gamehendge2000

Haven't encountered this situation before. No joy through EXP desk so far.

Anyone know any ways around this?

Booked a ticket through my corp travel agency (Amex). AA offered reschedule at no charge last week due to blizzard. Called AA directly to make this change.

Turns out I need to cancel entirely and book a new itinerary. Went through the corp travel agency, and they say that since AA made the change, they no longer have access to the ticket, to make changes, cancel, or otherwise.

AA tells me that there is no way they can release the ticket back to the agency. They can of course change the ticket with a fee, but the credit remains in my name with AA, and is unavailable for the agency to use.

So essentially I need to book an entirely new ticket through the agency and eat the cost of the other ticket myself. Yes, I'll have a credit in my name, but since I don't pay personally, this does me no good.

Suggestions?

Steve M

Suggestions:

1. If the originally-ticketed flight did not operate, have AA refund the original ticket. This should go back to the original form of payment (likely a corporate credit card) even if the agency doesn't order the refund.

2. Why can't you just rebook your next work-related trip yourself directly with AA, using the remaining value of your ticket, and submit any add/collect for reimbursement?

gamehendge2000

Unfortunately, #1 - the flight did go out on time (few hours before blizzard hit), but within their window for allowing changes.

#2, seems perfectly sensible thing to suggest. Sensibility and my corporate policies are 2 separate things

Dave Noble

I have worked for a corporation with policies about using AMEX however on the reimbursements, although when claiming it required confirmation that was booked via AMEX, claims for change fees did not require such confirmation and so not an issue . Does your travel policy require that changes to bookings be done via the agency or just that flights be booked with them?

ceebee100

If it's anything like our corp travel policy, ALL changes MUST be made through AMEX. If you go through AA directly, you get stuck like the OP.

Dallas49er

Ditto here. At my company, EVERYTHING (Air, Hotel, & Car) has to go through AMEX CTO, or you won't be re-imbursed. Copies of booked itineraries must be included with T&E.

EXCEPTIONS: At my company, Airline change fees and other charges, within 24 hours of flight time (confirmed same day flight change, etc.) can be done away from AMEX, and go on the T&E (Concur) under "Airline change fees", where it is immeadiately flagged.

We also have an "amnesty program", which while not advertised, does give the traveller a one time "mulligan". OP could check with someone in their travel department-YMMV. Good luck.

grahampros

The basic mistake here was not calling the agency to rebook. This kinda thing is nothing new. BTW you'll also likely be hit with the $25 fee by AA for taking over the ticket from the agency unless the waived that due to the weather situation.