bdemaria

When you file the complaint about the bag, keep it short and to the the point. "It took 4 days to get my bag and it was ruined."

If you do a follow up on the booking snafus, again keep it short and to the point.

Upgraded!

If unable to get cash compensation/new bag, why not try for a travel voucher in lieu of miles? You'd be limited to spending it on AA but at least you could credit the flights to your BA account.

uxb

Date: 24 May 2013
AAdvantage Status: EXP
Fare class: Q
What happened: Tried to book a flight from LGA > LAS using a promotional code. Found a great fare, and went to input my information. After the payment screen the transaction produced an error, and the system wouldn't let me book the ticket. I got on the phone with AA.com Web Services, and spent over 90 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong. The agent insisted it was my desktop, but i was able to reproduce the error on an iPad and iPhone. Ultimately, the agent claimed that the fare was no longer available, even though it was showing on their site. She gave me the fare, without allowing me the promo code as it could only be used on the website. She also waived the telephone booking fee, but I thought this wasn't an issue for EXPs traveling on their own itinerary.
Compensation: $50 eVoucher to cover the discount I lost out on (~$12) and for wasting my time trying to diagnose my devices instead of their website.
Comments: It was totally inexcusable and the webmaster acknowledged as much in his response, which came a couple of days ago. Despite this, this will prolly be considered "my least substantive complaint."

Dr. HFH

AA will most likely replace the bag, but you'll get nothing else. When you realized that the bag was delayed, did you request/receive some cash to buy essentials?

browserden

Do you have insurance to cover the damaged bag? The insurance would then pay out to replace the bag and for the purchase of clothes and other items you'd need while your baggage had been missing. The insurer would then take the hassle of trying to recover some of their costs from AA.

As has already been mentioned its impossible to get Avios from AA. It's even, in my experience, impossible to get Iberia to provide compensation Avios to a BA account, because even though BA and IB are owned by the same company and call their miles Avios BAEC is still separate to Iberia Plus.

So if IB can't do it AA definitely can't.

If you're UK based (guessing because of BAEC membership) and AA offer you miles compensation (and no alternative) then it might still be worth having. Take advantage of the sign up offer from the UK AAdvantage credit card from MBNA and you'll have enough miles for a small redemption.

Ratatoskr

Thanks for the thoughts. If they replace the bag, I'd already be quite happy with that. I've written a short (as recommended, even though not quite as short as that, bdemaria ) complaint yesterday and will see what comes. If they offer me anything on top of that I'll gladly take it, but given the opinions here will not expect it. With the suggestion made by you guys I'm sure I could make a use of it. I am indeed UK-based, but hopefully would even find some use for some miles if that's what they offer me.

I did not request or receive anything to cover essentials - it was only a short extended stopover to visit a friend anyway, and all I needed for that fit into the hand baggage - apart from the sanitary products, for which I did not feel like going through the hassle of putting everything into less-than-100ml-containers. Being able to use my friend's stuff, the only thing I actually needed to buy was a toothbrush, luckily, and I did not want to make a fuss for 2 or 3 dollars.

I did have travel insurance - not sure it covered the broken bag, but thanks for the hint, browserden - I might give that a try if I get nothing out of AA.

giants_fan

Experts - I need your advice. I will try to be brief... I'm mainly asking what my best course of action is to seek compensation.

I'm a PLATINUM member, about to hit 50,000 EQP this year (3 Europe trips from DFW).

I flew Business Class to England in May. My return journey was MAN-LHR-DFW. MAN-LHR was an AA flight number, operated by BA. Despite a planned 3-hour layover at LHR, BA made me miss my connection. Collection of fails: the LHR-MAN aircraft was late, presumably from the operational delays that happened with the diverted flight to Heathrow the day prior. They kept us standing in line for over an hour before finally coming to tell us that the aircraft had an Engine Fault, and was delayed indefinitely. As we got back to the lounge, they were boarding (go figure). We were ready to go, but someone decided not to travel, and they took 20+ minutes to pull his bags off the aircraft (maybe if BA had been more communicative, this individual wouldn't have bailed).

