Book seats now, change route later - AA

[manicsocks]

So I've been in the game for about 2 years but have a noob redemption question. To this point, most of my award redemptions have been pretty uncomplicated at off-peak times and I've been very flexible. And the vast majority has been with *A carriers. But I am trying to plan a more complicated trip in the fall and am not quite as flexible and had a few questions about AA maybe some people could help me with.

Part of my trip involves going from HNL-DFW. I want all J and actually don't mind complicated routings. I didn't find Saver availability for J on my preferred date with any of the itineraries AA.com comes up with but I can construct a valid saver one way (HNL-SAN) that gives me J from HNL-LAX and I can also find J saver space departing 2.5 hours later on the LAX-DFW leg when I search for LAX-AUS (but not when I search for LAX-DFW).

So my question is whether an agent can find me a J seat at the saver rate if I give him/her the flight numbers where I know saver availability exists, or are these saver seats blocked for passengers going to other cities?

 

[Matt]

Yes, that's how I book a lot of travel, just gently guide them through the route you want with flight numbers and dates times and you will be fine.

Also a good strategy to use for metal that doesn't appear in AA searches.

 

[asthejoeflies]

Agree. As long as your connections are < 4 hours domestic, it's a legal routing and AA agent can ticket it. You'll get charged the phone fee but it's worth it to get an itinerary that works for you!

 

[manicsocks]

Thanks for the replies! I have done the exact same thing doing SQ redemptions so I suspected AA was the same. Just wanted to be certain before I talk to an phone agent, so I could help them if necessary.