SDtravelers

We have purchased our flight with AA miles SAN/BOS/LHR/NBO. Decided to leave a day earlier to catch a quick 3 day safari to the Mara. I have been calling every day to see if FF seats are avail on a day earlier - 9/6. No luck only one seat avail. Can anyone explain the system to me, what are my chances to get 2 seats by Sept?? I have even asked to check other gateways - ORD/DFW/LAX and JFK. Will gladly take an econ. seat just to get there. I have viewed the websites "Seat Counter" & "Award Grabber" with no luck. Am I wasting my time calling daily? Does anyone out there know if more seats are released closer to the date, or could I get these seats if there are any not sold prior to the flight??? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Pulling my hair out in SD

Gardyloo

Be thankful you still have hair to pull out.

Are you traveling in business class? ("Will gladly take an econ. seat just to get there.&quot Is it an AA partner award or a Oneworld award? I presume partner, since your route wouldn't include a third Oneworld member airline.

Because your itinerary involves 2 carriers, AA and BA, the hitch could be with either one - no availability to London on AA and/or no availability to Nairobi on BA. Frankly it's a bit late to be changing dates, especially when there's just one flight to your destination every day, and a popular route during the migration.

You have a couple of choices -

1. Phone back every day. Yes, more award seats can be released at any time.

2. Ask about changing it to a first class award instead of business class. There's often more availability in FC than in business.

3. Ask about changing it to a Oneworld award. That requires the use of 2 Oneworld member airlines in addition to AA, but it vastly increases the number of award seats that you could use - SAN-ORD on AA, ORD-MAD on Iberia, MAD-LHR on Iberia or British, then BA and AA for the rest of the trip. Only the miles between stopovers are counted, and if you didn't stop over in Madrid or London, the round-trip mileage to Nairobi from SAN would be the only miles counted, about 19,400, which would fall into the Oneworld award tier for 130,000 miles in business or 180,000 in first, vs. the partner award requirement of 150K in business and 200K in first, i.e., the Oneworld award requires fewer miles.

I'd make the call and inquire about a OW award instead.

AAFrequentFlyer

But if the op was able to change awards (allpartner > oneworld or carrier, routing changes) then it had to be done from scratch. Redeposit the miles with $100 fee and take out a new award.

If op decides to change award or routing then make sure you have the new award on hold before cancelling the existing reservation.

Only dates/times changes are free and allowed once award is ticketed. Routing, different carrier, or different award will involve a fee and changing awards.

Gardyloo

Yes, I didn't mention the fee/redeposit etc. stuff because my post was potentially confusing in the first place. A competent Aadvantage rep could hold hands during the switch. If the OP has been advised "to check other gateways - ORD/DFW/LAX and JFK" then the reroute and fee issues has been raised anyway.

SDtravelers

Yes this is a One World award. I have asked for any open seat on any flight to NBO. Yes the problem seems to be no OW seats avail. The hitch is BOS-LHR only 1 seat avail. I did use the redeposit when we had to change our flight from Spain to LHR (don't ask- I'm just so thankful I got a knowledgable AA rep.) I might just have to wait until closer time of flight - 30 days? to get the flights changed.

Thanks for all your input, I will keep trying, after all my husband doesn't call me the "bulldog" for nothing!

Cheers!

laurie_ann

If the pinch is the BOS/LHR I found San Diego to London through JFK, the following flights available for 90K miles departing SAN on Sept. 6 arriving London on Sept. 7 as AA 160 7:45 AM SAN 4:00 PM JFK and AA 124 6:45 PM JFK 7:10 AM
STN. The trick is arrival is Stansted and you would have to get from there (NE of London)to Heathrow (SW of London) but it is better than nothing. There are decent public transportation options through central London to get from one to the other.

SDtravelers

Lauri - I have already purchased the tickes thru AA miles, just trying to get the date changed 1 day earlier. Are these seats open for AA miles?

