Originally Posted by
lorkers
We have a result!
I've spent a week on the phone to AA, suggesting a dozen different routes and itineraries. All came with a suggested 'co-payment' of $1500 to $6000.
But, to my surprise, I've been out on a limb and offered up LAX-BOS-ORD-LHR; AA want a top up payment of $900, as AA have a date next week that matches the fare buckets I originally paid, which, again is something that AA never told me - my voucher had to be used for the original fare buckets. Nice of the call centre to drop this into the conversation yesterday, after years of trying to find the right question to ask.
I can't work out if I've been done, or it's quite a deal. Is $900 in F from LAX to LHR good value? I think it's ok, if only because it includes two sectors over 2000 miles in F, which are incredibly worthwhile for BAEC status.
I've no reason to take it, quite frankly, but I was determined AA would cough up and give me some semblance of what I originally paid. So, I have a flight next week I will look forward to 'with interest'. The question is whether it is worth it all the hassle for a transatlantic I didn't want to take.
The one thing I've taken from AA is that the airline will do everything it possibly can to ensure you don't use the 'voucher' they never wanted to give, after cancelling the flight. However I have tied up the call centre and ticketing for a total of about 20 hours on this, so maybe AA will learn a lesson too - some customers never give up.
It it sounding more and more like the previous cancellation was voluntary (or the fact airline cancelled was lost to history). If AA treated this as airline cancelled the flight, this would have be a credit with no fare bucket restriction and would have been refundable upon request.
All your prior description of AA interaction suggest AA is treating this a voluntary change and as such you are getting refared for the entire trip (both the flown portions and the new return flights). This would explain why AAgents can’t readily tell you the value especially when flown flight were years ago.
If it was a involuntary refund, the value would have be readily apparent as it would have been part of the fare calculation on the ticket itself.
Only you can decide whether it is a good deal or not as the refund option is no longer an option (needed to have request a refund within a year of ticket issuance). Refund would have been around 50% give or take.