American dropped by AAdvantage reservation - ouch!
 

About a week ago, I made a reservation using AAdvantage miles for my hubby & I to travel next May to Italy for 10 days. Here's the itinerary we set up:
AA DFW-LGW
BA LGW-PSA
This would utilize 125,000 pp for first class seats. I looked up my reservation this morning anticipating ticketing the seats as hubby has given the okay to miss work that week. In looking at my record, the American Airlines portion of the itinerary was missing. I called the AAdvantage desk to clarify and, hopefully, ticket.

The kind agent was puzzled about the record as well. After being put on hold for him to discuss with a supervisor, it was explained to me that American dropped the DFW-LGW and will be flying DFW-LHR instead. This put the second British Airway leg in jeopardy since it was to fly LGW-PSA (and on the return, as well). So...American dropped that half of the itinerary. I asked if they could help me get from DFW to Italy (Rome, Pisa, Bologna, Milan) in Business/First and gave several different dates with which to play. They offered incredibly around the world itineraries (DFW-BOS-MAD-FCO) with lengthy layovers instead of opening up seats on DFW-ORD-FCO or DFW-JFK-FCO.

In other words, they dropped legs of my itinerary making the trip impossible, then offered an inconvenient itinerary as a solution. OK - now that I've ranted about my predicament, any suggestions for problem-solving?

If you want to fly British Airways across the pond, try flying American to Canada and British Airways to London.

I think the problem is that you only reserved, but not ticketed then. I don't think they will do anything special for you, like opening up award seats on the other flights.

AA just announced this weekend that one daily LGW flight would be switching to LHR; obviously you were unlucky. I would first phone them back and try to get the remaining LGW flight if possible, or stick with LHR and ask for a BA connection to Rome or Milan from there.

Unfortunately BA is also revising its Gatwick schedules (this is all due to recent changes in the "open skies" rules that allows more flights into LHR) so Pisa may or may not stay there for the time being. It's mainly a leisure market and AA and BA are much more interested in business connections via LHR.

I would also suggest asking about DFW-ORD-MAD-PSA or DFW-ORD-MAD-FCO/MIL using Iberia's Chicago-Madrid nonstop. Some itineraries are actually quicker than via LGW or LHR.

An added bonus to using Iberia would be avoiding LHR and BA, where the one bag rule, horrendous security lines, and, at last report, 20,000 pieces of misplaced luggage forming "Mt. Heathrow" - adds even further disincentives to using BA's delightful (not) hub.

I understood that only one of the 2 DFW flights was being changed to LHR (#50) and that the other one (#78) was still going to LGW. A quick check on their website seems to confirm this. #78 arrives at LGW at 10am. Will this flight still not work for you?

rkkwan - you're exactly right! My goof was not in having the ticketing done. I thought the 2 week window holding the reservation was sufficient. A big warning to others and lesson learned for me!

dfw4848 - you're right, there is an additional flight from DFW to LGW. Acording to the agent, AAdvantage seats are unavailable on that flight though...

I appreciate the ideas everyone is throwing out to help.

try dfw to mia