CloudCoder

Several posts in this thread have suggested that Amex customer service is legendary and that Amex will go to bat for their customers. Well ... four months later, customer is still in the same boat. This might be a good time to start thinking outside the box.

kb9522

You seem unreasonably combative for someone soliciting advice. I can see why AA hasn't gone out of their way to help resolve this.

A previous poster said it best. You should have reviewed all documentation (or requested some if what was provided was inconclusive) following your initial call with AA to make sure all the changes were accurate. Having failed to do that, my advice would be to just pay the $2700, having learned a good lesson and be thankful it wasn't a very expensive mistake.

MSPeconomist

My sense is that AmEx currently very much differentiates the level of customer service based on the type (regular charge card versus affiliated credit card) and "color" of card you have.

alfagirl

No, I was not trying to be combative and that is not my nature. I responded to the post in kind, trying to defend myself (if that is unreasonable in your eyes, you are entitled to your opinion). Is your second sentence polite or as I see it 'unreasonably combative?'

I should ignore the rude and useless, but it is difficult.

It is just that a few of the responses are bordering on rude and that particular poster was snide several times. I was stooping to his/her level and should not have. I wanted advice, not judgment.

I have already stated that, yes, I should have immediately checked the accounts, but didn't as I wanted to get a few hours of sleep before our 6 a.m. flight. We did call AA as soon as we saw the charge 'pending.'

I did want advice, got a few nuggets and Am Ex is now requesting the actual documentation from AA, rather than just the flight record.

C17PSGR

Good luck!

I don't see anything fishy ... although I'll leave the sister relations to the side

In reality, it seems to me "what we've got here is failure to communicate."

The AA agent likely understood that you were seeking to upgrade both of you and wasn't trying to do anything fishy. This seems very likely since you were paying to upgrade your sister.

On the other hand, you were fine with staying in MCE, and taking your chances on the upgrade (which I still think was very unlikely).

LINDEGR

Lordy, I'd hate to know what qualifies to you as an expensive mistake!

kb9522

Marriage and kids are at the top of the list.

mikeyp224

I find it almost impossible to believe that with only ONE open seat a complimentary upgrade would have cleared a day before on an LAX-JFK flight. It's generally been my experience that with just one remaining premium class seat, American will hold it for paying customers until about an hour before boarding. If there are no takers then it goes to the first person on the upgrade list.

I think there might have been a little misunderstanding here between OP and the agent who they were speaking with.

Often1

Amex customer service may differ by value of the customer and that reflects itself in chargebacks because Amex may choose to absorb a chargeback itself for a HVC.

But, this is not that sort of dispute. We aren't talking about someone who got charged for a venti and received a grande.

What I don't understand is how OP got a freebie UG on this particular service with so few seats. I suspect that -- initially authorized or not -- AA upgraded OP based on a cash purchase and OP then flew the upgrade, so AA won't issue a refund.

It's a bit of a tough argument to make after the fact that you didn't want to pay, but you still flew.

NoTravelIsFree

Hopefully your kids don't qualify as a mistake.