Sam - DFW

does anyone have any experience with this scenario?

i paid a premium for a specific itinerary b/c of the departure/arrival times on the two outbound flights. the first flight is delayed such that i will miss the connection to the 2nd flight. the aa csr could not provide any reason for the delay. when i miss the connection, i will almost certainly be rebooked on the last flight out - a flight that i originally passed up despite a cheaper fare. the fare difference was $100+, but i don't remember exactly how much.

while i expect no action whatsoever from american, i wondered if i have a legitimate cause.

if i capture the screen with fares during booking (schedule and fare lends itself to this very well), could i be reimbursed for being placed on cheaper flights when this occurs? it only happens a few times a year, so i acknowledge it might not be worth my time. that being said, i am the one suffering the consequences when schedules go bad.

Deltahater

I assume this is a hypothetical scenario.

The reason for the delay is key. Without that, I can't give you any advice. Also, how long are you being delayed?

Sam - DFW

the csr put me on hold, came back and said she had no idea why the delay.

i wanted to know why it was delayed to try and address the connection - would the 2nd flight be delayed as well, for example? so far the 2nd flight is not delayed, so it increases the likelihood i miss the connection.

the first flight is only delayed a couple of hours, but the point is that if i miss the connection i am stuck on a flight that i originally paid more to avoid.

i understand delays, but i have never looked at this from the perspective of receiving diminished service relative to what i overpaid to receive.

mvoight

This might get you a few miles from a sympathetic customer relations person, but that is iffy. Of course, FT has a nice long compensation thread with quite a few items that I wouldn't have compensated for, especially weather-related ones.
As a legal reference, I don't know how much a printout is worth, since it is relatively easy to adjust numbers in a print out, and AA can't be expected to maintain a record of reservations that were never completed.

CloudCoder

I have specific experience with this problem. I paid approx. $60 more per ticket ($120 total) to arrive earlier. My first segment was cancelled "due to weather" and all other flights that day and the next day were full. So we had to make our own way to DFW on another airline. We then connected to the original destination, but on a later (cheaper) flight than what was originally booked.

AA would not budge. They refused to refund even one cent. They did refund a pro-rated amount for the first segment which was not flown, but that amount was only a very small fraction of the cost of a last-minute walk-up fare on another airline.

So my advice is: you can either worry about it a lot (as I did) and receive nothing, or just consider it your generous contribution to AA's coffers (and still receive nothing). Your choice.

divemistressofthedark

Heh. loving your sense of humor lately SDG...

Where? Anyone got linky?

777-DCA

If the flight was delayed for weather, why would anyone expect AA to compensate anything?

Sam - DFW

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...t=compensation

Sam - DFW

flights from SNA to DFW are routinely delayed - at least that's my experience in numerous flights this year.

no one has been able to confirm that it is a weather delay in this specific instance. if there was dallas weather that altered an entire day's schedule i would be understanding. actually, if that were the case, i would be able to make a delayed 2nd flight - that's understandable IMO. that is obviously not the case as AA has now changed my 2nd flight to the last flight out without any action on my part indicating to me that my originally scheduled 2nd flight is on time and that my connection will be missed.

i paid more for my flights so that i could avoid the last flight out - it gets in much later, and i have a.m. meetings. i am receiving inferior service which is specifically what i paid more money to avoid. i have a(n) (un)reasonable opinion that i should get what i pay for and/or only pay for what i get.

when this happens, why should i not be entitled to the original fare difference? it's certainly not my fault, so why am i paying extra to be shortchanged by AA?

it seems like a very tangible amount. (i disagree with mvoight somewhat in that if i have a screen shot of price and schedule with fares that AA would not be able to discern its authenticity).

look, i agree with SDG that this is likely a waste of time, but unfortunately b/c of AA i have lots of time today.

CloudCoder

I agree with you completely. You paid more to be on a specific earlier flight, but instead you actually flew on a later cheaper flight.

