Originally Posted by
mkrauss323
I was not asking for a refund, and I was not asking for a change. I was not able to use one leg I had paid for, and wished only to use the other leg I had paid for. I was told to buy it again.
Again, and perhaps ad nauseam, I am not making a legal claim here. I am making an ethical claim here. I am in my 60's, have taken many hundreds of flights, and have occasionally (maybe 3-4 times) been in an unusual situation perhaps not explicitly contemplated by the rules. Southwest always listened. American treated me like chopped liver. Many of you address only the legalities here, and I'm sorry I was unable to communicate that that's not what my post was really about.
I know people have responded to you ad nauseum, but I wanted to say I do understand your view. You would like AA to provide compassionate, flexible customer service. That is not necessarily old-fashioned: Amazon, for example, is very generous with refunds.
Well, most airlines are not. That's how it is, and while apparently this is news to you, it is not news to us here, hence the unsympathetic replies above. Would we want to go back to the days when the airlines were much more customer-service-oriented? Well, no, because prices were much higher then. That's the devil's bargain. Indeed, we could get easy changes (such as the change you want) today if we paid high prices for fully-changeable tickets; but most of us go for the lowest price, just as you did. Multiple pricing, where the same seat is sold at different prices based on different terms and conditions, has been a moneymaker for airlines for some decades now, and simultaneously has saved many of us a lot of money.
How does Amazon keep prices low while being so generous with refunds? Well, it loses billions each year, but makes it up on volume ha ha. Seriously, once it has eliminated most brick-and-mortar competitors and when its growth has leveled off, it may change its tune. The airlines do not see good service at all price points (including seat comfort, food, drinks, etc) as a route to greater profits, because when they have tried it, it has not worked.
To take a random example, AA for some years had greater seat pitch than its competitors ('more room throughout coach'). People loved it but AA found that most would still fly the airline offering the lower fare. Similarly, only a few people will pay higher fares in exchange for less restrictive rules. So it is a cold-blooded business decision to offer multiple products (and you chose the worst product). If generous customer service for all did lead to greater profits, they would provide it, again as a cold-blooded business decision.