"Thank you for contacting American Airlines Customer Relations. From what I read, it's clear that we let you down while rebooking you on your recent flight. I'm so sorry. And I see you are dealing with a diversion now. That certainly isn't the experience we want our customers to have. I will be able to ask our refunds department to refund the difference in fare for our mistake. And I have verified you should be able to call our Executive Platinum desk once you get closer to your flight on the 18th, and be able to resolve the seat issue.



As a solid way of saying we are sorry, I've credited 10,000 bonus miles to your AAdvantage® account. This adjustment should be reflected in your account very soon.



Mr. PDBDrinker, while your recent experience with us was not the best, I hope you will give us another try. The next time you travel with us, we'll do our best to make sure your trip is a good one."

Diversion? There was no diversion. Also, I shouldn't have to call to get my return taken out of B.

This is funny I just got an answer to my complaint too. I got 5k miles and my wife 5k miles. So at the end we got the same 10k miles I guess?

Gary Leff reports on this issue in Boarding Area:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....nsive-tickets/

As he states, AA agents can avoid doing this, and the issue can be rectified.

And as we know some agents seem poorly versed, and the imposed QIK interface on Sabre may add a layer of difficulty.

I presume that QIK will not permit a front line agent to touch a BE ticket in order to prevent overrides of exactly what BE fares are supposed not to permit.

This leaves agents unable to help people who get dumped into these fare buckets in error.

It goes without saying that there are people at AA who have the authority to override anything, it is simply that the front line agent has no immediate way to reach that person.

In this limited situation, I am of the view that it will speed things along if people file a DOT complaint when they are improperly dumped into BE. That is because the fare restrictions are not compatible with the commitments made in the e-ticket receipt.

It is critical that the DOT complaint focus on the BE issue and not on service failures and the other miseries associated with IRROPS and that it be clear that the passenger is not complaining about BE as a product.

This is software stuff and avoidable. The question is how AA prioritizes the fix. If DOT nudges, the fix may come sooner.

Why not just rebook in full Y like they sometimes do? I find the IRROPS rebooking in Y does two things, it gives the tickets max flexibility and the extra EQMs can do a good job at getting most pax to shut up and not come back asking for more. If crediting to a different program, the extra miles gained from full Y can also do a good job at getting those pax to not complain.

Not only that, but during IROPS, isn't Y usually the only fare class that tends to be availalble? It's interesting that if, for example, a flight has 1 seat left, in the past that'd limit it to Y1 meaning any competent agent would rebook into full Y. But now, if the systems are set up that an agent sees Y1 B1 and all other fare classes zeroed out, they're trained to book into the lowest fare class which would be B. The algorithm is off...big time.

I was flying SJU-MIA-LAX on Saturday (AA1091, AA275), both were purchased in I (Business). Because of the MX delay on the inbound flight for AA1091, I was going to miss my connection in MIA. At the check-in counter, the agent noticed that I was put on AA1147, but in B class, and without a seat assignment. Fortunately, the SJU station manager was at the counter (dealing with the delayed 1091 as well as the SJU-JFK that was dinged with a 3 hour delay), so he was able to override the re-ticketing and eventually re-issued the ticket into I class.

Wow.
So even booking business class doesn't avoid BE.

Yeah, because of all of the issues associated with that itinerary, I should have taken the SJU station manger's offer of a hotel and meal vouchers in SJU and tried again for Sunday.

I am sorry that the OP was rebooked into Basic Economy. I thought there would be a terms that you have to agree to along with the stipulations that no upgrades seats reserved at checkin only and no overhead bin space. Wouldn't the agent who booked you in B have had to agree to these terms and realize that she/he was rebooking you in a lower booking code that you did not agree to?

AA should be able to refare you back to your original Fare Code since the downgrade to B fare was against your will for no additional costs and that you should be number one on the Upgrade List. Also I hope you were not assigned to a middle seat at the back of the plane. Is there a way for an agent to ovveride the system to upgrade you and /or to assign you a Premium Seat and waive the cost? If you go to a red coat agent they should be able to waive the stipulations and have AAdvantage credit you the mileage difference between the B mistake fare and your original fare.

Did the OP ask to be rebooked in his/her original fare code? Did AA warn the OP that the B fare was only available? Wouldn't it have showed up on the AA.Com Itinerary at the time of rebooking?

I hope you get this resolved OP and you report back to us.

See post #16

Sunday was even worse - I did that same route, both tickets also purchased in I. AA1091 was late to the gate at MIA, causing me to miss the connection onto AA275. I was rebooked onto AA1147 in economy, which ended up being delayed 3 hours, so total time spent at the airport was nearly 8 hours.

I've been trying since then to get some type of compensation, but have gotten nowhere. Last time something like this happened to me on UA, I was immediately given a $500 voucher and a refund between the face value of the tickets. AA has been completely unhelpful, does anyone have any suggestions?

Were you rebooked into B?

DOT complaint guidance
 

Often1 very sensibly suggests a DOT complaint in order to increase the likelihood sure that the right people at AA are alerted, and that the problem is fixed in full. That rings true to me. Note that the best way to escalate in this way is via a "formal" DOT complaint, procedure at http://www.benedelman.org/dot-complaints/ , not the informal process at https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escompla...nsumerForm.cfm . The formal complaint goes straight to AA lawyers, not customer service staff, and AA will be required to respond to the entire interested public and officially and on the record. Much more accountability this way.

Sorry for everyone who got their flights booked into B. I think when I get this screwed over by the EXP desk for my next flights, I will have to specify 'do not book into B' due to the fact that it is Basic Economy. I hope that another call or Admirals Club agents can fix the tix immediately.

I thought for ACs or EXP desks, they can technically overbook people in Y and take out the B segment of the customers, or manually open inventories in the case of IRROPs, no?