Last edit by: footastic
Sequence of events:
American Airlines (AA) Brazil website misprices revenue tickets in initial calculation on purchase page. Repricing the same reservation by changing billing country resulted in the correct price, even when reverting to Brazil.
Vast majority of tickets appear to have gone unticketed for ~1 week. It appears that tickets were issued manually, not automatically.
AA states repeatedly and to several outlets that they will unconditionally honor all fares.
AA begins cancelling tickets. Subsequently, they send out cancellation emails implying that the "country of residence" was misrepresented. Of course, this is not the case, as AA never actually asks for the "country of residence" but the billing address which includes the country of the billing address.
Since AA repeatedly and publicly stated that they would unconditionally honor the tickets, even when specifically asked about it, many purchasers relied upon AA's representations and made non-refundable plans. DoT regulations require airlines to reimburse purchasers who relied upon mistake fares to make non-refundable plans. It may be worth writing into the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to complain about AA's handling of the situation and ask for compensation even without having non-refundable reservations, because AA went to great lengths to assure purchasers that tickets would be unconditionally honored.
DoT air travel complaint form: http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm
DoT air travel complaint mailing address:
Aviation Consumer Protection Division, C-75
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590
DoT air travel complain phone line information:
You may call the ACPD 24 hours a day at 202-366-2220 (TTY 202-366-0511) to record your complaint. Calls are returned Monday through Friday, generally between 7:30 am and 5:00 pm Eastern time.
As mentioned by classyflyer and posted by pb9997, if your flight had some kind of legal nexus within Brazil, their consumer protections should apply to your ticket. Here is the contact information for the relevant consumer protection agencies within Brazil. Please be clear in your communication and REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS IN PORTUGESE.
To translate your communications before submitting them:
http://translate.google.com
www.reclameaqui.com.br
Quote from pb9997: "This site is known to be the most popular, most viewed upon by companies who care about reputation; Though not official, it has proven to be the most respected by consumers and corporations, who may delay answers on their own channels but do take care to have teams focused on answering for this public site. Information written, from both parties, is public."
www.consumidor.gov.br
Quote again from pb9997: "This is the official PROCON site where consumers and companies present their complaints and arguments. It is official, additional care ought to be taken.
I would highly suggest following the order presented; With the first site the company has room to assess impact, prepare an amiable answer and protect their public reputation.
On the second site... well, it's official and what is written by both parties is the basis to act afterwards in a court of law. Ideally the complaint presented should have the Law that explains why a consumer has been impacted and the expected remedy, according [sic] to the Law."
As of 9/8/15 - Individuals who had tickets cancelled in the first round (8/28) have yet to see refunds post to credit cards.
Feel free to update this Wiki with more complete information.
American Airlines (AA) Brazil website misprices revenue tickets in initial calculation on purchase page. Repricing the same reservation by changing billing country resulted in the correct price, even when reverting to Brazil.
Vast majority of tickets appear to have gone unticketed for ~1 week. It appears that tickets were issued manually, not automatically.
AA states repeatedly and to several outlets that they will unconditionally honor all fares.
AA begins cancelling tickets. Subsequently, they send out cancellation emails implying that the "country of residence" was misrepresented. Of course, this is not the case, as AA never actually asks for the "country of residence" but the billing address which includes the country of the billing address.
Since AA repeatedly and publicly stated that they would unconditionally honor the tickets, even when specifically asked about it, many purchasers relied upon AA's representations and made non-refundable plans. DoT regulations require airlines to reimburse purchasers who relied upon mistake fares to make non-refundable plans. It may be worth writing into the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to complain about AA's handling of the situation and ask for compensation even without having non-refundable reservations, because AA went to great lengths to assure purchasers that tickets would be unconditionally honored.
DoT air travel complaint form: http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm
DoT air travel complaint mailing address:
Aviation Consumer Protection Division, C-75
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590
DoT air travel complain phone line information:
You may call the ACPD 24 hours a day at 202-366-2220 (TTY 202-366-0511) to record your complaint. Calls are returned Monday through Friday, generally between 7:30 am and 5:00 pm Eastern time.
