jpdx

If your Amex bill is regularly over $50k a month and you buy $3900 shoes, it's probably not worth wasting time in small claims court over this particular pack of airline "peanuts."

Repooc17

or just F from the start. Would be a lot cheaper than upgrading last minute and save the aggravation.

dc10forlife

The issue isn't whether you flew in J or not, but rather whether you authorized the charge to your Amex account. AA needs to provide proof you authorized the charge (over and above what you already paid for the Y fare). If they cannot, you should win the dispute. Keep pushing on Amex at this point.

janetdoe

I don't understand why this is even a question. Dispute the charge with Amex, say it was unauthorized, you authorized a $3800 charge to upgrade one passenger, and AA told you on the phone that you would receive a complimentary upgrade due to your status.

I suspect that the AA ticket agents do not have the power to issue the refund, but their billing department certainly will. There is absolutely no way AA can prove you/your sister authorized the charge, so the CC dispute will work.

Amex will take care of you.

alfagirl

well, you clearly miss the point. Why pay for anything you never asked for?

alfagirl

Am Ex is NOT taking care of this, hence this post.

chuck1

Don't assume it's so easy to get the credit card to decide in your favor. I just went round and round with Hyatt and Chase Sapphire Reserve about a credit they promised but messed up. It took months and Chase wouldn't budge without Hyatt's approval.

tom911

When would you serve the "agent for service of process" versus going to an airport to serve? For instance, the California Secretary of State lists this information for AA (and I would guess other states maintain a similar database):

Is there some benefit in serving legal papers here versus your closest AA airport?

CloudCoder

There is definitely a misunderstanding between what the customer understood would happen and what the airline understood.

Customer believed Business Class upgrade was complimentary for a Platinum Pro.

Airline believes Business Class upgrade was a paid upfare.

Is the customer's understanding correct? I'm leaning towards "no". Here's why: AAgent reported one seat remaining in Biz. It's reasonable for that one seat to be held until the last minute. Let's get real. How many times have you cleared, six hours in advance, into a J1 inventory situation? I can't think of a single occasion. Airlines hold that last seat (sometimes the last 3 to 6 seats) for possible last-minute sale at big bux. If (and only if) the last seat isn't sold before the 30-minute mark, they assign it to the highest entry on the airport waitlist.

In my imagination, the exact words the AAgent used were: "There is one seat left in Business. You have a complimentary upgrade.".

What was implied but NOT spoken: "But you'll never clear because the waitlist is a mile long.".

Continuing the conversation: "Shall I put you into that one remaining Business Class seat?".

What was implied, not spoken, yet performed: "At the super-special last-minute high-roller price?"

Misunderstandings are unfortunate, especially when they're expensive.

Perhaps write to AA Customer Relations. Explain how it was definitely a miscommunication. The price was never disclosed. The AAgent mentioned the complimentary upgrade for which you had waitlisted. The AAgent did NOT make it clear that the upgrade was at additional cost. By mentioning the complimentary upgrade, and by NOT mentioning the additional cost, AAgent implied (and customer understood) that the complimentary upgrade had cleared. End the message by suggesting that the only correct remedy is to refund the $2700 surprise charge for the upfare to Biz.

ijgordon

I assume you've gone back and forth more than once with Amex?
And they still refuse to budge?
And that as soon as this is resolved (either way), you will end your relationship with them?

fairhsa

That's very surprising. The only good thing I can say about Amex is that they do sort this kind of thing out well. What are they saying? I must have missed that part.

SAN_Finn

Disagree big time. My Amex bill is much more than $50k at times but I would certainly take this all the way. I am shocked though if Amex doesn't help here, I've had nothing but excellent service from them (and I've been in the other end as a merchant also where Amex blindly believes a lying customer)

MT_Switch

Is there no voice recording for the phone call to settle this dispute once and for all?

NeedstoFly

The implication here is as long as u have the PNR for someone's ticket u can call in and make all sorts of changes with the resulting charges hitting that persons credit card. Doesn't seem right.

ijgordon

There's a definite general lack of security when it comes to accessing and changing reservations, but that's probably a broader issue and I don't think specific to AA, or even this case.

But I don't know if they will just use the card on file (i.e., used to pay for the original ticket) to also pay for changes. I'm think you usually have to give a new credit card, no? Maybe there's a dollar threshold? I do seem to recall when changing award tickets any change in taxes would just flow through to the card (either as a charge or refund, depending) but the amounts were usually pocket change. But when you call in for a mileage upgrade you have to give a new CC for the co-pay. And the OP in this case gave her sister's CC to up-fare her sister's ticket, whereas I understand the original tickets were purchased jointly on the OP's own CC.

Regardless, you can't call in and make changes that would benefit yourself on someone else's credit card, unless, of course, you have the credit card number.