troyb

Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Some have suggested that I knew I was getting an illegal routing and should have just kept my mouth shut and now have no reason to be upset - that's incorrect. I was told here on Flyertalk that it should not be allowed, however when I brought this up with AA they told me it was fine, several times. Like I said originally, I wasn't trying to do something sneaky here.

I appreciate the suggestions thus far. The two best ones - to drop the KIX/NRT open jaw or credit the additional miles for a higher award are things that I've already suggested. The supervisor would not budge until talking to the liaison desk today. I'd be willing to fly KIX/NRT but there were no award seats when I checked last night.

I'll keep working on it and keep updating here.

For the poster who asked what my definition of complicated is, it is literally an around the world ticket with some connections vs. stopovers, with about 13 or 14 segments.

pistonsdc

I certainly hope this works out for the OP. However, it does seem that he tempted fate one too many times. After all, you don't rob a bank, getaway clean, then go back the next day to get that cute teller's phone number.

What bothers me about this situation is the implied acceptance that the agents don't know the rules that well and that we, the consumer, bear the responsibility for making sure they get it right. When I take my car to a mechanic for repairs, I don't get under the car and inspect his work to make sure everything is reattached correctly.

Most importantly, isn't one of the main purposes of the ticketing process to validate the itinerary? How was this one validated several times before the error was caught? What's next, someone being told halfway through their travel that their OW award routing is invalid and that they would have to make other arrangements? (If someone points to an example of this actually happening, then I will have heard it all.)


As far as I'm concerned, once the award is ticketed, the airline has "driven the car off the lot", and they own it now. The maskedavenger's experience is akin to the airline calling you and saying "Yeah, you know that ticket you bought 4 months ago? Well, we didn't charge you enough for it. We're going to need some more money, or you won't be able to fly next week".

To quote Jackis Chiles: "It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous."

macabus

What about beginning and ending the trip in SFO or SEA or YVR?

A cheap R/T ticket to the gateway is a small price to pay.

brp

I agree. I've had cases where I've set up a reasonably complex ticket with a phone agent, but I know that it has to go to the magical, mystical review people before it is ticketed. I accept that it may get bounced by them of something is wrong- not ever agent will know every nuance, and that's why they have the itinerary elves. But this is all before ticketing, and I've gotten the "invalid" call. Once they bless it, and it's ticketed, it's unreasonable, IMO, for them to invalidate what they have approved.

Cheers.

macabus

There are anecdotal stories of people on invalid rewards being denied boarding by various airlines in foreign countries.

troyb

Hopefully AA sees things this way in the end...although my experience thus far does not indicate that they view it this way.

maskedavenger

.......haven't had that problem with OW...but come to think of bad experiences....US Air once pulled a real nice routing error......and customer service in the US blamed it on their Philippine call center. After having to deal with that situation (Philippine Call Center)....now they were blaming me for going with the suggestion of their own employees. The airline industry is in turmoil. US Air did fix the problem as opposed to Delta.....as their customer service person (I think in Arizona) was very sympathetic to the situation they had caused. She even sent me a $200 cert. for future use and a bunch of free drink coupons. I gave the drink coupons away as I try to never fly US Air also! (just a bad company IMO)

Mark_T

I'm sure with appropriate pressure and reminding AA that they did ticket the route there is every chance that the OP will get what he wants.

My sympathy will remain somewhat muted though because the OP went into this after getting correct advice here that 2 open jaws were not allowed and then after getting lucky with having the routing confirmed he then re-opened the matter several times with changes until it eventually got spotted.

It is not like this is an obscure rule buried deep in the T&C, it is right there near the top of the list on the published rules page :

---------------
Open Jaws

* An open jaw occurs when you arrive into one city and depart from another city. Travel between the two cities may be by train/bus/separate airline ticket, etc.
* Only one open jaw is allowed, anywhere in the itinerary.

---------------

I do agree though that an uninformed customer should be able to depend on AA getting it right and it is on that basis that OP will probably get what he wants.

Hoc

Never mind.

troyb

Also, to be clear, I did NOT know for certain that both open jaws would not be allowed. I did receive some information on this from Flyertalk, but lets face it, for every useful and accurate fact discussed here, there is a lot of incorrect information as well. I'm not discounting the value of the Flyertalk community, in fact it was very helpful in planning this very trip, but it cannot be relied on for corporate policies (in this case ticketing rules). That's why companies have agents and airlines have ticketing desks.

In my case, I relied on AA's agents to disclose the rules to me and apply them correctly, which they did not do. They continued to not apply the rules correctly several times after the initial ticketing. In fact, my ticket received some extra scrutiny several weeks ago when I made a change that for some reason required a few dollars extra in taxes. It was reissued without a problem. I was in no way was trying to skirt the system.

Mark_T

One thought you may find useful in getting this resolved.

The rules make several references to things not being possible at the 'origination or destination city' such as 'May not connect at the origination or destination city'

That would seem to imply that the two do not have to be the same.

Similarly the definition of 'Open Jaw' is based on leaving from a different city from the one you arrive in whereas you are intending to arrive at a different one from the one you left from which is not the same.

May be worth a shot at least ...

macabus

Huh?

Did you really think this through, or were you trying to be obtuse on purpose?

magic111

And just like some of the information on FT is correct and some is incorrect there will be some who believe your assertion and some who do not.

In the past when things have gone wrong with the ticketing for my oneworld awards aa has called and made attempts to "fix" things to the best of their ability. You realize that is only anecdotal evidence and not policy.

Once policy is brought to the fore all bets are off. You may get what you want or you may not. Good luck and asking will be helpful. My anecdotal evidence provides me nothing else to share with you.

JDiver

While I do think the OP tempted the fates after getting smoe reasonable input, once the RTW desk reviewed and signed off on the ticket - IMO it's the RTW desk's mistake; given the OP is willing to cooperate and be flexible, they need to own up to it and make it right. Whether they will or not remains to be seen.

Mark_T

Sorry if it wasn't clear enough for you.

The definition of an open-jaw in terms of the award the OP has booked is that you leave from a city other than the one you arrived at.

Once he arrives at his final destination he is not going to be leaving again as the trip is over.

Having a different final destination and start make it more like a one-way ticket than an open-jaw and as far as I can see nothing in the award rules state it has to be a return trip. In fact the references to the 'origination or destination city' suggest that they anticipate that people may start and finish in different places.