CandymanJim

My daughter (10 years old) was supposed to fly on AA 898 connecting 1885 from IAH to FAT on 4/14/07. Due to weather issues in Dalas they cancelled her flights. They tried to get her on another carrier, but none would take her since they were all full and would not take a UM with connecting flights. So, my inlaws had to go back home (100 miles each way) and wait for a flight on CO that left 24 hours later as a non-stop IAH to SMF, nearly 200 miles from FAT. Now to make things worse, I had a hotel overnight to await her arrival at FAT, so I too had to return home.

Now I understand weather is an issue and I am sympathetic to it, but to make matters worse, she was booked in F (Award) and ended up in Y. she did need to get home for school. And, CO charged my inlaws another $75 for the UM, in addition to the $150 AA already charged me.

So, my question is what should AA have done? What should I expect in this fiasco? I was told by CS rule 240 does not apply since weather was the reason for the cacellation. I called and left the information with CS 3 hours ago and was told to expect a prompt call.... Still waiting..

Thanks!

Jim

3Cforme

I am sympathetic to a minor's travel difficulties but the airline doesn't control the weather. Nor is this situation a 'bump' as most users of this board would use it.

tazi

What do you think they could have done?

btw, thread title is very misleading. This was not a bump.

SAN-man

I don't think the OP should be charged the fee by both AA and CO, so it sounds like a $75 refund isn't being unreasonable. But other than that...

sts603

Sorry. Your title is flat out wrong. She was not bumped. Her flights were cancelled due to very bad weather and they were not able to reaccomodate her in an optimal fashion. That's par for the course. Sorry.

As for the fees, if AA collected a UM fee for flights that were not flown, they owe you a refund. CO charged you the rightful fee. And you'll justhave to eat the hotel cost - again sorry but its just par for the course.

At least AA did interline her. Some airlines have gotten very stubborn with interline when its cancelled due to weather.

CandymanJim

I hit submit, then realized the title needed to be changed, but you posted right away and now I cant change the title...

Jim

acf573

You can PM a mod to get the title updated.

I would say AA owes you half of the UM fee you paid them and half of the difference between a Y and F award.

spurg

I had a flight go mechanical then cancel. I went from F (no J avail) to Y. As I was travelling on points, they just gave me points back.

badjuju

Although the weather problem is beyond the airline's control, I think the OP should get the difference in points since her child did not sit in F.

CloudCoder

Send an e-mail to AA customer relations (via AA.com "Contact us").

It only allows 1500 characters, so be brief. You'd wanna say something like this:

My child "Q T SeatBackKicker" was booked on AA flights 898 / 1885 from IAH-DFW-FAT on 14 April. Flight was cancelled and pax rerouted on CO. Two problems: (1) I paid round-trip UM fee to AA, but also had to pay one-way UM fee to CO. Please refund $75 which represents the unused amount of the UM fee I paid AA. (2) Pax was on an F award but flew coach on CO. Please refund 10,000 miles which represents half the difference between the First Class award I paid for and the "First outbound / Coach inbound" award I actually received. Thank you in advance for handling this routine request.

TheDudeAbides

^

Personally, I would handle this on the phone as I find CSRs to be more responsive "in person," but the two points outlined here by SquareDanceGuy are exactly the ones I would make. Both requests are completely reasonably and I'd be stunned if they're not fulfilled without question.

Let us know how it comes out. I'm glad your daughter made it back without too much anxiety (at least she was with grandma and grandpa).

Jaimito Cartero

I wouldn't count on the online form for a response. I used it about 5 weeks ago, and have gotten one email, 3 weeks after it was sent that said, "Oh, we're going to look at it". Nothing more.

Quite bad customer service.

CloudCoder

My experience has been much better. AA sends an e-mail to say they received my input and they will reply soon. Then, a few days to a few weeks later, they reply either by e-mail, written letter, or phone call.

When you consider they probably get several THOUSAND customer concerns per day, I think their customer service is very good. It's certainly better than any other U.S. airline (except maybe Southwest).

skylady

There was a news report this evening on local news featuring Scott McCartney. His advice was to send an email, and be very specific in what you are asking for.

CandymanJim

Thanks everyone for their input! I ended up speaking with Cindy Baker (AA) who is so pleasant to deal with it would be hard to get angry with her under any circumstances. She agreed to refund to the $75 that was paid to CO, get my 10k back (already posted) and since I aksed, antoher 5k in points for my drive. Weather sucks and that can't be held against AA. Since I wasn't in IAH for the rebooking I can only assume what did and did not happen. Kudos to AA for making the most out of a bad situation.

Jim

Footnote: My 10 YO daughter mentioned she ran into her 3rd grade teacher at IAH while all this was going on. Both of them did not realize she could have escorted my daughter back and even driven her home had anyone thought about it!