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NEED ADVICE: Cancelled flight and additional expenses

NEED ADVICE: Cancelled flight and additional expenses

Old Jul 9, 2019, 3:39 pm
  #1  
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NEED ADVICE: Cancelled flight and additional expenses

I had booked a one-way award ticket on AA for 4 pax from DFW-IAD using BA Avios points. I subsequently had a Star Alliance Intl Business class ticket booked out of IAD to South Africa and back to DFW.

The AA flight was at 8PM on Jun 23 and the Intl departure out of IAD was on Jun 24 at 5PM which appeared to be sufficient buffer time given that there was an overnight stay involved.

On the day of departure I got a text notification at 1:30PM from AA that my flight to IAD was cancelled and that i should call to get myself rebooked. I called AA Plat desk and after spending 45 mins with them on the phone the best option they could find for me was a flight to PIT on Jun 23 at 6:30PM and a connecting flight from PIT to DCA at 6AM on Jun 24.(None of the non-stop flights to DCA, IAD, BWI on June 23 or Jun 24 before 5PM had available seats).

We proceeded to the airport to catch the 6:30PM flight to PIT. We boraded the flight on time and the plane pushed back but while on the taxi way the DFW ATC lost all communications with the aircraft and we sat on the tarmac inside the plane for 90 mins. Once the communication was restored the pilot announced that he does not have enough fuel to fly the route given to him because he was running low. Hence we had to return to the gate to get refueled. Once we arrived back at the gate the crew timed out and we had to wait for a replacement crew. They kept pushing the flight back 15 mins at a time and at 1AM (7 hours after scheduled departure) canceled the flight due to lack of alternate crew. Obviously I was desperate to get to IAD because we had a separate intl business class ticket and I knew the other airline would have no sympathy for my situation since they were not at fault.

Fortunately, I was able to find 4 award tickets on a 7:30AM departure out of OKC to IAD on United but because of it being last minute booking I had to pay a $50 close in booking fee per passenger on top of miles and taxes/fees. (total $200).

Also, the car rental companies were mostly sold out at DFW airport and the best I could find was a $171 rental from DFW-OKC on Hertz.

I had also checked in a bag and even though i was told at the gate that I could pick up my checked bag at baggage claim since the flight was cancelled, when I actually reached baggage claim they informed me that the bag room was closed and they could deliver the bags. I then requested the baggage service clerk to enter instructions to reroute my bag to IAD the following day so I could pick it up in IAD and recheck them when I reach there.

Then without the bags in our possession, we proceeded to drive to OKC and reached there at 5:30AM after a 3 hour drive. The United flight then got delayed to 10:30AM but fortunately landed in IAD with just enough room to spare so we could make our intl flight.

In the end we did complete our trip as planned but the bags never got delivered to us in South Afrrica and we managed out of the stuff in our carry-on luggage and making some essential purchases to compensate for the rest.

We arrived back home on Sunday and the bag was promptly delivered back home the same day. It was being held at DFW airport even though i gave them my Cape Town hotel address.

I have already submitted the receipts in lieu of the misplaced bag but have yet to contact customer relations regarding all the other expenses and the pain and trauma caused on the initial date of departure.

Looking for ideas on what I should ask for in terms of actual costs and other compensations.

Is it still possible to get the BA Avios points reimbursed?
Can I ask for One way car rental reimbursement?
What should I say about the one way award ticket on United from OKC-IAD. (not sure if i should disclose that I bought an award ticket)?

Any tips / suggestions on how to claim compensation / reimbursement from AA would be greatly appreciated.
svasandani is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2019, 4:34 pm
  #2  
 
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Whether BA reimburse points is a matter for BA, not AA. But if they weren't able to fly you to your destination then it seems a refund would be reasonable.

AA is not going to reimburse car rental or anything you paid to UA. You should use your travel insurance for that if you have it.
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 7:45 pm
  #3  
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Originally Posted by svasandani
I had booked a one-way award ticket on AA for 4 pax from DFW-IAD using BA Avios points. I subsequently had a Star Alliance Intl Business class ticket booked out of IAD to South Africa and back to DFW.
<snip>
So your BA avios award flight DFW-IAD was cancelled: trip in vain. So talk to BAEC for a refund. You may/may not be successful.
Anything else is for your travel insurance.

