Int'l Downgrade at Gate
 

Oh Wise AA Sages,

I am not a regular on the AA Forum, but I just heard a gut wrenching story from a friend who is an AA Million Miler and Advantage Member since its' inception that I just had to find out if this is how folks get treated in Doug Parkerville. I do not think he as any CURRENT status with AA. Here is the SOB story:

Friend books an upgradeable (don't know fare class) AA stock ticket BAHRAIN-MONROE-BAHRAIN (BAH-MLU-BAH). He cashes in some Advantage miles and ponies up cash and gets confirmed upgrades on the LHR-DFW and DFW-ORD-LHR segments of his flights. On his return, the MLU-DFW goes MX and AA can't get him on any other airline that day in time to connect to an appropriate international flight. Before leaving the airport that day, GA re-books him on the same flights next day but only confirms an upgrade on the DFW-ORD segment. The next day when checking in the AA Ticket Agent at MLU says "we're so sorry about inconveniencing you for 24 hours, and since their are no business class seats ORD-LHR, I am going to book you in First Class" and hands him a boarding pass with a FC seat assignment. No miles, no cash and a confirmed First Class boarding pass in hand. Friend arrives at ORD and walks right into the First Class lounge. The attendant scans the BP and lets him right in. ...and here comes the BOOM. Friend goes to gate and when they scan his BP instead of the harmonic "beep" it makes a buzzing sound similar to the wrong answer on Jeopardy. The GA takes the FC boarding pass from my friend and gives him a new seat in the middle seat of the last row of the plane. No explanation, just a massively hard landing. My friend sucked it up, flew in cattle and complained to AA. He got a voucher for $300. No miles or cash changed hands for the FC boarding pass that was snatched from his hand.

Now any savvy FT reader knows you cant make a two class upgrade with miles and/or cash. But once he had a First Class Boarding Pass in his hand, wasn't he entitled to a bit more compensation for having it unceremoniously seized by the GA ?? Does a TA or GA have the authority to upgrade a seriously inconvenienced passenger by "comping" him to First Class on an International Flight ? How was my friend able to waltz into the FC lounge in ORD and then have his world shattered by having the BP seized ?

Your keen insight is most greatly appreciated.

Wow, that's awful. I suspect it may have had something to do with the upgrade in class without the appropriate mileage deducted? I'm not sure how IRROPS with mileage tickets compare to revenue tickets on AA.

That said, I'm not sure your friend will get more compensation beyond what he's been offered. They probably paid him the standard amount for a downgrade from J to Y on an award... he might be able to fight for the removal of F and the (very) poor service given by the G/A, but not guarantees that will result in any goodwill.

Shrug, I got treated worse in pre-merger-AA-ville: as a Gold, had used certificates to upgrade BOS-DFW. VDB'd, asked for F BOS-JFK-SFO, and was rebooked to that. At the gate in JFK I was downgraded to Y. No excuse, no apology, no voucher. So no change in behavior that I can see, other than perhaps being more generous by offering a voucher now.

This is more typical of PMAA GA behavior than PMUS. I don't see DP's fingerprints on this one.

What compensation did you get and why did you allow the gate agent to downgrade you? Last time a JFK-based agent pulled that on me to get her sister into F, I'm pretty sure she was let go after I called AA on the spot and they were able to see that she had pulled me out of F to clear a non-rev.

Sucks for your friend (and I agree that he should get more compensation). But if this is "gut-wrenching" then I envy you for the charmed life you and your friend seem to have led up to now.

"World shattered" is definitely prizeworthy and I'm making note of it for my next complaint to AA.

How much did your CK status help in getting AA to take positive action on your behalf?

This should be a good one.

Thank you all for you prompt and insightful replies.

VASANTN: I normally hang out in the United Forum and felt I needed to spruce up my dialogue as the folks on the AA Forum are a bit more sophisticated. I wasn't aware of the other horrors that make this story "ho-hum". But wouldn't your world be shattered if you walked up to the gate with an international FC BP only to have it seized and than parked in the middle seat of the last row of economy ??? This is so cruel. Almost as cruel as Robert Crandall violating the Robinson Patman Act to put Eastern (my former employer) and Braniff out of business. I guess I live a charmed life.

Date and flight number(s) this occurred on? Then I'll give ya' some good ole fashion AA-board insight.

Jon, thanks for the offer. The flight was on or about December 1 and the flight was early evening ORD-LHR.

No compensation other than the initial VDB, and I needed to get home. Called CS once I got home and was told they would look into it.

Well, that's the end of that then-- way too long ago.

Actually, I knew one of the Premium Services Managers at JFK at the time so I just called him and he took excellent care of me. He came over to the gate and he was appalled when he realized what was going on. After my flight, he followed up and told me though employee matters were confidential, they had taken action against the gate agent who had behaved so poorly and once again apologized for causing me such an inconvenience. I guess my CK status did help.

It's nice to know people in "high places".
Even if one has NO status, AA employees (GA's in particular) should not treat pax badly.
The only way AA could know that a pax has been slighted is when he complains.