Programs: AA EXP (2MM), UA 1K, SPG PLT, HH GLD, OTHERS
Posts: 2,067
award change never reissued, PNR comments falsified
Bottom line: called to change BA award segment to different flight with availability, reservation was never properly reissued, AA has no record of me requesting the change with false comments added to the PNR.
My wife and I are returning to the US next week via BA F with a short overnight connection in LHR. I've been looking to extend the connection from the first morning flight to the last evening flight to allow us to overnight and spend the day in central London (connection would still be less than 24hrs - permissible under AA award rules). F on the new flight has been wide open (F9 A9), but BA has been holding back releasing F award inventory since J is fairly full and Y0. Yesterday, two F award seats were finally released - according to the BA Executive Club website (presumably since some space opened in Y). I called the EXP desk early yesterday morning, they found the same availability, switched us on to the later flight, and sent the ticket to the reissuing queue.
Being meticulous when it comes to award reservations, I immediately verified the change on both the AA.com and BA.com - which both showed the correct flight rebooked. I even selected seat assignments on BA.com and verified the assignment carried over to AA.com. Additionally, I contacted YouFirst (BA's First Class concierge in LHR) via email and changed our LHR spa reservations to the evening to coincide with our new flight. They replied with the new spa reservation time referencing our new departure time. I also booked hotel reservations (nonrefundable) and a car service into London.
Upon returning to our hotel yesterday evening I checked my email expecting to see something from AA indicating the ticket was reissued. Not finding said email I logged onto AA.com only to see ourselves back on the original flight. BA.com showed the same thing with no award availability existing any longer for the later flight (F was still wide open, but Y was now zeroed out again). Interestingly, I still had a window open from the morning showing the AA.com reservation with us on the later flight (which I saved with a screenshot). I immediately called the EXP desk to find out what was going on - they said there was no record in the reservation of us ever requesting to change to the later flight and (of course) there was now no availability to make the change. Interestingly, the agent said there was a comment in the PNR with a timestamp of approximately 2hrs after I made the change that morning. The comment said (paraphrasing): "Customer called to change BA flight, was placed on hold while looking for availability, call disconnected before availability was ever found, no change made." That comment was completely false (the agent I spoke with that morning had no difficulty finding the availability, I was never disconnected while on hold, and at the conclusion of the call I was confirmed on the new flight and the ticket was sent to be reissued). The second EXP agent was nice but said there was nothing more that could be done besides continuing to check award availability.
In hindsight, lesson learned: I should have waited to make the hotel reservations until after the ticket was officially reissued. Nonetheless, I'm still stumped as to what actually happened (did the reissuing desk make a mistake, somehow lose the new segment, and try to cover their tracks?) and very disappointed about the inaccurate comment in the PNR.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? I've been redeeming AA partner awards fairly frequently for well over a decade and this is the first time I've seen this happen. Sometimes reissuing can take a while, but I've never lost a segment once it was sent over to the reissuing desk.
Doesn't AA record calls made to Reservations? I would call back, escalate to a supervisor, and request that AA find the call and listen to the recording.
Doesn't AA record calls made to Reservations? I would call back, escalate to a supervisor, and request that AA find the call and listen to the recording.
Not the way to go here. Some are recorded some are not.. MAY be recorded is the key phase.
The tracking device here is the access to the PNR. The entire history will show (or not) to validate the OP's story with seat changes etc . It will also show if the rebooking was confirmed or on request.
Last edited by grahampros; Dec 30, 12 at 12:11 am..
I doubt anyone at AA was out to screw the OP. "Falsified" is too strong. "Inaccurate" would be more apt.
There are several things that dont make sense here. One the access of the PNR and and changes would be seen by an agent that went as far to read into the PNR to see the comments. 2. if the changes showed up on AA.com that you could make a screen shot the changes were made at some point. The no record thing, no not really. 3. That agent went so far as to document the PNR ( which you only do in unusual situations) tells me this was probably never confirmed. There would be no reason otherwise for the agent to enter notes.
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, HH Gold, DL/UA/CO/AS Elite
Posts: 14,353
Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinrunner
I doubt anyone at AA was out to screw the OP. "Falsified" is too strong. "Inaccurate" would be more apt.
If we assume the OP's story, then "Falsified" would seem to be the correct word. After all, if the note says the call disconnected while the caller was on hold, and also stated no inventory could be found, that is false, if the caller did get a confirmation, and the call was never disconnected.
Now, what bothers me. If the OP saw his reservation change on the website, then there would be a record of the change in the PNR data. The reservation would not have showed up differently online without a record of the change.
My wife and I are returning to the US next week via BA F with a short overnight connection in LHR. I've been looking to extend the connection from the first morning flight to the last evening flight to allow us to overnight and spend the day in central London (connection would still be less than 24hrs - permissible under AA award rules).
Is that actually correct?
