First Special not "Really" First- and the aftermath

[teemuflyer]

I have been sitting on this for a bit, but I thought I'd share a recent experience I had with AA concerning a "First Special" ticket I bought.

I booked an EQP run for a Nov 18th on AA.com purchasing a "First Special" fare to take advantage of the AATHX promo (note: this was not an "Instant Upgrade"). I received my confirmation and all segments, AUS>DFW>LAX>AUS, were booked in the "P" fare bucket. Upon getting to the airport I printed out my tickets at the kiosk and all stated "First" on them upon quick glance.

No issues from AUS>DFW, however when I boarded the DFW>LAX segment, I realized there was an equipment change- the 767 was subbed for a 777. Looked at my ticket more closely for the 1st time and it said "First- 10G", which as many of you know, is in the 2nd row of the business class cabin on a 772. I asked the FA why I wasn't in F since I purchase an F ticket, and she said that there were fewer F seats on a 777 than a 767, to which I replied that I understood, but then I asked that was it really the case that no one in F was an upgrade, all others were also purchased F tickets?

She had no answer and could only suggest I go back to talk to the GA.. this wasn't going to happen since on this occasion the jetway was one of those 1/4 mile long ones and I'd be swimming against a plane full of traffic, so I just asked if I could talk to the purser and sat down in my seat and called the EXP Desk.

This is where is went from "huh?", to "HUH??"!! On my call I explained the situation to the EXP Desk (don't really recall what I was expecting them to do now.. doh), but the response was what surprised me the most- paraphrased: "No Mr. Teemuflyer, you did not purchase a First Class ticket, but rather an online special that even we could not sell to you". I tried to explain that I had bought the ticket on AA.com under the "First Special" category, and received confirmation that all segments were in the "P" fare bucket and finally that my physical ticket said "First" in big letters.. she just insisted it wasn't a real First Class ticket and to take it up with Customer Relations.

I hung up confused and by then the purser had come over. Had pretty much the same conversation with him, and he said, after looking down at what I presume was the manifest, that I had not bought an F-class ticket. Have to admit he seemed pretty perplexed looking over my physical ticket.. I then asked if I could at least have something to drink before the normal cart service since I had expected to receive F-class service when I bought my ticket.. Nope. Not that he said that, but no one came back until the normal cart service- and I had skipped breakfast assuming I'd get on this flight.. sigh, nothing there either. Rest of the flight I sat there confused, somewhat angry.. could have used a hug..

So trip completed, I did follow up with Customer Relations.. 1st conversation lasted almost 45 minutes as the representative 1st looked up something in their internal systems and tried to explain that somehow the "internal" view of these P class tickets was classified differently, not as F-class (not to be confused w/ F fare bucket). However, they were patient with me and he was able to see what I was seeing by trying to replicate the process on AA.com. Then he said he'd submit something to the AA online team and for compensation as well.

A couple of weeks goes by and I finally get a message from the American Airlines Web Support. I'm only posting a small portion of the note, since I'm already writing a novel , but as you can imagine, it was not satisfactory:

"Dear Mr. Teemuflyer,

...We are sorry you had difficulty with the ticket you purchased on AA.com
using an Instant upgrade type of fare. While we are glad our colleagues
in Customer Relations were able to issue a voucher on your behalf,
please note, there are several opportunities to view the fare rules
during the online booking process...."

So I called Customer Relations back, got escalated to a CR Exec (or so they claimed). A very nice and conciliatory toned lady, who was very professional, listened to me regurgitate my story, verified the experience on AA.com, and said that she would send notes all over AA to take a look at the offer, how it's presented etc. As we were concluding the conversation, she offered to send me some compensation for having to spend all this time with her department- arrived by e-mail and was for a $250 e-voucher for future travel. Not bad. I eventually also received the "compensation" in snail mail for the original incident. $140 which was allegedly the difference for the price I paid for the DFW>LAX segment vs. a coach ticket. Oh well.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but thought that the details would be interesting for folks in case they run into a similar situation.

[SquareDanceGuy]

AA had a change of aircraft. The cold cruel unalterable fact is that the new aircraft does not have as many (16) first-class seats as the former aircraft (30). Therefore someone must be downgraded.

