asquare

So I booked a One Way First Class ticket SAN-ORD-BUF. With the weather today, my SAN-ORD flight is delayed enough that I would not have made my ORD-BUF flight. The app automatically rebooked me to the next flight which is the last flight of the night. There being no availability in first, it booked me into Economy. I called to confirm that there were no other routings today that would have gotten me there either sooner or in First. Since the additional delay is only 3 hrs, they did not want to consider using another airline that had first available as well.

Given this (and that I really do need to be there so going tomorrow is not an option), what is the best way to seek compensation/partial refund for the downgrade? What is the appropriate amount to seek? Original ticket was ~775 dollars. Buying coach on the same day was ~330 as I recall, but obviously I am getting a fair bit of value by staying in First from SAN-ORD. If it matters, I was originally booked into Fare bucket D and am now booked into Y.

Thanks!

no1cub17

AA might even refund you automatically. I swear last time when we got downgraded during IRROPs, AA automatically processed a refund for the downgraded segment. If not, you can submit a request through AA's refund website.

jdanton

IME, they won't refund automatically, you'll have to ask, but my wife recently got a $500 credit in such a situation, which surprised me.

JDiver

You might get money or compo, you may not.

“bought a first class ticket” really doesn’t tell us much; reading the detailed fare rules before you buy does.

Some cheaper “first class” fares disclose they’re actually an “instant upgrade” type fare. The rules on those often stipulate youll fly in coach in case of OSO or missed connections unless you choose to wait for the next available seat in the same fare class (can be a day or days), at your own expense.

Whether you’ll get any money, voucher or compensation may well depend on your original fare class.

ijgordon

TSparky

This happen to me 2 weeks ago and I was surprised when I received a refund email 2 days later.

Often1

OP was free to wait for the next flight with F availability and AA would have rebooked him on that for the asking. Rebooking OA is simply not happening. In this case it would have meant spending the night in a hotel, so I agree with OP's decision to accept the downgrade on a 90-minute flight (at most).

The COC obligate AA to refund the fare difference and the question will be how that is calculated. Not likely much when you look at ORD-BUF as a percentage of SAN-BUF and the likelihood that OP was not booked in full F.

Compensation, as opposed to a refund, is a totally different thing. In this case the downgrade was the result of weather and AA is not likely to do much if anything.

I would wait a few days and see if a refund shows up. If it doesn't, call AA.

Gig103

The first time I splurged for F seats was for a family cruise (me, wife, father-in-law). There were IIROPS (freak ice storm in DFW) and I was apparently on one of these "instant upgrade" fares which I think is total B.S.

But I bring it because despite not being entitled to a cash refund they did get me to the cruise on time and also gave each of us a voucher even though weather delays don't require them to do anything of the sort.

Lots of stress, but the unlimited drinks package onboard helped with that, and the voucher got us another family meetup within the year.

Often1

Nothing b.s. in the least. It's cheaper than F and many people find that it is preferable. One is always free to pay more.

asquare

Thanks to all who have responded. To add some clarity, It showed D as the fare class when I bought it, but it was not a flexible ticket, so may have been either first or instant upgrade, hard for me to say and I did not read the rules at the time looking for that (if there is a way to get back to the rules, I can't figure it out).

Assuming they don't send me anything proactively, is it best to request by main phone number or is some other method likelier to yield results? I am grateful they got me a seat at all, so not looking for anything over the top here. Sorry for having such basic questions, I am new to AA, so not sure of what is the norm for this.

Lux Flyer

Except they make it unnecessarily hard to determine which one you are purchasing. When you're buying a ticket on their website it is simply listed as "First" and not "First (instant upgrade)". You need to dive into the full fare rules to determine that (if someone knows how to find these when booking on the app, let me know, else in at least one way of booking tickets they don't disclose that it is an instant upgrade anywhere). Not to mention they will use the same fare bucket for both a instant up and first fare, with the only difference being the actual fare rules. Very transparent