r0m8470

Hi, a nubie here so my apology before hand if there are infos about this on the forum.

I booked AA award at saver level for my parents to fly up here from SE Asia (CGK) on business. The itinerary is supposed to be mix of AS and CX.

Itinerary:
CGK-HKG-LAX (on CX business)
LAX-SEA (on AS, domestic first)

6 weeks later:
SEA-LAX (on AS, domestic first)
LAX-HKG-CGK (on CX business)

On aug 26, AA sent me an email stating schedule change, but no mention of the need to reconfirm, or the need to call back (will be explained later). Email still states original itinerary with the ticket numbers.

Inbound flight was ok, arrived here very happy. It was a treat for them flying transpac on business. It also helped a lot, as my folks are well in their 70s. So far so good.

Last night, we took them to SEA, and checked in with AS, which is fine. But red flag should have been raised, I was just too dumb to recognize. AS person could not print the boarding pass for the transpac leg from LAX. I thought, no big deal, they can print them at LAX. Especially since the AS gate agent can still print the luggage tags all the way to CGK.

When my parents got to LAX, they were denied their boarding pass because apparently the transpac leg on CX was cancelled by AA. CX actually took the bags out of the plane. I called AA and initially AA phone agent insisted that the tickets are good. When I told them that CX LAX agent could not find the tix, she did a little more research and told me about the cancellation.

She insisted that the cancellation was caused by the Aug 26 notice that I needed to reconfirm. I looked up and down my inbox and could not find any need to reconfirm. The phone agent finally booked my parents on AA from LAX to NRT, connecting with a JAL flight from NRT to CGK. The LAX to NRT leg is on inferior angle flat product and all these flights are 2 days later vs the original date. With the new dates, my parents need to spend 2 nights at a hotel near LAX.

Questions:
1. Do I have a case to get compensation from AA for the hotel and meal expense?
2. Do I have a case to get other compensation from AA for the inconvenience?

I am quite upset since my parents are well in the 70s, well traveled but always on tour groups with guides. They have only basic English and he is diabetic to boot, and his special diet food are gone. This trip is supposed to be a treat, but yet the last leg turned to a nightmare.

Alex_I

- i am very sorry to hear about the problems your parents were having.
It is hard to say exactly what went wrong but the schedule changes all the time and AA has no control over AS and CX schedules.
Did the schedule, flight numbers, or equipment change or everything was the same as in the original booking? Did AA re-issue your tickets with the new ticket numbers?

Exec_Plat

Sure, you can ask for anything...

I would carefully review all the communications, ensure that they had valid tickets that AA cancelled. And that it wasnt due to your mistake.

Then contact AA with a letter that outlines their error, their expenses and copies of the receipts. If you have a travel agent they might be able to access the record and get copies of any notes that would support you assertion that AA cancelled these in error.

Dave Noble

When the schedule change email arrived, did you check the booking , either by phoning or checking online, to see what the change was?

The email should be clearer that ( unless it is same flight numbers , just a different time ) the ticket will need to be reissued and that contact with AA will be needed

Under US lack of consumer protection, I am not sure that AA must reimburse the extra expenses, but would write in with details of the additional expenses incurred requesting reimbursement

MSPeconomist

IF parents were confirmed on the flight but somehow CX couldn't find their tickets and IF their original CX flight was oversold, they might be entitled to compensation according to DOT IDB rules. Otherwise, refer to the CX CoC and AA CoC for policies about reimbursement expenses in such cases.

linglingfool

Makes me wonder whether or not they would've noticed anything was off even if you had called to check on the ticket.

r0m8470

I have not checked the ticket numbers yet - whether there are any re-issues or not. On the latest correspondence before the travel date (Aug 26 email), the change of schedule actually affects the inbound portion, not the outbound (which was cancelled). That email still has the original itinerary intact, with ticket numbers and everything.

I have a complaint submitted through DOT already, already got a response from an analyst and will try to piece together with AA Customer Care this week.

formeraa

Wow! I just don't know what to say here. So often, we are complaining that we received NO notice of a schedule change and "it ruined my trip".

Here, the OP received notice but didn't feel the need to call in. If I personally received an email about an international award itinerary that said "Schedule Change", I would have been on the phone to AA as soon as possible to make sure that all of my connections were valid and still intact. After the call to AA, I would have called to operating carriers to reconfirm.

In any case, always reconfirm international award itineraries ONE week in advance and call the OPERATING carrier to ensure that everything is okay. A week would give you enough time to fix any problems. I'm not sure at all that this was AA's fault...it seems that one of the operating carriers did some sort of schedule change.

linglingfool

Per OP's latest post:

Again, nothing to indicate a problem with the outbound schedule, and even when OP knew something was wrong, AA didn't see it without some prodding.

