Jeff_Costa_Rica

If I'm reading this correctly, there was a reservation, but then a reticketing. That's where things got messed up. The fact that there was no E-mail confirmation after the tickets were reissued should have sent up a red flag that there was no new reservation.

Pursue this with AA, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for anything except a refund for the cost of the tickets. An airline's contract of carriage (CoC) is always spelled out in favor of the airline and not the passenger. All it is obligated to do is to get you to your destination. It doesn't have to promise when. By offering you a flight, even three days later, AA fulfilled its contractual obligation. Not its moral obligation to correct its mistake, of course, but that's not part of the CoC. The CoC is also written so that the airline takes no responsibility for expenses the passenger incurs on the ground after arrival. You can try, but I wouldn't count on AA reimbursing you for the expenses you lost by not getting to Jamaica on time.

Let us know how things turn out.

Songdoc

I had a completely different problem that involved Orbitz and Hawaiian Airlines. A few days after posting a description of the situation on this forum -- as well as on Facebook -- I was contacted by the "social media department" at Orbitz.

After having hit solid brick walls it was amazing how quickly they resolved the situation. I really learned the power of social media. The airlines and travel companies do NOT want the bad publicity that reaches soooo many of their potential customers.

So ... is there a "social media department" at AA that you can contact (presuming they don't reach out to you)?

Different issue--and I have no doubt that many will disagree: I never buy travel insurance. I'm self-employed and do a tremendous amount of work-related travel. I've visited five countries this year, and many different cities within those countries. I've also spent several months in Kauai. The cost of insuring all of these trips adds too much of an expense.

In my many years of traveling extensively, I have never needed to cancel or forfeit a trip. I know I've been very lucky, but I'm guessing that if I'd lost the cost of one or two pre-paid trips, it wouldn't be as much as the money I've saved over 20 or 30 years of foregoing travel insurance.

I guess it's a personal thing and depends on a person's comfort level, age, health, etc.

I'll be interested to see how this works out for the OP. Sorry it's been so frustrating.

newtome

Couple of points:

1) you can contact AA and say it was a "trip in vain" - i.e. you couldn't take the trip due to the problems they caused and at least get your airfare back.
2) This should be a warning to a lot of people - a PNR (reservation) number - the 6 digit number is the FIRST step to a reservation. You need to have a TICKET number to make any case about their screw up. PNR's come and go and are not PROOF of an actual ticket. Only the ticket number is.

mrwunrfl

Here it is in the Contract of Carraige (CoC):

<b>120.14.22 Re-ticketing and reservations</b>
American Airlines shall not be held responsible when a confirmed reservation is not made when re-ticketing. In accordance with rule 139.14.1(e) of this CoC, the airline shall not be responsible for any errors of omission or commission by airline employees. AA is not responsible for any expenses incurred by the passenger when the passenger doesn't make certain that a ticketing and reservation agent doesn't actually make a reservation when re-ticketing . The passenger is responsible for making sure that AA employees perform their job completely. If the passenger makes a mistake then the passenger is responsible. If the airline makes a mistake then the passenger is responsible. The airline is not responsible.

sparkchaser

Boom.

mowmow

That provision in the CoC is ridiculous. Why is the passenger responsible for making sure the AA employee performs their job completely. It's simply ludicrous.

Take them to small claims. I don't care what the CoC says, I have a hard time believing a judge would rule in their favor if they 1. Sent you an email confirming the change.
2. Charged you for the change and the seats.
3. Refused to let you check in for a flight you paid for.

Good luck.

I'm going to check our AA reservation again, especially since I had them change our return flight so we would have more time to get through DFW customs.

janisj

I guess some don't get irony (maybe you needed a smiley )

mowmow

Just checked the email we received and it has the record locator, a barcode, then itinerary, then at the bottom, a receipt with the ticket #s.

I guess we're OK.

mrwunrfl

And then you go the the airline website, enter the record locator and last name, and see that the reservation is confirmed and choose your seats. And then, just for fun, go to your payment account and see that the transaction was completed for the correct amount.

mrwunrfl

https://www.aa.com/reservation/findReservationAccess.do

kfusto

I have an annual business traveler insurance policy, yes. It does not cover a mistake by an airline.

