alhcfp

Still waiting for Op to post their letter to AA.

Without that- we are chasing our tail.

Steve M

I had a similar thing happen to me on UA recently. I purchased a ticket on united.com and used a voucher for the entire payment and assumed that all was well. I see over the next few days that my trip is listed as an upcoming trip when I went to their website. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that the ticket was never actually issued, due to a problem that was out of my control and not my fault.

When I go to check in 24 hours before departure, I see that the flight is gone and Reservations says that it was because it was never ticketed. The flight was for July 3, the day before the 4-day holiday this year, and all flights are now sold out and in fact overbooked. I had a non-refundable cruise to catch. The flight I was originally on was overbooked by something like 13 pax.

I suggested to United that they remedy the situation by overselling the seat by one more passenger to get me on it. It didn't take too much pushing to get them to do this, but perhaps this was because I have Platinum status. Also, I was fortunate that there was one unassigned middle seat in coach, so even though I was the 14th oversold passenger, I could get a seat assignment in advance, making it extremely unlikely that I'd be IDB'd. I did feel a bit bad about whomever ended up being the last person to be IDB'd, as they perhaps booked months in advance but simply not chosen a seat assignment. But oh well.

If I didn't have status, I probably would have been in the same position as the OP. I know the feeling, and it's not good.

SJOGuy

OP did post a bit more detail at another discussion board. (One of the recommendations there was to see what the folks at FT have to say.) I could fill in some of the missing info, but I don't think it's my place. It's been only a few hours since her original post here, and maybe she hasn't had a chance to be online this evening.

jmastron

Yes! This is exactly what AA should have done, and the lesson to others is to insist, demand, cajole, call for supervisors, whatever, to push for this if in the same situation.

I understand AA splitting hairs on the technical definition of IDB, and I can understand experienced people here cautioning that AA might do so. I just don't understand the seeming some joy people take out of insisting that it's right that the OP get nothing (except their ticket refunded, which is an obvious no-brainer)

This wasn't "bumped to the next flight and missed 3 hours of our vacation". They found a screwup and then treated the OP as some sort of "space available" standby case, refusing to even try to get them out until multiple days later, which is guaranteed to screw up even the most flexible travel plans -- in this case, a paid and precious-time-from-work vacation. All they had to do was put the OP on the flight as a confirmed oversell, then handle volunteers/bumping/standby on next flights per their normal procedures (and compensation).

This could happen to any of us, which is why AA should be harshly condemned and financially punished so they do the right thing next time...maybe.

mvoight

Not really. At the time of the flight he was not ticketed on the flight.

mvoight

Right, but what they "should" do and what they are legally required to do are not the same thing.
IMHO what they should do:
1. Offer a voucher or a lot of miles for the mistake
2. Pay all out of pocket expenses
3. Refund the ticket cost (which I believe they have done

What they seem to be legally obligated to is simply the refund.
As it does not appear there was a valid ticket for the flight, IDB compensation (IMHO) does not apply here

Dave Noble

What they should do, would depend on what the full details are I thinks

If the OP posts these then may know. It may be that they airline should pay these expenses ( regardless of legal liability ) and may be that IDB compensation should apply. It may be that there is not IDB and that the passenger wrote to airline demanding compensation under IDB rules and so airline has simply denied liability.

It may be that if the OP had approached the request differently, may have got a different response

There are lots of possibilities depending on what actually happened

sprials

I would ask AA to try to get me to my vacation, another carrier and/or even another class of service as they have admitted it was their screw-up.

caviargal1956

The ticket reissue was done on the phone with a supervisor at AA approx. 10 weeks ago. She had to get involved as the agent I was working with quoted me a $200 per ticket reissue fee and I questioned that, as this was the 2nd reissue on this ticket, the first being $150 per ticket. So I have actually paid two change fees, one of which was refunded, as it was in the cost of the ticket.

At that time, the supervisor also recommended I book the extra charge seats, as the flight was nearly full and she could not assign seats. Therefore, I also paid seat fees for 4 flights in preferred seating, also refunded. My Amex was charged and when I looked in my online account, the reservation number and flights showed up. I did not check again after that.

My original email to AA stated the facts and requested two tickets anywhere AA flies so that we can take this trip next year. With my second email, sent last night after receiving their canned email response, I then decided to take the denied boarding approach since they were not going to do the right thing - IMO - and provide me with two round trip tickets to take this trip at a later date.

AA acknowledged their error, one keystroke, but took the stance that since it was not intentional they had no responsibility. If I had booked the wrong flights or wrong dates, that would not have been intentional but I would have most definitely been assessed a fee.

When I was speaking to the supervisor the day before our vacation, she stated that she had exhausted all possibilities, as flights were packed due to the Friday before Labor Day being a peak travel day. She said she looked at all routes, all classes of service.

