dciolli

I put a flight on hold last night (expires 11:59pm tonight) that I just tried to purchase. AA.com says the reservation was canceled, which I never did. I've canceled many flights before and it takes quite a few clicks, so I couldn't have clicked it by mistake.

I just got off the phone with the EXP Desk and Web Services, and they said nothing can be done now that the fare is no longer offered. They are adamant that I canceled it online. I've HUCA a few times to no avail.

Any thoughts?

Dave Noble

is it more than 24 hours since the hold was made?

AA is only obliged to guarantee the fare for 24 hours. If the fare has expired and 24 hours had passed since went to pay, I think that you may be out of luck

dciolli

Yes, I held it at 11:00am yesterday but the email states it's held until 11:59pm tonight. However, I understand your point about guaranteeing it for 24 hours. I've done this process numerous times and it's the first I've had this problem.

Fortunately, the reservation is a few months out, so hopefully the fare will come back down. It's really frustrating that AA's system is showing that I canceled it, which I can say with 100% certainty didn't happen.

Dave Noble

What was the dates/route and can have a look if there was a fare that expired yesterday

if it was, then not surprised that once the 24 hours was up, that the reservation cancelled , since the fare would no longer be valid

bworrell

I've had that happen before -- don't believe the time that AA says the hold is for... just calculate the 24 hours yourself.

bo1953

To be sure, if the flight was booked at 11.00a, the 24 hour time window is closed at 11.00a the following morning or am I missing something here? Irrespective of what the email indicates, 24 hours is 24 hours.

I think you risked it by believing the email without calling to verify the time, although it most likely could have been the local time from where the email was sent possibly which was not your time zone?

Hopefully you can find something other which suits you, sorry you lost it initially.

Have a good trip.

GNRMatt

From a legal perspective, yes, you need to purchase within 24 hours to meet the DOT guidelines. However, if AA sent you an e-mail stating you had until 11:59 PM, they broke a promise that you have in writing. I would continue to pursue this as they should honor what they told you via e-mail. I'd even report this to DOT since they made a promise to a customer and did not keep it. If AA doesn't like this, they need to fix their poor IT systems so that it actually shows the correct time (although we all know this won't happen).

ckx2

And people are wondering why they want to get rid of such features.

swag

The DOT 24 hour hold rules no longer apply, since AA switched to offering 24 hour refunds instead. So the only guarantee is what AA promises, but that's always been until 11:59 the next day.

I've ticketed held fares beyond 24 hours, fares that are from sales no longer being offered, fares from buckets that had since sold out, and even fares where the minimum purchase deadline had passed. 10 or 15 years ago, occasionally a held reservation would show a price increase, but a call to web services would always restore the original price; but I haven't seen that in a long time, and even then, the reservation wasn't canceled.

Could this have been a time zone issue? Looks like OP posted close to midnight, so perhaps after midnight in the time zone the reservation was held in. That's usually (always?) the time zone of the initial departure city. The email from the hold should clearly show the time zone for the deadline.

dciolli

Web Services was adamant that I manually canceled the reservation, so I don't think this is an issue of the fare expiring after 24 hours. I've used this feature numerous times and have always been able to purchase the reservation until 11:59 PST the following day.

I just made another dummy reservation and confirmed the only way for me to cancel is find the reservation, click on "Cancel Trip", and then "Confirm" on the following screen. I can understand if I accidentally clicked the wrong button while reviewing the reservation, but there's no way I confirmed it on the following screen.

It's water under the bridge at this point. It's 4 months away and I'm sure the fares will return. Just curious to know if anyone else had this problem before.

ebuck

You didn't by any chance accidentally have two reservations on hold for the same departure date? That will trigger an auto-cancellation.

jordyn

This is not true. AA can't tell you they're holding the fare until a certain time and then arbitrarily change their mind. Just like airlines that offer 24 hour cancellations for tickets booked within 7 days of the flight, they're not obliged to adopt such a policy, but once they do they can't just declare after the fact that they're not going to do what they promised.

To OP--if web services is adamant you cancelled online, and you're sure you didn't ask them if you can get information about the time and IP address used. There's an outside chance someone has hacked your account, but it's unlikely this would be what they'd do with the access if so.

jordyn

It's pretty reasonable to expect that any business that tells you something in writing actually means it, and equally reasonable to expect them to live up to it. If AA intends to offer a hold until midnight the next day, I'd assume their reaction on realizing that their system is not doing so would be "let's fix our system so it does what it's supposed to" not "we should change our rules to match the programming bug". (Having said that, this is all kind of a silly conversation as no one at AA is claiming that the issue here is 24 hours vs. midnight; that's just speculation by FlyerTalkers in direct contradiction to the information provided by OP.)

dciolli

Thanks for the suggestion. I will call them now and get the information. I just changed my password to be safe.

Dave Noble

It can allow bookings to be held for as long as it wishes, but doesn't need to guarantee the fare any longer than that required by DOT.

Where does AA state that it will guarantee the fare om a free hold beyond 24 hours ?

If the fare was still a valid fare for sale and it is the cancellation of the hold that has led to being unable to get that fare, then indeed should pursue it

If there was no longer a fare for that held class, then there is not much to do

Knowing the flight information, could check if there was a fare that had a must ticket by of the previous day and once the 24 hours was up, was no longer valid for purchase