We landed at LHR, but had to wait 20+ minutes for an arrival crew to push stairs up to the aircraft (no jet bridge at this "gate"). Inside Terminal 5, no one could tell me if my AA LHR-DFW flight had left or not. It didn't show departed... it didn't show waiting to depart... it wasn't on the board at all. They told us to go to Terminal 3 to see. After that pain, and clearing through security, we learned it had left. The AA desk wouldn't re-book us... "BA made you late, so it's their fault... go to their desk". So much for the One World Alliance... The BA desk took over 30 minutes, and finally booked us on an LHR-JFK flight, overnight, then LGA-DFW the next morning.

After arriving at JFK, we waited on bags for nearly an hour, until they stopped the carousel. It took another 45 minutes to get through the luggage incident report. The BA Agent gave us hotel vouchers for some dive near LGA (didn't bother mentioning they only had smoking rooms available). They ran out of car vouchers, so we had to pay $40 for a taxi, with a claim that BA will reimburse if I mail them the receipt. The hotel was terrible, and we had to turn around in 4 hours to catch the LGA-DFW flight.

I got to DFW 15 hours later than I should have, and only by enduring the absolute mess of JFK/LGA. I got one bag 4 days later (several items missing), and the other 5 days after that (intact).

Normally I would just complain to AA Customer Service, expecting some miles or a voucher, but I have a feeling they'll say that this is all BA's fault. I am US-based, so I don't know what to seek for compensation, or what I might be eligible for. All I know is that this was the most stressful travel experience I've ever endured.

Thank you for your thoughts!

brp

It does seem pretty legit (your claim), but it is BA's fault, so you may be better of asking on the BA board as they will be more familiar with what to expect from BA. While I do agree that AA could/should have been more helpful, I don't think that their lack is really "compensatable."

Cheers.

zilberbrand

Late May flight JFK to LAX
No stAAtus at all, just lots of miles from Citi
Economy
Mechanical issues caused a three hour delay
$150 voucher

Thanks to everyone here, I would not even have known to ask if not for this thread. Now, what do I do with the voucher??

uxb

Uhh... book a flight, or give it to someone that will book a flight. Cheers!

vickh

Spent 350K AA miles for First class, BOM_IAH for my parents and requested Vegetarian Meals. They didn't get them. . Have a confirmation on Entrée Reservatio​ns aa.com. "We will do our best to accommodate your request but there may be circumstances that prevent us from fulfilling your selection."

My parents are non complainers and ate bread/butter

What, if anything , should I ask for compensation? Best way to contact AA for this? or just suck it up like my parents..

sinanju

2013 Guide to, and listing of, compensation

...and...

Contact American

...specifically...

Email AA Customer Relations

richarddd

The FAs should have been able to cobble something together beyond bread and butter. Appetizers, side dishes, bread with cheese, etc.

What route did they take? Which segment / airline was the problem?

Can't hurt to complain to customer relations.

FWAAA

On the one hand, I'd be very disappointed if I didn't get the meal I'd requested (fortunately for me, I'm a meat-eater and it's rare that I don't get the meal I want in F or J).

On the other hand, it's just airplane food - the real benefit for your parents were those Flagship Suites between NRT and DFW(?), ensuring a good night's sleep.

What's it worth? 10k miles, IMO.

I'm also surprised that there weren't any veggies/starches to go with the First Class meals nor were there any pastas or other non-meat items in either F or J meals that the FAs could have cobbled together for your parents. Fruit and Cheese plates, ice cream? On occasion, I've eaten a meal of bread and butter and wine.

ffI

In intl F class often there is no "vegetarian meal" but there is a vegetarian choice; e.g., When ordering for friends, I was told by AA that there were no vegetarian meals on flights to South America, but they found that there was a pasta option that had no meat served in Biz class.

It is likely that your parents did not know the difference and were unable to recover from this irregularity once the "vegetarian meal" was not found.

Certainly 10k is OK; If the whole trip was say 90k, 10k for the food seems reasonable.

The problem often is that if you do not tell the purser of FA at once after boarding, the option often gets ordered by someone else and you have no choices left for you. AA and UA have been great for us at getting the issue fixed, if we tell them as soon as we board for special meals.

In one instance my friends ordered Veg meals and after getting on board fell asleep on a 6 AM BWI-SFO UA flight. The FA came to serve them first ad finding them asleep, served the others this choice (or so she claimed later).