Simon Schus

Hi all,

I've got a OneWorld Sapphire card (provided via Cathay Pacific) and I was wondering if any of you with Marco Polo Gold are having a similar problem with me when using American Airlines.

The OneWorld Sapphire status is automatically recognised on US Airways, FinnAir, Cathay Pacific Qatar Airways and British Airways - the online system recognises it immediately, I can get my baggage allowance and access to the various clubs (BA Terraces/Galleries; US Airways Club, etc) without trouble. The status is automatically recognised by the computers and staff at all the places I would interact with these airlines.

However, I consistently have problems with AA. It hasn't ever been recognised by the AA systems at any of the places I interact with them: their online system, their telephone operators, their check-in desk staff/computers, and their Admiral's Club staff/computers cannot see the status at all. I've been refused access to the AA Club, luggage, access to MCE seating, priority boarding, and am bottom of the queue on any standby list (rather than being prioritised within the status bands). I show the physical card at the airport and sometimes the check-in or lounges let me in manually, and sometimes they point blank refuse. This is bizarre because in one Admirals Club they refuse me access because they can’t see my status attached to the ticket, but if I go next door to another OneWorld Partner they can see my status on the same ticket!

Its a real annoyance and I hate flying with American Airlines as a result. Do any of you have similar problems with MPC Gold on American? Or is this something that is restricted to my account?

I've phoned Cathay Pacific up several times and they told me that there is no problem with the card, and that AA should recognise the status. However, the AA systems simply do not. I've contacted AA about it several times over the past 2 years. Once, I got a member of AA Customer Relations to phone up Cathay Pacific to confirm my status and they were then happy to manually book and bypass the MCE seating for me. However, all my other attempts at sorting the problem have failed and I’ve never been able to get anybody from AA to phone up Cathay Pacific since. Instead, I still have problems at the airport and I’ve given up trying to contact AA after being passed from department to department for the past two years. I have ended up avoiding booking flights involving AA (trying to do the BA-operated flights from Heathrow to New York/Boston rather than the AA-operated flights).

Does anybody else have this problem at all? Did anybody else get it sorted? This occurs on both US domestic and transatlantic bookings with AA-operated flights which are either AA-ticketed or BA-ticketed. The Customer relations simply can't work out what is wrong - it seems to be something with the AA systems though given that all the other airlines are fine.

So yes, again… anybody else have this issue with their MPC Gold card?

Simon.