kfusto

I am still stunned that this actually happened to us and have finally calmed down enough to submit a complaint to AA's customer service department.

I went online to print out boarding passes for our much anticipated vacation 8/29, the day before departure. I was unable to do so after multiple attempts so called for assistance.

I was passed from agent to agent (3x) and then to a first level supervisor as I was told there was an "issue" with my reservation.

I was transferred to Susan White, a senior supervisor based in RTP.

I was on the phone a total of 1 hour and 47 minutes. Susan explained that I had no reservation. Her research showed that the supervisor who was involved in assisting me last phone call with American (it was a reissue situation and the first two agents I spoke with gave me conflicting pricing information so I asked to be sent to a supervisor to get someone who actually knew what they were doing) created the reservation, assigned extra charge seats and collected my additional payment. However, she neglected to complete the last stage of this process and submit the reservation.

Due to her error, we were unable to take our trip to Jamaica. We have lost vacation time, paid resort cancellation penalties, lost our prepaid private transfer, lost our purchased passes for Club MoBay and their meet and greet program.

Ms. White was gracious and apologized profusely for this huge error on American's part. She was however, unable to accommodate us on that flight as the seats were all sold out.

I expect AA to provide compensation for our lost vacation.

DebitNM

Did you get an email confirm the re-issued tickets? Was your credit card charged? Did you ever look at your confirmation online (on AA's website) to perhaps pick seats? Did you do anything to make sure you actually had reservations?

mowmow

How dreadful for you to have this happen.
Did you have travel insurance? Perhaps that can compensate your losses.
They couldn't accommodate you on any flight, not even the next day or a different route? I find that hard to believe.
Did you try to rebook with another airline?
I checked flights. I could fly tomorrow from LAX to Jamaica for $620 RT. I would have taken a different flight, airline, routing, etc. to get to my vacation.

I rebooked a flight with AA last week when they changed a return flight and left me with insufficient time to negotiate immigration in DFW. I immediately received an email update to our itinerary. I also checked our reservation online a few days later to see if all was correct.

When you don't use a travel agent, you need to check everything again yourself for any problems or errors.

bettyk

Even with travel insurance you may have an issue. If you did not try to get on another flight, ANY flight, that would have gotten you to Jamaica, you did not do all that you could to mitigate the losses you suffered.

If you could have gotten on another flight, even a day late, then you could have sorted out this issue with AA when you returned.

J62

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It's a good reminder to everyone else to confirm reservations.

Rastaguytoday

When AA confirms a reservation (and payment) to your email, you have the opportunity to get seats, etc....

If you did not get a confirmation, then you did not make a reservation.

I've been dealing with AA for over 20 years, and they have always sent an email confirmation.

sparkchaser

<i>If you did not get a confirmation, then you did not make a reservation. </i>

Bingo.

kfusto

I was charged for the tickets.

I did receive a confirmation and the reservation showed in my AAdvantage Account.

I paid for and was charged for Premium Seating. This was all confirmed by the supervisor I spoke with,

They would not protect me on the only other airline available and could not get me to Jamaica for 3 days. Since we could not change vacation dates due to work, that was not an option.

Contrary to some of the opinions expressed above, this was entirely the fault of AA which they acknowledged and apologized for. I am now working with customer service.

sparkchaser

<i>I was charged for the tickets.

I did receive a confirmation and the reservation showed in my AAdvantage Account.</i>

This is important information that you neglected to include in your initial post so don't get feisty with people who commented about no confirmation and no charge.

So yes, based on this new information, it does appear to be AA's fault. That being said, I don't think it's reasonable for AA to do anything more than to give you a refund/credit for the full amount you spent and either a few hundred bucks or a few thousand "oops we made a mistake" miles.

kfusto

" I don't think it's reasonable for AA to do anything more than to give you a refund/credit for the full amount you spent and either a few hundred bucks or a few thousand "oops we made a mistake" miles."

We will agree to disagree on that. We were unable to take our trip due to their error. We are out of pocket for non refundable fees and penalties for hotels, transfers, expedited arrival and departure services. A few thousand frequent flier miles will not buy a cup of coffee on AA and while that would be easy for them, it would hardly make up for the issue thay caused and would require us to fly a bunch with them to earn a free ticket. We have successfully avoided flying AA for about 8 years and will continue to do so in the future.

RoamsAround

Knowing the facts as you now describe them it sounds like AA is fully at fault. You probably will have an uphill battle trying to get AA to reimburse you for more than the cost of the ticket but that does't mean you should give up. If I were you I'd keep on trying - be firm but polite and keep asking for the next level supervisor if you don't get a positive response.

