EXP Agent accidentally cancelled companion's BA ticket, who should pay to replace?
 

I booked IAD-LHR-ARN and back via AA on code share BA flights about a month ago for myself (AA EXP) and a friend (no status). I decided I'd like to move my ARN-LHR return flight earlier, while my companion will stay in Stockholm and take the originally booked later flight, then we would both meet up on the originally booked LHR-IAD return leg.

I call the EXP Line to make this change and pay the change fee. I take my early ARN-LHR flight without incident but when my friend showed up at ARN to take his flight, BA had no ticket under his name and showed that it had been canceled and not rebooked. He called me, and I conferenced in AA, who said they have no record of making any changes to our flights at all.

This was the last flight out for the day and we both need to leave LHR tomorrow so instead of arguing with AA he buys a full price ARN-LHR ticket from BA at the airport, which is obviously not cheap at all.

Between the change fee and new ticket cost it's just under $1000 USD. I emailed AA to get more info on what "no record of changes" means but haven't heard back... Any thoughts on the best approach here?

FWIW - been thinking of moving to Delta for 2018 after 6 years of AA/US Airways so this whole disaster might just push me over the edge regardless of outcome.

Was this originally book under one PNR?
When did you make changes to your ARN-LHR ticket?
Did any email confirmation was received indicating the changes? What did it said?
Did any email confirmation was received indicating the cancellation of the return portion of your friends ticket?
At this point, you have no idea on what happened, but it is best to go back to AA and have them look into what occurred on your call.

Well, for starters, don't YOU have proof the your changes in the form of old and new (exchange) ticket numbers, credit card charges for change fees and the like?

They were booked under the same record locator but "split" by AA when I changed my itinerary, record locator only shows me.
Made changes to my ARN-LHR ticket on 11/27, departing on 11/28. I moved up to an early morning flight instead of the last one out.
I have email confirmation of my changes but because they split the tickets his confirmation should have been emailed to him. Unfortunately we didn't check and no email ever made it his way - but honestly I rarely check the emails they send me and trust that AA booked what they said they did... which is a habit I guess I need to get out of.

Yupp, copies of all of that. Minus an updated record locator for my companion (see response above) which was a dumb move on my part. BA has him under a new record locator on the original LHR-IAD flight though, so AA did split tickets and rebook him there. I guess they just neglected to include the ARN-LHR segment?

So AA split the PNR and changed your flight, but somehow managed to delete a segment on the new PNR that should not have been changed? I'm having a hard time imagining how such a mistake could be made.

That seems to be correct. I am equally confused/surprised/flabbergasted that this was possible. In retrospect, I was put on a 15+ minute hold when I called while the agent figured out how to do this so maybe that should have been a red flag for me.

Ok, one PNR on original booking and your friend has no status, most likely when reservation was split, did they asked for his email address to send his confirmation details?, if not, then "new" booking may have gone to your email address as well as it was still linked to the original booking info. This is key. Look for this info, and then go back to AA and fight it out. FYI, the same issue can occur with any carrier, the key is to check on the confirmation email afterwards, which you did not, this could have saved time and money.

This is going to be an uphill battle, trying to get reimbursed for a $1,000 cash outlay which may have effectively been voluntary.
A few questions, for completeness:
1) When did you make the change to your ticket? While you were in ARN or before the initial trip?
2) Any reason your friend didn't try to do online checkin in advance of the ARN-LHR flight?
3) How early before the flight did your friend arrive at ARN and what was the timeline of discussions with AA/BA that led up to your friend purchasing the walk-up ticket

As I mentioned, it's probably going to be an uphill battle. But here's how I would proceed. I think the correspondence will have to come from your friend:
1) File the complaint with AA via their web form. Try to be as concise as you can while providing all the relevant information. Good chance they'll tell you to pound sand. Try another back-and-forth.
2) Consider escalating the complaint within AA by mailing the correspondence to the CEO at the corporate headquarters. There is an executive staff there that deals with this type of stuff.
3) Concurrent with #2 , file a complaint with the Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection Division. Sometimes this can result in a more favorable response.
4) Be prepared to file suit in small claims court. It's reportedly easy and inexpensive to do, and has proven effective for some as a last resort. Reasonable chance AA may try to settle, perhaps not for the full amount, but it's probably your best hope.

Good luck.

PS, Don't bother going the credit card chargeback route, the $1000 purchase with BA will be seen as legit; it won't be tied to the snafu on behalf of AA.

They did not ask for his email nor did an updated PNR with his info on it make it to my email, just double checked. It's odd that only one leg was cancelled and that he's still ticketed (according to BA in ARN at least) on our LHR-IAD leg tomorrow. I guess we'll find out tomorrow if there's any problems there.

Yeah I know this can happen to any carrier - just super displeased with being blown off today by AA. I definitely could have done a better job double checking email confirmations but I'm doing a couple new bookings a week with AA, and have been for years with basically no problems, so I tend to just ignore the emails. Obviously moving forward I'll be double checking though!

Very much appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Another thing to consider for future reference, check price on round trip ticket vs one way, might be cheaper. One way ARN-LHR is$300 tomorrow, vs $250 if you booked round trip, just do not show up on the return.

What are your thoughts about initiating a $1,000 charge-back on the friend's original ticket, since ARN-LHR transportation was purchased, but not provided?

1) made the change to my ticket while in ARN
2) no particular reason he didn't check in online, wasn't checking a bag or anything so was just planning on grabbing boarding pass from the self service kiosk
3) he arrived ~2.5 hours before departure. BA looked on there end for about 15 min before calling me then it took me another 15 minutes to get someone from AA on the line but that call lasted <5 min because the agent basically said "there's no record of any change, not sure what you want me to do here" and I was on a bad international phone connection. We also purchased the walk up ticket with full knowledge that it is possible we'll be SOL on the cost, but that's a less than ideal outcome.

Appreciate you thoughts on next steps. I've already filled out a complaint, though I did it under my name with the thinking that they might take this more seriously given status vs some random flyer.

I hadn't thought of mailing a hard copy, great idea. Do you suggest the address in the wiki here as the best point of contact?

RE small claims court, any idea if it matters where that would end up being filed? Given that this issue occurred between two EU countries do you think it's worth complaining to anyone there in addition to FAA? I was stuck in Vienna during the BA Bank Holiday meltdown and got like $600 within days on complaining via the EU specific form.

Hmmm interesting idea. We were both booked together though, and there's really no reason to charge back my portion of the ticket as I've had a satisfactory experience so far... I did book with Amex Plat, so a very consumer friendly card, but that still doesn't seem fair.

Does the AMEX card offer travel insurance that might cover the failure of AA to provide ARN-LHR on the ticket you purchased? Might be more productive than a chargeback.

So much here on how NOT to make itinerary changes ... lack of new confirmations n numbers documented, expectation that companion would receive their new ticket magically without an email given, failure to check own email to confirm the change, likely failed to check online account for documentation of change etc.

good luck making headway with AA... not surprised they fouled this up for the OP.