brp

Agree completely. This is a bogus charge and the DOT are the ones who should handle this. This is not a credit card issue since the charge is completely legitimate, even if slimy.

Cheers.

Dave Noble

I don't see how it is a bogus charge really. The charge is for the service which was provided. That there is no way of doing it online is irrelevent imo. An annoying charge , but no way bogus

I do agree that if thinking that there is somehow , something wrong with the airline charging booking fees, that that is a matter for authorities and absolutely nothing to do with the credit card company

Dave

gemac

There are ways that OP could have gotten ticketed without paying the fees. I understand that OP doesn't know how to do that. In many areas of life, ignorance is more expensive than knowledge. This is yet another.

mvoight

As noted by another member, the dispute mechanism chosen was for a problem with not getting the service that was paid for, not not being satisfied with having to pay a fee in the first place. For example, you paid $20 for something you didn't receive. In this case, you paid $20 and received EXACTLY what you paid for. I feel this is a waste of the credit card issuers' time, and the response given by them was correct. This was clearly an invalid dispute
If you don't want to pay AA the fee, then use another method to get the ticket.

Radiant Flyer

Airlines fees today are mostly BOGUS and no you do not get what you paid for. It's attitudes likes this that lets the Airline industry screw the consumer.

you paid $20 for something you didn't receive. In this case, you paid $20 and received EXACTLY what you paid for. I feel this is a waste of the credit card issuers' time, and the response given by them was correct. This was clearly an invalid dispute

Xero

There are other threads here which talk about things such as "it's just $40, let it go". This is why I feel that consumers should not let companies keep money that should be theirs, and if a company is holding money that is rightfully yours, you should try to get it back. They obviously show no flexibility for us, even if it's 'just $20'.

idainc

received from AA and sent as a part of a DOT complaint:

Dear Mr. XXXXX,

Thank you for your message to AA.com.

At this time, AAdvantage Award bookings that involves flying with one of our AAdvantage participants may not be booked via AA.com. We hope to offer these feature in the future.

However, our American Airlines AAdvantage Department will best handle your travel plans using your AAdvantage miles. In U.S, and Canada you may dial 1-800-433-73000.

Thank you for visiting AA.com.


Sincerely,
Ms. XXXXX
AA.com Web Services
American Airlines, Inc.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------


I am currently holding PNR XXXXXX award travel for 2 passengers routed PHX-MIA-MAD-ATH-LHR-MIA-PHX. All flights are on AA and bookable on aa.com except partner carriers used for MAD-ATH-LHR. I was not successful in configuring the web site to show these two flights - or any partner carrier flights - on award travel.

I was therefore forced to call aa reservations and get assistance which costs $25 a ticket.

Please advise me how I can configure the site to show and book these partner carrier flights in order to avoid the ticketing fee. Thnak you
for your help.

brp

And how, again, does the money rightfully belong to the consumer if the fees are disclosed and the consumer has agreed to pay that charges? Is "I know I agreed to pay for it, but I don't like it and I think you are a bunch of sleazy meanies for charging this fee" a viable reason for asserting that the money still belongs to me? Perhaps I should try this on the portion of my taxes going to DHS and most of defense spending ^

"Hey Apple, this iPad2 that I just bought is really cool, but you charged too much so I'm going to dispute 20% of it with my credit card company." (I don't actually own an iPad )

Cheers.

hillrider

So their canned response does not address the $25 fee, uh?

idainc

Nope. Its a $25 free ticket.

I wasn't aware of the fee to use an IDB cert. I'd really hate to try to run a business like their's for which the profit ( when they make one ) seems to be entirely based on seeing how far they can push their best customers away.

Dallas49er

Original answer changed to never mind.

I will respectfully disagree.

HeadInTheClouds

Oh, if eventually enough complaints come through, they'll just rename it the "AAdvantage award redemption fee, which is waived if you book an eligible itinerary online." (And in truth, they should do exactly that because that's what it is.)

We all hate the fee, but I don't see any end to this story that doesn't involve people paying it.

mikelat

If you didn't agree with the phone fee then you should not have accepted it and booked the ticket. I don't see any justification for a dispute here. You received the services that you paid for. Just because you decided that you don't want to pay for the services doesn't mean that the charge is invalid. To me, this is a very sketchy way to go about things. Do you also dispute charges at your local restaurant after having enjoyed a meal there just because you think it should have been free?

onthegold

Like the OP, I recently was looking to book an award ticket with non-stop routing, but it this routing did not show up on aa.com. So I called AA and they were able to reserve the itinerary that I wanted. The rep then told me that if she ticketed it, there would be a charge. She advised that I just hold the reservation, then go onto aa.com and ticket it myself so I could avoid the ticketing charge. Isn't this still an option?

idainc

On an international itinerary the web site does not present the ticketing ability if an agent has touched it.