makfan

Has anyone had success with refunding a miles+copay upgrade? I upgraded JFK-SFO on AA 85 at 11:40 am Saturday when I saw one A seat open, and at 3:40 pm AA 85 (and 177) were canceled due to the OZ 214 crash at SFO. The AC person helping me to rebook said it should happen automatically but all I see is the miles removed from my account. I didn't have time to push on this as I had to rush over to T5 to take JetBlue home. I can't get the refund page to take the ticket number. I don't want anything else but the value I paid and didn't receive returned and perhaps ORC for my EXP qualification. I don't want to waste precious phone agent time, but I also don't want to forget and have it expire because too much time has passed.

EDIT TO ADD: As of 07/09: the miles have been reinstated, original routing credit has posted. It may take more time to know if the co-pay was refunded, but I'm now optimistic. On Monday, I wrote a short customer service email explaining that I was happy to get home on JetBlue and was only hoping to have the miles and money reversed and original routing credit if at all possible.

sts603

the lack of free upgrades have nothing to do with the EU compensation rules. (1) There are essentially no airlines that have elaborate upgrade schemes other than those in the US and Canada. (2) The lack of European upgrades has always been the case - not new when the EU rules were implemented a few years back. (3) Its simply that European carriers believe that only allowing for paid/award J in J (and the isolated upgrade offers for cash) will earn more revenue than earning loyalty by elites by giving out free upgrades. U.S. carriers feel otherwise. Who knows who is right. But for both, the decision is made because they believe it maximizes revenue.

Tafflyer

Also, AA allocating free F seats in advance to elites prevents them from reaccomodating displaced F pax from other flights in F cabins in the case of IRROPS. This is another reason why a F -> Y downgrade on AA is no longer a rarity. And when it does happen they offer you 5K miles and you should be happy. It really is time the FAA or DOT bolstered consumer rights.

sts603

F to Y downgrades on AA are VERY rare. And AA agents are not given the authority to remove a confirmed upgrader to place a RF/DSR passenger.

Tafflyer

Really? Well, I've experienced it on 2 out of my last 5 AA flights. Both cases of poor time keeping, not even wx excuses, and I was displaced and rerouted where the F cabin was already "full". In each case, the F domestic sector was part of a J TATL itinery and therefore any fare recalc results in zero refund. If an EU airline did that, they'd be on the line for a minimum comp of $800 up to 75% of the fare paid. That's why they don't do it so much any more.

Also, read this ...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...downgrade.html

Often1

Everything costs something. Everyone wants everything. Everyone wants more for less. It's that simple.

Don't focus on UG's. Focus on everything. But, remember it costs $. How much more are you prepared to pay for an air ticket so that someone can get a windfall of $1,300 for an inconvenience? Note that in the US domestic market, there aren't even meals in steerage? Why not, because people don't want to pay for them.

Dave Noble

The mathematics is flawed

It is 62,500 points for a one way flight to Europe in 1st
It is 40,000 points for a one way flight to Europe in Economy

ORD-LHR is 3963 miles so would be 606/3953 => 15.3% of the journey

I think that 5,333 points for such a downgrade is extremely poor . The actual length of the flight is not that relevent imo in regards to involuntarily denying boarding to a passenger and then reaccommodating them in economy class

Dave Noble

The only cost should be the airline actually ensuring that passengers are only displaced in exceptional situations; if the airline doesn't screw the passengers , then there is no compensation that would ever be due

Antarius

13.3%

606 / (606 + 3953)

FWAAA

How did a flight cancellation (probably due to severe weather) suddenly morph into "involuntarily denying boarding"?

They were free to wait around ATL until there were four F seats to ORD, but doing so might have delayed their flight to London (until a flight with four open F seats was available).

atlandy

AA did not tell us why the crew timed out just that they timed out before they could fly the plane to ATL - there was another crew in ATL to take over just no plane. Thankfully we thought ahead and planned what we considered at the time of booking an excessive seven hour connection in Chicago.

Dave Noble

They were denied boarding into the cabin into which they had booked and paid for a ticket after the booked flight was cancelled due to crew being absent; there is nothing in the original post to suggest any weather issues in Atlanta and not reasonable to blame bad weather happening anywhere on a continent as a weather issue

It is bad enough to effectively force the passenger to downgrade but 5,333 points compensation is derisory imo

FWAAA

Ahh, so they timed out at ORD and thus couldn't fly to ATL.

What was the date of your departure?

Antarius

AA 2928 from ATL to ORD this morning was cancelled. Wonder if this is it.

FWAAA

No, in the OP, they state that they've already returned to ATL from London.