TravelLawyer

This sounds like a good twitter post. "AA destroys passport and left me stranded" - ha. That said, you might want to reach over twitter so someone can resolve this for you. If the passport requires you to be there in person, I don't see how it's not part of processing fees to get you to an office. It's not like lost baggage as you don't "need" to fly to another location to buy replacement supplies.

AndyAA

AA is clearly liable for making you whole, though the only recourse will likely be litigation to recoup your losses unless you stumble across someone at AA that actually gives a damn, but that is extremely rare for an AA employee nowadays. Whether that is worth your time and effort is up to you. AA could have a policy in their CoC that claims they are owed your first born son for flying with them, though that doesn't mean that'll hold up in court.

Though, they do deserve to be lit up on social media.

erik123

It would be a good idea to check the exact cost (reasonable I hope) and ask AA to ok it. Perhaps you can suggest flying aa (use miles/money) and get reimbursed later. Explain it is urgent and you have a short window.

YuropFlyer

If an employee manages to destroy a passport, especially one that is brand now, my question would be more if there isn't any serious defect with it.

I mean, I basically use my passport heavily, in pockets, squeezed with passport, coins, keys, thrown around, massive changes in temperatures and humidity.. and it still looks quite good after 6+ years. Old one (my country didn't changed the specs) survived it's years of duty too, similarely treated (no silly passport covers for me, thank you very much)

And I can assure you it was heavily used. Hundreds of immigrations and travels, lots of opening up's to get my personal data (till I eventually knew it.. and then it was time for a fresh passport..) - no serious damage. Sure, heavy use did leave a few marks on it.

But a bio page that's ripped off?

Either you had Hulk as checkin agent, or basically your passport was defective from start. I'd tell the consulate about it and ask for a new one for free. A bit of a mistreatment at checkin is NOT something that should break a passport.

Often1

Now that we have the facts and can eliminate all the scoffing at OP for suggesting that he must fly to LA, there really are three options:

1. Put together a budget and note in it that AA could simply issue the air tickets and not reimburse OP anything, add in the actual fees and the Ubers and be done with it. Do not pad this document with all kinds of extras which will simply result in having it denied out of hand.
Send it to AA and obtain approval and get it all done.
2. Take the risk on yourself and get it done and then make a claim to AA, noting that if the claim is not paid within some reasonable time period, e.g. 15 days, that you will commence a SCC action in San Francisco.
3. Forget it. Take AA's offer regarding the passport replacement and be done with the hassle.

freeagent

Assuming your a German Citizen there is a German Consulate in SF on Jackson Street. If not a German Citizen several countries have a consulate I SF.

ijgordon

Agree that this is the kind of thing Small Claims court was meant for, but I'd give AA another chance or two to respond appropriately. Then buy the ticket (on DL!), get the passport renewed, send them a bill, and when they don't fully reimburse you, sue them for the excess costs.

You could also request 15k miles from AA, which I think is enough for a r/t award flight from SFO to LAX, and presumably you shouldn't have a difficult time finding availability.

aztimm

Have you tried to send a DM on Twitter about this? Perhaps even reference this thread (so you don't have to re-hash everything)? The Twitter team seems to have some connections elsewhere that the normal CSRs do not.

platbrownguy

This. Surely AA could pay processing fees + 15k. I checked ExpertFlyer and there is nonstop saver availability for both SFO-LAX and LAX-SFO every day 1/22 through 1/28.

hotturnip

Why not ask them for enough miles to be equivalent to the ticket cost, say 20k? Then they could mark it as a CS gesture for your inconvenience. Probably easier and more likely successful.

Dave Noble

I think it can be assumed that the person has an Argentinian passport based on information in post 9

For international travel it would be liable for costs associated with handling a lost/damaged bag up to a limit of XRD1131

It is liable for damage to personal items where the damage was fault of the airline up to XDR1131

If this was a domestic trip, the liabilities would be different and perhaps such policy might be valid, but since this is an international trip, it would seem that its so called policy is out of line with its liabilities

If living in San Francisco, I would suggest minimising the costs and then claiming in a small claims court

UKtravelbear

The OP has stated (in post 9) they have an Argentine passport and that the nearest consulate is in Los Angeles.

Antarius

Good idea.

erickfuks

Thanks so much for suggesting great ideas to solve this! I certainly appreciate the help a lot.

I have posted on Twitter, where I got a quicker response and they "respectfully" declined my request for them to cover the travel expense, again citing policy. They say the have no escalation process. I've also sent an e-mail to Julie Rath, AA VP of Customer Experience - I found her contact info on a Google search, I know it's a long shot to expect her to read or care, but if you have any other name that I may escalate to, that would be very helpful.

When I add up all the expenses AA has declined to cover (flight to LA, 1 day off from work, Uber to/from airport, express shipping to get passport sooner) it will come up to $500+, which is a lot of money. These are all expenses directly and solely associated to the problem they have caused me, so I think there's no policy they could cite against it.

I will definitely consider SCC action if this does not lead anywhere over the next few days.

JDiver

“Snail” mail may work more effectively than email. Ms. Rath’s address is:

Julie Rath
Vice President, Customer Experience Planning
4333 Amon Carter Blvd
Fort Worth, TX 76155

Though AA always claim they do not pay for incidentals, and I’m quite sure they’ll not reimburse you for a missed day of work, I do hope they come through with some reasonable compensation because this was strictly an AA employee mishandling your passport. In my opinion, there’s no possible way to construe some fault to you.