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Earlier this year, I shared how I booked some AA Web Special Award flights for my husband and son to watch the U.S. Open (tennis) in person. The price of flights from DFW to LaGuardia airport were running close to $500 each, but I found these AA Web Special Awards for just 6500 miles each way. Score!
Of course, the catch was that these web special awards were connecting flights. That isn’t usually a big deal. But, during a busy holiday weekend, a connection increases the risk of delays and issues.
In addition, the rules of AA Web Special Awards state that you can’t change your flight, but you can cancel and get your miles back. If AA changes your flight schedule, you either have to accept the change or cancel the award and try to book an alternative.
Discovering the Flight Change
My husband is about to buy tickets to the tennis event, so he wanted to verify their flight times. When he logged into his account, he discovered their flights had changed. The flights are now nonstop flights and have better departure/arrival times than the original ones we booked. What?!?! A change that actually works in our favor? How did we get so lucky!
I don’t know why we had this stroke of serendipity, but we’re crossing our fingers that these flights stick. Sometimes, luck is not always on our side. But when it is, we will gladly enjoy it!
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I’ve had several experiences in the past year where AA sked changes have resulted in my two segment bookings have been changed into non-stops. However, in my case I want the extra segment to earn more BA tier credits…so I suspect there is an algorithm AA uses that won’t book connecting flights on sked changes where nonstops are available at the same hour.
@David interesting! I bet you’re right about the algorithm.
“If AA changes your flight schedule, you either have to accept the change or cancel the award and try to book an alternative.”
That’s not true. AA will allow Web Saver changes suggested by the customer due to a schedule change as long as the origin/dest and general dates do not change. I did that for a Mexico Web Saver that was 2 stop and then one of the routes timing changed putting me in an overnight connection. I was able to switch to a more convenient one stop option with a quick DM to their Twitter team with my new preferred flights.
@Ben Wow! That’s a game changer and fantastic news!
Might be rep dependent, I have had the willingness to change my flight and another flight only option was to cancel.