phillyjoe

This happened last week during a predicted snowstorm for ORD.

I was booked PHL/ORD/LAX. During online check in, a red flag came up for a weather alert, saying I could change my booking if other flights were available. I've done this several times in the past to avoid snow in Chicago .

But, when I tried to switch to a non-stop or to a different connection city, I was told I could only change to other PHL/ORD/LAX flights. I did HUCA twice, I tried online, and I tried at the Admirals Club; always, the answer was the same: I needed the same departure/destination pair (of course) but also the same connection city, in this case the place where the weather was. That made no sense. I understand this is the case for same-day flight change without fee--but for a weather alert?

My connection was several hours before the snows, so I wasn't effected. But did I miss something?

dkc192

Did you check if a similar weather alert was posted on AA.com for your travel dates and/or explicitly mention the weather alert to the agents? You're right, it seems like the agents you dealt with were trying to do a SDFC (which, BTW, requires a $75 fee for non-EXP pax). For whatever reason, they might not have been aware of the weather alert/waiver.

phillyjoe

Alert was mentioned and I did mention it. Each person said I needed the same connection city. As stated, I was actually coming through before the storm, but still within the stated window of the alert.

dkc192

Those agents were all wrong, especially since your connecting city was the one affected by the alert. Sorry to hear of your experience, but glad you made it through okay. Next time I would have either escalated to a supervisor on the phone and/or pushed harder for the AC agents to make the change you were seeking (not sure if there are "supervisors" at any/all ACs).

CPRich

I changed MSP-ORD-PIT to MSP-DCA-PIT last Friday because of the weather warnings. On-line didn't give me the option, but doing it by phone was quick and easy.

Having to connect through the city with the weather causing the problem makes no sense.

JDiver

I’m not sure about “weather alerts”, but AA has a “travel alerts” page that lists current travel alerts and waivers.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/travel-alerts.jsp

If it’s listed there, the terms and conditions are always shown. I’ve had agents push back - hard - until I had them pull up the AA travel alerts and pointed out word for word the changes I wanted (changing SXM to BGI for flights to the USA) were allowed. (This particular agent stubbornly made up the wrong date for the end of applicable policy.)

869

Another example of AA's awful routing integrity rules gone wrong. Get over yourself and help your customers help themselves, Dougie.

AAdamE

I was originally scheduled to travel on 2/9 from ORD->LAX, and was offered two flights on 2/8 ORD->SEA->LAX (departing at 5PM or ORD->CLT->LAX departing at 3PM. While the first route made more sense, I wanted to get our earlier as the snow was supposed to start in the afternoon on 2/8. I was making sure I didn't have any important meetings on 2/8 so I could take the earlier LAX route via CLT, and the agent literally said "I can hear you typing, we do not have time to hold while you check other flights, we have hundreds of customers waiting for assistance." "I politely told here I was just confiming my schedule" and she flew into "You should have had that ready before calling." OK but I didn't know what my options are before calling so I said - ok fine, I'll call back (and hopefully get an agent who's not going to accuse me of something I wasn't even doing). Called back 2 mins later and the only flight was ORD->CLT->LAX, took it, when I got to the airport the Admirals Lounge folks got me on ORD->SFO->LAX and never mentioned an issue about the connecting cities. I also only have Gold, so I am not sure why they gave you such a hard time? As others have mentioned, it might be best to ask for a supervisor, they have always provided better options.

nutwpinut

Recently, when I call it seems like agents don't know about the exceptions and that we have to keep up with them if we want to use them. I've called and booked CX/JL Asia to Asia flights for my family several times over the years and never charged a phone fee and recently I was charged. I said, "I've never been charged before" and the agent said well you must have been lucky because we've always charged it. I was in a hurry so I paid. After a day of research and on the boards, I realized I wasn't supposed to be charged because it was an itinerary I can't book online. The previous EXP agents already knew that exception, but this one didn't. I got a refund, but I shouldn't have been charged in the first place.

andresmdn

It all circles back to agent training. You have to have an unambiguous case, present it clearly, and then stick to your guns. HUCA works sometimes, but other times you need to ask for a supervisor.

But even then, you still might get run into dead ends. A few weeks back I also had issues with re-routing when an applicable weather related travel advisory was in effect. Except this was for an award ticket issued by Iberia for an AA domestic itinerary. So as you can imagine, there was a fair amount of bouncing between AA and IB on that one.

AA ended up cancelling my flight, and I subsequently cancelled the itinerary. And yet I'm still trying to get IB to reinstate the avios

andresmdn

Yup run into this one myself. The miles came from your account, so there is no fee. But I've had several EXP agents that insisted otherwise. The onus is always on you the customer to know this, and countless other obscure details about the rewards program and airline operations. I suppose that's a big reason why the flyertalk forums are so expansive, right?

michaelpop

I was traveling from JAX-LAX through CLT on Super Bowl Sunday ahead of my wife who would be flying later that day. (I had wanted to get home in time for the game so I took an early flight out).

CLT was getting backed up due to rain/snow/wind. First we had to get de-iced, then a long wait for take off, then eventually ATC halted everything and the pilot took us back to the gate. While all this was happening I noticed (through Tripit) that my wife's JAX-CLT departure 8 hours later was already showing a delay. So while I was stuck and getting a bad feeling like operations were going to get worse, I texted her to call AA and ask to be re-routed, since her connection would have been extremely tight (I believe less than 30 minutes) and since her CLT-LAX flight was the last one I didn't want her getting stranded. There were no weather adversaries so I wasn't sure if the agent would allow it, but apparently she had no problem (as a gold) getting routed through DFW instead. Was this processed with no issues due to MCT? Or just an exceedingly helpful agent?

JJeffrey

As soon as her JAX-CLT flight was delayed (especially when the connection dropped below the MCT for CLT), then any AAgent (phone or airport) will be able to rebook, even if there's no travel waiver. Pretty standard procedure for any type of delay.

michaelpop

Wow, good to know that's SOP!