Dennis_PEK

"Get A Discount And Get Away‏" - AA AD email that just came in...

Milezjunkie

Has anyone tried to make a date change and if so what was the outcome? When I try I either get an error or they ask for tons of extra miles....

cdegt

As far as I recall, there should be no previous cases on award travel.
For other paid fare mistakes, the airlines normally reacted within a week from the incident happened.

flyer31

+1

MSYnola

I'd let sleeping dogs lie here. we know the glitch is fixed, and i'd imagine any changes would require full payment

frecuente-flyer

What would you expect? Are they that dumb?
They stopped the award reservation system to/from HKG since yesterday afternoon.

And don't call, like some other guy in another forum did. He was told by the agents that they are awared of his 4 miles booking, and would receive a call back. Just wait it out like the rest of us.

drewguy

Most of it is the opportunity cost of not being able to 'sell' upgrades that would otherwise fill those seats, which is TODs, GPUs, and in some cases miles.

sannmann

I agree that the miles are a type of currency. If one buys miles outright, they have to pay the 7.5% federal excise tax. Doesn't the existence of this tax imply that the miles have some sort of value, just as a currency would?

davidbridgman

I agree. And here's the full text of the rule:

It is an unfair and deceptive practice within the meaning of 49 U.S.C. 41712 for any seller of scheduled air transportation within, to or from the United States, or of a tour (i.e., a combination of air transportation and ground or cruise accommodations), or tour component (e.g., a hotel stay) that includes scheduled air transportation within, to or from the United States, to increase the price of that air transportation, tour or tour component to a consumer, including but not limited to an increase in the price of the seat, an increase in the price for the carriage of passenger baggage, or an increase in an applicable fuel surcharge, after the air transportation has been purchased by the consumer, except in the case of an increase in a government-imposed tax or fee. A purchase is deemed to have occurred when the full amount agreed upon has been paid by the consumer.

And the DOT answer to a specific question about mistakes:

Does the prohibition on post-purchase price increases in section 399.88(a) apply in the situation where a carrier mistakenly offers an airfare due to a computer problem or human error and a consumer purchases the ticket at that fare before the carrier is able to fix the mistake?

Section 399.88(a) states that it is an unfair and deceptive practice for any seller of scheduled air transportation within, to, or from the United States, or of a tour or tour component that includes scheduled air transportation within, to, or from the United States, to increase the price of that air transportation to a consumer after the air transportation has been purchased by the consumer, except in the case of a government-imposed tax or fee and only if the passenger is advised of a possible increase before purchasing a ticket. [B]A purchase occurs when the full amount agreed upon has been paid by the consumer. Therefore, if a consumer purchases a fare and that consumer receives confirmation (such as a confirmation email and/or the purchase appears on their credit card statement or online account summary) of their purchase, then the seller of air transportation cannot increase the price of that air transportation to that consumer, even when the fare is a “mistake.”

A contract of carriage provision that reserves the right to cancel such ticketed purchases or reserves the right to raise the fare cannot legalize the practice described above. The Enforcement Office would consider any contract of carriage provision that attempts to relieve a carrier of the prohibition against post-purchase price increase to be an unfair and deceptive practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712.


To argue that this is definitively against us with regard to miles purchases is, in my opinion, asinine. If anything, it is strongly titled in favor of the consumer, and suggests that their intention is to resolve ambiguities in favor of the consumer. It is clear DOT does not care how bad the mistake is on revenue flights. A flight for one cent would be a slam dunk based on the above. So why are they somehow going to rule that an award flight is not a "purchase"? How'd we get it? Why'd they issue a confirmation number? Just out of the kindness of their heart? No, it's because we paid the "agreed upon price" which in this case was MILES because the fare cost listed in my breakdown was ZERO and I paid the taxes and fees, thus I have 100% paid the "agreed upon price".

hobo13

Who said that? I thought that ORD-HKG was a tough SWU upgrade.....

sbm12

I don't think that they can argue that an award flight is not a purchase. But with both rates listed on the site I do believe they can argue that the full amount agreed upon price was not tendered.

davidbridgman

Isn't that because there are different status requirements to get an upgrade for transpacific flights? I thought they did not want people with high status just knowing they can buy a $2000 coach seat and likely get upgraded while someone else pays $6000 or more for business/first. Please correct me if I am wrong, my status is low, so I do not know this stuff.

chewy3

Yes that's true. In my opinion this has got to be one of the worst possible routes for this to happen to United, since they do sell a significant number of F/J seats at full price.

ryandc99

Someone posted on Milepoint that their ticket was cancelled last night by an agent (Why were they calling???)

But today a supervisor reinstated the booking.

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/...5#post-1484807

legalalien

No, it's usually because HKG flights do get a lot of paid C traffic.