Rebooking on cancelled flight - what inventory am I eligible for??
 

Sorry, I couldn't find a thread this seemed to belong in. Feel free to move it, and I did search, so please forgive me if this is already answered elsewhere.

I had a JFK-FLL evening flight that was potentially going to be delayed according to EXP desk, so they suggested I switch to the morning flight. Said they couldn't protect me, it would have to be a change (no charge). This phone call took place the night before, so I presume the automated thing that looks for duplicate reservations would have killed it anyway. This was a discount coach ticket btw.

As luck has it, around 4 am I get the txt message that the morning flight that I'm now confirmed on is cancelled and "unable to rebook". I call around 8 am and the evening flight that I was originally confirmed on is now zeroed out so I can't get back on it. They offer me an ERJ on JetBlue instead. I wasn't particularly thrilled about this for a variety reasons, (losing the upgrade and having no idea what seat I would get stuck with on an ERJ on an airline with no status).

I asked to be put on MIA-JFK instead. The EXP agent told me that Y was sold out, but there was F availability (F2A1 according to EF). However, she would not put me on this flight and said my only option was to refund my original ticket and buy a new paid discount F (A fare) ticket that was available, which was naturally quite pricy. I ended up doing a full F award since I didn't really want to pay the $880 or whatever it was for the one way. I was pretty unhappy about have to due to this, esp. given that it was mechanical.

Anyway, should I have been accommodated in F since there were still available seats, or at least overbooked into Y so they could upgrade someone else? Even non-status people get moved up to deal with irrops/oversale situations, so it seems I should have received this option.

I called customer service to complain for the first as an EXP (in my 3rd year now) and received compensation that I felt was fair, but what I don't know is if they were just giving to me because I'm EXP and "the customer is always right" or if they truly agreed that it was handled incorrectly.

Just wondering for future reference how that should have been handled. The hang up and call back scenario is a little harder in these situations where you to accept or reject an option they are giving you on the spot, coupled with not having a lot of time to spare on getting to your flight.

Two thoughts on this... #1: the old FlyerTalk adage applies: if you don't like the answer you were given, hang up and call back. :) I've had to do this during IRROPS before when I was hoping to get moved to a BA non-stop from an AA one-stop when my first flight was delayed such that I would miss the last possible connection onward to London. The first two agents said I'd lose my upgrade (SWU had already cleared), but the third said this would be no problem at all and got me rebooked. And that leads to #2: if your upgrade had already cleared, I'm surprised they didn't keep you in the upgraded cabin upon reaccommodation. If your desired flight had F seats available, the policy would seem to apply that you should keep your upgraded cabin, irrespective of what inventory the new flight had available. Just my thoughts though! Glad you got decent compensation. ^

I always thank them for finding the option, then nicely request that they help me find a better option.

During the last several months, IME many EP-desk agents are either unable or unwilling to find better options. (What I mean is that they check the one obvious non-stop, report that it's "Sold Out", and then they won't bother to check any non-obvious alternatives.)

"Sold Out" seems to be among their favorite words nowadays. Award seat to London next November? "Sold out" ... which really means that the one obvious non-stop has no award inventory. Discount Business Class to Rome in August? The whole plane is "Sold Out" ... which means the one AA flight a day has no inventory but they can't be bothered to check any partners. Seat on a flight which is about to be cancelled due to weather (therefore AA has zeroed out the inventory even though only 20 passengers are on the plane?) "Sold Out". It's just way easier to say "Sold Out" then to search for alternative routings.

Therefore I hafta find options on my own then call the EP desk to get it booked. A subscription to ExpertFlyer is invaluable in the reality of today's EXP world.

These days we certainly cannot depend on the EXP desk for knowledge that used to be a given in the past.

More than ever, know which flights you want and what the availability is before you call and do not hesitate to terminate politely and call back when you get the warning signs that you are dealing with someone who does not know their way around the system.

For the OP, yes, I would have expected you to be put on the flight with an open F seat in the circumstances you describe.

I agree as well. The only counter I can see is that the agent may have viewed the fact that they changed your flight with no charge for one that "might be delayed" as the favor that it was. This is not standard procedure and was a nice move by that agent. The second agent may not have been willing to do another favor. Given the specifics, I sure think they should have...but this could have played into it.

Cheers.

How would they know this? :confused:

AA went out of its way to offer OP a seat on OA. That's something it would not likely do for a non-status pax. That's presumably when the CSR decided s/he wasn't going to go through the mess of opening up inventory on what was probably coded as a voluntary change in the first place. More and more, they'e also noted the PNR, so the hang up & call back becomes pointless.

The better move here is to propose the specific of what you want rather than waiting for the CSR to go through the options, if any. That way, you are only making one ask.

CSRs are rated for how quickly they deal with callers. If they can get rid of you in X rather than X+5 minutes, they're likely more willing to go through the effort of forcing the rebook into F or at least overbooking into Y.

That's for sure.

After the CT and AZ closures, re-shuffling and bringing in of newer, less knowledgeable and presumably poorly trained / prepared agents to EXP service, it's more common to get rote and "that's what it is" answers rather than "let's see what I can do to help you" answers. These newer agents seem to lack knowledge, skills and empowerment to find and carry out the solutions. Put another way, they are stuck with doing the things right (the book), rather than doing the right thing (using persistence and knowing how to use their "powers") to satisfy presumably valued customers).

That puts the burden on us to be savvy, access the necessary tools, use those and persuasive skills to get what we need without being DYKWIAs.

As to inventory, I have had knowledgeable, motivated EXP agents maintain inventory - a seat upgraded with SWU or complimentary EXP upgrade - on other flights, even other airlines, during IRROPS etc. It appears some of those have retired or taken other work with AA (they were also allowed to work from home a la Morris Air, but only international and not EXP, as I was told by two of them who did not go to DFW metroplex to work EXP).

I wondered the same thing--the change was actually suggested to me. I looked at FLIFO in EF at that flight and it showed up like any delay normally would, except the estimated departure time was the same as the scheduled time. I've never seen that before that far in advance (almost 24 hours), where the times are the same. There was no reason code listed either, so I took their advice and switched to try to avoid potential issues, as it seemed the safer bet at the time. I agree it was nice of them to do so, and at the time, that agent was obviously trying to go out of her way to be helpful. (btw, this flight ultimately left right on time) :)

I agree and that's exactly what I did. The OA flight was already in my PNR when I called--I never would have requested it, apparently the airport did that according to the agent. I asked for the original evening flight, was told no dice in any class of service (probably everyone rebooked from the morning one, and the airport thought they were doing me a favor with the earlier flight). So I asked for a specific MIA-JFK flight. On aa.com, it was not willing to sell me a Y seat, but it was willing to sell F and A, so presumably the agent was giving correct info and that my (discount) Y ticket was the issue (unless something was done to override Y past what it was authorized to sell).

In regard to hanging up and calling back, I agree, have done that many times (more than I used to need to unfortunately) but when you're down to the wire and already on your way to the airport, with notes already in your PNR, its hard to do that. I had to either tell them to issue the ticket on the OA or refund the entire itin and I wanted neither. Picking one and calling back would likely have the next agent reading the notes would have been interesting. They did put a lot of detailed notes in there, the AAngel in the AC actually read them out loud to me when they looked it up on arrival when I inquired about it.

Anyway, thanks for all of the responses...it seems like the general consensus is that they should have just put me on the MIA flight in F. Which would have been cheaper for AA anyway (except for making me pay the fare difference), I assume the OA wasn't planning on offering AA a free seat for me. :)

I'd expect this with a flight that has cleared a SWU, but what if OP is in X? Does the same apply?