You subsequent Star Alliance flight IAD- South Africa is nothing to do with AA or BA. Any problems with that are for your travel insurance

In some ways, as separate flights you self insured. Works sometimes, but not always.
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 7:59 pm
  #4  
 
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Which credit card did you use for the taxes and fees on the award tickets? Hopefully one with good trip and bag delay coverage. That's where you should start.
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 9:22 pm
  #5  
 
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I don't think you will not get a refund of the miles and taxes unless you cancelled the AA flight and didn't just no-show. You needed to cancel the ticket with AA and ask BA for a refund. That's where their responsibility for your travels ends. Full stop. Anything else should be handled by your travel insurance. Saying things like "pain and trauma" won't get you any sympathy from me or folks at either airline. Safe travels...
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 10:17 pm
  #6  
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I understand that AA has no direct responsibility with a future itinerary but I am very surprised that you all think AA is not at fault or has no responsibility to provide some form of compensation. I can quote many instances where they have provided me compensation for their screw up. e.g. I was supposed to take a DFW-LAX flight but that flight got cancelled at the last minute so we landed up taking a DFW-AUS-LAX flight but in the process our bags got messed up and we had a cruise to catch from LA. Hence in the process our bags never made it on the cruise. I wrote to them after the trip was over and they gave each one of us 15K miles and also reimbursed approx. $300 worth of purchase receipts due to non-delivery of bag. 2 years ago my wife was flying back home from New Orleans and her flight got canceled and the earliest she could fly back was 48 hours later due to all other flights being sold out or canceled in between. Then also they gave a $300 voucher for the inconvenience. I have also received 15K miles compensation atleast 3 other times in last 4 years for smaller issues such as flight getting diverted or delayed by 4-6 hours.

This incident was much more egregious than any of the other incidents I have quoted above. It involved 2 flight cancellations, sitting on the tarmac for 2.5 hours, delaying flight 15 mins at a time for another 4 hours and giving false hope of finding a crew. On top of all that once a flight is cancelled at origin itself it is their responsibility to deliver the baggage back to the customer at point of origin which they failed to do so. Finally they failed to deliver the bag to my final destination and continuously giving false hope that it will be sent to my hotel in Cape Town.even though a world tracer was properly created with all the details.

The airline is in the business of getting you from point A to point B in a reliable and timely manner.and if they fail to deliver on that promise they clearly owe the customer some compensation.

I was just looking for ideas on how to make my pitch sound more convincing but i am definitely going to fight this out with AA customer relations.
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 11:33 pm
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Originally Posted by svasandani
I understand that AA has no direct responsibility with a future itinerary but I am very surprised that you all think AA is not at fault or has no responsibility to provide some form of compensation. I can quote many instances where they have provided me compensation for their screw up. e.g. I was supposed to take a DFW-LAX flight but that flight got cancelled at the last minute so we landed up taking a DFW-AUS-LAX flight but in the process our bags got messed up and we had a cruise to catch from LA. Hence in the process our bags never made it on the cruise. I wrote to them after the trip was over and they gave each one of us 15K miles and also reimbursed approx. $300 worth of purchase receipts due to non-delivery of bag. 2 years ago my wife was flying back home from New Orleans and her flight got canceled and the earliest she could fly back was 48 hours later due to all other flights being sold out or canceled in between. Then also they gave a $300 voucher for the inconvenience. I have also received 15K miles compensation atleast 3 other times in last 4 years for smaller issues such as flight getting diverted or delayed by 4-6 hours.

This incident was much more egregious than any of the other incidents I have quoted above. It involved 2 flight cancellations, sitting on the tarmac for 2.5 hours, delaying flight 15 mins at a time for another 4 hours and giving false hope of finding a crew. On top of all that once a flight is cancelled at origin itself it is their responsibility to deliver the baggage back to the customer at point of origin which they failed to do so. Finally they failed to deliver the bag to my final destination and continuously giving false hope that it will be sent to my hotel in Cape Town.even though a world tracer was properly created with all the details.

The airline is in the business of getting you from point A to point B in a reliable and timely manner.and if they fail to deliver on that promise they clearly owe the customer some compensation.

I was just looking for ideas on how to make my pitch sound more convincing but i am definitely going to fight this out with AA customer relations.
hard to know why your first flight was cancelled.

your second flight, however, was cancelled because of an ATC outage. That's completely out of AA control and I think it's unreasonable to expect AA to do anything because of that. As you may know, it was because of a lightning strike shutting down the control tower. Presumably that lightning strike cost American tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, and inconvenienced thousands of passengers at both Dallas area airports.

