mjh00008

Hi there - my first post on this forum after lurking for years. I am embarking on my honeymoon in one week and just had a terrible realization after talking to an AAdvantage customer service agent yesterday.

Turns out, I wasted nearly $500.00 purchasing separate tickets for my reservation on a OneWorld partner. In short, we are flying from New Orleans (MSY) to Puerto Escondido, Mexico (PXM). Both cities are serviced by AA and OneWorld. When I tried to book the tickets through AA.com with 70,000 AAdvantage miles, I got an error message saying the service did not exist. So instead, I used those 70,000 miles to fly from MSY-MIA-MEX and back, paying out of pocket nearly $500 for two round-trip tickets on Mexicana from Mexico City to our final destination.

I called in to AAdvantage customer service yesterday after reading on a blog about a similar problem a frequent flier encountered with AA. After getting nowhere with the agent, I filled out a detailed online complaint and also sent a detailed email to Sean Bentel, manager of customer relations at AA.

I don't expect any sort of refund on the tickets, because they were paid directly to Mexicana, but am I completely naive to hope that AA will either refund the miles used or issue a voucher? I will post the email to Mr. Bentel if you'd like.

Thanks for your thoughts!