alexwuk

The AA.com waiver description for AA issued tickets with BA operated flights that are strike affected says "Additional exceptions / restrictions may apply and these changes can’t be made online – you must contact Reservations." - does anyone know what the waivers are? Are they the same as the BA waiver (ie rebooking on to pretty much any carrier except DL or VS: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...kba?faqid=7594)?
thanks

YVR_YYC

I redeemed AA miles for a one-way ticket from Europe to Vancouver, BC, Canada (Flight BA 873 Krakow to London on Sep 9, 2019 and BA 85 from London to Vancouver on Sep 10, 2019). Due to the British Airways pilots strike, both flights were cancelled. British Airways referred me to American Airlines as they are the originator of the tickets.

The American Airline agent found an alternative flight on AA but wouldn’t or couldn’t book it. The AA agent would only refund my miles and the associated fees. I had to purchase another ticket at a cost of $1,183.34 CAD to return back to North America. I have taken thousands of flights and this is the first time I ever encountered an airline that refused to re-book due to an interruption of travel plans. I'm very disappointed in how AA handled this situation.

cmtlatitudes

My naivety is probably showing, but I am stunned reading the OP's post. And Dallas's reply.

Is the type of a response (or non-response) by AA common when things go wrong with award travel booked through them?

Prospero

Is your original redemption booking still active, or has it now been cancelled? Flight bookings for travel during the strike dates are being protected and this includes redemption tickets. There are reports over in the BA forum of IB Plus and Alaska issued redemptions being successfully rebooked onto JBV flights as well as other carriers, so I would expect AAdvantage is also able to do this.

If you haven't yet cancelled your booking, call AAdvantage again and if necessary request that the agent you speak to reads through BA's Customer Guidelines and/or contacts their partner liaison at BA. This ought to be a quibble free resolution.

Dallas49er

Yes.

richarddd

YVR_YYC AA should have rebooked you, even if award inventory wasn't available. If an agent says something that makes no sense, the best course are to hang up and call again or ask for a supervisor. Or post here and ask how to proceed. You might try contacting them and seeing if they can fix it


cmtlatitudes Given the state of AA customer service, almost nothing is really surprising at this point.

YVR_YYC

When I first contacted AA, the customer representative found alternative flights on AA (London to Dallas to Vancouver) but said she could not book them for me. I think she said I was not eligible due to the class of my tickets. She did consult a supervisor to confirm my eligibility.

Since BA and AA would not do anything for me, I booked a return ticket on LOT. I then phoned AA to initiate a refund of points and associated fees. Before I could request the refund, the second agent spoke to a supervisor and said she could book me on the London to Dallas to Vancouver flights. If only I got this agent on my initial call to AA.

YVR_YYC

I should specify that 24 hours elapsed from booking the tickets on LOT to re-contacting AA. Therefore, I could not cancel the LOT tickets to re-book on AA.