ckendall

And I did eventually get ORC.

SJC AA

Date and Flight info: June 5, AA 268 SEA-JFK
AAdvantage status: Gold
Fare class: Discount First

What happened: Flight delayed 13 hours for mechanical reasons, then cancelled. I bailed for a connecting flight and got home 5 1/2 hours later than expected and to a different airport (LGA).

Compensation: 12,000 miles, approx 24 hours after online complaint

More than satisfied with this offer.

LetsGoToo

Date and Flight info: June 6, AA 1821 MIA-LAS
AAdvantage status: Platinum
Fare class: Economy

What happened: Flight delayed 3.5 hours for mechanical reasons due to diversion to DFW.

Compensation: 5,000 miles received without complaint.

pilluelo

Newly minted EXP (moved from DL), after many uneventful trips, this is now the first situation where I feel compensation is due.

Was scheduled to fly SJC-DFW-PHL this morning (paid coach/upgraded to F). After boarding for AA836/SJC-DFW completed, announcement that everybody had to deplane due to a "missing part" which they needed to get from SFO. Thanks to this three-hour MX delay, I would have misconnected in DFW and was rebooked on a later DFW-PHL flight (which happens to be delayed as well). Will now reach my destination with 4-5 hours delay. No meal vouchers were offered in SJC.

I called the EXP line, they told me to work the compensation topic out with the gate, but GA deferred me to AA.com. I'll definitely write in but what's a reasonable expectation? As DM on DL, $100-$200 voucher were standard for MX, but the other posts in this thread seem to suggest that we're talking more 7,500-10,000 miles - correct?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-pilluelo

Ambraciot

Based on my limited experience, if you express a desire for an evoucher or a refund when asking for compensation you will get at least a $100 evoucher for the above issue.

progapanda

Date and Flight info: 05/30 with AA221 JFK-MIA with xfer to AA957 MIA-SCL

AAdvantage status: Platinum

Fare class: A/I

What happened: Approx. 1 hr after take off at 23:30pm AA957 turned around to MIA with unretractable flaps, subsequent rolling delays with plane taken out of service at 02:30am and rescheduled to depart 11 hours later (hence, 14-15 hour delayed arrival in SCL). AA offered overnight accommodation in MIA and food vouchers (which I declined). Gate situation hopeless, ACs closed, so I called Reservations and pleaded trip in vain, and asked to be returned to New York on the next available flight.

Compensation: Confirmed 06:10am flight to LGA in F, 20,000 AAdvantage miles, and refund of fare paid via eVoucher after following up with Customer Relations.

Comments: Stellar service all around (with the exception of the MIA gate agents who called Miami-Dade PD on the passengers). AA will keep getting my business. Oh, and I am never making another connection in MIA.

HNL

Good luck with that.

saltytheseagull

Date and Flight info: May 27, ORD-DFW
AAdvantage status: EXP
Fare class: T

What happened: Stood by for earlier flight and got on with the hope of getting home 2+ hours earlier. Boarding was complete pretty much as soon as I sat down. We proceeded to wait for ~2 hrs on a flight crew (because of a fictitious wx ground stop).

Compensation: 4,000 miles, approx 4 days after online complaint.

Ratatoskr

Hello everybody!

I have a question regarding a complaint I am going to make with AA soon. I have read that it is not uncommon to ask for compensation in the form of miles if something goes wrong. I was wondering (even though I expect the answer will be no); I have a BA Executive Club account, but no AAdvantage account. Could I ask AA to credit me Avios for the BA account rather than Miles on a non-existing (and due to the lack of possibilities to merge accounts not useful) AA account as a compensation?

And secondly, getting to the main part of the question - I have no idea how much one usually asks for – what do you think would be appropriate for a bag that arrives with a 4 day delays, and is broken (to the extent that it is no longer usable) upon arrival? Also, that was not the only thing that went wrong, so maybe taking into account that I had a ridiculously bad experience when booking the flight on the phone hotline, one could even ask a bit more? The details of the booking process and what went wrong with that can be found in an older threat, where I have described everything in detail:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...orth-me-3.html

I would appreciate your opinions on this matter, as I really have no idea what I can expect from them. It is the first time something went that badly wrong on one of my flights, so far the worst I had were delays.

Thank you very much!
Sebastian

SJOGuy

I would stick to complaining about your bag being delayed. That's something that can be quantified and documented. The damage too ... assuming you noted it with the AA baggage claim people when you received it.

If you start adding in:

... it'll sound like you're padding your complaint. "A ridiculously bad experience" can't be quantified. I'd forget about that.

Ratatoskr

Thanks for the input SJOguy. That sounds like a sensible suggestion. I did unfortunately not note the damage when receiving it, simply because I did not receive it personally. I'm at a university, and all mail received is dealt with by university employees - that includes my bag, of which I was then notified. But it should be clear that I did not just break my bag to then file a complaint I would hope...

3Cforme

This is good background for form and valuation.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...idated-17.html

Ratatoskr

Wow, thanks 3Cforme, that's a lot of information right there, I will have a look through it. That would still leave open the question wheather it is somehow possible to ask AA for a compensation on a BA account? Has anybody ever had a similar problem? I can't imagine to be the first one with todays' multi-airline frequent flyer programs.

Often1

1. No. AA will not do anything other than credit to an AA account. As a functional matter, AA has no way of crediting Avios. That is BA, which is not AA.

2. The key on the luggage is that you reported the damage as soon as you could. AA can be very sticky about delays in reporting for obvious fraud reasons, but that does not bar you from trying and you have an explanation. Compensation is based on the fair market value (FMV) of the bag, not it's replacement cost. One useful alternative is that AA may be willing to simply replace the bag with something close to equivalent. If you look at the FMV of a 2-year old suitcase, it's not much, so replacement is often a nice option unless you have some sentimental attachment to the old bag. Compensation for damage is in cash, so AA vs. BAEC isn't an issue.

3. The delay in bag delivery may result in a few AAdvantage miles or a small cert. But, without status and some demonstration that this was anything but annoying, I would leave it alone. Confusing two issues is how complaints get mishandled.

4. The booking issue is way, way, way in the past. If it wasn't important then, it's less important now. And, it makes you look like a chronic whiner, which means you don't get taken seriously.

Ratatoskr

Thank you for the detailed reply, Often1. Regarding point 1, yes, that's what I would have expected, thanks for clarifying. Point 2 is interesting, thanks for that info. I did not have any sentimental feelings for that bag whatsoever - a new bag would actually be more than I would have expected, I would be pretty happy with that. I'll see what they say. Agreed on the booking issue. I might consider making that a separate email, not formulated as a complaint but simply for information purposes - I think it would be desirable that they look into what went wrong so it doesn't happen again for future customers. But first I'll see how they deal with the bag issue. Thanks everybody for your help!