nrr

OP was put in a bad situation, was AA or UA or both at fault--in over 100 posts, there is NO consensus.
In any event, OP should get DOT involved--hopefully, DOT could prod airlines to sort out their "glitches", so that other pax will not be in the position OP found himself.

LINDEGR

What is an OAL?

TerryK

Other AirLines.@:-)

TerryK

Not really a DOT issue, although it is probably good to give those bored civil servants something to do. It is an interline system communication issue.

BayAArea

AA's response below - they offered a $300 voucher, which doesn't even cover my out of pockets for the hotel and cabs ($382). Disappointing - they are obviously passing the blame to UA here. It was AA who cancelled the original flight (and not weather - crew timed out) would have thought they would have at least made me whole for my out of pockets....any suggestions?

No response from UA yet.


Dear Mr. XXXX:

We are sorry that your travel with us did not go smoothly. Providing dependable service is what's expected of us -- and when we don't operate flights on schedule, it's easy to understand our customers' disappointment.

We wish we had it in our power to guarantee that planes would always arrive on time and that delays and cancellations just wouldn't happen. Unhappily, we don't -- but what we can and should do is make every attempt to minimize the inconvenience for our customers whenever we do encounter operational problems. We are disappointed that we didn't do a better job of overcoming the challenges we faced that day in order to make the situation a little less trying.

Our records show that your re-booking to travel on United, flight 462 was correctly booked and we regret they were unable to accomodate you on that flight. We also regret to disappoint you by declining your expense reimbursement request.

Nevertheless, as a gesture of goodwill and to encourage your continued business, we've made arrangements for an eVoucher (via a separate email) for you to use toward the purchase of tickets to travel with us. The next time you travel with us, we'll do our best to make sure your trip is a good one.

Mr. XXXX, we value you as our customer and are eager to restore your confidence. Please give us another opportunity to serve you. In turn we will do our best to make your trip pleasant and trouble free.

Sincerely,
(Redacted)
Customer Relations
American Airlines

tom911

Weren't you also complaining to UA? What did they say/offer?

BayAArea

No response from United yet - they said ten business days to respond from the day I lodged the complaint.

tom911

AA's intent here is not to cover your expenses but rather a goodwill gesture for your inconvenience, so can't say you're really going to do any better. Sounds like they're saying you were ticketed correctly, so will be interesting what type of response you receive from UA. Having no status there, you'd likely not get as much compensation as elite passengers, as they do tend to have a sliding scale based on status, if they offer anything at all. I'm more interested in seeing if they address the ticketing issue and where they place the blame.

I recently received a couple thousand miles from them when I complained about some travel issues on a partner award ticket, but they're basically useless as I have so few miles left in that account.

BayAArea

Miles would be useless as I rarely fly UA (and this situation has put them somewhere below AirTran on my list at this point).

I figured I would at least get my expenses paid - that seems like a no brainer.

As a PLT with AA I figured they would take the baton and compensate me and then figure it out. I have no status at UA so I am less confident they would offer anything - but bottom line, after a fiasco like this to not even get my out of pockets offered just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sorry, just venting.

Will follow up with UAs response.

sethb

AA claims it was correctly booked; therefore UA should compensate you. If you can get UA to claim in writing that it was not correctly booked, I'd sue both of them and let them fight it out. (At least) one of them would be committing fraud by making a false claim.

Dave Noble

Rather than trying to sue and so having to prove fault, seems like something that would be best to pass to DOT if both claim not to have any fault

ijgordon

Is it possible to sue two parties in small claims court, when you don't really know which one is at fault? Curious how this would work.

BayAArea

to update:

Still waiting for a response from UA - I tried following up by phone, and apparently their Customer Care department a) has no direct phone number and b) closes at 4PM Central time. Told me to call back tmrw.

Amazing. A global airline.

BayAArea

UPDATE:

Received UA's response - as expected, we officially have a he said/she said, and neither wants to reimburse me. Rep on the phone says UA feels that American is to blame.

I have "appealed" the United response for another review from a supervisor (getting through UA's labyrinth of Customer Care is quite an interesting experience), but am resigning myself to the fact that the next stop here will be a DOT complaint. After all, I am still out $400 in cold hard cash expenses that someone needs to make me whole on (before we even broach the IDB subject).

Any thoughts or advice, or suggestions? Am I missing anything?

Brutal that two service-reliant organizations have acknowledged a problem, and then completely ran and hid. If either had stepped up and admitted fault, it would have gone a long way in my book; this just makes me more disappointed.

Dear Mr. XXXXX:

Thank you again for contacting United Customer Care.

It was clear to me from reading your correspondence that on this occasion United did not meet your expectations for providing smooth, trouble-free travel.

I want to apologize for the inconvenience that you experienced as a result of irregular operations on your original ticket with American Airlines. It was unfortunate that we were unable to assist you as your ticket was not processed correctly by American through their system and only they could have corrected this ticketing issue.

We are very sensitive to your concerns and your report of unsatisfactory service regarding not being able to board our flight. Please be assured that your feedback is valuable to us, and we have shared your insights with the management team responsible for the issues raised regarding your overall experience.

I would ask that you contact American Airlines for any type of compensation that you feel is due to you for this overall experience.

Thank you for allowing me to review your case once again, and permitting me an additional opportunity to sincerely apologize.

Truly your friend at United,
(Redacted)

TerryK

As expected since UA never received eticket from AA. You cannot expect UA to fly you without a ticket.

It is an interline system communication issue. It is unclear whether the problem lies with AA or UA system. I understand AA agent showed you that he/she did everything correctly, yet that doesn't mean AA system sent eticket over to UA correctly.