Flight change - Can I cancel for free?

GrayFal · Jun 12, 2016

I had booked a flight using FF miles in American Airlines.

My original flight was as 12:30 pm with a connection leaving at 6:55 pm

The original flight has now been changed to 3:30 pm with the connection leaving at 6:45 pm

My question is does the 3 hour time change constitute a Reason to cancel with no penalty?

I would actually like to cancel but don't want to pay the $150 fee to get my points back.

Pat H · Jun 12, 2016

That's a tough one since you aren't getting to your destination any later. You can always call and ask. The worst they can say is no.

GrayFal · Jun 12, 2016

Pat H said:
That's a tough one since you aren't getting to your destination any later. You can always call and ask. The worst they can say is no.

Yes. I will be calling. And reading the website. I am being dropped off at the airport at 9:30-10 so this is a great inconvenience to me.

canesfan · Jun 12, 2016

Possibly. They would change it for you to another flight with no change fee, so I would think canceling would apply too.

rickandcindy23 · Jun 12, 2016

American Airlines recently, two days ago, changed my stepdad's flight, both legs going to Maui from Denver to join us, and it's definitely a lot more inconvenient for him, but he won't call and cancel because he felt he got a good deal. I tried to do it for him because he is 82. I couldn't do a thing without his cooperation. Geez.

Pat H · Jun 12, 2016

GrayFal said:
Yes. I will be calling. And reading the website. I am being dropped off at the airport at 9:30-10 so this is a great inconvenience to me.

I've used a similar excuse

and when they offered to change me to another flight, I told them to just cancel and redeposit the miles. They did that.

LisaRex · Jun 12, 2016

Call and ask politely for them to cancel your flight and refund your money.

GrayFal · Jun 13, 2016

Pat H said:
I've used a similar excuse and when they offered to change me to another flight, I told them to just cancel and redeposit the miles. They did that.

LisaRex said:
Call and ask politely for them to cancel your flight and refund your money.

canesfan said:
Possibly. They would change it for you to another flight with no change fee, so I would think canceling would apply too.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I called and they could have changed me to something that was even more inconvenient. When I said that really would not work, they offered to refund my taxes and reinstate my miles :cheer:

So glad I called; if I had called myself (without the flight time change) and requested a return of my miles it would have cost me $200 plus $79 loss of the taxes I paid.

And I already had booked a more convenient, low price flight - a great outcome for me!

Luanne · Jun 13, 2016

GrayFal said:
Thanks everyone for your comments.

I called and they could have changed me to something that was even more inconvenient. When I said that really would not work, they offered to refund my taxes and reinstate my miles

So glad I called; if I had called myself (without the flight time change) and requested a return of my miles it would have cost me $200 plus $79 loss of the taxes I paid.

And I already had booked a more convenient, low price flight - a great outcome for me!

Win-win.

dsmrp · Jun 13, 2016

GrayFal said:
Thanks everyone for your comments.

I called and they could have changed me to something that was even more inconvenient. When I said that really would not work, they offered to refund my taxes and reinstate my miles

So glad I called; if I had called myself (without the flight time change) and requested a return of my miles it would have cost me $200 plus $79 loss of the taxes I paid.

And I already had booked a more convenient, low price flight - a great outcome for me!

Good they made that change for you without much hassle.
We booked two separate itineraries with American both about 11 months ahead of departure date one using FF miles and the other a paid low fare.
On each itinerary American changed a return flight leg about 2-3 times, so that original connecting flights were impossible. On the flights I paid a fare, I got a semi-acceptable re-route. The agents said in those circumstances I could change to flights leaving up to 24 hours after the original scheduled departure with no additional fee.

One of their partner airlines changed my stopover inter-island flight from 9 am to 5 pm. It had a certain fare code at the time we booked, and American said the change was within the allowed time frame (same date) for the fare code. Nothing I could do about it without jeopardizing the next flight after the interisland one.

So from now on, I'm pretty much going to assume American will be changing our flight times if we book too far in advance. Using miles is a kind of a crap shoot unless you're on direct flights.

GrayFal · Jun 13, 2016

dsmrp said:
Good they made that change for you without much hassle.
We booked two separate itineraries with American both about 11 months ahead of departure date one using FF miles and the other a paid low fare.
On each itinerary American changed a return flight leg about 2-3 times, so that original connecting flights were impossible. On the flights I paid a fare, I got a semi-acceptable re-route. The agents said in those circumstances I could change to flights leaving up to 24 hours after the original scheduled departure with no additional fee.

One of their partner airlines changed my stopover inter-island flight from 9 am to 5 pm. It had a certain fare code at the time we booked, and American said the change was within the allowed time frame (same date) for the fare code. Nothing I could do about it without jeopardizing the next flight after the interisland one.

So from now on, I'm pretty much going to assume American will be changing our flight times if we book too far in advance. Using miles is a kind of a crap shoot unless you're on direct flights.

Originally I was
12:30 pm JFK-BOS. 6:40 pm BOS-CDG arrive 7:40am....then they changed my departure to 3:30 pm

They could only offer me
11:30 LGA to Dallas. Dallas to Paris arrive 9:40 am....

I was just lucky there was no reasonable alternative.

BocaBoy · Jun 16, 2016

dsmrp said:
Using miles is a kind of a crap shoot unless you're on direct flights.

No more of a crap shoot than a paid flight. You can use miles for direct flights too. The itinerary is the variable to be concerned about, not the method of payment.

Flight change - Can I cancel for free?

GrayFal

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