I am curious why you think American had some responsibility for that?
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Old Jul 9, 2019, 11:54 pm
  #8  
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You may wish to contact BAEC to see if you can get your Avios back. To determine the policy governing that, please consult the British Airways | Executive Club forum.

As to AA, the weather related issues are considered force majeure; AA wont cover hotels, rental cars, etc. when the delaying conditions are beyond their control. As you were on separate ticketing, AA was obligated to deliver your baggage to you at IAD, no farther.
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 12:28 am
  #9  
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This is an example of the issues with making separate bookings. If you had a through booking, then AA would have been responsible to get bags to ZA and handle any misconnections that occurred - if bags were delayed to ZA, then AA would have been liable for costs incurred

In this case, AA's responsibility was solely to get bags and you to IAD; since you didn't board, the bags , it seems, quite correctly stayed in DFW

Other than maybe some miles, I don't see it likely that AA will provide any compensation for this - if you cancelled the AA booking, you should be able to get the points back
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 1:26 am
  #10  
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OP, why did the original flight cancel?
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 2:28 am
  #11  
 
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Whilst not helpful at all, I feel sorry for OP and this is a strong advice for me not to rely on 'self-connecting' (or however you call it) tickets and to always book tickets directly to my final destination (note to myself).

I had a similar issue with BA/ AA (much less personal trouble though) and my experience was that both of them will simply enforce policy; they did not care if it was a oneworld partner etc. That's where I learned to use my Amex Platinum (which covers travel delays) and not my BA Premium card (where the policy only covers health issues/ death).

Given the status of the OP I would still call BA up and explain the situation, and hope for a refund of the points (based on goodwill) but I would not have the highest hopes (unfortunately). Again, fully understand frustrations of OP, but hopefully I (others) learn from that.
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 5:18 am
  #12  
 
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Unfortunately, the problems you experiences on AA are becoming more common. You should be compensated for this service meltdown. Your best approach is to file a complaint with the Department of Transportation. You can do so here: https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escompla...nsumerForm.cfm
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 5:45 am
  #13  
 
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AA would have gotten you to IAD, just likely not in time to meet a flight on a different carrier and different PNR. I think the most you're owed here is a refund of your BA Avios points since your original flight was cancelled. Do you know why the original flight was cancelled? I'm not sure that matters much here, however, since it cancelled at your origin and you chose to not fly on AA at all as a result. AA would typically refund the flight if this had been booked through them.

I suspect the plane ran low on fuel after having to sit on the tarmac due to the ATC issue. I don't think AA owes you any compensation for the ATC failures and downstream impacts of that. And, AA had no obligation to deliver your bags to Cape Town, only back to you at DFW or, had you flown AA, to you at IAD.

AA may give you some points (if you're an AAdvantage member) but that's likely it.

As others have said, this illustrates the risks of separate bookings such as this. It may save some money but ultimately may not be worth the risk and stress.
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 6:43 am
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by Duck1981
and this is a strong advice for me not to rely on 'self-connecting' (or however you call it) tickets and to always book tickets directly to my final destination (note to myself).
Note to myself: Using one anecdote (where lightning struck the ATC tower no less) to generalize and to say you "always" must do anything is poor form. And bad probability valuations.

I've "self insured" plenty of times on separate tickets when I trusted the carriers involved and had a backup plan in case things went awry.

The OP had a backup plan that presumably cost less than it all on one ticket. Who wouldn't love it all on 1 ticket? But not at the price multiple they charge some hub captives

The only thing I would have done different than the OP is I would have messaged AA and BA on Twitter via DM immediately after deciding to book a new ticket on UA, asking them to document the BA/AA record regarding the cancellation and requesting a full refund.

That way, no time wasted on phone, and you have a timestamp that you made the refund request in writing prior to new departure - thus they can't claim you just no-showed.
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Old Jul 10, 2019, 7:34 am
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Originally Posted by btonkid12345
Note to myself: Using one anecdote (where lightning struck the ATC tower no less) to generalize and to say you "always" must do anything is poor form. .
Please accept my apologies - you might have recognized that English is not my first language so sorry for my poor form. And even when I relate to 'always' as 'I won't do in 100% of cases anything else' please trust me that I was running enough after planes booked on separate connections (e.g. from Air Asia to SQ in SIN last week) so that I am really keen to note to myself that I won't do in 100% of cases again (so 'always') especially when I see OP's example.

Cheers, D
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