AndyAA

AA, on occasion, will make you an offer to upgrade with cash, based upon availability. Sometime they are quite good, in the $100 range. Other times, not so much.

AA offers TOD “tens of dollars” First Class & Upgrades

GWagonFlyer

Update from AA Customer Service - 12,500miles plus hotel room, taxi, and food reimbursement as long as I have the original receipts (credit card receipt is not enough). So I have the taxi, and hotel reimbursed.

ezefllying

For two years, I have occasionally attempted to use my myriad flight and trip credits to book new tickets. Typically, I try to book these through the AA app. This process would be slightly irritating even if it worked, since you have to first look up the credit under "My Wallet," copy the ticket number, and then go through the booking process to find the flight you want before pasting the number into a box at checkout. But it doesn't usually work: The vast majority of the time, I get the error message "Can't be redeemed online" when I try to use a credit.

I fly more often with Delta and United. Both have managed to work out their travel-credit pages such that you can readily and reliably apply credits -- including multiple credits -- at checkout. American makes it as unwieldy as possible. I assume this started as poor programming and continued as a business decision -- why make it easier to use expiring travel credits when passengers might give up and just pay us cash, or at least let credit expire from our balance sheet? If that's the case, this would be a good opportunity for our transportation secretary to apply his new consumer-protection agenda. There is no good reason that American Airlines can store your credit cards for one-click checkout but not figure out how to process a flight credit that it saves under your account.

FlyerBeek

The way AA handles/displays flight credits is a mess. I've got 16 sitting in my wallet, and I can't see the value of any of them (always receive an error message when I click "view credit"). Some are legitimate and others are cancelled awards with no cash value but that are somehow still sitting there. The only way I can even tell what they're worth is to call in and then track via a separate spreadsheet. I've asked AA to remove all the credits that have no value, but have been told that's not possible. Attempting to use the valid credits often requires agent assistance as well (sometimes with hours long hold times). Very customer unfriendly (and spoilage friendly) in my opinion. UA and DL both have better interfaces to view and apply the credits.

-FlyerBeek

js1993

Yes, it's a joke. Clearly designed to cause breakage, since the other airlines streamlined the process for easy online redemption a long time ago.

Kacee

I have the opposite issue - a bunch of credits from cancelled flights that do not show up in my wallet. I have to create a spreadsheet from my email cancel confirms, then call AA to apply them.

I agree there's a big contrast with UA and DL, both of which have made meaningful efforts to upgrade their systems to address this issue since the pandemic started. (And of course AS already had the best system of all in place.) We can debate the level of intent by AA's management here (clearly AA will profit from the massive breakage), but regardless, AA's failure to upgrade the very well known flaws in its system is a big factor in my decision not to make any effort to requalify this year.

WeekendTraveler

Yes, it’s annoying. I’ve had the same issue. Just book a reservation and put it on hold and call to apply the flight credit as payment. Annoying.

js1993

If only it were that easy. Between wait times and incompetent agents, it can be a multiple-call, multiple-hour ordeal.

ezefllying

Speaking of which:

Last night, I did call in to pay for a reservation I had placed on hold using a flight credit. To my surprise, I got an agent within a few seconds, despite having no status. The agent had to put me on hold to talk to his rates desk, but the whole call ultimately took ten minutes.

About two hours later -- around 11:45 PM, just before the hold would have expired -- I checked the reservation on the app to look up seats. It still showed as on hold, even when I refreshed. The flight credit was still in my account. I hadn't gotten a confirmation email.

So, I called again. A friendly and incompetent agent spent about ten minutes trying to research it before transferring me to another agent or department. I waited on hold for 20 more minutes, at which point a competent agent read through the notes that the inept agent had left, put me on hold for about five minutes, and got the ticket issued.

I should not have spent 45 minutes and a degree of diligence trying to use a $260 flight credit to pay for a $220 one-way nonstop domestic ticket.

I'm very close to writing a DOT complaint and copying someone important at AA. Or I might be a bigger jerk and write a letter directly to DOT's assistant secretary for aviation. Not asking for help with the ticket, but asking DOT to start penalizing carriers, like AA, that fail to comply with the spirit of DOT's consumer guidance by making credits usable. I realize that letter probably gets kicked down to DOT's complaint department, but I'll do what I can to write it as a policy request, not a help-me-with-my-problem complaint.

Because I am confident that people with less time, patience, or airline wherewithal than me -- particularly infrequent fliers who don't have a bunch of disposable income -- have given up or lost funds rather than using the credits they're entitled to.

Kacee

DOT may not agree, but this ought to be a DOT level issue, not just for failure to comply with the consumer guidance, but as an unfair practice.

flyer703

More frustration with AA IT systems, which continue to be among the worst in the industry. I've posted before about how the lack of self-service in AA IT apps/web and pushing customers to live agents goes against every industry standard.

I have no doubt that you're right that have many have simply given up on redeeming flight credits. I have a measly $40 credit that I'm already gritting my teeth over when it comes time to (attempt) to redeem. Perhaps that is what AA is counting on? Sad either way.

js1993

In the end, some lawyer will file a class-action lawsuit and be paid tens of millions by AA while affected AA customers get a $5 coupon. But AA will still come out ahead.

WeekendTraveler

Warning: I booked a ticket online, put it on hold and then called to pay for it using a flight credit.

The phone agent mentioned “$675”, but I didn’t catch what he was talking about. Stupidly, I gave him my credit card info.

I was then charged $675 despite the reservation on hold being $200-something.

I cancelled it immediately after I received the confirmation email and saw the price, but warning: you may be charged much more by phone than online.

econ

Not even an option for a flight within 7 days either.

bgasser

As someone who has used B6's app and website, AA is light years ahead. At least AA allows tickets to be put on hold for free. Let me know how successful you are doing that on B6 or WN.