dougmh

TL; DR: family of 4 with confirmed FCO-MAD-ORD-XXX itinerary booked and paid for via AA.com not allowed to check in as seats not rebooked by AA agent on codeshare partner (Iberia) at some point, resulting in $200-250 in expenses and >24h delay in arrival at final destination. Compensation due? How to get it?

I'm looking for advice regarding compensation due related to a recent misadventure with AA.

Last week we were booked to fly FCO-MAD-ORD-XXX. Upon arrival to FCO at 5 AM for our 7:45AM flight we went to checkin. The initial leg was on Iberia so we went to the Iberia desk to checkin. After a 30-45 minute wait in line the agent at the desk stated that our tickets had been changed and we no longer had seats on the FCO-MAD flight. She also stated there was nothing she could do to help and referred us to the AA desk. We went to the AA desk only to find they did not open until 8AM.

I called the AA reservation/ticket line at 1-800-433-7300. By now it is 5:45AM. After a 10 minute hold I reach an agent who starts to work on the situation.
Around 6:30-6:45 the agent tells us she thinks she can get us on the Iberia flight. I pointed out the time to departure and the fact that we would have to clear the Iberia line (still 30-45 minutes long), security, and immigration in an hour. She didn't think that was possible.

Over the course of the next 2 hours on hold she tells me that what happened is at some point there was a schedule change and an AA agent was supposed to rebook our Iberia flight but didn't. Unfortunately this all coincided with the winter storm last week and there were very few options for rebooking. We were ultimately rebooked on FCO-MUC-PHL-XXX, leaving at 6:50PM, requiring an overnight stay in MUC and getting us to our destination ~24h after originally scheduled. The agent told me that was our only other option was to return on January 11.

We were not offered any compensation for the delay or any assistance in the form of meals, accommodation or transportation. I did not ask while on the phone with the AA agent because I was exhausted by the early hour and the long hold times and distracted by my children. I realize I probably should have. The delay incurred ~200-250 in additional expenses in the form of food, transportation and the cost of a hotel room for 4 in Munich.

All flights were booked on AA.com and paid for with cash as a single itinerary approximately 9 months ago.
In August our outgoing flight was changed from XXX-ORD-MAD-FCO to XXX-PHL-FCO due to a broken connection in MAD after a schedule change. The return leg was not affected.
The entire itinerary was confirmed in September and in fact this leg had not changed since booking in March.

I believe this is an involuntarily denied boarding situation and should be covered by EC261 resulting in compensation of 600 eu pp as well as expenses incurred as our itinerary was >3500km and the delay was >4h. I have contacted AA customer service through their web form but have not received any response after ~60 hours. The catch is that we were never even allowed to check in and never made it to the gate despite presenting ourselves ~3h prior to scheduled departure.

Is that a reasonable interpretation?
Has anyone had a similar experience?
What was the outcome?
Is there a better way to contact AA to get a response?

ckx2

I assume the IB codeshare was sold and marketed with AA flight no?

EU261 + compensation for the costs incurred (hotel) have to be paid by AA. They will most likely offer you vouchers (or nothing in the first place). Keep pushing. If you want cash, don't accept the vouchers and stand your ground. AA has no choice on this one.

dougmh

Yes, the flight had an AA flight no but was Iberia metal. All legs were purchased on AA.com as a single itinerary.

dickinson

You will undoubtedly obtain EU261 compensation for 4 plus expenses; ckx2 posted excellent advice. Maybe it was worth it for all the compensation you will get, but I have to wonder why a 5+ years FT member wouldn't have been checking the itinerary online prior to travel. Not that it makes this snafu your fault, but it seems the problem could easily have been avoided.

dougmh

I did check the itinerary online before the flight. AA had confirmed the itinerary and it was listed as such on the aa app and the website.

