Airline changes/Flightease before final payment

[Native Floridian 26]

We have flights for our return from a Transatlantic this April.  We are just short of Final Payment, which we're doing next week.  American has made minor changes to the itinerary which are understandable when you book so far in advance.  The latest change is resulting from a cancelled flight from Charlotte to Sarasota after the flight in from MAD.  They rebooked us on a flight 4.5 hours later, which is too long of a layover.  There are other nearby airports we can fly into.  There is a flight from CLT with an acceptable layover just over an hour, but they don't even offer that as a connection from coming from Madrid through CLT. The reason I don't want to pick totally different flights on the FlightEase portal is because we currently have a good fare, and today they are selling much higher.  I called FlightEase and they said because I'm booked through a TA, I need to go through them.  Is it possible to call the American directly since this change is so drastic and try to get another connection while keeping the same fare?  I don't know the technicalities of what you can do before and after Final Payment in this case.

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

We have flights for our return from a Transatlantic this April.  We are just short of Final Payment, which we're doing next week.  American has made minor changes to the itinerary which are understandable when you book so far in advance.  The latest change is resulting from a cancelled flight from Charlotte to Sarasota after the flight in from MAD.  They rebooked us on a flight 4.5 hours later, which is too long of a layover.  There are other nearby airports we can fly into.  There is a flight from CLT with an acceptable layover just over an hour, but they don't even offer that as a connection from coming from Madrid through CLT. The reason I don't want to pick totally different flights on the FlightEase portal is because we currently have a good fare, and today they are selling much higher.  I called FlightEase and they said because I'm booked through a TA, I need to go through them.  Is it possible to call the American directly since this change is so drastic and try to get another connection while keeping the same fare?  I don't know the technicalities of what you can do before and after Final Payment in this case.

Your best bet is likely to wait until the ticket is issued and deal directly with American.  You can’t deal with American until your ticket is issued.  
 

did you enter your frequent flyer number at Flight Ease. This will help when the ticketing is done 

[Native Floridian 26]

2 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Your best bet is likely to wait until the ticket is issued and deal directly with American.  You can’t deal with American until your ticket is issued.  
 

did you enter your frequent flyer number at Flight Ease. This will help when the ticketing is done 

Yes, the Advantage number is on the booking. Will that put me into having to pay fees for the changes since it'll be ticketed at that point?

Edited December 18, 2022 by Native Floridian 26

[Native Floridian 26]

Well just in that amount of time, I chatted with American and they were able to change me to the flight I wanted.  Good news!  The connection is only one hour, but if we miss if there are several other options to TPA all much earlier than the one they had put me on originally.

 

[Mary229]

3 hours ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Yes, the Advantage number is on the booking. Will that put me into having to pay fees for the changes since it'll be ticketed at that point?

Check the American website.  They have become very lenient 

[Native Floridian 26]

7 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Check the American website.  They have become very lenient 

Thank you.  They were very acommodating on the chat.