gawright

Sad Story. A couple of months ago, my wife and I had tickets on an American Airlines flight. We had to cancel due to illness. We received credits for the cost of the tickets. Later, my wife used part of her credit for another flight. American sent her a $160 voucher for the balance. I phoned American and asked if I should receive a voucher for my credit. I was told that was not necessary, that all I needed was my flight info to book another flight.

No long ago, I booked, by phone, another American flight for the two of us. The agent used my credit, which was more than my ticket cost, and applied the balance of my credit plus my wife’s voucher to my wife’s ticket. I still owed $100 and I used my credit card.

I asked the agent if I needed to surrender the voucher to American. She said I did not, that it was all taken care of. “Are you sure,” I asked. “Absolutely,” she said, “you’re all done.” I don’t like to drown in a sea of paper, so I put the voucher in the trash. American sent me an e-mail confirmation. It sat in my inbox for a day or so, and then I printed it. I confirmed only my itinerary, not my wife’s.

I called American and asked if they could send me a confirmation for my wife’s itinerary. The agent said it had not been sent out because my wife’s ticket had not been issued. “Why not?” I asked.

“Because we haven’t received the voucher,” she said.

“Wait a minute,” I said, “the agent with whom I booked this travel said you didn’t need the voucher.”

“We need the voucher,” she said.

“You can’t have it,” I said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because I threw it away.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Because your agent told me you didn’t need it.”

“Just a minute,” she said. I guess she spoke with her supervisor. She came back on the line. “Sir,” she said, “we need the voucher. Do you know the number on the voucher?”

“Of course not. Just give me the credit and I will be on my way.”

“Not without the voucher.” “May I speak to your supervisor?” “All right.” A woman from Hell came on the line. I explained the situation.

“The ticketing agent made a mistake,” she said, “we need the voucher.”

“The agent works for American Airlines,” I said, “American Airlines made the mistake. I expect American Airlines to make it right.”

“Not without the voucher,” she said.

“So, if I don’t have the voucher I am out $136?”

“That is correct.”

“I don’t wish to give you $136 because you made a mistake. What am I supposed to do? Go to Small Claims Court?”

“Sir, now that you have mentioned litigation you will have to deal with our legal department.”

“Forget the Small Claims Court,” I said, “what can we do to solve this problem?”

Guess what she said. “Sir, we need the voucher.”

“This is very frustrating,” I said.

“Sir, the voucher plainly states “void if transferred, sold, purchased or bartered.”

“What does that have to do with me? I did none of those things?” Guess what she said.

“Sir, we need the voucher.” I hung up. I was livid.

Then I had an idea. I rushed down to the curb and found that the garbage man had not yet arrived. We have a large container, which usually fills up with flotsam, jetsam, and yard waste. I dumped 30 gallons of garbage in my driveway and sorted through it. I found the darn voucher. I called another American Airlines agent and asked where I should send it. She gave me an address that was not included in the voucher documents. In other words, I could not have sent them the voucher if I had wanted to.

It gets worse.

The agent who gave me the mailing address for the voucher said that I should call back in a week to make sure they had received it. I did so. I was told that the voucher was being processed. I phoned a week later and asked if the ticket had been issued. The agent said they had not received my voucher.

“But one of your people told me last week you had received it,” I said. She put me on hold for an eternity. Back on the line she said, “We have your wife’s voucher, but we don’t have yours.” I explained that I had never received a voucher and that part of my credit had been applied to my wife’s ticket.

“We can’t do that,” she said, “credits are not transferable.”

“But you did it,” I said, and I rested on hold for another eternity.

She came back on the line. “My supervisor says we need your voucher.”

I gave up. I paid for the rest of my wife’s ticket with my credit card. I am going to tell the credit card company to reject the charge on the ground of fraud.

I am an attorney. I will be suing American Airlines for breach of contract, fraud, infliction of emotional distress, and anything else I can think of. If I get a judgment that is not promptly paid, I will not send the Sheriff to the airport to do a till tap. Instead, I will advance the Sheriff the fee to rent a tow cart and instruct him to have an American Airlines plane towed from one of the gates to a secure area and then seal it up.

I read somewhere that American once sent a management team over to Southwest Airlines to learn how to run an airline. Apparently they did not pay attention.

American must hire folks from time to time. Maybe they put an ad in the newspaper: “American Airlines is now hiring. Only the incompetent need apply. Must be willing to annoy our customers.”

Needless to say, I am disinclined to fly on American again. It may not be safe. Perhaps their pilots are incompetent too.

wharvey

Not really a Talkboard Topics Forum issue...

I have moved this to the American Airlines Forum.

gerald5

Need a cliff-notes version... too hard to read.

videomaker

Can't say what happened here, but a credit from a previous cancelled flight (no voucher issued) should be able to be applied on a new ticket over the phone. If a voucher was issued, then it does have to be returned.

I hear it's pretty expensive to gas those babies up.

Since you're a lawyer and deal only in facts, I'm sure, do you have anything else to base that last statement on?

muddy

^ wow! can you really do that? that would be awesome (I want to watch)!

Sorry about your bad luck with AA ... I hate the whole voucher thing too. They gave me one for a fare difference one time that was lost by someone in my office. Why give vouchers instead of refunding the difference to the credit card? Because they know they will benefit from the ones inevitably lost?

Good luck with your pursuit of this.

bdemaria

deleted

videomaker

Not necessarily. You can get credit if you cancel a non-refundable ticket, minus the change fee, but you won't get a cash refund. Only makes sense if the ticket is non-refundable.

jrhone

So is my wife.

muddy

Im cool with "credits to be applied within a year" ... just PO's me when they send my a voucher for $xxx.xx instead ... well PO'd is kind of strong ... maybe just inconvenienced IMO unecessarily.

videomaker

Yeah, I usually just cancel online and call back to make the next booking. Works well as long as you keep up with the ticket number, since after a certain time, they can't seem to look it up by the record locator.

j3823x

If you could keep us updated on the progress of this through the courts it would be most appreciated. Seeing how AA deals with this will be interesting to many of us on this board.

inlanikai

Courts? I want to see video of the sheriff towing the 777!

MIKESILV

Or possibly trying to "attract the attention" from others who may have similar stories and who may consider the availibilty of legal services quite useful.

mike

abk

i just used a voucher because they would not credit my credit card. it is a headache. i did not want to mail it in as i do not trust the post office. i talked to aa and they were not sure that ups could deliver to the address they give you ( a po box of some sort ). in the end it was easier to run to the airport and ticket it there so there would be one less loose end to chase. you think they could help you out a little bit more.

nacirema

for future reference.

i mailed about 10 vouchers over the last 5 years to the milton, fl. address. regular mail, no signature required. never a problem. have trust.


to the op. do you mind telling me where you practice law? remind me not to hire you for any of my legal needs.