Friends of mine flying ZRH - LHR - IAD - MIA on Christmas signed in to their AAdvantage account and saw that their flight legs LHR - IAD and IAD - MIA got cancelled without notice. They called up the German American Airlines customer support and they were like "yeah I can see it in the system that there hasn't been sent out any information to you regarding the issue", over a month after it had already been cancelled. They said the flight had been cancelled because of being unconfirmed even though the money had been deducted right away. They had booked directly on the american airlines site so no third party was involved. The good side is that they got rebooked into Y fyling LHR - DFW - MIA while before they were in Q on the legs LHR - IAD and IAD - MIA, but now their layover is only 2 hours 10 minutes insted of 3h 40 minutes they had before. I honestly don't think that rerouting them, even if it's in Y, makes up for it at all. They only saw the flight was cancelled accidentally because they wanted to look into their flight status. Had they just flown to LHR they would have just been there wondering what the heck happened and they don't have a connecting flight anymore. Shouldn't they get reimbursed differently? Like miles or an upgrade at least?

It's not clear if this was a ticketing failure, a schedule change, or something else. AA's contractual obligations can't be known without that clarity.

Record Locator number was issued right away and the flight was in the system for a while and all of a sudden it was gone, meanwhile more than a month ago and they hadn't been notified about it at all

AA does not fly LHR-IAD on their own metal, most likely a BA flight with AA codeshare. Seems that BA may have been canceled and the notifications have not yet gone through the AA system.

This once again shows why you should always look at your reservations from time to time to catch issues like this an act accordingly for relacement schedule.

To answer your question, there is no way your friends are going to be able to leverage this into an upgrade. As for miles, tell them to write to AA and complain about the lack of notification. Maybe AA will throw some miles their way as a good will gesture.

Yes it's on BA metal but I still don't think this justifies not being notified about a flight cancellation. It's the same alliance so they should make it work better, right?

Plus only LHR - IAD was on BA metal, the leg IAD - MIA was on AA and got cancelled as well so that's not an excuse either

A record locator is not a ticket number. Did they ever receive a receipt showing that the itinerary had been ticketed?

Both received a confirmation email with ticket number and it was in the system as well. the first leg from ZRH to LHR as well as the return flights MIA - LHR - ZRH were also still in the system, only the two legs on the outgoing flight LHR - IAD and IAD - MIA got cancelled and no notice was sent out

What exactly is your complaint? It seems that it is lack of notification, understandably. Your friends have been accommodated, new routing issued, however it is a shorter layover/connection upon arrival into the US. Are your friends happy with the result, are they arriving earlier to their destination? Yes, No? They can easily complaint to AA regarding lack of notification and they will probably get some miles for the inconvenience. However, if they are not regular AA flyers, those miles will be useless as it will probably sit around on their account, if they have an AA account, unused. They have the option to get a routing that suits their needs. Typically in situations like this, I will first check for a better routing before contacting the carrier and then I will give it to them, instead of them looking for one.

They have the option of canceling the flight and getting a refund, miles will be the most common compensation, but for that, they need to complaint directly to AA. Upgrade, really? what about an upgrade for all the coach passengers that where on the same flight as your friends and where as inconvenienced as well? Seriously, there are not enough business/first class seat available to accommodate all of them.

I've had numerous issues like this in the past, what I've noticed is that AA will send notifications closer to flight date, rather than 2, 3, etc months before. This is why as I mentioned on my previous post, I check my reservations. I also use awardwallet as well to monitor my trips and I receive notifications as well when a flight change occurs. The early I act on it, the better the results are.

I think your friends should have gotten an e-mail with the flight changed information or if the flight was cancelled. You need to ask your friend if they got any contact from American with regards to the changed or cancelled flight.

I sign up for Flight Notifications and once I was booked on an itinerary where the partner carrier cancelled the flight and American sent me a notice of the change and I immediately called American and they switched me to an even better itinerary where I arrived at my destination earlier(which was my intention in the first place but the cost of the flight was more expensive).

So American booked me on an earlier flight with their partner that would cost me more and even got me seats at the front of the cabin for no additional charge and was good to go. The ticket was reticketed within the hour and I got the updated itinerary.

A really painless process and I even was able to ask American to extend the return for a few days later with no change fee due to the change in itinerary my Fare Code allowed for this and they waived the change fee. So I got to stay at my destination longer.

A Win Win in my book(:

I also check my itineraries twice a week. For instance I was promised a seat towards the front of the plane and one leg did not stick so I called back and saw the issue and the agent switched me to the better seat. Sometimes mistakes happen so this is why its good to keep tabs on your itinerary.

Although I have gotten Flight Itinerary Change Notifications I still am proactive and am on top of all of my itineraries. I think I am a bit OCD but it has paid off on more than one instance.

It's easy enough to check your flights one or two times a week. Also, monitoring "flight changed, what do I do" threads here can let you know when the monthly schedule adjustments occur. If you have a flight scheduled for that month, check them. I found that my vacation reservation had been changed, and was able to fix it right away.