You asked if anyone had specific experience with this. I specifically experienced this a few months ago. I paid to arrive by 11 am but actually ended up on the cheaper flight arriving at 2 pm. I wrote to AA several times about the same issue, and got nowhere. It seems to me they just don't listen. They keep hearing me gripe about a cancellation, but that's not my gripe at all. I'm griping about paying more money for an earlier flight which was cancelled, so I ended up on the cheaper / later flight.

I don't particularly care to type in the entire text of my most recent letter from the Executive Office, but essentially they say their schedules are not guaranteed from any kind of delay, they always try to eventually get the passengers to the destination, sometimes they don't have a lot of options, and the segments were eventually flown therefore no refund.

7Continents

I must say that I can't understand the comments related to "I paid more for a certain flight so I am due compensation since I ended up on a flight that would have been cheaper at booking." With the volatility of tix, it could have just as easily been the other way around. You roll the dice every time you buy tickets, the price could either go up or down a thousand times before you fly.
You pay for a guarantee of a spot on a flight, subject to whatever happens to that flight on the day you travel. If that type of mentality was acceptable, we could all say "I wanted a cheaper flight, and since the flight I paid extra to be on didn't keep it's schedule, I want to only pay the price of a flight that was cheaper when I purchased mine..."
It just makes no sense???

brp

With all due respect to the OP, s/he did not claim any entitlement to compensation. S/He simple presented a case and asked. The general consensus was "no, nothing is due." but it was just a question, and not a demand.

Cheers.

swag

I remember a few years ago flying DL EWR-ATL-DFW. I got to EWR early and paid (IIRC) $30 to get onto an earlier flight, their same-day-confirmed change fee. Of course, the new flight was delayed, I missed the connection, and ended up back on the same ATL-DFW that I was scheduled for originally.

I asked at ATL about a refund, and they suggested I'd have to contact central reservations once I got home. That felt like a brush off, and I never bothered to pursue it further. But that was an even more clear-cut case (of paying for an earlier arrival that was not delivered), with an easily defined and verifiable amount, and yet even that seemed like it would be a losing battle.

Sam - DFW

then why are flights on a given day between city pairs priced differently?

look at LAX/JFK for july 7th return july 11th (price and schedule). outbound flights are $149 at 1:15 and 3pm. however, if i want to arrive earlier than 9:55pm then it costs $255 - an extra $106 (71% higher fare). is it worth it - absolutely. it is a premium that i am willing to pay. i am not just paying for a guaranteed spot on a flight - otherwise i would expect to pay $149 for whatever flight i choose that day.

let's assume that i pay $249 so that i can arrive at 7:24pm, but AA puts me on the later flight that arrives at 9:55pm (b/c there was a non-weather delay in santa barbara for example???). my argument is that i have received diminished service and that the diminished service is reflected in the original fare difference. (in this scenario) i made a conscious decision to pay more to avoid getting to my hotel room at midnight. through no fault of my own, i got diminished service while paying for what i would consider a premium service. by electing to pay for a more for a preferred arrival time, i am arguing that i have a reasonable expectation to receive what i purchased.

SDG has made it very clear that this is a losing argument. i am just asking why?

if AA makes me pay more money for certain flights (same day, same cities) then there should be a cause of action when i am forced onto the inferior flight.

bdemaria

They don't start out that way. You are overlooking the issue of supply and demand. Flights on a given day between given points are loaded with the same prices/fare buckets, including deep discount fares. As the seats begin to sell, certain buckets sell out. This is what happened to you. You booked a flight that other people booked before you and grabbed the cheapest seats.

You didn't purchase a "premium" flight and then get demoted to an inferior flight. (IMHO, this would be an apt description if you paid for F on an JFK-LAX transcon, and ended up on AE flying LGA-ORD, then Y ORD-LAX).

And in the interest of fairness, if AA were to refund your money, then the following would also be necessary:

You have a choice of Flight A (6:00 am departure) for 200.00 and Flight B (8:30 am departure) for 350.00, you don't want to get up at 4:00 am but you still book flight A b/c it is cheaper. It gets canceled and AA rebooks you on Flight B - the more expensive flight - so you then owe AA $150.00.