As mentioned by classyflyer and posted by pb9997, if your flight had some kind of legal nexus within Brazil, their consumer protections should apply to your ticket. Here is the contact information for the relevant consumer protection agencies within Brazil. Please be clear in your communication and REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS IN PORTUGESE.
To translate your communications before submitting them:
http://translate.google.com
www.reclameaqui.com.br
Quote from pb9997: "This site is known to be the most popular, most viewed upon by companies who care about reputation; Though not official, it has proven to be the most respected by consumers and corporations, who may delay answers on their own channels but do take care to have teams focused on answering for this public site. Information written, from both parties, is public."
www.consumidor.gov.br
Quote again from pb9997: "This is the official PROCON site where consumers and companies present their complaints and arguments. It is official, additional care ought to be taken.
I would highly suggest following the order presented; With the first site the company has room to assess impact, prepare an amiable answer and protect their public reputation.
On the second site... well, it's official and what is written by both parties is the basis to act afterwards in a court of law. Ideally the complaint presented should have the Law that explains why a consumer has been impacted and the expected remedy, according [sic] to the Law."
As of 9/8/15 - Individuals who had tickets cancelled in the first round (8/28) have yet to see refunds post to credit cards.
Feel free to update this Wiki with more complete information.
[PREM FARE GONE] AA: GIG/GRU- multiple locations (HKG/LAX/MIA/SFO ETC) ~$200 Y ~$360
#62
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: is everything...but...
Programs: dont matter anymore...
Posts: 3,019
AA will be emboldened by the recent DKK-currency issue where the DT found in favor of UA, and will be canceling any tickets that do happen to get issued. this much you can be sure. however, there are some very attractive offers and it's a fun error to mess around with!
#63
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Multiple locations
Programs: AAdvantage ExPlat LT Gold, BA Silver, Aegean Star Gold
Posts: 5,038
#65
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: is everything...but...
Programs: dont matter anymore...
Posts: 3,019
The governing body in Brazil that's actually responsible for this is PROCON. KLM ran into issues with this a little while back and had to honor the tickets that were issued, and were sued for the tickets that weren't issued..
Here's an article about it (in portuguese)
http://g1.globo.com/economia/seu-din...-emitidas.html
Here's an article about it (in portuguese)
http://g1.globo.com/economia/seu-din...-emitidas.html
#66
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: AA Exp, United Silver, Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 280
#68
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: AS MVP75k, LH ft, IHG PlatAmb, BA, UA, AA
Posts: 33
Have 2 sets of tickets for family of four - LAX-GIG (J) and GIG-HKG (F on Cathay for US-HK flights) for next June. Both sets are pending. Tried Chrome autofill settings trick to get around the price change when non-Brazil billing, but that didn't work for me (it repriced anyway), so entered Brazil as billing country to avoid reprice.
#69
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: AA Exp, United Silver, Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 280
Have 2 sets of tickets for family of four - LAX-GIG (J) and GIG-HKG (F on Cathay for US-HK flights) for next June. Both sets are pending. Tried Chrome autofill settings trick to get around the price change when non-Brazil billing, but that didn't work for me (it repriced anyway), so entered Brazil as billing country to avoid reprice.
#70
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: AA Exp, United Silver, Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 280
#72
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: AS MVP75k, LH ft, IHG PlatAmb, BA, UA, AA
Posts: 33
I entered my address as usual in all billing address fields except I left the country as Brazil (instead of USA). I can't imagine it will go through (agree with the <5% chance prediction posted above), but thought you never know...
#75
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: ATL
Programs: HH D, MB G, IHG P, Nat'l EE, Hertz PC
Posts: 496
I was getting it to price before, but now I'm getting the following error, even though my trip starts in January:
"Because one of your flights leaves within two hours, please go to an American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection ® airport or ticketing location."
Anyone know a workaround?
"Because one of your flights leaves within two hours, please go to an American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection ® airport or ticketing location."
Anyone know a workaround?