TWA884

It's a known issue on United's end, as was acknowledged to me by senior customer relations officials at both AA and United.

United has published an internal reference page on dealing with the issue, however, some of their agents refuse to look it up.

I've quoted portions of both the United and AA representatives' correspondence with me upthread.

BayAArea

Just to play devil's advocate, this is from AA's letter:

"Our records show that your re-booking to travel on United, flight 462 was correctly booked and we regret they were unable to accommodate you on that flight."

I agree with you, we may never figure it out. The more likely occurrence is that each airline knows who is at fault, but won't admit it is them. How hard is it to research the life history of one ticket? I would think a collaborative effort between AA and UA would find out what went wrong pretty easily. Obviously, that will never happen.

But someone has to take the blame here - I don't care if they each take half the blame and split the expenses down the middle. Just copping out with a "not my fault" is even worse.

serfty

Maybe go to the DOT and involve both airlines ...

WheelsFirst

Seems like the safe thing to do is to check-in with UA before boarding to confirm everything is set.

El Miameño

Dougie P in da house!

dia1

With a newly minted boarding pass in hand, most of us would justifiably assume we're good to go. Good grief. Now we need to check up to see if AA staff have actually done their jobs. What a fine state of affairs.

daniellam

The main issue is e-ticket coupon control and ground staff training on interline e-ticketing.

Even if AA issued the e-ticket correctly and sent the ticket number to UA, control of the e-ticket coupon might not have been given to UA.

Normally, UA would automatically have control of the coupon from AA shortly after AA issues the ticket. Perhaps it was so close to departure that this didn't happen. As the UA flight was already under airport control, the departure control system may have failed to automatically take control of the e-ticket coupon from AA.

To solve the problem, either AA needs to manually pushes control of the coupon to UA, or UA manually takes control of the coupon.

Most airline agents seem to be unfamiliar with the concept of e-ticket coupon control as they only deal with e-tickets issued by their own carrier and not interline e-tickets (especially those issued while the flight is already in airport control). The AA agent may have assumed that everything worked out behind the scenes once they have issued the e-ticket. Had the AA agent understood the concept of coupon control, he/she may have displayed the e-ticket coupon status after ticket issuance to check that UA had control before sending the passenger over. Also, on UA's side, at check-in the agent should have ensured UA had control of the coupon (since the ticket was issued while the flight was already under airport control) before checking the pax in.

For some carriers (this was the case some years back when interline e-ticketing first started - not sure if this is the case anymore, I hope!!), they can either manually push e-ticket coupon control to another carrier or manually take control of the coupon from another carrier but not both. Perhaps AA's system lacked the ability to manually push control of the coupon to UA, while UA's system lacked the ability to take control of the coupon from AA?

sethb

Sue them both in Small Claims Court, let them argue before the judge who is responsible.

Depending on your state, it will cost them more just to show up than you're asking for, and it's an automatic-ish win for you if they don't.

eajusa

An interesting case for Judge Judy.

BayAArea

update:

United denied my 'appeal' for another review. And slid the "it was American's fault" in there for good measure (bold and underline is my doing for emphasis).

The volleyball match of blame continues.

Dear Mr. XXXXX:

Thank you once again for your reply.

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

We are very sensitive to your concerns and your report of unsatisfactory service regarding your original ticket on American. 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 when your ticket was not processed correctly by American.

As always, our customers' satisfaction is important to us and feedback and requests are always carefully considered. United Airlines strives to make your travel experience pleasant and enjoyable, yet we acknowledge that there may be some occasions in which yours, (and our) mutual expectations are not met. When these circumstances arise, we may provide a goodwill offering to you. It is our job to carefully review the circumstances of what occurred, and the impact it had on you, our valued customer. We are then empowered to determine the best possible resolution to apologize for the disservice.

Customer Care Managers have clearly defined guidelines to determine goodwill offerings. The magnitude of these offerings are determined by several factors. The range of compensation can vary based on whether the disservice was due to a controllable or uncontrollable issue, the distance traveled, and severity. Understandably, as with any business, we have guidelines in place and we are asked stay within those guidelines whenever possible.

Mr. XXXX, your disappointment was clearly evident in your correspondence and I do understand the reasons behind your request of wanting cash reimbursement for your hotel. While I am sorry that I cannot meet your specific compensation expectations this time; and hope that you do contact American to get your issue resolved.

United is committed to providing you with clean, safe and reliable transportation each time you fly. If given the privilege of providing your future travel needs, we will do our utmost to earn reports that are more favorable.

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,

XXXXXX

WheelsFirst

I'm just saying it's worth spending the time (assuming you have it which the OP did) to make sure everything is correct. It's not inconceivable that something could go wrong between the two airlines, one of which is notorious for screwing things up. I don't think you should have to do it, and I don't think the OP was at fault by any means, but why not take 10 minutes to double-check and save yourself the grief?

dia1

Agree--was just lamenting the necessity of this.

I am grateful for the very useful info on e-ticket coupon control provided by daniellam just upthread a bit. Now we know what questions to ask!

Exec_Plat

Just sue AA.

There is enough info in this thread to show they failed to book your flight properly. And "properly' means "so that UA will honor the ticket" and not "when the AA computer screen said it is OK"

sethb

Either find a reporter who wants to write a hit piece against the airlines, or just let a Small Claims Court sort them out.

dia1

Thank you, very helpful to know this!
Some follow-up questions for one of you knowledgeable souls.

What happens in the case where the flight in question is early in an itinerary? For example:
RT ticket has six segments: out 1AA 2AA 3LH, return 4LH 5AA 6AA
Flight 2 (AA) goes mx and the passenger is put on BA for segments 2 and 3 to get the passenger to the intended final outbound destination. (Assume that these flights are not code-shared with AA.) Based on info above, I assume coupon control must go to BA.

Does BA then have coupon control of the return itinerary? If so, is control transferred back to AA at some point and does someone have to do that manually? (This could matter a lot if something goes wrong with flights 4, 5, or 6.)

Related question--Would LH cancel segment 4 because segment 3 was not flown?