Broken AA booking flying JAL

[tammma]

Hi all,

First of all, let me begin by saying that I know there are others in the world with far worse plights right now.

With that said, is anyone able to help or provide any suggestions to this broken itinerary?

- Flying HEL/HND/SYD on JAL in J.
- JAL bumped us off the HEL/HND leg on 13 Dec having cancelled the flight that day of the week. We were extremely unlucky.
- We got moved to the same flight 24 hours later.
- But our connecting leg from HND/SYD had no availability so the itinerary has now gone back to unconfirmed. The connecting flight departs while we are still in the air to HND.
- We are flying as a family of 4 across 2 PNRs (AA and QFF). 2 adults, 1 child 2+, 1 infant <2 added to the AA itinerary directly with JAL.
- There is little to no alternative award inventory from what I can see now.

I am annoyed because Finnair did something similar, but were mature enough to cancel it several months ago. At that point we perserved and just moved to the JAL alternative as it was the most straight forward way at the time.

Meanwhile JAL have done this at short notice. I am unable to contact them directly and in all likelihood are going to refer me back to AA/QFF.

Any ideas on whether this is fixable or whether there are any alternative premium cabin flights from Europe to HND? I tried NRT too, but FRA-NRT on JL is in limited supply.

Anyone have any helpful tips out of this bind?

many thanks
T

 

[drron]

I think you will have to call AA for those that are on an AA PNR. Best to ring when the DFW/Tulsa agents are on. just look up the time differences.
However during covid that meant a lot of time on the phone so I emailed them and got things sorted that way.
The one time we had a RTW J award with QFF and our flight from CDG to JFK was cancelled on the day because of a French strike AA reissued our tickets there and then as well as getting us to JFK via MIA only a few hours late.

I would even suggest to AA that they could reroute you via the USA as that could all be done on AA metal. Of course that would mean losing a day or 2 of your trip and not the greatest with 2 young children.

 

[drron]

Just looked up the flight HEL-HND on 13/12 and Finnair is flying and there is a JAL codeshare and 2 adults,1 child and an infant can be sold tickets in J. JAL also selling fligts to CDG,FRA,LHR and then onto HND on JAL Again all can accommodate your group on paid tickets but not available as awards on JMB.

PS the flights via CDG and FRA leave early from HEL with half an hour time difference but get into HND within 10 minutes of each other. Whilst not ideal 1 adult and 1 child just might be able to be get an award on each. You can certainly suggest those alternatives when trying to fix the situation.

Or maybe go back to Finnair as they are now flying that day.

 

[tammma]

Just looked up the flight HEL-HND on 13/12 and Finnair is flying and there is a JAL codeshare and 2 adults,1 child and an infant can be sold tickets in J. JAL also selling fligts to CDG,FRA,LHR and then onto HND on JAL Again all can accommodate your group on paid tickets but not available as awards on JMB.

PS the flights via CDG and FRA leave early from HEL with half an hour time difference but get into HND within 10 minutes of each other. Whilst not ideal 1 adult and 1 child just might be able to be get an award on each. You can certainly suggest those alternatives when trying to fix the situation.

Or maybe go back to Finnair as they are now flying that day.

When you said FInnair was flying, I went to their website and did a search. AY61 was cancelled. But then it was seemingly reinstated! We were originally booked on that but had to shift off it to JL48 instead!

FRA flight lands in NRT, not HND as I understand it, so a connection would not work there.
CDG doesnt come up with any CDG-HND availability in J.

Appreciate the post!

 

[NM]

What a painful situation! I feel for you and your family. There are so many schedule changes happening at the moment that are impacting award flights all over the place. I suspect your particular case is a result of the Japan inbound travel restriction changes. Originally flight booking demand was low when Japan remained mostly closed to foreign arrivals, resulting in award tickets being available. Then airlines cancelled some of those flights when overall demand for travel to/from Japan was limited, resulting on "stranded" award passengers trying to find alternate travel. Now that Japan has announced re-opening to international travelers the airlines are reinstating flights and demand is high so very limited award tickets are available.

Since the schedule change was more than 72 hours before travel, its treated as a schedule change and not as IRROPS, so there is no obligation for the operating airline or the FF program to find you alternate flights. They can (and will) refund you the miles/points/charges if they can't find an alternate routing for you. They are not obliged to release revenue seats for impacted award passengers, though sometimes they will work very hard to find an alternate routing for you and may waive some change fees.

And your is even more complicated by using two different FF programs for the flights, so its very unlikely you will get both programs to re-book you on the same flights. Also watch your QF booking very closely as they have a very bad history of not re-issuing tickets in time before the operating airline cancels the unticketed flights and then the pain starts again.

I hope you can get this sorted to your satisfaction in a timely manner.