I advised that JetBlue showed seats available and was advised they could not protect me on those flights. My option was to leave out 3 days later, which was not an option for our schedule. After one hour and 47 minutes on the phone with them, and being told that they had no other possible option to get me to Jamaica for my vacation, she refunded the tickets, which took about 48 hours. I waited until the refund had been posted to my Amex and then sent my email to customer service.

The supervisor then stated that what she found most upsetting was that the reissue had been done by a supervisor and was fully documented, including seats being assigned. She stated that the merger has resulted in lots of new agents and supervisors and hence sometimes mistakes are made.

There is no hidden agenda here, nor am I leaving out anything. I was charged, there was a confirmation number and seats were assigned.

AA acknowledged their mistake but has taken the stance that it was not intentional and therefore I am not entitled to any compensation.

I do not have the time, energy and money to even attempt to take a large organization to court.

I am not a novice traveler and travel internationally 6-8 times a year for business and pleasure, as well as domestically. I hit my million miler status with Delta 20 years ago. These days I fly JetBlue whenever possible and DL the rest of the time.

The only reason I was booked on AA is that I had planned to go to Barbados for Christmas and they were the airline with that service from my area. When our plans changed and we decided to go to Europe instead, I had my tickets reissued for Barbados to travel in June. Then the resort we were booked into had a very bad opening and we decided to pay an additional change fee and head to JA and one of our favorite resorts and I called AA and paid those fees to make that change and travel over Labor Day.

There is nothing more to the story and I appreciate those that have offered helpful suggestions. I do not agree that AA should have no accountability because the mistake was not intentional. Most mistakes are not. Intentional or not, they could not get me to my destination and I had two paid tickets to travel on 30 Aug. They have not denied any of that, so obviously could not find any loopholes there to hide behind. They have simply decided they can get away with their mistake and I am sure are hoping I will just go away.

Dave Noble

Given that te ticket was cancelled in advance and was never checked in, I cannot see how IDB could possibly apply in this case and can understand why the airline's response to a claim on IDB legislation was a simple "no"

Rather than asking for free tickets, I would suggest writing to AA with evidence of the out of pocket expenses and show what you have done to minimise the losses and request reimbursement of these costs due to their admitted negligence

If the airline then refuses to pay, then may need to consider whether you might win in a small claims against it

How much were your unrecoverable losses?

BStrauss3

It was the holiday weekend, everybody had time sensitive plans. The concept that they should bump SOMEBODY else instead of you boggles the mind.

The terms & conditions specifically deny responsibility for consequential and indirect damages. That's what travel insurance is for.

Never-the-less it was AA's fault and so that - your direct and indirect losses - is what you can and should be asking them to cover. Keep it short and sweet: "AA cancelled my reservation in error; there was no available seats in time; as a result a pre-paid hotel reservation of $x was unusable" Yes, I contacted the hotel promptly and attempted to change the dates, they were unwilling.

Microwave

A suggestion that an booked flight always results in a denied-boarding situation is incorrect. Many overbooked flights have nobody denied boarding, and of those that do there are still many that are handled through (perfectly happy customers in) VDB situations.

That said, I can understand why an airline wouldn't want to push an oversell that RM/YM may not want to do, and it's entirely possible in fact that a situation like this could end up as an oversale at the gate and the OP could have ended up with a real IDB given she doesn't have status.

jordyn

Why? OP paid for the flight, just like everyone else. The fact that AA screwed up her reservation doesn't make her less deserving of flying than the other folks on the plane. Forcing an oversale allows AA to offer VDB to those with flexible plans, ensures that IDB is done according to policy, and gets fair compensation to whoever ends up flying. Seems like it would have been obviously the correct thing to do.

OP, one additional point of clarification that would be helpful: did you get a confirmation e-mail from AA after re-ticketing with a new ticket number? Alternatively, is there a ticket number in the credit card statement with the charges for the re-ticketing? As hillrider pointed out, I'm not sure how they would have charged you without doing the reticketing. If they did issue a reticket number, I don't think either AA or people like Dave Noble who have apparently never seen a situation in which the airline is culpable have any reasonable argument that this wasn't an oversale. Rather, AA had some internal procedure that caused them to lose track of one of the paid-for tickets; that doesn't make the flight less oversold, it just means AA's bad at figuring it out in advance.

dickinson

What I am missing is the connection between OP's experience and OP's request for free tickets "anywhere American flies". Perhaps the requested compensation should more closely line up with the damage suffered by the OP.

Arsey00

I'm puzzling over how the OP's reciept of a confirmation marries with the 'one keystroke' issue. At first, I thought the agent simply forgot to hit the last keystroke to confirm the tickets (similar to a customer not clicking 'confirm and pay' after entering a card number). But as explained by the OP, a confirmation number was sent, which, I believe, only happens after a ticket moves from 'pending' to 'ticketed'. Or am I wrong about this last?

If not, doesn't a confirmation mean she was actually 'ticketed'? Which would mean AA's 'one keystroke' cancelled her ticket after the fact, and there is nothing in the CoC that states passengers must continually check to see that they remain ticketed.