Yesterday United announced the removal of domestic change fees. Today American Airlines has announced the removal of all change fees for domestic and short haul international flights for premium cabin and most main cabin fares (excludes basic economy). American Airlines is also following United’s move and allowing fliers to fly standby on earlier flights for the same day/destination for free.
Basic economy fares will now be able to purchase Upgrades, Priority boarding, Preferred/Main Cabin Extra seats, Same-day confirmed flight changes. Elite members will also have access to Upgrade privileges, Elite seat privileges, including access to Main Cabin Preferred and Main Cabin Extra seats and Same-day confirmed flight change benefit when purchasing basic economy fares.
These new changes go into effect for tickets purchased from October 1, 2020. Now we wait to see if other airlines follow these changes or not.
Anyone knows if this change could be pertinent to e-credits?
I had to cancel some trips earlier this year and have rather large AA e-credits amount but no plans to travel until pandemic is under better control.
To book a flight later this year and then reschedule it for the next year?
How does this effect web special tickets? If I book a trip for next summer with points are a web special and then cancel do I have to pay a fee to reinstate the miles?
I don’t know if this helps you since I bought my web special ticket in April 2020 but it may help someone else. I was able to cancel my flight last night by following the prompts on their website. My miles were automatically reinstated this morning and I was also issued a refund for the fees.
Thanks Rob, I was able to cancel and reinstate 6x web special tickets as well. Tix were purchased late 19 and jan or feb 2020.
Thanks for the data point Rob. I may need to cancel a web special myself in the next 2 weeks.
Congress: “I guess we should give the airlines free money now…”
Ooh, so they’re going to put the seat cushions back in for Economy
October 1st. Ah yes, the same day that they’re going to start furloughing a crap ton of pilots….
If they only flying 20% of the flights they used to. Theyll have to furlough or fire 80% of their employees
“The new change fee policy applies to AAdvantage® award tickets as well.” Seems to apply to award bookings but details still unclear
Thanks
As I read it, the announced changes eliminate fees to CHANGE your award ticket (under narrow circumstances, this year) and will result in what’s effectively an “award points voucher” – where you have one year to reschedule the trip. Looks like if you cancel an award trip and want to just redeposit the miles, there’s still a big fee.
Also, American’s policy only applies to USA/CA/MX/PR/USVI, not to international travel beyond our backyard.
Not consumer-friendly at all. In this case, United’s policy seems vastly better,
Have AA award tixs for the family to Costa Rica this January – but unless they open to more states – we may not be allowed to enter.
Have been mulling if it was worth the redeposit fees.
Hopefully, airlines will up the ante again in a few months and broaden the changes like earlier this year, In the event we can’t travel and have to cancel.
2020~22 award travel has become a huge gamble of both time and points.
Lockdown / distancing fail in Costa Rica….they should open….cat’s already out of the bag
As I understand, you should be covered under this. Need to initiate the cancellation 60 days in advance.
“Awards ticketed on or before September 8, 2020 for any future travel
Waiving award reinstatement and change fees for award bookings
We’re giving you more flexibility with waived award reinstatement and change fees for awards ticketed by September 8, 2020 for any future travel.
Automatic mileage reinstatement
If your trip is eligible, your miles will be automatically reinstated within 48 hours of canceling your trip online. For all other trips, contact Reservations to have your miles reinstated.
Eligible customers / trips must meet these requirements:
Travel is on American Airlines flights only.
The ticket was purchased directly with American in the U.S. or via our U.S. website.
Travel for any portion of the trip has not begun.
No changes have been made to the trip since the ticket was issued.
Refunds for the purchase of ancillary products such as seats, pre-paid bags or priority boarding will need to be requested separately.”
https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/award-travel.jsp
Thanks, I kinda mentally had already processed this as a throw away trip if we had to pay to reinstate miles – car rental was NC to cancel and rooms booked with HH points.
Postive note looks like they are adding more eligible States every two weeks:
https://vamosrentacar.com/blog/concerned-covid-19-costa-rica/?mc_cid=fe369e1b02&mc_eid=15711de2b7