what a disaster - help?

[coolkid101]

hey guys
earlier this year i excitedly manage to book a GUM flight on USDM - ADL-HKG-NRT-GUM-NRT (stop 12 days) then HND-SYD-ADL for 2 people on separate tickets
everything had been fine and we checked on our tickets every week
the merger came and went and everything stayed intact
tickets had to be revalidated/reissued a few times due to minor schedule changes, no flight number changes

2 days ago - i received a notice on myflights app that 1 of our tickets had been completely f-ed :evil:
while 1 ticket remained completely intact
the other ticket now read HKG-NRT . GUM-NRT. HND-SYD-ADL
in short - the ADL-HKG sector just got cancelled/disappeared, and so did the NRT-GUM.
the SYD-ADL flight also got moved to a later flight

i called AA and they tried to help but said it was a "schedule change" resulting in the cancellation, which made no sense to me as my other ticket was fine and the seatmap showed at least another 6-8 open J class seats. there had not been any timing changes either to the flight since a 15min reschedule about 2 months ago.

i got put through to the supervisor who said the system said "travel agent cancelled ticket" - which is even more ridiculous seeing as it was booked through USDM and i didn't even know you could book award travel through a travel agent. and who cancels random sectors from their flight anyway.

they said they couldn't see any award flight being redeposited into the available pool for that flight - i assume it might have been taken immediately. the NRT-GUM was sorted quickly as it was still available.

agent tried speaking to the oneworld desk but apparently only for revenue ticket

all they could offer was this - they will send a note to the CX liaison at the oneworld desk asking them to convert a revenue seat into an award seat and reinstate my previously confirmed ticket. it's now been 48 hours since i first called - i've called back twice since then with 3 different agents not being able to offer anything further

sorry to put you guys through reading this long post - as you can imagine it is extremely frustrating for us as we are only 2.5weeks out from travelling and everything has been booked and plenty of things pre-paid for already.

is there anything more i can do at this time?

thanks everyone for reading and your thoughts

 

[anna2103]

I don't have any ideas other than twitter/facebook but good luck and I am sure that many AFF's feel for you.

 

[serfty]

...

all they could offer was this - they will send a note to the CX liaison at the oneworld desk asking them to convert a revenue seat into an award seat and reinstate my previously confirmed ticket. it's now been 48 hours since i first called - i've called back twice since then with 3 different agents not being able to offer anything further ...

Was there a schedule change/cancellation or did the ADL-HKG flight simply drop off the booking?

 

[coolkid101]

Was there a schedule change/cancellation or did the ADL-HKG flight simply drop off the booking?

Just dropped off. We have 2 tickets for exact same itinerary and 1 is fine but the other stuffed up. Adl HKG hasn't changed at all. No idea why the Nrt gum would just drop off as well as the random change to the syd-ADL flight. The rest obviously not as significant as this adl HKG sector disappearing

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just dropped off. We have 2 tickets for exact same itinerary and 1 is fine but the other stuffed up. Adl HKG hasn't changed at all. No idea why the Nrt gum would just drop off as well as the random change to the syd-ADL flight. The rest obviously not as significant as this adl HKG sector disappearing

The 'good' news is that CX availability often opens up very close to departure... so unlike say QF, you have a reasonably good chance of the award availability being reinstated... just you might have to wait until very close to departure.

The other option, which you might have limited time to do, is to write to the US DOT and ask them to look at your case. Whether or not they can act quickly enough, or even whether they have the jurisdiction to assist I don't know... but this was issued by a US carrier, and CX has operations into the USA, and this is a ticket touching US soil.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I do wonder if any travel insurances would cover this to the point you they would buy the required revenue fares for you to complete the trio.

 

[Alanslegal]

Complicated and messy is all I can say - and one of the reasons why I personally did not book a GUM trip despite it being super value under USDM days.

Good luck though, I hope you get some efficient resolution to this bizarre situation (one ticket OK, and the other stuffed up).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

they said they couldn't see any award flight being redeposited into the available pool for that flight - i assume it might have been taken immediately.

Yeah - CX allows it's own members to waitlist for award space - so it would have been snapped up as soon as it was released.

The other option... are there any available CX flights from any other ports in Australia? You'd have to fly separately, but you could both meet up in HKG.