We think we'd like more time for our trip to France, adding 3 days to the original flight date. Is there any way to do that without paying extortion? We bought business-class tickets, no miles involved. I spoke with an AA representative last night but couldn't really figure out what she said. Any suggestions very welcome. Thanks.

It all depends on the fare class with which you bought your ticket. Chances are that you'll be hit with a hefty change fee - up to $500 per ticket.

You might ask about cancelling the whole trip and then rebooking it with the new dates. While most tickets are "non-refundable," AA will issue a credit that can be used for new bookings. The cancellation fee <i>might</i> be less than the change fee (doubtful but worth asking) but you'll also need to be sure that the fare hasn't gone up in the meantime, in which case you'd pay both the fee <i>and</i> the higher fare.

We had to change one shortb connecting flight in Europe and paid a huge fee.

Had to change a return flight from AMS back to midwest on Delta in September. The change fee was $300. Fare stayed the same.

Well...it all worked out in a strange way. A few days ago we got a flight-change notice from AA sending us at 8 a.m. to CDG by way of DFW, which we loathe. So I called, said we couldn't do an early-morning flight, and what about putting us on a flight the day before from SMF to O'Hare so we could take the originally scheduled flight to Paris on Tuesday. The excellent agent spent quite a while speaking with her "help desk," said that the day-before option wouldn't work, BUT we could fly the day before when the O'Hare/CDG flight was leaving at the time originally scheduled but was changed on our original reservation date. So we get an extra day in France with no change fee!!!