MarkD
Level 2 Member
My daughter will be studying abroad next year in Copenhagen so I'm trying to book something now for the family of 4 over the Christmas school holiday for 2015-2016. I'm only worrying about the trip there so far since the AA has not released their inventory for after Christmas yet. I have a question after searching AA...
I am limited to the period of time from Dec. 19th (Sat.) to Jan. 3rd (Sun.) since my sons cannot miss school.
Most of the inventory flows through LHR, LGW, and LCY with HUGE fuel charges. I'm trying to avoid them (me and everyone else in the world). Business class is next to non-existent and we don't have enough miles to fly first class so that leaves economy.
I found inventory in ORD that doesn't go through Great Britain for the economy MileSAAver rate of 20K points per person in economy. We'd have to fly a positioning leg in order to get to ORD from SFO/SMF or I could book SFO-ORD at the AAnytime rate of 45K. If I book the 65K flight of one segment of 45K and the other at 20K, can I downgrade to a MileSAAver flight later from SFO to ORD if it opens up? Will they stitch together two 20K segments and price it that way?
I know that AA allows date changes as long as the origin and destination stay the same. In addition you can upgrade to business or first if you originally book economy with no change fee, but can you downgrade a segment if a lower priced award inventory opens up?
What's the best strategy for booking in this situation?
I am limited to the period of time from Dec. 19th (Sat.) to Jan. 3rd (Sun.) since my sons cannot miss school.
Most of the inventory flows through LHR, LGW, and LCY with HUGE fuel charges. I'm trying to avoid them (me and everyone else in the world). Business class is next to non-existent and we don't have enough miles to fly first class so that leaves economy.
I found inventory in ORD that doesn't go through Great Britain for the economy MileSAAver rate of 20K points per person in economy. We'd have to fly a positioning leg in order to get to ORD from SFO/SMF or I could book SFO-ORD at the AAnytime rate of 45K. If I book the 65K flight of one segment of 45K and the other at 20K, can I downgrade to a MileSAAver flight later from SFO to ORD if it opens up? Will they stitch together two 20K segments and price it that way?
I know that AA allows date changes as long as the origin and destination stay the same. In addition you can upgrade to business or first if you originally book economy with no change fee, but can you downgrade a segment if a lower priced award inventory opens up?
What's the best strategy for booking in this situation?