Revalidating an award ticket with different [AA/US flights] flight numbers

[Kangol]

This is as a result of the AA/US merger which has potentially disrupted my plans for a 420k F award booking with QFF.

So I'm planning a 35k mile award with US and AA as my two OW airlines, with the bulk of the miles being 4x transpac QF F awards. Yes I knew about the merger but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

The Switchover from US Airways to American Begins Next Saturday - View from the Wing

The flights I need will be bookable in November, meaning if I wait then the opportunity for such an award is lost.
My plan is to book the entire award with the routings I want ASAP before Oct 17, but with earlier dates, whilst US still "exists" - ie has US flight numbers, then wait for AA to switch the flight numbers from US to AA. This should still keep my booking as is (that is my hope/concern). Then when availability comes up for my later flights, change them so that only the dates change - same routing as planned earlier... so that the ticket (now with AA and QF flights only) is revalidated, not reissued.

DEN-xLAX-SYD [stop] (AA F, QF F)
SYD-xDFW-xPHX-SAN [stop] (QF F, US F x2)
SAN-xLAX-MEL [stop] (AA Y, QF F)
Surface MEL-SYD
SYD-LAX [stop] (QF F)
DEN-LAX [end of award] (AA F)

Does that sound possible?

I had a look for definitions of revalidation vs reissue and found this:

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - What's the difference between REVALIDATION & REISSUE

Revalidation:

- Change to only the date/time/flight (as permitted by fare rules and validity of ticket)
- No change to airline/booking class/routing allowed.
- E-ticket record is "updated" to reflect the new date/time/flight once the original flight is cancelled and rebooked.
- E-ticket number remains the same.
- Easy to do, requires only a few keystrokes by the airline agent.

Reissue:

- Change to a combination of date/time/flight and/or airline and/or booking class and/or routing.
- May result in higher fare.
- Old e-ticket is essentially "exchanged" for a new e-ticket. (If new e-ticket has a higher fare, you pay the fare difference plus change fee)
- New e-ticket number is generated.
- More keystrokes and depending on the type of ticket, and can be a pain for the airline agent (especially for long RTW itineraries).

In theory it sounds fine, but I'm concerned that the carrier change (US changing flight numbers to become AA) would stuff things up on the QF side.

 

[Kangol]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

Forgot to put this in: my question is, if there is a carrier change that results in flight numbers changing, will that force a ticket reissue or revalidation?

 

[ftm]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

It will depend on the fare rules whether it is a reissue or a reval. Generally a flight number change is a reissue, but there are definitely cases where an airline can just reval it instead. If the change is voluntary and would require the payment of a fee, then it is always a reissue.

 

[Kangol]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

It will depend on the fare rules whether it is a reissue or a reval. Generally a flight number change is a reissue, but there are definitely cases where an airline can just reval it instead. If the change is voluntary and would require the payment of a fee, then it is always a reissue.

Oh. If the "fee" is 3500 points, is that still a reissue?

 

[serfty]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

From what I can tell, there will be no US flight numbers past Oct 17th available to book after the coming weekend.

i.e. All USair designated flights will be changed to a corresponding AA flight number. (Most (all?) seem to already have codeshares AA*US and US*AA with the same number.)

Any with bookings on US air flight numbers past Oct 17th will be updated with the AA flight numbers and an AA SABRE PNR issued if one does not already exit.

As a result, I doubt there is an issue here; what you are proposing should be quite possible.

Some good reference blog articles from Gary Leff:

The Process to Merge American-US Airways to a Single Reservation System Could Start As Soon as July. Here's How It Will Work. - View from the Wing

The Switchover from US Airways to American Begins Next Saturday - View from the Wing

 

[burnt]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

From what I can tell, there will be no US flight numbers past Oct 17th available to book after the coming weekend.

i.e. All USair designated flights will be changed to a corresponding AA flight number. (Most (all?) seem to already have codeshares AA*US and US*AA with the same number.)

Any with bookings on US air flight numbers past Oct 17th will be updated with the AA flight numbers and an AA SABRE PNR issued if one does not already exit.

As a result, I doubt there is an issue here; what you are proposing should be quite possible.

Some good reference blog articles from Gary Leff:

The Process to Merge American-US Airways to a Single Reservation System Could Start As Soon as July. Here's How It Will Work. - View from the Wing

The Switchover from US Airways to American Begins Next Saturday - View from the Wing

Just as a matter of interest I plugged this itin. into GCmap and it showed 35,780. How did you make it valid?

 

[Kangol]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

Thanks serfty - the VFTW posts are quite good.

I'm getting 34,918 miles:
Great Circle Mapper
The surface segments are included in the total mileage.
Whoops just realised the last leg should be LAX-DEN, not the other way round as put in my first post.

 

[burnt]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

Yes, that fixed it to the 34,918. It is a "smart itinerary" I did a similar one last year AKL-MEL-LAX-TUS-LAX BNE-ROK-BNE-SYD-SCL-MDZ-SCL-SYD-AKL, needed to position in AKL to start and then get home to Rocky from SYD and saved the last sector back to AKL to start again for another "Big Ticket". This gave me a month in North America and then 6 months home then the trip to South America.

 

[Kangol]

Re: Revalidating an award ticket with different flight numbers

So I've been short of luck again, this time not paying attention to the:
14.3.5 A Classic Flight Reward Itinerary must contain no more than one departure from the city or country of first departure on that Itinerary.

Now I want to maximise as many transpac F segments, so what I have confirmed so far is:

PSP-xPHX-xLAX-SYD
SYD-AKL
SYD-LAX

The last SYD-LAX was booked in the last week and the ticket has not been issued yet.
Now I can't book a LAX-MEL because it is departing the country of origin.
The guy on the phone thought there was some clause where you can't depart out of the same city twice (non city or country of first departure) but that does not seem to be the case.

Is there a limit on the number of open jaws, or enter the country of origin more than once? ie will the surface (second segment LAX-SYD) count as another "departure"?
ie can I add another say SYD-xLAX-RNO to the end and pay 420k points?