ZZ100

I need your expertise on how to deal with this issue - I have very little experience with dealing with AA

I booked a reward travel in J CPT-JNB-LHR on BA - 2 passengers
Cost was £286pp in taxes and surcharges (roughly $459pp)

I changed the booking by dropping the first segment CPT-JNB. This was free as it kept the same country of origin and overall mileage level was the same.

I asked for a recalculation of taxes & surcharges as JNB-LHR is showing as $354pp today (drop of $105pp)

Spoken to two supervisors who are adamant to the point that they both hung up on me because they couldn't be bothered to listen to me any further that there is no refund in taxes as that is what their computer says.

They simply do not seem to understand the issue that the surcharges are different because I have dropped a leg.

Having wasted two hours now trying to explain this to supervisors I am in need of serious help! I have even suggested them waiving the redeposit fee to allow me to rebook online but as they think its fair free swap they won't listen.

I am calling the USA number as the UK telephone is costly compared to US freephone.

Is there a company rep from AA who could assist?

Apieinthesky

I assume that you used AA miles to book the award.

There should be no problem having the taxes and surcharges refunded. From what I hear about other people's experiences, AA agents (US based, I assume) automatically tell you when you have taxes being refunded to you (even if it's something like $2.50 for dropping a domestic segment).

Try the US number and let us know what happens.

The supervisors really hung up on you? That's simply unacceptable from a customer service standpoint.

I've also heard AA's Twitter team is quite responsive.

JPG3392

Last winter I changed flights on award travel booked through UA for flights on OS/LH, eliminating a change in MUC. Within a few days a (small) portion of the surcharge was refunded to my credit card. The same should be true on AA.

keepssmile

It's harder to argue this over the phone. Write an email instead.

Upgraded!

It's not always automatic in situations like this. I recently had a similar situation: put LHR-ORD on hold, called in and asked to have it changed to FCO-LHR-ORD, then confirmed and purchased the ticket. However, before I hung up I realized I'd been charged wrong; I'd been assessed UK APD. The problem, I'm assuming, was that since the reservation was made as LHR-ORD, and all flights were on BA (not sure if that part played in), the recalculation of taxes/surcharges wasn't automatic. Luckily the person I was speaking with understood when I explained this and processed the refund.

If it were me, I'd call back again and inquire about a "discrepancy" (say you were going to book a ticket to have a friend travel with you and the surcharges were different from what you paid, or you were checking availability on alternate dates, etc.), could they please explain it. Then help them reach the conclusion that the charges were never readjusted when you changed the ticket.