"W" Fare Confusion. AA Selling Non-existent Premium Economy: Beware. (Sep 2016)
Sep 23, 2016, 2:38 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Programs: AA EXP MM/UA MM/Marriott PLT Premier-LT PLT
Posts: 383
"W" Fare Confusion. AA Selling Non-existent Premium Economy: Beware. (Sep 2016)
What is AA doing on AA54 ORD to MAN 767. They have a new column called Premium Economy, however it is the same 2 cabin aircraft and the seat map does not appear to have changed from before they added the upcharge for premium economy. Looks like they are calling MCE + Refendable premium economy. I thought premium economy was going to include wider seats, wider recline, and footrests.
Sep 23, 2016, 2:45 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 5,270
What is AA doing on AA54 ORD to MAN 767. They have a new column called Premium Economy, however it is the same 2 cabin aircraft and the seat map does not appear to have changed from before they added the upcharge for premium economy. Looks like they are calling MCE + Refendable premium economy. I thought premium economy was going to include wider seats, wider recline, and footrests.
Sep 23, 2016, 3:15 pm
#3
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold; Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,228
Interestingly the fare is available for my 10/2 - 6 trip to MAN and if you click on the Premium Economy hyperlink it does refer to a wider seat, premium beverages and so forth yet the "Details" link and the seat map clearly show just a two-cabin configuration.
I would be somewhat upset if I bought what is clearly advertised as a Premium Economy fare (with additional benefits over and above those of Economy and MCE) and those weren't available. I agree it looks as if it's simply the fully flexible W ticket but marketing it as PE seems a bit premature.
I would be somewhat upset if I bought what is clearly advertised as a Premium Economy fare (with additional benefits over and above those of Economy and MCE) and those weren't available. I agree it looks as if it's simply the fully flexible W ticket but marketing it as PE seems a bit premature.
Sep 24, 2016, 3:00 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Programs: AA EXP MM/UA MM/Marriott PLT Premier-LT PLT
Posts: 383
They pulled it and it is back to economy and business. This thread should not have been merged into the premium economy thread which is about a special new class with wider seats and leg rests. This thread was about AA either accidentally , or intentionally, marketing a specific fare class as premium economy in a standard economy MCE seat in the standard economy class.
Sep 24, 2016, 3:56 pm
#5
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Location: Juneau, Alaska.
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What is AA doing on AA54 ORD to MAN 767. They have a new column called Premium Economy, however it is the same 2 cabin aircraft and the seat map does not appear to have changed from before they added the upcharge for premium economy. Looks like they are calling MCE + Refendable premium economy. I thought premium economy was going to include wider seats, wider recline, and footrests.
Interestingly the fare is available for my 10/2 - 6 trip to MAN and if you click on the Premium Economy hyperlink it does refer to a wider seat, premium beverages and so forth yet the "Details" link and the seat map clearly show just a two-cabin configuration.
I would be somewhat upset if I bought what is clearly advertised as a Premium Economy fare (with additional benefits over and above those of Economy and MCE) and those weren't available. I agree it looks as if it's simply the fully flexible W ticket but marketing it as PE seems a bit premature.
I would be somewhat upset if I bought what is clearly advertised as a Premium Economy fare (with additional benefits over and above those of Economy and MCE) and those weren't available. I agree it looks as if it's simply the fully flexible W ticket but marketing it as PE seems a bit premature.
They pulled it and it is back to economy and business. This thread should not have been merged into the premium economy thread which is about a special new class with wider seats and leg rests. This thread was about AA either accidentally , or intentionally, marketing a specific fare class as premium economy in a standard economy MCE seat in the standard economy class.
After talking with me she realized there was no PE and she was in a preferred seat in coach with no extra leg room. Agent last night, first said she was in PE, then said PE is just the better seats in the coach cabin and when it is introduced next year it will just be preferred seats, and finally after PE, main cabin, MCE, and preferred seats were explained to the agent, he said her seats still provided extra leg room and all the benefits of PE. The preferred seats she was in do not have extra leg room. We were able to recreated the issue for a different day on the website while we were on the phone with the agent. He also said he could book PE on another AA flight if she wanted to change which day she was flying. She couldn't cancel and rebook as there was no longer any coach availability.