RogerD408

The schedule change was for the outbound and had been flown. The mystery is why the return was canceled? Could it be they somehow disconnected the outbound from the return? Or maybe didn't cancel the original outbound and therefore the return was canceled as being a no show? Lots of questions. Hopefully AA's records will shed some light, just afraid it will show their error(s) and not be disclosed.

r0m8470

Yes, I did receive a schedule change, but on the inbound, not outbound. It is also a notification, and the original itineraries as far as all the flight numbers etc are still intact. I had schedule change on my UA itinerary (SEA-YYZ-CDG-PEK-ICN, then ICN-PEK-VIE-ZRH-YYZ-SEA), same type of contents - notifications, but all the original itineraries and flight numbers are intact. Both were notices - with no actions needed on my part, and no indication of needing to do something on the consumer part. When actions are needed, the notices said something explicit - you need to do this, need to do that etc.

The email also stated ticket numbers etc, no need to act on the consumer part. I did have cancellation before from AA (on my trip to Europe last summer), and they promptly booked me on a Delta flight, even upgraded me to boot.

What's puzzling on this one is, (1) why the outbound portion just disappeared, (2) why AA phone staff insisted initially that the tickets are still active - citing the exact same ticket numbers on the Aug 26 email, (3) and then finally relented saying that tickets were cancelled because the need to reconfirm.

As recent as Aug 27, I was able to go to CX website to try changing seats for my parents and I was able to do that. I was able to see all their segments, including the missing outbound ones. The reason for me to look was because in one of the segment (CGK-HKG), CX showed 2-2-2 business cabin seating which is a config that I do not recognize, but I digress.

Even if they cancel, there were no AA miles redeposited back. I've never seen that happened before. I will keep everyone posted of what happened. DOT already assigned a case number for it.

r0m8470

OK, here we are, 3 days after the original day of travel, still no clarity of what happened.

I was on the phone earlier this morning with AAdvantage reservation agent, trying to do a post-mortem.

What I know now that I did not know before:
1. According to AA reservation phone agent, the cancellation was done 13 hours before the original scheduled flight with CX (which was scheduled on Oct 14 1am). Who initiated the cancellation and why, she cannot tell me.

2. Customer relations complaint is already submitted.

I can't think of any reason why would AA or CX cancel the outgoing portion, considering that the inbound is already flown. Plus, if the outbound was cancelled, why the AS portion from SEA to LAX was still intact.

When I looked back at the original itinerary and the schedule change communicated on Aug 26, the schedule change scope affects 2 things:

1. The AS leg from LAX to SEA was moved, from 430pm to 555pm (which requires change of flight number).
2. The AS leg from SEA to LAX did not have any change in time, only in flight number. The schedule stays at 825pm departure, with LAX arrival of 1059pm. I do not know what the MCT is for domestic to TBIT at LAX, but 2 hours 1 min seems to be enough, since I think TBIT has premium security line for business class passengers. What's interesting is that the original itinerary booked in Dec '14 has AS 450 from SEA to LAX at 825pm. Apparently AS 450 has changed to 855pm, and AS 476 is now the flight that leaves on 825pm, so that was the flight number on the modified itinerary.

I don't know if HUCA with AAdvantage phone agent will yield me more information. Any thoughts/comments? This is just my curiosity of wanting to know what transpired, since like I said, can't think of logical reason for the cancellation.

I looked that there are several threads about small claims court with AA on this forum. I don't know if I wanted to go there yet. For sure, I was not happy with the situation between having to spend $ for hotels, incidentals, flying down from SEA on last min award ticket to help out my folks, dealing with stress caused by diabetic meds that's about to run out for dad, skipping 1 day of work etc ...... If I hear zero from AA come Monday, I may go after them through SCC.

I will attempt to post updates here on the board.

Exec_Plat

Do not expect much more 'clarity' from AA. They messed up. Somehow they cancelled the CX portion following a simple schedule change. You will NOT get a telephone agent to say "oh, yes- agent 775496 looks like they failed to rebook you on the CX when they did the schedule change". While it is comforting to think of a booking as a cross linked, computer synced 'thing', there can be back office processes that are quite manual. IMO this is where your parents got screwed.

They MAY be decent about this and someone may say "yes, our bad- send the receipts and we will consider them". But odds are they will stonewall.

If your communication to them has been effective, complete and detailed, perhaps the agent will get the sense "here is someone who will not take no". Dunno. Make sure they understand that you are serious and you do have the 'resources' to press this claim with DOT and SCC. Also, I am not sure YOU can sue or if it is your parents...complicates things a bit.

Id see how this plays out over the next week or so.

MSPeconomist

I wouldn't mention small claims court or lawyers yet.

ijgordon

I would give them at least a week to respond. I imagine it would have to go through levels of approval to reimburse you cash for expenses incurred.

Then, you can maybe reach out again, give them another few days, and then pursue next steps, whether a DOT complaint or initiating something in SCC. I'd probably go the DOT route first, they tend to get results...