Why american has lost [one of] "its best customers"

[Hal2r]

I have permanent Platinum status on American Airlines having flown over TWO MILLION on the airline. I arrived last night for Flight 66 to Barcelona having upgraded my status to business seat class (seat 3B) both online and double checked with it with the Platinum Hotline twice. However when I arrived for the flight the check in agent requested $5900 for the upgrade, with no record of the upgrade. Nowhere during my two phone conversations with American on the phone or on the site was the request made for this exorbitant amount.
After calling American again because the desk agent refused to deal with it, and waiting 45 minutes and speaking to four different people, only one of whom was sympathetic I was able to upgrade for 25,000 and $450. No one on the ground was slightest bit kind or understanding. The ground agent then changed my seat to 6B telling me my seat was taken. Then at the gate the gate agent invalidated my ticket made me wait until half the plane was seated until she finally reissued me a seat. 3B my original seat. I boarded the plane angry, sweaty and without one word of kindness from anyone at American Airlines.
To make this worse, I am not only waitlisted for upgrade for the return because the airline seems invalidated my return seat. However, if you go on the website I am still listed as being in business class. I am thoroughly confused, angered, feeling scammed and predisposed not to book many further flights with American. If anyone from American or with any other connections to airlines have any advice I am eager to hear what you have to say and what advice to offer. Thank you for listening.
A thoroughly disappointed and disgusted,
Hal Rubenstein

PS In three subsequent calls to American to fix this, each person quoted me either a different price, different number of seats available, or passed the problem off to someone else. No one admitted to AA making a mistake, did anything to right the wrong. A Senior Administrative Supervisor actually said, "Well what do you want me to do?" when faced with the possibility that a 2 million mile flyer would soon take his business elsewhere

AAmazing in the worst possible way

[emma dog]

Welcome to FT.

When you said you upgraded, how did you make the request? How did you intend to upgrade? Any idea on how this possible miscommunication happened?

[Stripy]

Originally Posted by Hal2r

I have permanent Platinum status on American Airlines having flown over TWO MILLION on the airline. I arrived last night for Flight 66 to Barcelona having upgraded my status to business seat class (seat 3B) both online and double checked with it with the Platinum Hotline twice. However when I arrived for the flight the check in agent requested $5900 for the upgrade, with no record of the upgrade. Nowhere during my two phone conversations with American on the phone or on the site was the request made for this exorbitant amount.
After calling American again because the desk agent refused to deal with it, and waiting 45 minutes and speaking to four different people, only one of whom was sympathetic I was able to upgrade for 25,000 and $450. No one on the ground was slightest bit kind or understanding. The ground agent then changed my seat to 6B telling me my seat was taken. Then at the gate the gate agent invalidated my ticket made me wait until half the plane was seated until she finally reissued me a seat. 3B my original seat. I boarded the plane angry, sweaty and without one word of kindness from anyone at American Airlines.
To make this worse, I am not only waitlisted for upgrade for the return because the airline seems invalidated my return seat. However, if you go on the website I am still listed as being in business class. I am thoroughly confused, angered, feeling scammed and predisposed not to book many further flights with American. If anyone from American or with any other connections to airlines have any advice I am eager to hear what you have to say and what advice to offer. Thank you for listening.
A thoroughly disappointed and disgusted,
Hal Rubenstein

PS In three subsequent calls to American to fix this, each person quoted me either a different price, different number of seats available, or passed the problem off to someone else. No one admitted to AA making a mistake, did anything to right the wrong. A Senior Administrative Supervisor actually said, "Well what do you want me to do?" when faced with the possibility that a 2 million mile flyer would soon take his business elsewhere

AAmazing in the worst possible way

What did you use to upgrade the flight in the first place?

[brp]

First, someone who has status as a result of a bank of flown miles, as opposed to actual yearly flying, is not one of AA's best customers, so get over that bit of attitude from the start as it will make things more productive.

Onto more relevant matters:

How did you upgrade in the first place? What emails were you sent about the mechanism of upgrade? What documentation do you have for the likely miles+copay used to upgrade? Specifics, rather than hyperbole, will be more helpful.

Oh, and welcome to FT

Cheers.

