BigBopper

Just a heads up to those of you that are bumped or volunteer to be bumped and placed on another airline.

Yesterday I was flying HPN-ORD when they GA's made a few announcements asking for 7 volunteers due to the flight being oversold and weight restrictions. I inquired at the desk about other options and was told I could go 2 hours later on a UA flight plus get a $250 voucher. I was in no rush so I took the offer.

After my original flight had departed a supervisor comes up to me and tells me he can't put me on United unless I pay $25 for my checked bag. I thought this was crazy as I was helping AA, it was NEVER mentioned when I discussed volunteering (we specifically spoke about my bag) and I now had no choice as my original flight had departed.

After speaking to the EXP desk and AA customer service I was told it's the supervisors discretion whether or not to reimburse the charge. I eventually got a voucher offer from customer service so I'm not out anything but I wanted to warn everyone to double check if you check bags and get a bump.

TigerWould

Thanks for that information.

HNL

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

Had you checked your bag on AA? If so how dis you get the bag back. If not the why would you check your bag on UA?

Regardless thanks for the tip.

brp

It should certainly be obvious that traveling on another airline, where one does not have status, would incur baggage fees.

It should also be obvious that AA will try and get away with not reimbursing for this unless pressed.

Good thing the OP insisted and gave the warning. But this should come as no surprise to anyone here.

Cheers.

BigBopper

You have a point IF you get your bags back and then go to the other airline to recheck them. However, I checked my bags with AA at HPN and picked them up at my final destination with UA. At no point did I get my bag back and recheck it with the other airline. In fact, I never spoke to anyone at UA. It was all done by the AA contracted staff.

Further, even if I had to recheck it with the airline I think that the AA staff should have mentioned there's a possibility of incurring baggage charges if I accept their bump offer.

brp

Ah...I assumed that you had gotten and rechecked the bags with UA. If they handled it all, this is even more a case of "try and get away with it." Yup, this would come as a surprise to me as well.

Cheers.

SocietyFlyGirl

If anyone is charged (esp. after having a conversation with GA prior to voluntarily denied boarding when charge ISN'T mentioned) and not reimbursed after contacting AA, please also contact DOT (see sig. line). DOT is being much more vigilant (vigilante? ) about all sort of air travel things as shown by the recent Spirit fines and the scare tactics/threats about carry-on fines that GAs are passing on to all of us.

JDiver

I'll just bet AA would forward the $25 to UA... "Revenue enhancement" seems to be reaching new depths, even as AA reaches for the sky.

sluggoaafa

so I wonder if this happens again, you can instead request a $225 voucher so that other $25 is paid for the checked bag....just a thought sorry to hear you got 'swindled' into this fee you otherwise didn't have to pay in the first place.

SocietyFlyGirl

Or better yet, a $275 voucher.

If only a $225 voucher, then OP is still paying the $25....just deferring payment until he uses voucher.

AAerSTL

OP-did you also request mileage credit on AA?

BigBopper

I actually think this was more of a case of a bad GA than AA.

I suggested to the GA that I pay the $25 and he give me a voucher for the same amount. He said no. When I called AA they made the same suggestion to me before I could even finish my story and then said the GA should have offered the same.

In the long run it's not a huge deal but it was certainly a surprise to me. I had never seen anything like that posted on here and I just wanted to give other travelers a heads up in case the get in the same situation.

mikew99

I'm also surprised to hear this. I had always assumed that the baggage fee (if any) was charged only at the time the pax checked the bag with the operating airline, and any other connections (even if to a different airline) wouldn't result in a charge.

What would the gate agent have done if you were a UA elite exempt from 1st baggage fees? And how could AA even verify this? I hope these were merely the actions of a rogue gate agent....

hillrider

I agree. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send what you've posted here (with flight numbers etc.) to www.aa.com/customerrelations. They can track down the rotten apple.

This is UNBELIEVABLE!!

brobab

First off - thanks for the warning OP.

Second, (tongue in cheek) you can not voluntarily be denied anything. If you volunteered - you were not denied. If you were denied, you did not volunteer...