American Adds Improved Change Fee Waiver As Well

Is anybody waiving miles reinstatement fees on award tickets within the same date ranges covered by tickets purchased with cash? I can't get an answer out of AA via social media and the information that hit their website last night isn't clear on where award tickets stand. To be honest, I'm going to fly soon no matter what - I'm just fishing for a more favorable itinerary and/or a better deal.

Qatar, Emirates and SIA are apparently being very generous (up to full refunds):

https://www.ttgasia.com/2020/03/10/qatar-sia-and-emirates-waive-change-fees-amid-covid-19/

I suspect the situation is becoming so serious for them that they gave to.

I just got fees waived for award tickets booked last year to go to Japan.They waived award redeposit fees with no issues.

Why AA and United need a leadership team? Just add an intern to copy and paste whatever Delta does. No need for a CEO, COO, Board and all those highly paid people that do absolutely nothing other than wait for Delta to make a decision and then follow them.

This leaves Alaska and JetBlue as the remaining holdouts. Let's see how long it lasts as I personally have ticket with Alaska this weekend that I have purchased but don't plan to fly anymore due to event cancellation in Seattle.

I booked some flights for April with AA through AMEX Travel prior to March 1st. Would AMEX Travel levy a change fee if I choose to rebook those AA flights due to this waiver?

@Lucky don’t be like the Points Guy and never link off your site. I’d really like to read through this new policy but now have to go google it or search for it on the American site. It might help your time on site but I’d be willing to guess you already have a low bounce rate.

Just some food for thought to make your site a better experience for your readers.

“When will AAL bounce back?”
After UAL does
“When will UAL bounce back?”
After DAL does

"How United’s previous waived change fee policy worked"

Not trying to be one of those nitpicky readers, but is this a mistake or am I tired from Daylight Savings Time?

@ Lucky I have a one-way segment SYD - HND at the end of March on ANA booked with Lifemiles; I'll be connecting onto the final leg of an ANA RTW HND - JFK (both in J). I want to change the dates to avoid overnighting in Tokyo, but Avianca won't waive the change fee (RTW changes are free). I've called multiple times and no one seems to be able to manual override. Any hope for an expanded change waivers for a non-US based airline? Any advice on getting this approved (and saving $150)? Thanks

@Lucky - Any idea if the travel has to be completed by April 30? My friend leaves at the end of April and doesn’t return til early May. Would this scenario be covered for an AA refund? (Ticket was booked a while back)

I have an award flight March 17 to cancel. The "new" change / cancellation policy is clear as much. I will call in a few days to cancel and see if the the $150 fee is or isn't collected. I have another domestic flight in mid June to book. Depending on the situation I may or may not travel. The flexibility is good if it works as expected (not clear on the intention).

Does this apply to basic economy tickets?

Alaska losing out. I have to book a ticket today. Alaska schedule is best for route but given the uncertainty, and the lack of fee waivers on AS, I’ll look elsewhere.

AA: all tickets booked no change fee
Also AA: oh you have to pay mileage reinstatement and rebook, even if changing dates.

Getting super frustrated as I am scheduled to leave for Rome 4/2.. so at this point just waiting for them to cancel my flights so that I can get the points back and get refunded the MCE seats I paid $250 for.

I recently had to deal with canceling flights on Delta and Alaska and realized that not all change fee waivers are created equal. I don't know how United and AA works, but with delta, if you cancel a flight now, they'll issue you a travel credit that can only be used for the passengers on the original reservation, much like how Southwest works. While on Alaska, they issue you a credit that goes into your wallet and can be used on any flights you book for anyone you want. Pretty big distinction in my opinion.

This is a very misleading and poorly written sentence: "With this new policy even tickets booked before March 1 are covered, assuming you travel by April 30, 2020"

Makes it sound like you have to reschedule the ticket to travel by April 30, 2020. That's not the case. The waiver is covering tickets that are for scheduled travel up to April 30, 2020.

@Michael if you have not bought your ticket yet, Alaska has a very flexible change/cancellation policy for tickets that are bought this month.
https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/coronavirus/

I had a situation this past Friday where (due to an AA error canceling a flight segment on Etihad), I was had to fork over another 75,000 points for my wife and I to fly back from South Africa to SFO. I've been dealing with AA Customer Relations and not getting anywhere.

I was supposed to (and was still planning to) fly to Milan and drive up to the Mountains near Modena...
What am I missing? Emirates and Alitalia still offering flights to Milan with no warnings and no explanation as to what happens if you were to land in Milan right now.
I am following the Italian Gov’t’s recommended hold until April.

Anyone have to deal with partner tickets yet. I have an Emirates ticket booked with AA miles for an event that was at the end of March, now postponed to December. Do I call AA, Emirates, or what?

I have had a different experience with both AA and Delta. I contacted Delta for a ticket purchased 2/27/20 for travel 3/11/20 and Delta refused to waive the change fee. Their web site even says they will waive it (see below). And on AA, someone I was traveling with wanted to cancel a flight booked early February 2020 for travel 3/12/20 and they wouldn't waive the change fee. It seems like airlines are applying the change fees VERY inconsistently.

WAIVING CHANGE FEES
To ease customers who are uncertain about upcoming travel, we are now waiving change fees for:

Customers traveling both international and domestic through April 30 if the ticket was issued on or before March 9. (updated March 9)
Customers purchasing flights between March 1-31.

Lucky, you should also cover how Emirates is being so difficult in getting refunds out for people affected due to the travel ban (Italy at the moment). They're only allowing change fee waiver with fare difference need to be covered by the traveler. Very awful sigh

@ Simon Schus:

My own experience with Finnair via AMEX has been flawless, with AMEX confirming that they were waiving their $39 fee as long as Finnair waved their own fee. And they did exactly as they said.

Long rebooking day(s), with Finnair being not only decent but extremely proactive, AA behaving better than usual and BA revealing themselves to be absolute S**T..

While I do not see how BA can maintain their position in the face of more and more airlines waiving the change fees for bookings made before March, they haven't moved by one inch and seem intent on being die-hards till the end. Time will tell.

@Simon @Pierre:

I just got a full credit for AA flight booked before March 1 through Amex Travel. In my experience, you can usually skip Amex Travel and just call AA directly for most things, and in this case, I called AA directly and was given credit good for use before Dec. 31 (for a flight booked before 3/1) and use within 1 year of original date (for flight booked after 3/1).

I booked a 5k aa miles ticket lax to akl last October. I hope I'll be able to change the date of the flight rather that redepositing the miles back into my account.

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I don't see this new policy on AA website. I actually spoke to an agent yesterday (3/10) at around 5 pm about my upcoming trip and she did not mention anything about waived fees. As far as she was concerned the original terms applied: $400 fee for any changes, $500 cancellation. This is for the flight to KL with a few days stopover in Tokyo on 3/27.