It's a good point, thanks - would they usually refund miles+copay in such a circumstance? I assume so but don't recall having personal experience with that scenario. The fact that these are paper certs applicable to other flights may give them an out, though.

Of note, they required information about the invol reroute before they would even entertain the idea of reinstating the points.

I'm confused by this dstan. Since the certs are hardcopy, if you didn't fill out the cert's form (and there's never any reason to fill it out until checkin) and you still have the cert(s), and they haven't expired yet, you don't need to return or reinstate them. You can just use them again.

I'll take that one. Passenger obtained a cert to use on a specific itinerary. Passenger was involuntarily rerouted and hence unable to use that cert. Yes, passenger can reuse the cert on some other itinerary. But maybe passenger has no such travel planned, within the period of validity of the cert and compliant with the other restrictions of the cert (e.g. as to region, fare basis).

Request upgrade without Upgrade Certificate or Serial Number
 

My situation exactly. :)


On a separate note, I learned something today regarding a separate itinerary (and cert) - I was under the impression that one had to have the cert in hand in order to request an upgrade, which can be an issue if one has not yet redeemed the award and received the cert.

Not True - don't even need the serial number - just call the Meeting Services desk directly and request the upgrade. Of course, you still need the paper cert when you show up at the airport. ^

YMMV - not all agents (particularly Admiral's Club) collect them...

How do you check in and get a boarding pass (and get to the AC) without it?

You hand it in at check in and get the BP. The agent should fill it out and "may" attach it to the BP with a note to "pull the stub and cert"... but at the gate they dont always take it... recently my gate agent was confused by it as they dont see paper certs much anymore

Added later: I just noticed others have posted the same offer. Dang. I looked back before I posted, but not far back enough. Oh well.



Today in snail mail, I got a Business Extraa 16 year birthday promo. I can't tell if it's targeted. Go to www.businessextra.com/birthday for details.

*Based on an Economy PlanAAhead award valid for the Continental U.S., Canada and Mexico. All taxes and fees assessed at the time of ticketing are the responsibility of the passenger.

Offer valid between September 1, 2013, and October 31, 2013. To qualify for the bonus points, your company must register prior to travel at BusinessExtra.com/birthday using promotion code BIRTHDAY. A $250 minimum base fare (before taxes and fees) applies for each round-trip ticket. Retroactive ticket requests may not be eligible for promotional points. For your company to earn bonus points, company employees must travel on American Airlines, AmericanEagle®, AmericanConnection® or codeshare (AA*) flights operated by British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines or Qantas Airways and ticketed on American Airlines 001 ticket stock using the company's Business Extra account number between September 1, 2013, and October 31, 2013.

Your company's Business Extra account number must be in the employee's reservation to earn bonus points. Your company will earn 300 bonus points after the first employee flies one round-trip using the company's Business Extra account number during the offer period. Your company will earn another 700 points after flying 2 additional eligible round-trips during the offer period. Your company will earn another 1,000 points after flying 2 additional eligible round-trips during the offer period. Maximum number of bonus points associated with this offer is 2,000. Business Extra bonus points will be posted to the member company's account within six to eight weeks after the offer ends.

I know, thanks - the post I was responding to was specifically talking about AC agents, which one usually cannot access without being airside (and, hence, already having a BP and having submitted the cert to get it) in the first place...

evouchers and biz extraa
 

Hi all,

I'm the travel manager for a company and book and manage flights for my company's staff. I received an evoucher from AA for a passenger I booked (the company extraa number is on the itinerary). He was heavily delayed and it was an apology evoucher. Well this guy got fired and as far as I know I couldn't send him the voucher even if I wanted to. But it is in his name. I booked and paid for the flight and it's my owned extraa account.

Can I use and manage this evoucher? What if I wanted to apply credit for myself? For a flight I wanted to fly on? What about other staff in my company? Who would be the best resource for me to talk to to see about using or applying this elsewhere? Again it's in his name not the company's but the associated itinerary has my extraa number and it was booked by me.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

I would call business extraa and explain YOU are the travel manager and also the employee was on company's business extraa number, company paid for ticket and voucher should be issued to company and not to employee.

Good Luck.

Business Extra - Intermittent Expiration Date Changes (Fall 2013)
 

Was there some kind of expiration amnesty that I don't know about? My points "set to expire in 2013" line disappeared and those points are now lumped with the 2014 line. They were only something ilke 200 points anyway, but curious nonetheless.

Anyone else or is this a glitch?

Thanks again for the suggestion. Unfortunately, despite a respectful and well-reasoned request, no joy. :(

That's lousy. Could you clarify which part of AA took that position?

DOT has been very clear that passengers are entitled to full refunds when a flight is cancelled. For example, in the Final Rule for Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections, docket DOT-OST-2010-0140 at 23129, DOT reviewed passenger rights subject to cancellation (emphasis added):

It's hard to think of stronger wording than that -- "manifestly unfair".

The plain language of this statement applies to all methods of payment -- payment in dollars most obviously, but nothing here rules out payment in points or in a mix of dollars plus points of any type. I have always found AA quite compliant as to this rule -- I've never had a fight with AA about this, whereas I'm currently in quite a lengthy fight with Cathay on this same question. If you have exhausted all remedies within AA, you could consider an informal request to DOT for their assistance, or a formal publicly-docketed complaint to DOT. I would be happy to try to help you with either of those.

Thanks, I'm dealing with BE Customer Service.

Since the certificates were never actually pulled (reroute happened day before we got to the airport), I don't think the DOT refund rule applies. Had the certificates been pulled for boarding passes and THEN we were rerouted to another flight where we could not clear the upgrades, I think I would have stronger footing for such a complaint.

BE is continuing to hide behind the idea that the certificates could, in theory, have been used on another itinerary, even though in practice, I could not do so due to the fare restriction:

I suppose they are expecting me to manufacture another flight on which to apply the certificates (no, I don't require a mileage run to requal this year ;)). I can take a shot at escalating one more time, but I think this is probably going to be at their discretion. It's certainly customer-unfriendly, but probably within their discretion.