FWAAA

Personally, I don't think a Switcheroo (technical airline term) from FS to Coffins warrants compensation, but I can understand the anger from someone who expects to see Suites and finds Coffins instead.

JonNYC

The difference is, post 11/1/05, aagents are actually encouraged to hype the benefits of the FS to customers making first class reservations for flights that are supposed to have same. SO, I think the argument could be made that if one was encouraged to book based on a "promise" of suites (as that very well -could- have been their primary motivator to book AA vs. BA, TAM, Vigin, etc.) one might have a legitimate complaint if a switch is made-- primarily if one if a paid F passenger, IMHO.

ijgordon

OK, well these comments immediately above still seem to represent your first stated viewpoint that a config swap complaint might be legitimate (a difficult inferrence to make from previous comments linked above), but you are not the only high-count poster that previously made his/her opinion known.

JonNYC

OK, terrific.

PresRDC

AA disagrees.

UncleDude

IMHO..AA should credit 25,000 miles when they downgrade from Suites to Coffins. Qantas, South African and Royal Brunei are just a few of the Airlines off the top of my head who offer superior Business Class seating to AA's F Coffins. Therefore 25,000 the same as a J to F upgrade should be the currency of the DownGrade Switcheroo.

drtdk

Thanks for your pronouncement. Now, as requested earlier, what real-world cases of accommodation can you or others provide?

LuckyTarget

you can't really believe in what you just posted

FWAAA

I'd go with a 25k customer service bonus in the case of Full Fare F purchasers who were told that their flight would feature FS; for J -> F upgrades, perhaps 10k bonus miles would be appropriate for a Switcheroo. For those who pay $8,000 or $10,000 expecting to find a Flagship Suite, a Coffin is an understandable disappointment. But the Coffin is much nicer than 777 J seats and wouldn't warrant a 25k mile refund in case of "diappointing" upgrades.

UncleDude

I'm affraid I do and the Royal Brunei Meals and Cabin Service in Business is Far Superior to AA First in Coffins. If you can manage to get a Middle Single Seat its close to a suite.

http://www.bruneiair.com/services/business_class.asp

http://www.bruneiair.com/services/inflight_meals.asp

And I expect you want me to accept that 2 Drink vouchers and a few, [if you are lucky] pieces of cheese offered at most Airports for AA First is better than the lounges of QF/SA and BI

JonNYC

Don't be "affraid" But -do- try to be vaguely relevant-- if that's at all possible.

PresRDC

Not going to get into specifics as it is a private matter. Just saying that complaining may be worth your while. The lines are pretty far apart so as to allow maximum chance to read between them.

feitefrank

well, I've complained twice, and gotten costumer service miles twice. no F fares involved, but EVIP from J and award. One was a over a year ago, the other last month.

Both times I deliberatly picked the AA flight for the suites. Both times was a last minute switcharoo, and I would have picked other options if I had known in advance it would be coffins. On one occasion, I actually had a good reason, as I needed to do some work (laptop + papers) on a rather sensitive topic which I could not risk that anyone would see, a suite window seat would give me the privacy needed, the row 4 aisle coffin did not, and I instead had to finish up the work after landing (in a car, and many hours late). Both times I fired off rather energetic and shall we say spur-of-the-moment emails, making sure to list every quirk experienced with AA the last 6 months, and reading between the lines it was clear I considered it only fair for AA and all its affiliates to burn in hell for all eternity... If they didn't have the 3000 character limit on their web, I would have gone on forever, but with the limit I had to be creative just to find room to suggest they straight-up trade their coffins 777 (with crew) to Albania Airlines for a bag of corn or perhaps a handful of pillows (since they appear to running low on the MD80), if of course they could find the right incentives to sugercoat the deal for Albania, which would almost certainly have to immediately reconfigure these flying torture chambers to met prevailing comfort standards..

Well, sometimes I'm a grumpy mofo, in stark constrast it appears to the poor souls at AAdvantage customer service..

I have been switcharoo'ed many times and I don't complain about it, but the two times when I did, I got some bonus miles (and of course once a long reply and the other time they actually called me to apologize). I would think they'll give out token miles regardless, but I can at least confirm that they do it if you act like an idiot and bring out the big guns..

LuckyTarget

I still don't understand why people think they are entitled to compensation just because it's a different seat? Airlines guarantee a class of service, not a seat of service. If there is a chance the airline may not provide the seat of your choice, why not go to the competition where there is only 1 type of seat available on all flights?

Did any of you ever complain and possibly get points when you requested executive floor, ocean view, non-smoking, KING room, but only got executive floor, ocean view, non-smoking, TWIN room? The hotels also specify that they take your request seriously, but it's not a guarantee.

It's great that some of you did get few miles out of what some of you call "switcheroo", but show me where such a guarantee is made by any airline?

feitefrank

Technically you are of course right, but if you really want to understand, look at it from a percieved value vs. expected value. There is no need to talk about formal guarantee or contract of service here. Here's another hint for you: the complaints to (aadvantage) customer service not the legal dept. at AA.

I'm pretty sure a high fare flier with little or no history of unreasonable complaints, could get some token bonus miles for stating their dislike for the color of the aircrafts.