CitySlacker

I disagree. This sounds like exactly like an AA agent error, not an interface error.
I think the problem will be that the agent needed to exchange one ticket coupon (i.e. SFO-NAN) to two coupons (SFO-AKL and AKL-NAN). It's a simple enough transaction, but I can see how an agent did a simple two coupons for two sectors exchange.

Given that the FJ agents showed the ticket was exchanged, this is most likely. Now they could have exchanged the remaining two coupons (LAX-ORD-MSN) into three coupons, but this would have diluted their share of the ticket, so I can see why they would have forced you to buy a new one.

(There is a limit of four coupons per ticket, before it becomes a conjunctive ticket, but this wouldn't have been an issued as LAX-NAN and NAN-LAX would be coupons 3 and 4 on this itinerary).

keitherson

This is obviously AA's error -- there is very little in dispute here. They reissued a roundtrip ticket into a one-way. And the tickets are thousands of dollars. And now they are refusing to understand, let alone acknowledge the mistake because their customer service operations are laughable.

Welcome to American.

USFlyerUS

I don't think they computed the refund on the unused return, only one coupon (my guess the ORD-MSN coupon due to the amount). There's no way NAN-LAX-CHI-MSN is only worth $29.00.

MSPeconomist

My guess is that either it's a nonrefundable ticket and $22 represents tax on the unused portion, perhaps the inbound domestic segments. Alternatively, a RT ticket was changed to a full fare OW ticket in calculating the refund.

nachosdelux

1. Complain on twitter to AA
2. credit card dispute
3. DOT complaint
3. Small claims court

try one. If no luck, move to next step

good luck. BTW doesn’t matter why it happened, fact is it did, and AA needs to make it right

s0ssos

You shouldn't have to buy travel insurance to cover for ineptitudes of AA.

Americans commonly don't buy medical insurance. First off, medical care anywhere else in the world is cheaper, even NZ. Secondly, some cards cover it anyway (Amex plat offers evacuation)

It could be. Sometimes the return segments are practically worthless, even though it is a long flight, because the one way itself could be even more expensive than round-trip.

Mwenenzi

The $1600 to FJ cannot be disputed. Was money for a service provided.
Could/may be able dispute the original $4000

As OP has been in communication with AA, doubt AA twitter will make any difference. Will access the same AA PNR file as the emails

Will not be easy

sbrower

I see what I think is a bunch of really bad advice from one poster here. BUT WHAT FOLLOWS IS JUST MY OPINION, so maybe I am wrong.

My impression is that the OP is very clear and very smart. So I think it is pretty obviously a major mess-up by the AA agent who did the reroute upon mis-connect. The trick here will be to find someone at AA who will take the time to review the actual ticket history, see that it was totally an AA mistake that the passenger could not see/could not prevent, and then find the authority to issue a refund. BUT, this will require someone smart and it will require someone willing to go look for authority, which may or may not be possible.

For the record, I think that travel insurance would NOT have helped here. What coverage is there for buying a new ticket to correct a ticketing error by the carrier? Just because the words "trip interruption" appear in your policy doesn't mean that it covers every time your trip is interrupted - you need to read the fine print.

For the record, I don't think that a DOT complaint is going to give relief in this situation (although, to be fair, if written really clearly it MIGHT be the way to get someone smart, at AA, to review your issue - but there isn't a really great record of that happening from DOT complaints).

I think that small claims might be a GOOD way to address the problem - because that will require someone at AA to review the situation in preparing for court and THEY might be the smart person who will figure out that there really is a problem.

NervousWreck

This is exactly what happened. The AA agent did not exchange SFO-NAN coupons into 2 coupons (SFO-AKL, and AKL-NAN). Instead the agent exchanged 2 coupons for 2 sectors. When we reached LAX after re-purchasing the NAN-LAX flight tickets, the remaining itinerary was open and we were able to board the flight to CHI.

ijgordon

I disagree on DOT - there’s a reasonably good chance this does get kicked over to someone “smart” at AA who can review what happened and be authorized to make a refund. I would start there as it’s less antagonistic than small claims court and the complaint gets filed and goes against AA’s record, as it should.

if that doesn’t work, file with small claims.

NervousWreck

I am not sure how the $22 refund was computed for the un-flown itinerary. It just might be the CHI-MSN sector, since we didn't fly that one. Our LAX-CHI flight was delayed to the extent that we missed the last flight out of CHI. We therefore decided to rent a car and drive instead of waiting overnight at CHI.

view-with-a-room

The ticket needed to be re-issued, re-issued by American Airlines. Not out of the ordinary. Fiji Airways told you to call AA and you did call AA but you didn't wait for AA to answer the phone. Skype is pennies per minute, for reference. AA cannot take responsibility for you choosing to purchase another ticket from Fiji Airways and not addressing the issues with the ticket with AA.

Did you check the itinerary online to confirm no changes or cancellations? Did you arrive at the airport three hours prior to departure for the international flight? Not a fan of anecdotal evidence, but I called AA last week and waited for 3 minutes to speak to a customer service representative. The $22 is a refund of the taxes for the no show flights. The $400 voucher is a gesture of courtesy. For future reference, in the event of irregular operations on the outbound flight call the airline to confirm the ticket is whole prior to arriving at the check in counter.

NervousWreck

This is exactly what I would prefer to do. Stir up the pot, and raise the voice just enough so that someone with authority at AA would notice what happened. How do I do that? Emails haven't helped. We were hoping that refusing to accept their $22 refund would hopefully get someone with authority to look into our issue. However I am also losing patience with these guys now. Might as well start with DoT and then small claims court.

jridge

It depends on the fare rules, but in many cases they re-price the itinerary using the effective one-way fare (e.g. MSN-NAN) and refund the difference between that and what you paid. If they're adding up one-way segments and the cost comes to greater than what you paid, they'd typically refund the taxes.

Beachfun71

While I think the OP deserves to be made whole, I kinda’ agree with what you say here.

I think I would have stayed in Fiji, at least for a day, to give AA the chance to fix it and get me home.

And yeah... if it’s messed up one way, best to double check the return (although I’m sure I would not thought to have done so).