This is gonna be my last post on this issue. After another back and forth with American and submitting a DOT complaint, they're doubling down on their interpretation of route limitations for FB+.
Flagship® Business Plus is valid on American Airlines prime flights only, specifically 772, 788 and 789 aircraft within eligible markets. Current markets are restricted to the following origin‑specific routes:
- From Dallas-Fort Worth to Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Frankfurt, or Madrid.
- From New York Kennedy to Athens, Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, Milan - Malpensa, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago, or Tel Aviv
- From Miami to Barcelona, London - Heathrow, or Madrid.
They're not offering any refund or compensation since it was a fare bundle, which, fine; annoying, but fine.
I guess the moral of the story is
do not buy Flagship Business Plus even though AA.com sells that fare bundle, since it's also completely incorrect or at least incredibly misleading about the qualifications. Unless you really want a third checked bag. Though I have my doubts about whether they'd even honor that.