$260 to removed a flight from my AA itiniery

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

i cannot believe that American Airlines are charging me $260 to remove a flight from my US domestic itiniery.

basically I had booked LAX - SFO - JF - LAX but with going to Cancun at the start of my holiday I no longer needed to do the LAX - SFO trip.

I wasn't expecting a refund for the LAX - SFO portion - except maybe for any taxes, but I wasn't expecting to be hit with $260 for the pleasure :evil:. AA are basically double dipping as they can resell my seat.

The SFO - JFK - LAX fare was about $14 AU more than when I booked - am happy to pay the diff.

If I don't cancel the LAX - SFO flight and no show then the rest of my fligths will be cancelled:!:

AA have definitely lost me as a customer, and I will be ensuring my friends planning their trips to the USA this yr wont use them for any domestic travel.

 

[serfty]

Suit yourself.

Most AA fares have a USD150 change fee; this would make up most of your AUD250 cost in re-booking.

This change fee information is available when booking on-line, before committing to and paying the fare.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Suit yourself.

Most AA fares have a USD150 change fee; this would make up most of your AUD250 cost in re-booking.

This change fee information is available when booking on-line, before committing to and paying the fare.

true enough. i just find it unfair that i can't just not use the 1st flight of my itiniery and turn up for the other flights. if that was an option i'd have no problem with it. being told i HAVE to cancel the flight AND pay $260, that's what's got me so :evil:

 

[drron]

I think you will find most USA airlines have similiar fee structures.As always-caveat emptor.Always read the fine print.
I have just had the complete opposite experience for my upcoming DONE4.Ticket is on QF stock and issued by a TA.Had to ring the AA Australian office about a change in mrsdrrons Aadvantage award for August after a flight was cancelled.So i thought I would ask about a date change and upgrading the DFW-FRA sector on AA.I expected to be told to get in touch with my TA but the agent took all the details,said she had to contact ticketing and would ring back.Changes made,tickets reissued and both confirmed in F for DFW-FRA and all for the cost of 25000 points each for the upgrade and a $A60 fee.
This is why I will stick with AA.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

drron

i suppose it's an issue with the whY fares. i can only say AA seem to have the highest change fees i've expereinced. why they will cancel all my flights if I don't show for the 1st one is beyond me.

i wont say i'm being rational, but i do feel scammed by it. AFF lets me have a little vent :mrgreen:

i suppose i'll just be a bit more careful when planning my next trip to not make changes. sigh.

 

[Keith009]

why they will cancel all my flights if I don't show for the 1st one is beyond me.
.

Standard industry practise to prevent "abusive" ticketing practises eg hidden city ticketing. It used to be rampant for people to buy a fare from AAA -> BBB -> CCC when all they want to do is travel BBB to CCC - the connecting fare can be much lower for competitive reasons and so people would simply get that fare and throw away the first segment.

They can't really prevent it when people do it the other way round and dump the last segment of course, but it's still a breach of COC and if discovered (rarely) will result in a loss of miles, invoicing of the 'actual' routing at full published rates etc. I remember reading a story on FT of someone being escorted to the gate of his next flight by a UA agent, though I think you'd have to do it on a really frequent basis to be flagged.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

QF009

i think i'll just utter a few of my favourite monty phython curses - one involving fleas and some hairy camels comes to mind - and "just suck it up"

hopefully those flea eggs will be hatchign on the AA VPs personal jet rather than my flight

 

[NM]

i suppose it's an issue with the whY fares. i can only say AA seem to have the highest change fees i've expereinced.

US$150 is pretty common for discount fares in the USA. Many used to be $100 and they recently increased. Change fees are in place to make people think twice about the value of purchasing heavily discounted fares verses buying higher priced but more flexible fares. As the discount wars play out between carriers, they were finding people needing/wanting flexibility were still willing to buy the cheaper fares and then change them later. To encourage people to buy flexible fares if they need flexibility, and still be able to offer cheap discounted fares to people who don't need/want flexibility, the airlines have introduced hefty fare penalties to make changes to heavily discounted fares.

Just be glad they are offering the chance to change the ticket for a fee. The alternative is that a heavily discounted fare would be non-changeable and non-refundable - a matter of use it or lose it. So the change fee allows people to make changes rather than lose the fare altogether.

why they will cancel all my flights if I don't show for the 1st one is beyond me.

