Refundable, fully flexible tickets - but with penalties / fees
I was looking for a fully refundable fare on AA for a trip from DFE-SYD and thought that was I purchased on the website by selecting the refundable option. I even called the agent after I purchased to confirm . When I had to cancel my trip I find out there's a $600 fee .. grrr !!
Am I wrong in thinking this is deceptive ? |
Not really deceptive, since the fare rules do state that there is a cancellation penalty
Fares which are refundable subject to cancellation penalties are pretty common Was this a business/first class fare since $600 seems high for AA's economy fares |
Originally Posted by Dave Noble
(Post 27442788)
Not really deceptive, since the fare rules do state that there is a cancellation penalty
Fares which are refundable subject to cancellation penalties are pretty common Was this a business/first class fare since $600 seems high for AA's economy fares |
Except that the website does not say fully refundable , only refundable
Fares which are refundable minus a penalty are very common If searching for flights, there are columns when searching on lowest fare of Main Cabin Premium Economy Business First If switching to the "refundable" tab , the options are Main Cabin Main Canin Fully Flexible Business Flexible First Flexible The Main cabin fully flexible is indeed refundable with no penalty |
Originally Posted by Dave Noble
(Post 27442822)
Except that the website does not say fully refundable , only refundable
Fares which are refundable minus a penalty are very common If searching for flights, there are columns when searching on lowest fare of Main Cabin Premium Economy Business First If switching to the "refundable" tab , the options are Main Cabin Main Canin Fully Flexible Business Flexible First Flexible The Main cabin fully flexible is indeed refundable with no penalty I think any reasonable person would expect a "Refundable" fare to be, well, Refundable. No gimmicks, no fees, no 'gotchas'. Refundable should be a simple term. |
Originally Posted by Phasers
(Post 27443868)
I think any reasonable person would expect a "Refundable" fare to be, well, Refundable. No gimmicks, no fees, no 'gotchas'. Refundable should be a simple term.
That said, AA could do more to clearly disclose which fares are which. |
Originally Posted by rjw242
(Post 27444103)
Except, of course, it's not. A refund can be available in full or in part, and this isn't just an airline industry phenomenon.
That said, AA could do more to clearly disclose which fares are which. Deceptive means "likely to make someone believe something that is not true." :D |
It would be less confusing if these fares were labeled as partially refundable. Many people think refundable means fully refundable.
|
If this is what I think it is, a J seat on the QF code-share DFW-SYD, the first disclosure for the ticket is:
CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CHARGE USD 600.00 FOR CANCEL/REFUND. There are tons of refundable/flexible fare buckets which carry penalties. That said, if OP asked about the penalty and was told there was none, he should send a short note to AA noting the date and approximate time of his call. AA may have a "recording" of the call and, if it does and the agent misstated the rules, as a customer service matter, AA will generally honor the agent's error. On a $10,100 ticket, I would never rely on anything other than a close reading. Making a dummy online booking for random dates, finding the above disclosure took <1 minute before entering personal details. |
You need to read the Fare Rules. Period.
Though admittedly AA makes the fare rules hard to find, but it is already better than UA which requires you to go thru Catchy in order to read the fare rules! |
Originally Posted by Happy
(Post 27445931)
You need to read the Fare Rules. Period.
Though admittedly AA makes the fare rules hard to find, but it is already better than UA which requires you to go thru Catchy in order to read the fare rules! Most international C/F fares that aren't booked as J, D, or F, often have cancellation and change penalties in the $400-$600 neighborhood. Fully refundable are available, but you're going to pay thru the nose for them. I use these fares quite a bit as my company will buy them if they're cheaper than coach (about the only time they'll consider it), or I buy up to them from a Y fare out of my own pocket. The $500 or so risk to me is worth it considering my flight will be much more comfortable. UA offers these fares as well, but they call them flexible rather than refundable to denote that there may be penalties associated with changes and refunds. |
More on this topic from this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...are-rules.html And on a related note (non-refundable vs. non-changeable): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...al-ticket.html I think there was another one that got fairly contentious on that topic as well. The common theme is that you have to read the fine print because AA's disclosures on the fare rules are, at best, lacking. |
Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 27445474)
If this is what I think it is, a J seat on the QF code-share DFW-SYD, the first disclosure for the ticket is:
CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CHARGE USD 600.00 FOR CANCEL/REFUND. There are tons of refundable/flexible fare buckets which carry penalties. That said, if OP asked about the penalty and was told there was none, he should send a short note to AA noting the date and approximate time of his call. AA may have a "recording" of the call and, if it does and the agent misstated the rules, as a customer service matter, AA will generally honor the agent's error. On a $10,100 ticket, I would never rely on anything other than a close reading. Making a dummy online booking for random dates, finding the above disclosure took <1 minute before entering personal details. What more could I have done, I've written to customer service and they're response was too bad. Do you think AA could find the voice recording of my call ? Sunil |
So when I go on aa.com and look for RT flights between PHL and ORD, I can go under the "Lowest Fare" tab and see flight after flight for $255. There are two subsidiary tabs, "Main Cabin" and "First". When I click on "Main Cabin", the following info appears:
Main Cabin Preferred seats on American flights Eligible for upgrades on American flights Up to 1 EQM per mile flown on eligible flights Flight changes allowed (fee applies) Main Cabin Flexible Preferred seats on American flights Eligible for upgrades on American flights Up to 1 EQM per mile flown on eligible flights Flight changes allowed (fee applies) I give. Why would you ever prefer a "Main Cabin Flexible" to a "Main Cabin" ticket? (No points for saying "to trick employer into subsidizing status by racking up more EQDs.") I know, I know ... read the fine print somewhere else. But in search of what? |
Originally Posted by sunil
(Post 27455493)
Do you think AA could find the voice recording of my call ?
Sunil (My situation was that I had booked a roundtrip ticket and called to pay the difference to upgrade my outbound flight to F, I paid the difference -- but it turned out that the agent replaced my roundtrip with a ticket for only a one-way outbound in F, even though my online reservation appeared to remain intact. I traveled outbound but was unable to check in for the return and was told I'd changed & canceled it and the return would now be $600 or whatnot, and they fixed it all up. Now, my small part of contributory negligence, perhaps analogous to yours in failing to read the fare rules, was that when I paid the difference in fare, I [though I had no real way to know] paid only the difference between my purchased rt Y ticket and a one-way F, removing the cost of the return Y leg, which was not too much at the time it was bought, but which was still something. But that didn't matter -- AA made it right.) Good luck. |
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