You might want to contact the Conde Nast Ombudsman to see if they can help. This sounds just like the types of issues that they are very good at resolving.

Good luck.

kybourbon

>>>I did receive a confirmation and the reservation showed in my AAdvantage Account<<<

>>>However, she neglected to complete the last stage of this process and submit the reservation.<<<

If she didn't complete the reservation, how could you have a reservation? Did they say what the last stage was? Was the PNR different from your previous reservation?

Did you ask to be booked on another airline? Just because they couldn't find your reservation in their system (was it AA's system that screwed up a few months back?) doesn't mean they couldn't put you on another airline.

I think I would have gone to the airport with my reservation confirmation and insisted on a flight. There are dozens of flights to Jamaica. I can't imagine every single one would be full.

If you are on Flyertalk, post a question there about what compensation you can expect. Just list the facts. You have left out a few things here. This was some kind of rebooking? If so, state your cities, original flight dates, date you made change (they will know if there were IT issues at that time), change dates/flights (include flight numbers as they will know if there was an equipment change that day resulting in less seats, etc.). State what you lost and they will be pretty accurate on what you will likely end up with. I would at least expect something along the lines of VDB compensation.

***** Domestic Transportation

Passengers traveling between points within the United States (including the territories and possessions) who are denied boarding involuntarily from an oversold flight are entitled to:
No compensation if the carrier offers alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the passenger’s destination or first stopover not later than one hour after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight;
200% of the fare to the passenger’s destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $650, if the carrier offers alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the passenger’s destination or first stopover more than one hour but less than two hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight; and
400% of the fare to the passenger’s destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $1,300, if the carrier does not offer alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger’s destination or first stopover less than two hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight.
0 to 1 hour arrival delay - No compensation.
1 to 2 hour arrival delay - 200% of one-way fare (but no more than $650).
Over 2 hours arrival delay - 400% of one-way fare (but no more than $1,300).

International Transportation

Passengers traveling from the United States to a foreign point who are denied boarding involuntarily from an oversold flight originating at a U.S. airport are entitled to:

No compensation if the carrier offers alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the passenger’s destination or first stopover not later than one hour after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight;
200% of the fare to the passenger’s destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $650, if the carrier offers alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the passenger’s destination or first stopover more than one hour but less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight; and
400% of the fare to the passenger’s destination or first stopover, with a maximum of $1,300, if the carrier does not offer alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger’s destination or first stopover less than four hours after the planned arrival time of the passenger’s original flight.
0 to 1 hour arrival delay - No compensation.
1 to 4 hour arrival delay - 200% of one-way fare (but no more than $650).
Over 4 hours arrival delay - 400% of one-way fare (but no more than $1,300). ****

kybourbon

>>>I would at least expect something along the lines of VDB compensation.<<<

Should have been IDB, not VDB. Read rule 80.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/Tariffs/AA1.h...EXT_AA1-0080AA

bettyk

I still don't understand why you didn't have travel insurance if you had so much invested in non refundable expenses?

With what you have now told us, insurance probably would have covered your out of pocket expenses.

kfusto

There are NOT dozens of flights to Jamaica from Orlando. There is one non stop on JetBlue, which had seats and was pricing at 1600 and which AA would not protect us on. And one on AirTran which was sold out. AA said they could only get us to Miami and not to JA due to heavy loads over the holiday weekend. We were offered a flight 3 days later, period.

eliztravels2

I'd be steaming mad, too. Do post on flyer talk and see what kind of an answer you get there. It seems pretty clear that your financial loss was directly due to AA's error--not like it was a weather related cancellation or anything. Certainly principles of fair play are on your side, so persist and let us know how you made out.

Rastaguytoday

kfusto,

Did you get a confirmation locator number?

This was your key to a valid reservation.

Airlines aren't responsible for your accomodations missed, or any other misc expenses.

mowmow

I would have taken the JetBlue flight and gone after AA to pay for it.

bettyk

kfusto, you never said why you didn't have travel insurance for all of your non refundable out of pocket costs?

kybourbon

>>>There is one non stop on JetBlue,<<<

No one said it would be non-stop. If you had a valid ticket (different PRN than the ticket you said you changed), they could have accommodated you on Delta, USAir or United (those are the airlines they would have agreements with, not the budget airlines Spirit and AirTran).

The key will be whether the PRN you had was actually for this ticket or for the previous ticket.