[bhomburg]

ouch. Looks like an IT glitch. These do happen from time to time. but when something similar happened to me (check-in agent at MXP could not find my ticket at all) the staff was helpful and tried all they could to alleviate the problem and they eventually did after numerous calls to various support functions.

Did you try to do OLCI ? I'd have gone to the lounge and tried printing my my BP off the website there, as you said aa.com was showing everything correctly.

And the co-pay for the upgrade should be $350, not $450. If they made you pay $450 call/write CS and complain.

[sellouts]

As brp said, American's best customers are the ones who are paying full rate for the seat you upgraded to.

When I upgraded recently using miles I was sent an email for when I purchased the ticket in economy then was sent an email immediately after I used miles + copay to upgrade to business.

By any chance did you use an SWU?

But welcome to FT, everyone no matter their value to AA is welcome here!

[All American Flyer]

If you have a confirmation re-ticketing email (which are sent out when you are upgraded), I'm sure you can get compensation.

[supergrandslam]

OP got upgraded on AA66 JFK-BCN, right?
3B and 6B are both business class on B763.

[Ambraciot]

So the claim is the OP drove away AA's best customer by creating a scene at the gate and creating long phone hold times? That seems pretty esoteric to start a thread, but I agree with the OP, rude people who don't pay for their tickets and demand special treatment (FTers?) can be unpleasant and drive away customers.

[JDiver]

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Reading here will help prevent the kind of misunderstanding that you post about.

Now, as to "Why american has lost its best customers", perhaps some clarification is in order. Did you really FLY 2 million miles ("a 2 million mile flyer"), or is that the sum of miles earned flying and mostly by credit cards? And only Platinum? (Be aware of your audience here... )

I suspect the best customers don't really worry about upgrades - they merely purchase international or domestic First or Business fares, and may have AAirpass purchases as well.

Is there a study that demonstrates American is losing its best customers? What airline are they fleeing to? I'm genuinely curious, given we have just had an outpouring of upper tier UA flyers join AAdvantage, for example.

Seriously, hyperbole aside - read this forum. I think you will learn valuable information (even that there is a Platinum number that goes to regular agents, as there is no Platinum or Gold desk with specially trained personnel). Read the compensation thread - you might get an idea how you can get some miles for the troubles you experienced, or the proper copayment for an international upgrade, for example.

[Dallas49er]

Am I allowed to use the T****-word?

1. If someone really were EXP and had flown as much as advised, this probably would not be the tale of woe of someone with those bona fides.

2. It's 25,000 miles and $350 US dollars to upgrade. Others with more time and WAY more interest can pick apart and dissect the rest.

I look forward to Hal2r's comments, and do stand ready to apologize, but while "past performance is no guarantee of future performance", I think this will be a "One post wonder" and/or a "One and done".

(And I will reserve my welcome, as if its not apparent, my "baloney" meter is in the red zone.)

Just sayin'

[mvoight]

Originally Posted by Hal2r

I have permanent Platinum status on American Airlines having flown over TWO MILLION on the airline.

1. It's called LIFETIME status, not PERMANENT
2. If you have it now, it was not due to flying over 2 MM.
True, it takes 2MM lifetime miles, but BIS is only a recent requirement
3. You stated the wrong copay amount.
4. The agent mentioned an upgrade of $5900, so maybe they thought you wanted to pay for an upgrade. People actually do this sometimes
5. You mentioned you were waitlisted for the return upgrade.
Were you previously confirmed?
6. When you spoke to the Platinum line when finding out you were upgraded, did you pay the $350 copay then? I am confused... Because when you upgrade in advance, that is when the collect the upgrade fees.

[Antarius]

After the Charlie Foxtrot that UA pulled with their boarding process (lumping practically everyone, including FC into one giant group), we might actually see an influx of "best customers"

[Antarius]

<redacted>

The key word is 'vent'. AA does and has made several mistakes. The issue is when there is a zero fact rant on the board that people start to question the OP.

[BostonFlyer1624]

Originally Posted by brp

First, someone who has status as a result of a bank of flown miles, as opposed to actual yearly flying, is not one of AA's best customers, so get over that bit of attitude from the start as it will make things more productive.

<redacted>

You don't earn a "bank" of miles without flying. Considering this person has 2+ million miles, you have to assume they have done quite a lot of travel on AA.