Question re AA airline change fee waiver

[jmichell]

I have seen conflicting info so am asking your help before I get put on hold for 2 hours. I booked a flight from MSY to SJU in January 2020 for March 20 departure. However I have now postponed my cruise and rebooked it for May. When I manually tried to rebook my AA ticket, the $400 change fee was showing. This is what I copied today on their website:

 

Information current as of March 10, 2020

If you're traveling to / through / from:

All cities served by American

The change fee is waived if you:

• Booked an American Airlines flight
• Bought your ticket on or before March 1, 2020
• Are scheduled to travel March 1 - April 30, 2020
• Can travel March 1 - December 31, 2020 or within 1 year of date the ticket was issued, whichever is earlier

Keep in mind, you may owe any difference in ticket price when you rebook your trip.

Change your trip or cancel and rebook later

You’re allowed to make changes to your trip once. You can change it now, or cancel and rebook later.

Keep in mind:

• Travel must start by December 31, 2020 or within 1 year of date the ticket was issued, whichever is earlier.
• The change fee will be waived but you may still owe any difference in ticket price when you rebook your trip.

Change or cancel online

Here's how:

• Find your trip
• If your trip is eligible, you'll see 'Change trip' or ‘Cancel trip’ in the top toolbar

Find your trip

Call to rebook

After you cancel your trip online, please call Reservations when you’re ready to rebook. You’ll need:

• Your ticket number (American tickets have a 13-digit number that begins with ’001’)
• Your 6-character confirmation (also called a ‘Record Locator’)

 

So is it your understanding that I am eligible for the waiver? And have any of you called rather than using the online method?

[CruiserBruce]

It sounds like you are. Like I just posted on another thread, the websites are not handling the temporary policy changes well. Need to talk to somebody.

[FlyerTalker]

As mentioned in another thread, website programming is way behind the rapidly-changing rule changes.  Talk with an agent.  And know that millions of people also want to do the same.

 

If you choose to be on hold, just put your phone on speaker and go about your day until you come off hold.  Or if they have a callback option, you can use that.

 

I consistently am amazed at the number of people who wait on extended holds with a phone to their ear.

[waterbug123]

10 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

As mentioned in another thread, website programming is way behind the rapidly-changing rule changes.  Talk with an agent.  And know that millions of people also want to do the same.

 

If you choose to be on hold, just put your phone on speaker and go about your day until you come off hold.  Or if they have a callback option, you can use that.

 

I consistently am amazed at the number of people who wait on extended holds with a phone to their ear.

 

This^^^

Can you imagine the call volume of people currently in Europe or scheduled to fly there this weekend who need immediate assistance, like right now???   Your flight is a week away.  Have patience.

[Bo1953]

On 3/12/2020 at 8:45 PM, FlyerTalker said:

I consistently am amazed at the number of people who wait on extended holds with a phone to their ear.

Generally, I Am not because many may choose to call from a phone without a speaker.

 

Though, there may be a few who do not have speakers on their phones, which is fine, this points out that they may want to consider using a TA to take care of this if a pandemic occurs in the future.

 

I accept that I may have to wait on the phone or for an email to be returned, to get things done, especially when I made the arrangements myself.

 

We do forget that we are not the only ones who are in a similar situation, all over N America and the world. This alone would be cause of a back log.

 

It is an inherent part of the program in our present day travel world.

 

bon voyage

Edited March 14, 2020 by Bo1953

[bbtondo]

FYI AA is changing a lot of flights.  My nonstop flight to BCN from US has been canceled and now they're replacing  with connecting flights through LHR.  I believe if AA cancels or changes your flight you are due a refund.  You may want to check it out.