MSPeconomist

MAH4546

metallo

Really?

ijgordon

captainstubing

Last month I was booked in PE on Cathay Pacific from Bangkok to Hong Kong. A week before departure they emailed informing me there was an aircraft switch to an A330 without a PE cabin. As a result they upgraded me to Business. The only logical option, of course, a sign of a classy airline that cares about its customers. How absurd (and sad) to see AA choose to downgrade rather than upgrade you, though not surprising and indicative of how far AA has fallen.

standbyalldtime

Just to clarify one element of mistruth that has been shared in this thread: when a PE passenger does not have a PE seat available, the default option (even for AA) is to cabin roll into the next available cabin. They would do this for oversales as well as equipment swaps. Unfortunately, J was likely full on the flight OP was booked on, so a cabinroll would not have been possible.

Typically agents would issue DG vouchers at the gate before boarding. It doesn't sound like OP wants a refund since it would go to his company. If the agent didn't issue any compensatory vouchers before boarding, then OP should write in to CS and should get a voucher (usually around $200-$400 IME).

Moving to a later service with PE would be easily accommodated. Moving to a later service with PE unavailable and requesting to be accommodated in J is not standard practice and would be unlikely to succeed unless you happened to get an extremely sympathetic agent.

PE is still quite new to ORD, and very few flights feature it so it doesn't surprise me that many agents aren't very familiar with it's policies and procedures. Hopefully that will get ironed out by the summer peak travel season.

fotographer

I think most people have come to understand, the AA , along with the other "American " carriers, really dont care about their customer anymore,
You are just a $$$ giver and the lack of training provided to their employees is shocking
Take it up with AA and please do not back down.

boerne

Unfortunately they appear to be able to downgrade your seat. However per their rules you should be reimbursed as has been pointed out here several times. I recall J Diver noting that he carried a hard copy of the CoC with him when he traveled. We don't do that but it never hurts to be familiar with the rules. A friend was meeting us in MAD last year, booked in J, and IB oversold that cabin. So he was downgraded to Y and had a whole row to himself and he said he got decent sleep supine. When he got to MAD, IB had a table set up and wads of Euros to pay displaced pax as they got off the plane. There were several. He took the cash (less than the fare difference) and signed the form rather than wait for weeks for a full refund.

You will not receive involuntary denied boarding compensation if:

• You fail to comply with American’s ticketing, check-in and reconfirmation requirements, or you’re not acceptable for transportation under American’s usual rules and practices.
• Your flight is canceled.
• We switch to a smaller plane for safety or operational reasons.
• Your plane has 60 or fewer seats and there are safety-related weight/balance restrictions.
• You’re offered a seat in a section of the plane that’s different from your original ticket. If you are seated in a section for which a lower fare is charged, you will be given an appropriate refund.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-ser...e&from=footer?

stevendorechester

A couple of things here:

EU rules do not apply in this case as the flight is operated by a non-EU carrier leaving from outside the EU. Had this happened on a flight departing the EU or inbound to the EU on an EU operating carrier OP would be entitled to a refund, not compensation, of 75 percent of the fare for that sector. There is also no law that requires airlines to re-book on any other flight on any airline, although with some airlines you do have a right to re re-routed ( I'll go into that later). In American' s case, all the OP is entitled to is a refund of the fare difference, and Airlines will always try and re-calculate using the most expensive coach fare. The airline MAY re-book you in a higher cabin if PE is not available, I' ve had that happen to me with both Air France and Air Canada, both at check in. Also, they MAY offer you re-booking on another one of their flights or a JV flight but are not required to do so. I feel sometimes it just comes down to how the agent is feeling that day.

For my second point. While there is no law in the US or Canada that requires an airline to re-book instead of downgrading some airlines have, either in their COC or as a policy to allow for a change without penalty to another flight in such cases. Air Canada' s COC lists under IROP's as a class of service no longer being available as a change of schedule therefore allowing for a free change. Delta is another example where their agent re-booking policies also allow for a change if a class of service is not available. I' ve used both to my advantage in the past when my class of service was not available; Delta even allowed me to cancel a Skymiles ticket booked Comfort Plus when my DTW-YUL had no Comfort Plus, they also allowed a re-route and let me choose any flight that day. Like I said, there is now law that forces them, but with some airlines the passenger is entitled to do so if their COC allows it, unfortunately AA isn't one of them and airlines are free to set their own policies; just like with some airlines you are allowed a free change if their is a thirty minute schedule change, where others it can be one hour. It' s unfortunate for the OP in this case and believe me if I was in charge of regulating airlines all airlines would be forced to offer a re-route or a refund in such cases, or in any IROPS, and not leave it up to the discretion of the employees.

3Cforme

That's a problem between the OP and his firm, of no concern to AA. AA owes the ticket purchaser a refund in the fare difference.

Antarius

This is some wild extrapolation based on 1 data point. What do you think CX would have done if J was full? Likely dump you back in Y. a 789 already has more J seats than a 788. It is physically impossible to move all of W into J.

you got lucky.

what AA owes is
1. Competent ground crews
2. A refund

footballfanatic

this is precisely why flying BA on a BA ticket is better than AA to/from the EU. Complain about the BA product all day if you want, but at least it's pretty much completely consistent across aircraft (old WTP not withstanding).

ijgordon

[left]But it is, on international itineraries. Did you read my post upthread?

andersonCooper

What Antarius said is correct...

333 J experience is almost the same to 359/35K PEY on CX. Also HKG-BKK and ORD-LHR are completely different offerings.

airish

The issue is "class of service." I am AA EP and inquired with EP desk about upgrade from regular economy -- my concern was that AA would try to pass off a move to PE as an upgrade when I used a systemwide, etc. The rep said, "no, if you receive an upgrade it will be from regular economy to business class, since for this purpose, regular economy and premium are considered the same class of service." So here, in the opposite situation, the system doesn't view you as being downgraded, since AA (and I guess DL, UA, etc.) consider "economy" as a single class. In practice, you're getting an inferior product and I can't believe they won't refund the upcharge, but it's technically the same class of service it appears.

AA EP flyer