Do you know people who use the word ‘literally’ frequently? Do you detest them as much as I do? TPOL, unlike those non observant grammatical infidels, will be using it correctly in this post to share good news. After dealing with M life (still not booked), AA, and AT&T, I needed something to go my way.
To recap, AA does not allow route changes post devaluation. I was supposed to go from Asia to NYC via Dallas but wanted to change NYC to sunny Detroit. AA wanted $150 + 20,000 miles or 70,000 total miles which is the post devaluation rate for flights in business from Asia.
A quick check of my favorite travel planning tool, Matrix Airfare Search, revealed that a coach flight from DFW-DTW was only $127. How for the love of points could AA rationalize charging those premiums? I called AA and St. Peter answered the phone. He allowed me into the gates of first class heaven to a city many incorrectly depict as hell for 0 additional miles and a now acceptable $150.
Praise be AA for doing the right thing.
Update: This didn’t work. I had to call back and pay the full 70k. Read all about the fun!
a bit confused here, so he allowed you to switch the routing and destination without charging more miles? How is that even possible because changing destinations require a redeposit of miles and ticketing a new itinerary all together, which I wasn’t aware that any agent had the ability to override. This is HUGE if I am understanding the article correctly.
Your comment prompted me to check my award ticket and sure enough…’houston we have a problem’, stay tuned for the next post about this pickle.
Contacted AA twice and got two completely different answers that are both erroneous according to your own T&C
Welcome to my world!!!
Wanted to change award booking to allow 2-3 extra days in Bangkok, and was quoted by a whopping 165K extra AA miles above miles I spent originally for the 4 seats. Departing and final destination airports are the same, but new routing would cost AA much less. Our original plan was Emirates BKK-AUH-LAX for 4 passengers in business with 2 seats in the F Suites on the AUH-LAX leg which originally paid 435K AA miles pre-devaluation booking. Requested routing through either HND, NRT, or HKG for business or better. Even though our original plans would cost AA a fortune, they refused to change unless paid additional 165K AA miles. I have the miles, but I refused on a principal!
Such as life with these merged/devaluated “loyalty” program!
my goodness! well there’s more to this story, writing my post now.
I don’t get your complaint. You’re asking AA to do something that is ordinarily outside what is allowed and getting upset when they don’t let you do it?
Oh snuggliestbear, do you ever go through a light when it’s orange? Or do you rely on the line ‘my computer is telling me I can’t’ in your line of work. I wasn’t ‘getting upset’, I was pointing out the stupidity of it all. Glad you are on the side of big business.
So anyone who doesn’t agree with you is with ‘the man’ then? I take issue with what you wrote due to the whiny nature of the complaint. If I was in the same situation I would ask politely even though I know (as you should being a ‘pro’ blogger) that what I’m asking for is against the guidelines that AA released before the devaluation. If they say no, oh well make due or move on. Don’t cry about it to get your way like a toddler would.
If you ran an ‘orange’ light and got pulled over by a cop, couldn’t you still get a ticket? The same applies here – you may be able to persuade the company to make an exception, but to depend on it is over entitlement.
Or it’s good lawyering. Enjoy your ticket.
I can do you one worse that this. Back in November I booked an award trip that included First class on 77w on the return. Just after I booked it they swapped the aircraft or at least put the actual aircraft (763) up on the route and it doesn’t have a First class cabin. I called recently to get a tight connection fixed (not my fault) and I asked them to refund the difference in miles between F and J. They would only do it If I pay them like $175 or some amount like that which is weird. I’m planning on calling back later when the flight gets closer on the gamble that they could change it to a 3 cabin plane and then my argument for an F seat changes, of course.
What is wrong with these people! We are still customers regardless of how we get on the plane, how we got the points