As an update, here is AA's initial response, admitting their mistake caused the problem but claiming it was unintentional and therefore not worthy of further consideration:

September 3, 2013

Dear Mrs. X:

Thank you for contacting Customer Relations. It is obvious that you are disappointed in us and we hope you will accept our sincere apology for what happened when you called our Reservations Office.

In order to provide our customers with outstanding service, our reservation personnel receive very specialized training and must complete recurrent training throughout their careers with American Airlines. That is why we are especially sorry to learn about the difficulty with your reservation. It is evident that a mistake was made: one keystroke to retain the reservation. However, we're confident that this oversight was unintentional. Under the circumstances, we are afraid we must respectfully decline to process compensation for your lost vacation.

Your comments about this situation are of great concern to us. We are constantly striving to improve our service and your comments will assist us in reaching that objective.

Mrs., thank you for taking the time to write to us. We hope you will give us the opportunity to better serve you in the future.

Sincerely,

Ms G

Customer Relations

American Airlines

This was an unacceptable response so I submitted another formal complaint and then recieved this:

September 5, 2013

Dear Ms.X:

We're sorry that you are still unhappy with us. The intention of our previous response was to convey sincere concern for the difficulties that you encountered. Again, we're sorry for the inconvenience you experienced.

Ms. X, It seems the basis of our disagreement is over the lengths to which a company should go to comply with a customer's request, regardless of the related aspects of the situation. To remain fair and equitable when considering all customer requests, we have made a decision not to assume financial responsibility in situations we are unable to control. We believe this decision to be fair and reasonable. Our position, therefore, remains unchanged, and we must respectfully decline your request for compensation. We're sorry.

Sincerely,

Customer Relations

American Airlines

Their responses are unacceptable IMO.

I have since received advice on Flyertalk, Trip Advisor, Facebook and elsewhere and filed a formal complaint with the DOT, as well as sent emails and snail mails to the appropriate management at AA.

I will post any results for the benefit of others who may face this situation in the future.

malbec

wow, so they admit they are at fault but won't take any measures to correct the situation. I would contact Chris Elliot, the Travel Troubleshooter.

Good luck.

clevelandbrown

I think your best course of action is to contact your credit card issuer, without further delay, and dispute all charges submitted by AA. In the US, you normally have 60 days from the date you are billed to do this, however when you charged future services, the period is extended to 60 days from the date the services were due but not provided. Assuming you file timely, the decision on reversing the charge will be made by your credit card issuer, after giving the merchant a chance to respond. Since AA acknowledges responsibility, I would think your chances of a recovery are very good.

I am not going to take the time to read the contract of carriage you agreed to, but you certainly should. Common provisions in such contracts require arbitration of disputes, so small claims court shouldn't work. Also, the contracts typically limit the types of damages you can claim, excluding items such as resort fees.

CounterClifton

It does seem a pretty far fetched statement to call something "beyond our control" when the entire situation and all components of it - employee, policies, procedures, computer software and equipment - were exclusively under their control and not yours. Yet because it's somehow not within their control, they decline to take any financial responsibility. Which of course, puts it on your shoulders.

I can see how AA could excel at ruining a vacation. They've done a pretty bang up job of ruining their airline over the last 10 years.

Odin

Maybe I missed this point somewhere in this thread, but how can an email confirmation for the new booking and a credit card charge be generated for the additional cost on the reissued tickets, from a booking that was not completed. "one keystroke to retain the reservation." I have never heard an airline use such an expression. It's great though that AA Customer services replied to the email in two days & conducted their investigation in such a short amount of time, other airlines can take 6 weeks or so to get a reply on any complaint.

kfusto

<. It's great though that AA Customer services replied to the email in two days & conducted their investigation in such a short amount of time, >

AA admitted their mistake and then blew me off since they claim it was "unintentional" and "out of their control". I hardly consider that impressive.

sparkchaser

<i>I have since received advice on Flyertalk, Trip Advisor, Facebook and elsewhere and <b>filed a formal complaint with the DOT</b>, as well as sent emails and snail mails to the appropriate management at AA.</i>

What do you expect the DOT to do? They did everything they're legally bound to do. All you're doing at this point is wasting everyone's time.

sparkchaser

The FlyerTalk thread for those interested: http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...r-vacation.cfm

Jeff_Costa_Rica

Sparkchaser, you've linked back to this thread.

sparkchaser

D'oh! I am an idiot.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...o-nothing.html