Originally Posted by
dazza189
Dave, surely you can see they aren't the same thing. (in fairness to AA all of those have been offered to me.) However your "albeit" here is a bit of a stretch.
In my particular circumstance my parents are coming out to see my newborn child and obviously wish to maximize that time. They are elderly - they do not wish to do overnight flights, they have prepaid a hotel and parking at LHR based on their original reservations from BOS-LHR leaving 6am arriving 10:45pm. AA confirmed such flights were available and allowed me to use my miles to ticket them.
AA then said, sorry we don't actually want to do what we agreed to do and you have the choice to do something completely different or pay additional "taxes" to do roughly the same thing.
I won't get involved in some of the "larger issues" refer to here, but, simply; it's quite possible that AA "should" do things your way. That is to say, maybe (just maybe) they have a reason to do so-- even a legal one, by some accounts.
BUT, as/if/when they do not, what leverage do you think you have in this instance?
As well-- although I often hate when people bring it (trip insurance) up in a knee-jerk fashion-- as far as your parents having already "prepaid hotel and parking," that, unfortunately, very quickly gets into the "have trip insurance" category-- we all know they could have very easily missed that flight, or been severely delayed, etc., for other reasons as well.
I wish you luck no matter what course you decide on!