After several hours on the phone today with multiple agents and supervisors and three disconnects, a supervisor finally understood the issue and refunded her the difference between the cost of refundable main cabin tickets she could have purchased yesterday and what she paid for PE yesterday. They also refunded the preferred seat fees.
Web services was not helpful as the tech rep kept saying that aa was not selling PE until next year. At one point she said that there had been similar complaints yesterday but she repeated several times that the website does not offer PE. She did say that if by chance the website did offer PE that the website was actually offering MCE seats for sale at that inflated price. In this case $700 more for a MCE seat that could be purchased for $80 each way.
As unhappyflyer notes this glitch appears to have been corrected as I have not been able to recreate it today.
Last edited by jerry a. laska; Sep 24, 2016 at 4:04 pm
Sep 27, 2016, 11:37 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2016
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 141
A coworker of mine fell for this yesterday. She bought (what she thought were) two premium economy tickets to AKL. Wanted to purchase PE as she was traveling with an older relative so she paid ~ $700/person more for PE than main cabin (which was also available for sale). All tickets were refundable. After purchase (booked in W) she then called to get seats together and agent talked her into purchasing two preferred seats in the last row of coach.
After talking with me she realized there was no PE and she was in a preferred seat in coach with no extra leg room. Agent last night, first said she was in PE, then said PE is just the better seats in the coach cabin and when it is introduced next year it will just be preferred seats, and finally after PE, main cabin, MCE, and preferred seats were explained to the agent, he said her seats still provided extra leg room and all the benefits of PE. The preferred seats she was in do not have extra leg room. We were able to recreated the issue for a different day on the website while we were on the phone with the agent. He also said he could book PE on another AA flight if she wanted to change which day she was flying. She couldn't cancel and rebook as there was no longer any coach availability.
After several hours on the phone today with multiple agents and supervisors and three disconnects, a supervisor finally understood the issue and refunded her the difference between the cost of refundable main cabin tickets she could have purchased yesterday and what she paid for PE yesterday. They also refunded the preferred seat fees.
Web services was not helpful as the tech rep kept saying that aa was not selling PE until next year. At one point she said that there had been similar complaints yesterday but she repeated several times that the website does not offer PE. She did say that if by chance the website did offer PE that the website was actually offering MCE seats for sale at that inflated price. In this case $700 more for a MCE seat that could be purchased for $80 each way.
As unhappyflyer notes this glitch appears to have been corrected as I have not been able to recreate it today.
After talking with me she realized there was no PE and she was in a preferred seat in coach with no extra leg room. Agent last night, first said she was in PE, then said PE is just the better seats in the coach cabin and when it is introduced next year it will just be preferred seats, and finally after PE, main cabin, MCE, and preferred seats were explained to the agent, he said her seats still provided extra leg room and all the benefits of PE. The preferred seats she was in do not have extra leg room. We were able to recreated the issue for a different day on the website while we were on the phone with the agent. He also said he could book PE on another AA flight if she wanted to change which day she was flying. She couldn't cancel and rebook as there was no longer any coach availability.
After several hours on the phone today with multiple agents and supervisors and three disconnects, a supervisor finally understood the issue and refunded her the difference between the cost of refundable main cabin tickets she could have purchased yesterday and what she paid for PE yesterday. They also refunded the preferred seat fees.
Web services was not helpful as the tech rep kept saying that aa was not selling PE until next year. At one point she said that there had been similar complaints yesterday but she repeated several times that the website does not offer PE. She did say that if by chance the website did offer PE that the website was actually offering MCE seats for sale at that inflated price. In this case $700 more for a MCE seat that could be purchased for $80 each way.
As unhappyflyer notes this glitch appears to have been corrected as I have not been able to recreate it today.
~TG
Sep 27, 2016, 3:14 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Bellevue, WA - AA EXP 3MM
Posts: 2,756
Kudos to Jerry's coworker for pushing for an appropriate resolution. I worry about the passengers who didn't learn about the problem in advance. Try to clean this up after travel, and it will be correspondingly difficult to explain the problem to AA or get AA staff to believe it. Really AA should search its logs and contact and refund everyone affected. Chances of that? Would need someone to push for it, probably including alerting a regulator to push AA to do this.