This is common amongst most airlines. Its not unique to AA. One of the reasons the rules are in place is to stop people buying a cheap commencing in a city where a fare war or heavy discounting is taking place rather than from the city they really want to start from. For example, an airline like AA has a major hub at DFW, so can provide good frequency of services to many destinations from DFW and hence can charge higher fares for itineraries starting there than another airline that has fewer services and hence may be less desirable for passengers. Passengers are willing to pay a premium to use AA from DFW over an airline like CO. Now CO has a hub in IAH so can likewise secure higher fares from people flying from there. So AA may offer a fare for IAH-DFW-LAX in order to compete with CO's non-stop high-frequency services IAH-LAX. In fact, the AA IAH-DFW-LAX fare may be less than the AA fare DFW-LAX. So to stop someone buying IAH-DFW-LAX and only flying the DFW-LAX segment, a no-show on the IAH-DFW leg invalidates the ticket. The same would go for a CO passenger wanting to fly IAH-LAX and buying a DFW-IAH-LAX fare because its cheaper as CO has to compete against AA's non-stop DFW-LAX services.

i wont say i'm being rational, but i do feel scammed by it. AFF lets me have a little vent :mrgreen:

You are not being scammed. Its very normal and you can blame the passengers who keep demanding cheaper and cheaper fares for which the airlines need to build in ways to encourage people to buy the more profitable flexible fares. If the airlines didn't charge the change fees or allowed passengers to drop segments, they would either go broke or have to increase the fares to cover the losses. You would be in exact same boat if you had a UA, DL, CO etc heavily discounted ticket.

 

[strewthbut]

I once got out of a *A RTW leg I didnt want to do for free by getting a ticketing office to issue a paper ticket (and then threw it in the bin) for that segment a couple of weeks before the flight.

The remaining flights stayed valid and I went on my merry way.

That was with Lufthansa, dunno if it would work with AA.

 

[JohnK]

true enough. i just find it unfair that i can't just not use the 1st flight of my itiniery and turn up for the other flights.

I feel your pain but I can also understand it from the airline point of view where sometimes the airfare from another city is cheaper, eg AKL-SYD-BKK may be cheaper than SYD-BKK.

I would prefer to have the option to purchase cheap airfares and be able to change them for a higher fee than to go back to the days of not much choice other than expensive flexible airfares....

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

the issue for me is the reasons for the high fees don't really apply to my itinery. there was no financial benefit to myself of booking the LAX - SFO portion of the trip. it would have been cheaper to book SFO - JFK - LAX.

anyways, i will see how it all goes on my holiday. maybe AA will WOW me with their inflight service, but from comments made by some friends their experience of AA whY class leaves much to be desired.

maybe i should have gave virgin America a go, but was worried they might be bankrupt by the time i fly in late may.

 

[JohnK]

anyways, i will see how it all goes on my holiday. maybe AA will WOW me with their inflight service, but from comments made by some friends their experience of AA whY class leaves much to be desired.

You may not be wowed but I find the AA domestic service to be acceptable. Yes it may not be fantastic but it is OK.

After hearing all the criticism I had 3 domestic flights in WHY with AA in 2007 (one was American Eagle) and all flights were more than adequate. If I remember correctly we were served a snack, or was it sandwich, and a soft drink on the LAX-IAD red-eye on a 738 and also had a movie on the main screen. The other 2 flights the next day IAD-STL and STL-ORD were also acceptable.

I have 5 flights in WHY in 2 days on AA in August and I am actually looking forward to them. If I had the time I would have booked some more flights to use up my quota of 16 sectors on the QF Oneworld award. My only concern is the delays and connections but in the USA this is not limited to AA....

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

JohnK

i suppose i'll be happy as long as they don't do an AA587 or AA5966 to me :shock:

after a bex and lie down, and mother's little helper, i'm feeling much better.

i suppose the feeling will fade when i get my credit card statement in a couple of weeks

i suppose things could be worse...i could have book on UA

 

[serfty]

I had a situation earlier this year where I made a wrong choice. It was SFO-LAX in Q class on AA - won't earn on QFF and it cost USD79.

I then realized I could go First Class on the same segment for USD210 and earn 60 SC's.

Change fee of $150 meant it would cost USD210+USD150-USD79 (USD281) to actually change the fare to the $210. Other option was to cancel and lose the USD and rebook.

In the end I travelled as originally booked, attempting to change the FF number to my AA one at the last minute to glean 170 AAdvantage miles.

Note that most YUP/KUP fares also have this USD150 change fee.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

serfty..so in a way they lost out on revenue over it.

you'd think they would realise that charging the $150 means u wont do the upgrade..or they can give u the upgrade without the fee.

unless they were sure of selling all the F class seats.

i've had a few deep breaths...still rankles me i spent a week worth of bali accommodation with a yummy breakfast to drop a flight...

life goes on

 

[Alanslegal]

I've got an AAbooking flying MSY-ORD-LAX coming up and with last minute changes, I prefer to go to the other way to Toronto (to visit my newly expat sister). But being on the el-cheapo fare I'm in the exact situation where I need to pay $150US for the re-routing fee when all I want to do is forgo the MSY-ORD leg, and just fly ORD-LAX. To pay or not to pay, that is the question:?: