JohnBBeta

Excuse the venting but maybe sharing my firstworldproblems woes here will aid my calming.

So, I'm ORD right now, on my way back from vegas, booked an award flight from LHR return, first class all the way, both ways, 62.5k miles each way, not bad.

Connected in LA on the way out there, all good in that direction.

Am in Chicago now on the way home - go to the Admirals club to go and chill out, the check in lady says, "oh you're in 1st, you can go to our other lounge up by K19, the Flagship one" (I'm not a member, although I am Platinum, so a bit of a noob with regards to AA lounges - don't judge hah) so I happily trot over there, then the check in lady gets all stern as they love to when getting ready to refuse you entry and drops the bad news that this flight is now a 767 and not a 777 so there is no 1st cabin, only business, therefore not only have I been downgraded to business from first, I'm not allowed into the flagship lounge, so have to walk all the way back there, and look like a dumbass into the bargain.

Lame.

All my booking email confirmations and itinerary clearly say its booked in first, my seat is row 2. Feel like I've been done over here - and was looking forward to my nice fully flat bed and not the angled one, and not having to climb over whoever's next to me all the time.

#FirstWorldProblems I know - but I rarely cash in miles to actually go on a fun trip and i was looking forward to some first class bizniz, and it seems a bit mad that they can do this?

I shall write a more coherant complainy letter to them on Monday. Shame I'm so locked into OneWorld and usually like AA a lot.

Thank you for letting me share my story. :-(

more777sneeded

I'm sorry bud they will refund the difference in miles between business And first at a bare minimum and probably compensate you beyond that as well.

Upgraded!

There's a BA flight in 90min; any chance you can get them to put you on that?

Flyer_70

+1. Can't hurt to ask.

Didn't 98 get down gauged awhile ago? Or did it come back and go away again? If the former, I'm surprised you weren't alerted somehow.

FWAAA

Go to the Admirals Club and ask at the upstairs rebooking desk (as calmly and politely and friendly as you can) if it would be possible to rebook you on 6196, the BA flight that departs at 8:35 pm.

Looks to me like 6196 has at least one F seat available.

Hurry. Worst that can happen is they say "no."

Upgraded!

FWIW that flight is showing F5 at the moment so it shouldn't be an availability question and with the new ORD bus getting over to the BA terminal shouldn't be difficult either. However a (the) deciding factor may be whether the OP has any checked luggage or just carry-on.

JohnBBeta

Ah, I'm content in the admirals lounge now, would rather be relaxing here than negotiating with someone at a desk for half an hour ;-) - and also can't be bothered with wrangling the bag tag stuff - will be a pain in the arse and more likely to have my bag lost if they have to pull it and move to BA etc...

Will definitely write to them, have already done a twitter moan, think its only right they refund some miles or do something to sort me out...

Pretty lame they didnt email about it - I bought the tix end of october so changing what type of plane it is must have been a recent thing. meh.

doctor15

Wow, she could have at least let you in to the FL as courtesy since you were ticketed in first!

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

They were correct in sending you to the Flagship Lounge... your status doesn't matter - the First class ticket does!

What they might have done differently was to check your ticket at the AAdmirals club to make sure everything was in order before sending you there (I'm guessing you didn't have a boarding pass yet).

FWAAA

The rebooking desk is inside the Admirals Club near the elevators. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to ask and either get rebooked or not. Your call.

Upgraded!

If you've never flown BA F it's worth the negotiating time (especially if they say yes right away). Also, legroom in 2 sucks, try for 3 or 4, in the center section (so no climbing by you or your seatmate).

JohnBBeta

yeah that's what I thought! I showed her all my printed out itineraries and she really didn't care!

JohnBBeta

yeah BA first is lovely - did LHR-Tokyo a couple of times, in the upstairs on a 747. Gorgeous. Think I've left it too late to bother now so I'll just have to suck it up and make do with where I am. Im actually in 3J so should be cool, no bulk head legroom issues ;-)

JohnBBeta

Yeah. I did have my boarding pass, think the first lady just made an honest mistake and the 2nd one was a bit of a meanie...

Flyer_70

I remember seeing it down gauge around that time as I was on 86 to LHR over thanksgiving and saw it happen. Again, unless it went back to a 777 for awhile, it's been a 763 since just after you booked.

Edit -downgauged around October 17th.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17290270-post19.html

Suit yourself on the rebook. My butt would have been over there ASAP. . You may want to just inquire. It might be as short as them saying no... ..or yes.

If not, be SURE to request the difference in miles back.