AA made the right call: downgrade the cheap fares first.

They gave you $390 compensation for the downgrade. I can assure you that if I hold a FC boarding pass for DFW-LAX and then AA offers me $390 to downgrade, I'm headed straight to the back.

The fact that you rode in a business-class seat (approx. equiv to the FC seat on the 763) turns the entire question into "what is a domestic FC meal worth?". If you think a domestic FC meal is worth $390, come over to my house for breakfast every morning and I'll cook for ya'.

Just one opinion.

[Herb687]

I'm surprised there was no food service on the flight? The "First - 10G" on your boarding pass makes it clear that AA considered you to be in first class on your flight. It matters not that in normal international service the 2nd cabin of the B777 is sold as business. On THIS flight the subbed 777 was operating in a two class configuration: first and coach (with a few rows of somewhat better first!) so I'm confused as to why the normal J section (F for the purposes of this 2 class flight) wasn't catered.

Overall though I don't understand what the key takeaway here is. You could have purchased an F26 fare and still been screwed if a 30 seat F cabin plane downgauged to one with 22 or 16 or whatever # of seats < 30.

If I was on the flight in question I probably would have been fine to sit in 777 J for the short DFWLAX flight but if that was not the case you would have been perfectly within your rights to get off the plane and wait for the next flight where they could confirm you in 2-cabin F.

[cynicAAl]

I almost see your point, but I think you got what you paid for. You paid for a NGBC seat, premium cabin on a domestic widebody. Even though AA changed equipment, you still got what you paid for (the Biz class seat on a 772 is essentially the same as a F (domestic) seat on a 763. You even got 10G, and not stuck in the middle E seat. The fact that the equip swap suddenly added 16 Flagship Seats is irrelevant; you didn't pay for that, nor did AA sell that to you (the seat sold to you was on a 763).

[Herb687]

Originally Posted by SquareDanceGuy

They gave you $390 compensation for the downgrade. I can assure you that if I hold a FC boarding pass for DFW-LAX and then AA offers me $390 to downgrade, I'm headed straight to the back.

And only a partial downgrade at that! $390 to sit in a seat better than any F seat offered on the DFWLAX route bar the B763.

I'd take that deal every day if I could!

Although I am still confused as to why there was no meal service as OP's boarding pass makes it clear that his seat was considered First not Economy on the temporarily two-class B777.

But again just what is OP's point?

Bad things happen when equipment swaps take place and it really doesn't matter if you are on an F26 fare, instant upgrade or first special. Had there been 30 F26 tickets sold for OP's flight there would still be 14 forcibly downgraded (or delayed to a different flight) passengers.

[cynicAAl]

Originally Posted by Herb687

I'm surprised there was no food service on the flight? The "First - 10G" on your boarding pass makes it clear that AA considered you to be in first class on your flight. It matters not that in normal international service the 2nd cabin of the B777 is sold as business. On THIS flight the subbed 777 was operating in a two class configuration: first and coach (with a few rows of somewhat better first!) so I'm confused as to why the normal J section (F for the purposes of this 2 class flight) wasn't catered.

good point, the ticket purchase included a domestic F meal. If they didn't cater the biz class cabin, and sold it as coach, they should have at least offered BOB food to the J cabin pax for free (which is usually better food than the F catered meal).

[HNL]

From the sounds of it when the aircraft was swapped to a 777, the first class cabin did not go to (16+37) 53 seats, with First and a Business being treated as domestic first. Rather it went to 16 First seats with the Business and Main Cabin seats treated as economy. So the OP did get a semi downgrade in terms of soft product. But ended up with a better hard product in terms of seat.

I think AA was generous with the compensation provided.

[Herb687]

Originally Posted by HNL

From the sounds of it when the aircraft was swapped to a 777, the first class cabin did not go to (16+37) 53 seats, with First and a Business being treated as domestic first. Rather it went to 16 First seats with the Business and Main Cabin seats treated as economy.

