oneworld - Lost Return Reservation by Airline

I booked flights via Orbitz.com for myself, husband and son on American Airlines from BWI to SVQ. Husband and son share the same name,although my son has a middle name with the initial “A”.
1. Agents in BWI were unable to check all three passengers through to SVQ. They indicated that it seemed to be a problem due to two having the same name. She was able to check us in through to JFK only. After 2 hours of attempts. she directed us to the Iberia transit desk at JFK for check in to our connecting flights to MAD and SVQ.
2. At JFK, the Iberia agent tried numerous times to check both in father and son into MAD and SVQ even trying to get the ticket desk to reticket the flight.
3. After 1-1/2 hour attempt, she said, "we are doing something that we should not do". She then gave us a boarding passes through to MAD and SVQ. Manuel Romero's reservation had a ticket number hand-written on it. We were able to board both flights without a problem.
4. On March 18th, the date of the return flight to BWI. Iberia Agents at SVQ were unable to find the ticket number for either Manuel Romero. It had appeared that the reservations for both had been cancelled. We were unable to board our return flights.
5. We then purchased three new one-way tickets from SVQ to BWI via MAD and LHR at the cost of 5688 Euros leaving on March 19th a delay of one day.

I originally contacted American airlines about the problem. They do not have a phone number for their customer relations but directed me to contact Orbitz. I sent a complaint via the AA.com website. I then contacted Orbitz. They were very helpful in speaking with an agent with American Airlines. Due to the details provided by American, Orbitz decided it was not their issue and directed me to the AA.com website. I sent another complaint with further details as requested by Orbitz and referenced my earlier email. It would seem that American should reimburse us for the purchase of the new flights on March 19th for my husband and son at the very least. It is a bit disconcerting that there is no person at American Airlines to speak with. What do you recommend?

You should really be talking to Iberia, since Iberia operated all the flights where there were issues and the people you were dealing with were Iberia employees. Also I assume you bought the replacement flights from Iberia, if you're looking to get a refund, you should probably look to the person who took your money.

Thanks for the input. I placed a complaint with Iberia and their response is below:

Since oneworld does not replace the particular identity of any of the airlines comprising it, in some specific cases there may be some differences in policies and procedures.

Thank you for your comments. I have passed them on to the operating airline, American Airlines , so they can reply to you as soon as possible.

I have yet to hear from American Airlines beyond the automated response to the form on the website. I guess it is just a waiting game.

If the ticket is on 001 stock, it will be up to AA to sort this out.

Did you not think to recheck the return tickets once at SVQ? With that many problems on the outbound I would have been double checking.

Why three new tickets? Wasnt at least one ticket good?

I also think that Orbitz should be doing more to help you - as the agent that issued the ticket (and no doubt got a fee and override commission), but agree that AA as the issuing carrier is probably ultimately responsible for the cancellations.

Yes, it was an obvious misstep for us not to check the tickets once we arrived in SVQ but we hadn't seen our family in almost 2 years so we were relieved just to get there. Orbitz pinpointed the initial problem (the original Iberia agent in JFK reissued our ticket under BA ticket thus our ticket number wouldn't work) as they were able to speak with a representative at American as we could not. As passengers, we are only directed to the website. I was finally able to speak with someone at AA's refund office today. They received our request from Customer Relations and said it is scheduled to be reviewed at the end of April. They were pleasant enough once I spoke with someone but it took about 10 tries in the past week and one 30 minute hold before I did speak to someone. I guess you just have to be persistent.