1/4MM@20

No one likes these fees but you did have choices. Another airline? A train, bus, car? Not taking the trip?

You wanted a particular service offered by AA. AA charges a price for that service. The fact that there is no other way to book without paying the fee is irrelevant to a credit card company. The solution is to take your business elsewhere (and if you want to change things - let aa know about it!)

DillMan

Precisely. This culture of chargebacks seems to be rapidly getting out of control. I dine with a vendor a few weeks back at a very upscale steakhouse. We had evening flights out so we were dining very early. After we ate our (probably $300 or so) meal, he noticed the steakhouse offered a early bird $55 prefix menu with limited items. Even though we didn't order items eligible for this promotion, he felt cheated by virtue of not knowing the $55 option existed. His solution? Request an AMEX chargeback for all but $110 of the final bill.

Needless to say I decided not to do business with this individual. Not only did his character allow him to make this decision, but he went a step further a told me, the customer he had just treated to dinner.

onthegold

So since the OP was booking a domestic itinerary would he have been able to reserve it on the phone and then ticket it online?

mvoight

But, if you know about the fee and agree to it, why should you be able to tell your credit card company it isn't valid?

ron-val-ron

Good points all, thanks.

The non-stop was not sold out; aa.com simply would not surface it.

Which banks are levying $10 fees for failed chargebacks/disputes?

Did not know that the DOT had come down on AA for other fees. And complaining seems like a worthwhile idea.

Again, thanks.

mikelat

Just my opinion, but your bank should charge the $10 fee here. You're disputing a charge you already agreed to. Not much of a leg to stand on here in you position. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll side with you, but, in at least my view, that'd be the wrong position to take. You had other options besides paying the fee but you accepted the fee, paid it, and are now deciding that you don't like it. If they refund the fee then I think AA would be withing their rights to fully cancel the itinerary. How would you feel if that happened?

I'm just very against disputing CC charges that are implicity or explicitly agreed to by both parties. You agreed to the charge in making the booking. Why are you disputing it now? What is your reasoning for the dispute? They delivered what they promised (phone support for completing the reservation). What is lacking here?

869

OP is joking right? Agreed that AA should cancel itin if you pull this nonsense. If you do not want to pay, look for some other way to get there.

dayone

Good sense.

vasantn

Excellent point. I rarely use the chargeback mechanism unless the charge is really fraudulent or if I believe that I have not received what I paid for and all other resolution avenues have failed. I am a merchant as well as a consumer so I can appreciate both points of view, but a chargeback is clearly not warranted in this case.

EaglesOhThree

+100
This kind of abuse makes it more difficult for those who have actual, legitimate, realistic credit card disputes. disgusting.

mvoight

If it is an itinerary you can't normally book with AA, that is one thing.

If there was something not visible due to an error, that is another story.
If that happened with me, I would NOT call reservations, I would call Web Services. I have found them to be very helpful, especially when I have accidently canceled reservations. Now, I no longer us the reservation listing to cancel, as after you select it, you don't know exactly what is being canceled. I recommend people cancel only when actually viewing the reservation, if they have more than one.

If you call resevations and agree to the fee, you have NO right to cancel it.

nrr

Regular readers of this forum on ft know the secrets of avoiding fees, but the "average" flyer might not. In other instances where aa charges fees where you have no other way of completing an itn except to use phone (or airport) agents, in those instances isn't aa being deceptive? [Redeeming certain vouchers is one of these--yes, you can mail the voucher to FL, and risk it being lost--when making these electronic would solve the fee problem.]
PS: Re OP, suppose the conversation went: "Since I have NO other choice but to pay the fee, I am doing so under protest", he might have a stronger case when requesting a chargeback from cc company?

brp

Not at all. What does protest have to do with this? You are paying for a service. If you don't want to pay for it, don't. If you agree to it, there is no grounds for dispute, despite all the protests in the world.

"Waiter, I want to order the carpaccio. However, I think that $17 is too high, so I'm paying that price under protest."

I don't think so.

Cheers.

nrr

While I didn't say that OP was justified in expecting a chargeback, the "protest" word might have more standing. The example with the waiter and the carpaccio is not good, since it is a consumable commodity once consumed it can't be undone--the fee can be reversed.
PS: Once I was working without a contract (for several years), the union advised us o sign every payroll check and add the words "under protest".

Oneworldplus2

To the OP.
Now you know how we feel here in Australia when QF screws us for bookings that can't be made online and we get slugged fees (or points), usually award flights or vouchers that can't be redeemed online.

To make matters worse, QF has known about these issues for years and still doesn't give a rats.