Andriyko

Why do you say that compensation will be paid undoubtedly? Compensation is paid by the operating carrier, but in this case the OP had no ticket so IB did not accept them for the flight. I don't think IB is liable in this case. Any recourse should be against AA, which screwed up majorly here, but I don't know how the OP may claim compensation under the EU Reg from AA for the failure to reissue the ticket.

ckx2

OP should have enough substantial proof that he was issued a ticket in the first place. Just because there are IT hiccups does not prevent EU261 from being applied. While indeed EU261 must be claimed against Iberia, with the proof that a ticket has been bought from aa.com, the compensation for the hotel should be claimed with AA (as they have messed up the ticket in the first place).

Andriyko

But IB is either liable under the EU Reg or it is not. If it is then it must pay for everything, including the hotels, meals, etc (duty of care).

dougmh

beachfan

Sorry for your troubles.

one must check up on the flight with the operating carrier, not the issuing carrier.

Dave Noble

The operating carrier seems to have denied boarding due to not having a ticket - which is a valid reason to deny boarding without compensation

If you were booked on an IB flight number orginally, then IB would have been liable to rebook and if you were booked on an IB number , the cancellation and rebooking failure would give you an entitlement
If you were booked on an AA codeshare , I an not convinced that you have entitlement to EC261 compensation

Andriyko

But it is not only a matter of where you where departing from but also why you were denied boarding. You did not hold a ticket for the flight so the airline rightfully denied boarding. You can of course show sufficient proof that your original itinerary was ticketed, but whether it will be convincing argument for Iberia is to be seen. I don't see how IB will agree to pay compensation to a passenger that did not have a ticket for the flight, while AA will deny because it was not the operating carrier (although it did cause the mess) and the Reg does not apply to travel agents (which AA was for the purpose of the IB flight). It is a really messed up situation as you were really injured and deserve compensation but the entity that caused it all seems to be out of scope of the EU Reg.

Often1

EC 261/2004 is clear. It applies to the operating carrier only. The operating carrier denying boarding (and causing delay) was IB. But OP did not have a valid IB ticket, so IB will deny the claim for denied boarding, delay, and duty of care as a valid denial of boarding. That is the way the Regulation is written.

AA was not the operating carrier and ---- if you accept the IB version as true ---- will likely make good on OP's reasonable expenses during the 24+ hours and may toss in some miles or a credit (but not cash) as a customer service gesture.

AA will likely respond to OP's claim, although it will likely take a good 30+ days. Hopefully it was a great deal shorter than the OP here as AA (and IB) both have all of the details.

For the benefit of others, it was indeed AA which needed to fix the ticket (presuming that IB is being fully truthful). While it should not be the passenger's job, it is absolutely the best practice to check your e-tickets and reservations after any change is made of any kind, whether it is made by the carrier or by the passenger. If the tickets were not properly reissued by AA, that would have been evident online (or by phone) and could have been fixed. The problem here was that the time to fix this ran out, The only time IB would be involved is if there were a valid ticket and IRROPS then occurred on the day of the flight. IB would then handle the reroute.

fedechat

I'm with the OP, I had the similar issue back in Feb 2017, my return was LIN-MAD-MIA, all IB flights with AA codeshare and I remember AA had a schedule change on the outbound (USA-Milan on AA) so I got reticketed. I was able to select my seats from AA website (after a redirection to IB website) but I was unable to check in at T24, I called AA and they said everything was good but when I arrived at the Airport IB was unable to check me in because it was missing the eticket or if was not confirmed. I called AA and they said everything was confirmed, and told them to check with Oneworld Desk, they did that and they found I was not confirmed with IB, so the agent re-ticketed and I should get an email in less than 20 minutes, that never happened (sometimes take more than that), so I called again and the agent call to another department to do it right away. I was lucky because I arrived on time and I was not checking any luggage, but I almost miss my flight because the cutoff time for check-in.

So for those who said you need to call IB, they will tell you that you have to call AA and most of the time in this cases, they will say everything is ok.

warakorn

There should not be any immigration check at FCO, since you flew within Schengen (FCO-MAD). Did you have to pass an immigration checkpoint at FCO?

Iberia is liable to pay EC261/2004 compensation.
You had a valid ticket. Due to a schedule change (most likely caused by Iberia) your ticket went out of sync. This is not your problem.