have so far.

Dave Noble

If you wait until April 1, you may well find that there is no availability anyway to make the change.

There is no information on what the policy regarding changes will be after the schemes merge - it may well be that awards booked under the US awards scheme will maintain the same rules as they had at ticketing time

epicurus

now seems that it will get merged within the next 30 days.

for AA award ticket change, for the same origin/destination, my understanding is that there will be no charge for change in travel date, route, and upgrade to higher cabin.

if I switch to a different OW airlines for the same leg, will there be a change fee?

eponymous_coward

I might note that AA's rules on which regions you are allowed to transit might be different. AA is notably stricter than US. Is Asia 1 an allowed transit on a USA-Australia itinerary?

JPG3392

I'm not familiar with the rules for upgrades, but there is no change fee for switching to a different airline as long as the origin and destination remain the same. There may be a change in the fees associated with award travel, and if the new airline is BA those fees will be quite substantial. (I recently changed an AA award ticket for this June from MUC-TXL-JFK/LGA-DCA on AB/US to MUC-PHL-DCA on US and received a small refund because of reduced German airport fees.)

JonNYC

This is one of the problems I'm seeing-- the assumption that AA's "good" rules can be used (and they are not accurately presented in this thread in any case) but not be subjected to AA's "bad" rules one the same award(s). I don't see it going down like that!

ctrlf

Still hoping the best but thinking the same - why would they allow such changes under the AA rules without re-validating the routing or demanding more miles.

JDiver

There seem to be two viable options, and I've not seen any indications to date which one will be implemented after the FFP merger:

1) All award tickets issued prior to the merger will continue to follow the requirements and terms and conditions that existed at issuance; changes allowed will be allowed if they are pursuant of those original conditions they were issued under.

2) All awards will "convert" to AAdvantage terms and conditions - newly issued as well as those pre-existing the merger - and any change will cause a DM award to comply with AAdvantage T&Cs.

There are pros and cons for different members.

Under 1) Our awards will continue to be bound by issuing terms and conditions. That can benefit some, hinder others.

Under 2) Someone with a DM-secured round trip award, oneworld Explorer award or allowed stopover could putatively lose that benefit and find their stopover would no longer be permitted, and they now had two one way awards.

We can discuss the various rules at length, but we still don't know which will apply at this time so it's mere speculation until they announce (or reply to a member) what will be implemented.

Dave Noble

Personally, I do not think that (2) is likely since it would be changing the terms of an existing booking so expect (and hope) that existing awards will maintain the rules in place at time of purchase

I would expect any change that requires cancel/rebook to need to be rebooked as an AA award

I agree though that anything is speculation

JDiver

I'll speculate too, though, that it will be #1.

Dave Noble

So based on speculation can we now progress that as fact that #1 will be the way it goes due to 2 people agreeing

vishalgupta22

I hope it's something like US rules + AA free changes + Changes allowed after travel begins.