Originally Posted by
PilgrimsProgress
I checked with AA London during my outbound flight and was told AA would not strand me but reroute me, and that I should call AA reservations in the US. AA reservations says too bad so sad I have to buy a different ticket to get back. They will not reroute me, or refund the unused portion of the ticket. They will only provide a travel credit for the unused portion with such severe restrictions that it is unusable to me.
Question for the experts: Do I have better options here? Any insight on the rules and passenger rights in this situation would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!
To understand your problem - AA has a problem with your return only and not your outbound. Your return should not be a problem at all since you can always claim to Indian immigration that you're going to UK - and obviously as a US citizen you don't need a UK visa.
You can do either of these things to confirm to the rules - obviously AA needs to be onboard to doing either but they're not in any way violating the rules.
1. Ask AA to split your return PNR into separate tickets. I do know that BA is very finicky about interlining tickets - so check whether they will do that before requesting AA. Otherwise you will have to clear immigration and recheck your baggage and obviously need adequate connection time to do that.
2. Include a stay in the UK for a day or so to split your return and confirm to Indian requirements.
There's no question of passenger rights here since there is a change in governmental regulations so AA will hold their hands up and say "sorry not our fault".