stefg1007

Hoping someone can provide input on a direction with this situation:

Was traveling at the time and booked a partner airline only (MH) flight on AA Germany website - no AA flights on the itinerary. I foolishly thought (in hindsight) that by booking this with AA instead of operating airline, if there were travel interruptions, I could leverage the EXP desk for assistance instead of managing through the operating airline.

When booking, I went through the whole process, put in my credit card # and it came back with an AA confirmation page. The confirmation page, not surprisingly, had no AA record locator. However, it noted my flights are confirmed and guaranteed. I even saw the initial 1$ ping charge from an AA office on my credit card (AA Frankfurt Fl). Wanting to select seats and get a record locator, I called the operating airline and got that information. However, they noted the reservation has yet to be ticketed, and that AA will have to do that. AA's notation is even at the bottom of the reservation.

I call AA EXP and they have no trace of the reservation. They can't pull it up on their system, which I'm assuming is because the record locator is an Amadeus one and not Sabre, as there are no AA flights on it. Because they can't pull it up, they can't figure out why it's not ticketed yet. I tried three different times with AA, all with the same response. One time, AA even said the operating airline has to ticket it. I tried calling the AA EU contact numbers (now that I'm home in the states) and same issue, though I don't know if I'm being routed back to the US on the call since I select, "english," as the language. I tried twice asking the operating airline if they can cancel or ticket on their end and I will just rebook directly through them and they said they can't touch the reservation since it was made from AA.

So now i'm a week into this endless loop of AA not knowing what to do or how to see the reservation and an unticketed reservation with the operating carrier - stupid move on my part thinking leveraging anything with AA would make life easier. Lesson learned.

Any ideas of what to do or who to go to at AA to get this ticketed?

fotographer

have you called or looked on line to see if a charge on your credit card is listed or pending?

3Cforme

For the benefit of others I will point out this is counter to the industry convention agreed by 290+ carriers worldwide. AA would have been on the hook to rebook you for schedule changes (or to refund your ticket) but day-of-travel interruptions are the duty of the operating carriers.

stefg1007

"I even saw the initial 1$ ping charge from an AA office on my credit card (AA Frankfurt Fl)"
Full charge not there yet.

fotographer

I would call the CC company direct at this point and see if they see any other chargers after the $1 ping charge

stefg1007

Counter to convention or not - I've had an instance in the past (granted it was on US) where the ticket had another carrier on it (LH) and US was able to assist in rebooking during to LH's irrops.

JDiver

Try calling the “Australia” (02-9101-1948) or “New Zealand” (09-308-4014) numbers. They’re in English, of course, but they’re both numbers to the contract Mindpearl operated AA booking offices in Suva, Fiji. They have Amadeus and might be able to sort it.

Imo, NR t time book via MH - you’re still oneworld Emerald, and you won’t have to worry about ticket control issues.

Australia Country Code +61: NZ +64.

Often1

FIrst, I would go ahead and book the ticket directly with the operating carrier. As others clearly note, it is the responsibility of the operating carrier to handle IRROPS recovery on the day of travel. Yes, the ticketing carrier has the ability to help, but sometimes in IRROPS, the recovery options are blocked and it really is the operating carrier which has inventory access. Certainly not a reason to book offline on the website.

Second, call AA. If there is a pending $1 charge, AA can track that reference and cancel out whatever that might be.

stefg1007

Tried rebooking directly with the carrier. As there is already a reservation, even though it's not ticketed, another one can't be made.

Good idea on tracking the $1 charge. Will try that.

JDiver

I’d still call Suva. They’re often able to resolve issues involving Amadeus, e.g. Etihad award seats.

stefg1007

By Suva, you mean the Australia customer service #? Never thought of that connection.
Just tried and they couldn't see the record locator either.

JDiver

swingaling

There's a known issue when making bookings of this nature. You could try getting MH to cancel the booking so you can start over.

See here: Contact number for intra-Europe booking (AA via Amadeus)?

stefg1007

Yes - that sounds exactly like what happened to me. Thanks for sharing the link.

The operating carrier (MH) refused to touch the ticket to cancel. After 4 different calls to the EXP line, calls to SUVA, a few transfers, and more going around in circles, I called back AA and was a bit more direct in my request. I asked the EXP agent to reach out to their OW liaison desk and get it sorted while I was on hold. Fortunately the individual understood what was going on and was able to have it cancelled in 10 minutes. Lesson learned.