From a practical standpoint based on the service provided that seems to be the case. From a technical standpoint though the fact that OP's boarding pass had his seat 10G listed as First indicates that AA was considering the normally business cabin to be First Class on that particular flight.

[HNL]

Originally Posted by Herb687

From a practical standpoint based on the service provided that seems to be the case. From a technical standpoint though the fact that OP's boarding pass had his seat 10G listed as First indicates that AA was considering the normally business cabin to be First Class on that particular flight.

Regardless of what was printed on the boarding pass. It would be very rare for AA to combine the two forward cabins of a 3 class aircraft for a domestic substitution. It did not sound like the flight was catered that way, which leads me to believe that AA never intended to run that flight with 54 premium seats.

[Robt760]

Similar situations happen on the rare occasions that a 762 (3 class cabin) is subbed for another aircraft type with a 2 class cabin. Anywhere from 16-30 passengers with "F" seating assignments are needed to be re-assigned to 10 F seats (762 F Cabin) or 12 F seats (777 F Cabin), they figure out who they will keep in F, and who gets moved to Y (hopefully based on fare paid, with upgrades being chosen LAST).

The RIGHT thing to do, would be for AA to combine the F and J cabins into one F Cabin, with the same catering and soft service in both, and the seating being the only difference. This creates availability for 53 F Seats (777) or 40 F Seats (762). There's the small issue of catering not having enough time to have a sufficient number of meals, but then the GA don't "have" to assign all of theses seats. They can also put the Full F paid passengers in the True F cabin, and upgrades and op-ups in the J (with F service) cabin.

[beachfan]

OP said the 767 was subbed for a 777, not vice versa.

(The comment about a 777 having less F seats makes it seem vice versa, but what he said was the 767 was subbed for a 777).

If that's the case, he went from a 777 to a 767, which was likely a 763, and sat in coach. His original ticket said first, but was in a business class seat - which is an indication of something wrong at ticketing since when 777's are sold as two class, it's the business class that disappears (although I don't have direct experience with it in a while).

[RogerD408]

Originally Posted by HNL

From the sounds of it when the aircraft was swapped to a 777, the first class cabin did not go to (16+37) 53 seats, with First and a Business being treated as domestic first. Rather it went to 16 First seats with the Business and Main Cabin seats treated as economy. So the OP did get a semi downgrade in terms of soft product. But ended up with a better hard product in terms of seat.

I think AA was generous with the compensation provided.

Personally, I side with the OP. Had AA scheduled the 777 for the flight the same seat could have sold as an Economy Y seat. So by arbitrarily downgrading a paying customer they were willing to steal his money. No matter how they cut it, they sold an F ticket, not a YUP, not an award, and not even an upgrade. If should have been honored or OP should have been advised BEFORE boarding. Priority should have gone to paying customers, so all EXP upgrades should have been pulled before forcing OP in Y.

Yes, OP purchased and expected the full F experience even if at a discounted price; seat, food, drink, and service. He might have been in a better-than-Y seat, but not close to what he paid for, obviously.

All to often CSRs will make up rules to fit the error so they don't have to do anything. DO NOT let them get away with this. Shutting the customer up is not an acceptable job function.

[TR7_DFW]

Did you ever ask for your complimentary snack as an EXP?

[jordyn]

Originally Posted by Herb687

From a practical standpoint based on the service provided that seems to be the case. From a technical standpoint though the fact that OP's boarding pass had his seat 10G listed as First indicates that AA was considering the normally business cabin to be First Class on that particular flight.

Sounds like regardless of what the boarding pass said, the cabin crew only treated the F cabin as first, and provided coach service to the business class cabin.

Depending on what the fare difference between the first special and the cheapest economy seat available at the time OP booked his original ticket, the compensation may be fair, but it's pretty troubling that AA can't get the story straight on what constitutes discount first versus an instant upgrade from economy. The distinction between these things is already pretty dubious, but the fact that you can buy a more expensive product and not have AA treat it any differently is, at the very least, annoying.

[HNL]

A read of the published fares for AUS-LAX-AUS show that 100% of the "P" fares are Up Fares. What does that mean? The OP purchased an economy fare with an instant upgrade component.