Originally Posted by
Often1
This is the key and it is why OP really needs to focus on one of two issues:
1. Reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses directly caused by the incident. Paying someone to meet her at her residence is likely "incidental" and not a direct out-of-pocket expense, but as noted above, I am willing to bet that AA will not quibble if provided the specifics. It appears that the rental facility repaired the scooter without charge. But, if there had been a charge, that would have been something for which AA was directly responsible.
2. Compensation for poor service, which is a discretionary customer service gesture. Here, AA has provided a $350 voucher. While vouchers have restrictions, I am not sure I understand OP's specific objection to this one as she does travel. The amount seems to be fairly generous to the extent that any amount makes up for the issues.
In theory the two are not mutually exclusive, but they might be and nobody can predict that in advance. I have no idea what OP paid to the individual whom she called to help her, but it may be worth considering whether it is worth the $350 voucher.
It goes without saying that the voucher means having to fly AA at least one more time, but that is beyond the issues at stake.
For me, having cash reimbursement would be more valuable. I do travel a lot but not always to the same place and a lot of my trips are pre-paid for by work (no pocketing a reimbursement), so for the voucher to be useful in such a tight timeframe (unless I can turn it into gift cards?), I'd have to find a route that AA's price with the voucher would be advantageous over a competitor. For example, I want to go to Japan so I could book a ticket on JAL through AA for $1,500 after the voucher is applied, but ANA has a sale for roughly $1,000, so I would have to pay more to use AA's compensation, or change my plans for the year around the voucher. Not to mention putting faith in AA not screwing up an aspect of the flight. I've been hesitant to fly them since it seems to be a 50/50 chance of something going wrong with the wheelchair -- last international flight with AA, the purser refused to put my folding manual wheelchair in the closet though the law says it has priority over crew bags because she didn't want to move her carry on, threatened to boot me from the flightand then called Mexican security to "make sure I am ok to fly" and when I explained the situation, Mexican security made the crew put my wheelchair in the closet, but still super frustrating. A few years before that, they forgot to load my gate checked wheelchair onto the plane. Haven't had these problems with other carriers, so you can see why I now have trust issues when it comes to AA.