I thought the rule was that you had to take a flight out again within 6 hours unless there were no scheduled flights in that time period, then you must take the next scheduled flight out, if nothing scheduled within 24 hours then it becomes a stopover. ( and it is scheduled flights not availability on those flights that determines it)
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, Lifetime Platinum, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Travelers Aid JFK Volunteer
Posts: 8,975
Next time, screenshot/PDF and print the new itinerary reflecting the changes when you initially verify it on AA.com. That way, you can evidentiate the change if you have a need to do so later. You could have emailed the PDF or even faxed a hard copy to AA as proof that somebody made the changes. Of course, it still might not have helped if the reissue was never processed, and if the BA availability was gone. But still, better to have tangible proof of a change that affects several other things like hotels, etc.
Programs: AA EXP (2MM), UA 1K, SPG PLT, HH GLD, OTHERS
Posts: 2,067
Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinrunner
I doubt anyone at AA was out to screw the OP. "Falsified" is too strong. "Inaccurate" would be more apt.
I thought very hard before using that term. I'm not one to make accusations - as my history here on FT will attest - I'm simply reporting the facts in as unbiased a manner as possible. If the PNR comments simply said "unable to reissue ticket" or something nonsensical (perhaps referencing the wrong flight to change) then I wouldn't have classified them as falsified. But, the specific comments reflect an untrue story that was entered hours after I made the reservation change. Something's not quite adding up here - although that doesn't necessarily mean anyone was "out to screw" me. I'm just looking for possible explanations from this informed forum.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark_T
Is that actually correct?
I thought the rule was that you had to take a flight out again within 6 hours unless there were no scheduled flights in that time period
Yes, on international AAdvantage awards (Partner and AA-only) you have up to 24hrs (23h59m to be precise) in order to connect, regardless of any flights scheduled and/or available in between, before it's considered a stopover. This was changed from 6hrs several years ago (2009, IIRC).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
Next time, screenshot/PDF and print the new itinerary reflecting the changes when you initially verify it on AA.com. That way, you can evidentiate the change if you have a need to do so later.
Yes, as mentioned I happened to still have the window open and I took a screenshot of the confirmed change later yesterday afternoon. I hate to be paranoid, but I might start doing the same for all confirmed changes awaiting reissue in the future. I also have a copy of the YouFirst email from BA which references us being on the later flight (not necessarily conclusive, although it is timestamped before the comments were entered into the PNR). I'm planning to submit this issue to AA Customer Relations and let them do the forensics on this next week when I get home. We have a North American gateway stopover book on the itinerary, so the PNR will remain active. In the meantime, I will keep looking to see if the award inventory opens back up on BA.
I thought the rule was that you had to take a flight out again within 6 hours unless there were no scheduled flights in that time period, then you must take the next scheduled flight out, if nothing scheduled within 24 hours then it becomes a stopover. ( and it is scheduled flights not availability on those flights that determines it)
You confuse award rules. Those you cited relate to the Explorer award.
OP's obviously is the partner award which AA changed the name to a very mouthful Oneworld and other airlines award.
On partner award you can take ANY flight you want provided the connection is under 24 hours on an international award.
I thought very hard before using that term. I'm not one to make accusations - as my history here on FT will attest - I'm simply reporting the facts in as unbiased a manner as possible. If the PNR comments simply said "unable to reissue ticket" or something nonsensical (perhaps referencing the wrong flight to change) then I wouldn't have classified them as falsified. But, the specific comments reflect an untrue story that was entered hours after I made the reservation change. Something's not quite adding up here - although that doesn't necessarily mean anyone was "out to screw" me. I'm just looking for possible explanations from this informed forum.
-FlyerBeek
I speculate that the rebook and reissue was not properly done - the agent may simply forget to send it to be re-issue (this happened to me once but luckily the availability was still there when I discovered it when no new e-ticket ever came the next day). When the agent discovered it, the availability was gone. So the agent put a comment there to cover up. Human nature.
I speculate that the rebook and reissue was not properly done - the agent may simply forget to send it to be re-issue (this happened to me once but luckily the availability was still there when I discovered it when no new e-ticket ever came the next day). When the agent discovered it, the availability was gone. So the agent put a comment there to cover up. Human nature.
Yup, lots of new inexperienced EXP agents. My thought is that if the agent even slightly sounds inexperienced, and you are doing anything more than a routine change, best to hang up and call again.
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold, SPG Gold, HH Gold, PC Platinum
Posts: 231
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy
I speculate that the rebook and reissue was not properly done - the agent may simply forget to send it to be re-issue (this happened to me once but luckily the availability was still there when I discovered it when no new e-ticket ever came the next day). When the agent discovered it, the availability was gone. So the agent put a comment there to cover up. Human nature.
The same happened to me recently, and the availability was gone. So the agent changed to another date and put a comment that they tried to reach me since the partner airline did not confirm the seat, which was not true.
I have a funny feeling you upset customer service agent. Flyertalk rules....Always be nice beyond nice and if you sense agent is irritated hang up and call back.
I for one want to see these screen shots of the confirmed change on both BA and AA.com. That is what really tell us more then anything what was actually going on.
