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-   -   Equipment change / downgauge = no seat / downgrade. What now? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1983358-equipment-change-downgauge-no-seat-downgrade-what-now.html)

HiAperture Aug 17, 2019 4:52 am

Equipment change / downgauge = no seat / downgrade. What now?
 
I am standing at the gate for my flight from MIA-DFW waiting for the agents to arrive. My connecting flight from DFW-ORD had an overnight equipment change from 789 to 788. I am traveling domestic first paid. I now no longer have a seat assignment and the business Cabin is much smaller on the 788 so I don’t know if there will be enough seats.

If they cannot assign me a seat on the second flight here at the gate at Miami then I can request a refund due to equipment change for the full RT ticket correct?

If i take the flight to DFW without an assignment and they cannot put me in first from what I could tell on the CoC I only get a partial refund, and I would assume they have to get me back to Miami if I don’t want to fly to ORD on another flight or in Y. Do I have that right?

It if I accept a Y seat to ORD I am due a fare difference for the downgraded leg plus compensation in the form of a voucher or points at the least correct?

Ultimately I do NOT HAVE to get on this flight today so if I am going to have a miserable time at DFW and can get out now I would rather get a full refund (and ask for some points for the trouble?).

If they can assign me a seat of course I will fly. But I am doubtful with how much smaller the cabin is.

thanks in advance

HiAperture Aug 17, 2019 5:21 am

Ok the gate agent couldn’t assign me a seat but confirmed it was oversold, so I called gold reservations to cancel and got a refund.

Often1 Aug 17, 2019 5:41 am

Not surprising that AA would cancel as this saves it a ton of money either by having to downgrade or pay IDB/VDB if the overbooking really turned into an oversale.

However, to be clear because this is a public board:
1. AA had no obligation to refund your ticket.
2. AA could have simply downgraded you and refunded you the fare difference.

Thus, I would not count on this as a general matter.

HiAperture Aug 17, 2019 5:52 am

Thanks, I figured I could have ended up winning out monetarily if I went to DFW but I really didn’t want to spend the day stressing about it so I was happy to just stay home. I am going to contact (AAdvantage?) to see if I can get some points for the inconvenience of driving to the airport, parking, ect. to find out what the first agent on the phone at 4:45AM should have told me and I would have gone back to bed.

iadisgreat Aug 17, 2019 7:10 am


Originally Posted by HiAperture (Post 31425935)
Thanks, I figured I could have ended up winning out monetarily if I went to DFW but I really didn’t want to spend the day stressing about it so I was happy to just stay home. I am going to contact (AAdvantage?) to see if I can get some points for the inconvenience of driving to the airport, parking, ect. to find out what the first agent on the phone at 4:45AM should have told me and I would have gone back to bed.

I wouldn't hold your breath for anything more. The phone agent had no idea who would show up in DFW or what the GA would do to fix the issue. Also, you got your refund which is above and beyond what they needed to give you.

wetrat0 Aug 17, 2019 7:38 am


Originally Posted by iadisgreat (Post 31426097)
I wouldn't hold your breath for anything more. The phone agent had no idea who would show up in DFW or what the GA would do to fix the issue. Also, you got your refund which is above and beyond what they needed to give you.

A refund in this case isn't above and beyond. The equipment changed and the cabin was oversold. The customer is entitled to a refund in this case.

HiAperture Aug 17, 2019 8:17 am


Originally Posted by iadisgreat (Post 31426097)
I wouldn't hold your breath for anything more. The phone agent had no idea who would show up in DFW or what the GA would do to fix the issue. Also, you got your refund which is above and beyond what they needed to give you.

Not looking to start an argument here but the phone agent told me the departing airport check in deck (MIA in this case) could assign me a seat, when only the gate agent at DFW could do so. If I had been told there was no way for me to know if I had a seat until getting to DFW, I would have asked for a refund then. A quick google shows that at least under some circumstances AA considers an equipment change to be the same as a schedule change (voluntary refund eligible). Considering I went from having a confirmed boarding pass in a 30 seat cabin to a question mark in a 20 seat cabin, I think the solution to refund was fair, I don't see why it was "above and beyond." I am sure the GA in DFW is glad to have one less passenger to have to deal with and I didn't have to pace around the gate finding out if I had a seat. My first choice would still have been to have taken the flights with an assigned seat, so I don't think some miles are an unreasonable request. I won't get irate if they say no either.

iadisgreat Aug 17, 2019 8:38 am


Originally Posted by HiAperture (Post 31426250)
Not looking to start an argument here but the phone agent told me the departing airport check in deck (MIA in this case) could assign me a seat, when only the gate agent at DFW could do so. If I had been told there was no way for me to know if I had a seat until getting to DFW, I would have asked for a refund then. A quick google shows that at least under some circumstances AA considers an equipment change to be the same as a schedule change (voluntary refund eligible). Considering I went from having a confirmed boarding pass in a 30 seat cabin to a question mark in a 20 seat cabin, I think the solution to refund was fair, I don't see why it was "above and beyond." I am sure the GA in DFW is glad to have one less passenger to have to deal with and I didn't have to pace around the gate finding out if I had a seat. My first choice would still have been to have taken the flights with an assigned seat, so I don't think some miles are an unreasonable request. I won't get irate if they say no either.