SD

SDtravelers

Laurie - forgot to mention - this is a one world resv. I do not think I can change for LHR to STN???

SD

AAFrequentFlyer

One more time folks, once booked, routing and carriers can't be changed without starting from scratch. $100 fee for redepositing the miles, take out new award.

If you really want to do this, first put the "new" award on hold before cancelling the "old" award.

laurie_ann

That pair of flights was open for AA miles business class (I did the search on line at www.aa.com just a few minutes ago.) I don't know what the difference is between AA and OW as far as availability but you could phone and ask an agent if a change to that alternative was possible on what you have. That JFK/Stansted route is a newer route I believe and maybe seats are more available for that than through LHR.

SDtravelers

AAFF - yes I am aware of the $100 charge have used it. The problem I have is finding the open seats on the day prior with One World alliance. I was just talking with "Shirly" from AA and she was a nasty gal, raised her voice at me and said One World is a terrible way to go, you cannot make any changes to routing at all, ever. I know this is not true because I have talked with many agents indicating I can change dates and gateway cities but not the destination.

SD

Gardyloo

Availability is indeed better to STN than LHR on many days. However, to reinforce AAFF's point, a Oneworld award is set in cement except for date and flight changes. Switching to STN will zonk the whole enchilada, and the real risk is that BA has someone waiting to gobble the LHR-NBO-LHR seats that would be released once the old award is canceled. The FULL *new* itinerary needs to be confirmed and put on hold before the old one is ditched.

In addition to the $100 redeposit fee, you should also consider the £50 - £100 cost to get from STN to LHR.

Also, JFK-STN//LHR-NBO will force a London stopover, since neither STN arrival allows a same-day connection through LHR. The NBO flight leaves LHR at 10:30 AM; the 2 JFK-STN flights arrive at 7:10 and 9:55 AM respectively, not enough time to get across London, but because the next NBO flight is more than 24 hours from the STN arrivals, London will count as a stopover. You'd also need to look at a day earlier departing from SAN (i.e. two days earlier than now planned) in order to get to Kenya on the desired day.

The way the Oneworld award counts miles, JFK-LON-NBO is counted as JFK-NBO provided you don't spend 24 hours in London. If you do "stop over" in London, you count the mileage differential.

SAN-NBO, with no stopovers in either NYC or London is only 30 miles less than SAN-LHR-NBO, so not an impact on the award mileage requirement; however if the OP was already planning to stop over in London on the way back, the "forced" stopover (between the STN arrival and the NBO departure the next day) would render the stopover on the return moot - only one stopover and two transfers allowed in one city. Stansted, Gatwick and Heathrow are all "co-terminals" so a stop in one is treated as a stop in all, regardless that they're hours apart.

SDtravelers

Gardyloo and everyone else!

Just got off the phone with AA got an agent that was very helpful, still no go. As we say here in Calif - "Bummer Dude!" No One World availble seats on the LHR to NBO on 9/7. Can get SD/JFK/STN. I'm sure by now AA has some kind of warning flashing about me on their terminals when they bring up our FF acct. Most agents are nice - hope I don't get the "Shirley" again!

Lauri Ann - I know I have viewed the AA site many times logging in with our FF# looking for so called "available" flights using our miles. When I call AA they explain that isn't always up to date.

I'll still be here in case some one comes up with a better idea, thanks all!!

SD

AAFrequentFlyer

I'm sorry to tell you but there is no better idea.

Once AA oneworld award is ticketed, <b>no changes to routing, carriers are allowed</b>.

Try to book a new award, put it on hold, cancel/pay for mileage reinstatement and then ticket the new award.

I tried to tell you that few posts back, <b>Gardyloo</b> and AA agents confirmed it yet you are looking for some miracle. No miracles with this award.

SDtravelers

Yes AAFF you are correct- but I will never give up on trying to change the date.

Happy Travels to all!
SD

MikeT

Such entitlement.