$150 change fee when changing non-OW partners on an award ticket

[Kangol]

Couldn't find anything else on this but I thought it deserves its own thread.

Recently I booked a HKG-SFO-PDX-SAN F award, CX first leg and AS for the remainder. At the time there were no AA F awards available from SFO-LAX-SAN.
Today I look online and find there are some with better connection times (arriving into SAN at 6pm instead of 11pm).
Because the origin and destination are the same, there shouldn't be any charges.

I ring up and the agent tells me there is a $150 fee because I am removing a non-OW partner (the same applies if you are adding it on to the ticket). If I kept them on the itinerary there would be no problem - however AS don't fly to LAX (all connect through SEA or PDX). He said that in the 15 years he's been doing this, that fee has always been there. He doesn't know if it's waived for EXPs but a PLT still gets the $150 fee. If I wanted to cancel and rebook, I'd still be up for the $150. In the end I decided to leave it and put it down to a learning experience.

I can't find anything on the website re the rules except this:

AAdvantage Award Reinstatement/Reissuance Charges
Prior to ticketing, you may change your AAdvantage travel award reservations with no charge incurred. However, if your tickets are reissued after the original ticketing, a charge may apply for each ticket. This service charge is paid at the time your ticket is reissued and is subject to change without notice.

AAdvantage Program Terms and Conditions

Looks like there has been activity on FT regarding the same thing:
$150 change fee for Aadvantage award booked on Alaska Airlines? - FlyerTalk Forums
Do I need to pay the $150 change fee for this? - FlyerTalk Forums

The funny thing is, at the time of booking I was asked if I wanted to place it on hold.. I had searched for AA F availability for those routes at similar times and nothing came up. If I had done so I could have changed before ticketing with no problem.

I might try and see if another agent is willing to change it without fee or seeing as I have 3.5 hrs in SFO, might front up to AA on the day and ask to see if they can help me. At worst I can experience AS short haul F!

Anyone else experienced this before?

 

[knasty]

My recent fee issue was best dealt with by referral from the AA Facebook team after I PM'd them. I suggest you politely ask them to outline where this is dealt with in the T&Cs. Maybe it's there somewhere...if it's not then they should update to make it clear.

 

[Keith009]

AFAIK date & time changes are free so long as routing, cabin class and carrier/s remain the same. Changes to route, cabin class, carrier, origin/destination etc all incur the $150 fee. IME the carrier change penalty is irrespective of what carrier/s are used even when switching between oneworld carriers (incurred the fee after going from AY/QF to BA/CX earlier this year even though routing was the same) so if the agent is correct rather than made it up that the fee is levied only when changing between a oneworld and non-oneworld airline it's actually a positive enhancement. Changes to cabin class also entails a coughbersome cancel/redposit miles/rebook process I believe.

 

[NM]

AFAIK date & time changes are free so long as routing, cabin class and carrier/s remain the same. Changes to route, cabin class, carrier, origin/destination etc all incur the $150 fee. IME the carrier change penalty is irrespective of what carrier/s are used even when switching between oneworld carriers (incurred the fee after going from AY/QF to BA/CX earlier this year even though routing was the same) so if the agent is correct rather than made it up that the fee is levied only when changing between a oneworld and non-oneworld airline it's actually a positive enhancement. Changes to cabin class also entails a coughbersome cancel/redposit miles/rebook process I believe.

You can change routing and cabin class without cost, so long as its still all OneWorld flights. I have recently changed HKG-SYD-BNE to become HKG-BNE on a different date without any cost. This also involved a cabin downgrade and i have the option to pay $150 to have the difference in miles returned to my account, i am waiting until he day of he flight just n case a U seat opens up (with an ExpertFlyer alert set of course) before making that call.

 

[Keith009]

You can change routing and cabin class without cost, so long as its still all OneWorld flights. I have recently changed HKG-SYD-BNE to become HKG-BNE on a different date without any cost. This also involved a cabin downgrade and i have the option to pay $150 to have the difference in miles returned to my account, i am waiting until he day of he flight just n case a U seat opens up (with an ExpertFlyer alert set of course) before making that call.

Routing - so long as origin & destination remains the same, the fee won't be incurred I believe. But I've been hit by the fee when changing either the origin or destination even though it's all within the same geographical zones (as defined by AA) and therefore no change to award category.

Cabin class change - that's what I was referring to. You need to pay $150 to get the difference in miles back to your account and so it isn't exactly FOC as the alternative is loss of the mileage difference. Bit like the fee they charge for mileage redeposits after cancellations.

Pretty positive they do charge a fee for change in participating carrier/s even if changing between oneworld carriers as I've been consistently hit by this fee when wanting to change dates but availability happened to be found on a different airline to the one originally booked.

edited to add: Also documented here under the oneworld & Other Airline Award FAQs - http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/jba-faqs.jsp

Q. I have an award ticket for travel on American Airlines and now I'd like to change to travel on British Airways or Iberia. May I change?
A. Yes, you can make a change to travel on another AAdvantage participating carrier on an award ticket, but a change charge will apply, plus any difference in taxes, fees and surcharges.

 

[Kangol]

An update:

I rang up today asking for the CX PNR so I could select a seat (interestingly 1AK and 4AK were unavailable).
I then enquired if I could change the SFO-PDX-SAN to "different flights with better connection times at no charge" and the CSA said yes. She found some AA flights via LAX and booked it with no problem. The e-ticket came through so it all turned out nicely.