I didn't mean to be argumentative, my point was just that the phone agent promised something that they probably shouldn't (that a GA in an upline airport could solve the issue). Above and beyond meant that they refunded you before there was an actual issue (i.e., before you presented yourself to the gate in DFW without a seat) - dozens of times on this forum I've read that the airline doesn't need to do anything until there is an actual problem and in these cases usually make it work out fine due to no shows or compensation for people to downgrade. Either way, you got the refund and didn't travel - I wouldn't pursue it any further, particularly for pain and suffering of having to get up early, but that's me. Good luck!

​​​​​

tylerdurden4543 Aug 18, 2019 11:57 pm

I'm curious, did you take the refund and you will re-book for another day on your desired aircraft or did you cancel a trip (not to be re-booked in the near future) simply because you couldn't guarantee a first class seat for 50% of your trip?

Also, why didn't you ask them to re-route you in first on one of the dozen MIA-ORD flights (some even with lie-flats)?

HiAperture Aug 19, 2019 7:24 am


Originally Posted by tylerdurden4543 (Post 31431042)
I'm curious, did you take the refund and you will re-book for another day on your desired aircraft or did you cancel a trip (not to be re-booked in the near future) simply because you couldn't guarantee a first class seat for 50% of your trip?

Also, why didn't you ask them to re-route you in first on one of the dozen MIA-ORD flights (some even with lie-flats)?

Reasonable question. Call it a mileage run of sorts I guess. I didn't really have any specific reason to be in ORD, but the prices were good for the intl configured aircraft involved routing through DFW (plus good EQM earning in paid F), I have never flown in a 787, had the weekend free to fly somewhere. When it turned from what was supposed to be a fun day in the air to waking up early with stressing news, no seat and spending all morning figuring out my situation (instead of sitting in the Centurion Lounge watching planes come in!) I just decided to take a walk from it. Of course I was prepared for things to go wrong once underway (we are talking about commercial flights here!), I was at least hoping to make it up in the air before any bumps in the road and then roll with it. I will likely reschedule the trip for another weekend.

Certainly if I needed to take the trip I do plenty (most) of my flying in coach and it wouldn't have been the end of the world to get bumped and some compensation and/or I would have just taken a direct flight.

tylerdurden4543 Aug 19, 2019 4:18 pm


Originally Posted by HiAperture (Post 31431876)
Reasonable question. Call it a mileage run of sorts I guess. I didn't really have any specific reason to be in ORD, but the prices were good for the intl configured aircraft involved routing through DFW (plus good EQM earning in paid F), I have never flown in a 787, had the weekend free to fly somewhere. When it turned from what was supposed to be a fun day in the air to waking up early with stressing news, no seat and spending all morning figuring out my situation (instead of sitting in the Centurion Lounge watching planes come in!) I just decided to take a walk from it. Of course I was prepared for things to go wrong once underway (we are talking about commercial flights here!), I was at least hoping to make it up in the air before any bumps in the road and then roll with it. I will likely reschedule the trip for another weekend.

Certainly if I needed to take the trip I do plenty (most) of my flying in coach and it wouldn't have been the end of the world to get bumped and some compensation and/or I would have just taken a direct flight.

Thanks for adding some color - sounds perfectly reasonable to me (though perhaps we on FlyerTalk have a warped sense of what is reasonable)

ijgordon Aug 19, 2019 4:53 pm

Wow, a lot of angst for a potential downgrade on a - what? - 2 hour flight?

donotblink Aug 19, 2019 6:40 pm


Originally Posted by HiAperture (Post 31431876)
Reasonable question. Call it a mileage run of sorts I guess. I didn't really have any specific reason to be in ORD, but the prices were good for the intl configured aircraft involved routing through DFW (plus good EQM earning in paid F), I have never flown in a 787, had the weekend free to fly somewhere. When it turned from what was supposed to be a fun day in the air to waking up early with stressing news, no seat and spending all morning figuring out my situation (instead of sitting in the Centurion Lounge watching planes come in!) I just decided to take a walk from it. Of course I was prepared for things to go wrong once underway (we are talking about commercial flights here!), I was at least hoping to make it up in the air before any bumps in the road and then roll with it. I will likely reschedule the trip for another weekend.

Certainly if I needed to take the trip I do plenty (most) of my flying in coach and it wouldn't have been the end of the world to get bumped and some compensation and/or I would have just taken a direct flight.

You possibly could have taken MIA -> ORD and requested ORC.

HiAperture Aug 20, 2019 7:07 am


Originally Posted by donotblink (Post 31434163)
You possibly could have taken MIA -> ORD and requested ORC.

I appreciate the constructive information. I did not know about an original routing credit, thanks!

JDiver Aug 20, 2019 11:09 am


Originally Posted by HiAperture (Post 31426250)
Not looking to start an argument here but the phone agent told me the departing airport check in deck (MIA in this case) could assign me a seat, when only the gate agent at DFW could do so. If I had been told there was no way for me to know if I had a seat until getting to DFW, I would have asked for a refund then. A quick google shows that at least under some circumstances AA considers an equipment change to be the same as a schedule change (voluntary refund eligible). Considering I went from having a confirmed boarding pass in a 30 seat cabin to a question mark in a 20 seat cabin, I think the solution to refund was fair, I don't see why it was "above and beyond." I am sure the GA in DFW is glad to have one less passenger to have to deal with and I didn't have to pace around the gate finding out if I had a seat. My first choice would still have been to have taken the flights with an assigned seat, so I don't think some miles are an unreasonable request. I won't get irate if they say no either.

Per the AA conditions of carriage, “downgauging” to an aircraft with fewer seats than the original, is a condition that lets the airline off the hook.


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