econ

They never should have been upgraded in the first place.

And I’d argue that the GA should have taken the extra time to fix their screw-up, regardless of potential delay. How long would that have taken...a couple minutes?

Beachfun71

So I’m curious... assuming no other special
compensation, is there an actual rule to the status of the partially used SWU’s? And if they are returned, what is the life of them? I’m sure they were nearing expiration, and, SWU or not, most people can’t just schedule another Hawaii trip right away or even in within a year.

AAdamE

Agreed, find it hard to believe there were no other elites on the flight even if they didn't request and upgrade.

meechyathere

Possible tangent here, but does the "call a supervisor" method work in situations at the gate? Would they actually call one? I nearly asked for that at T-40m when I was told stickers went only up to PE, but didn't want to make a stink, and (wrongly) assumed CR would fix it in post. Will probably do that going forward if it's effective.

FlyerBeek

No. I'm sure the GA would have been happy to call a supervisor... after the flight had been closed out and pushed back. Just because you ask for a supervisor doesn't mean they're going to stop everything until a supervisor shows up. If the OP had gone down this route, they almost certainly would've been left in CLT.

-FlyerBeek

Antarius

The OP said the upgrade list was empty. If it was empty and the OP did no show, then the Nonrevs were correctly next in line for the seats. AA doesn't cabin roll plat and gold members who haven't requested upgrades unless there is an oversell in Y.

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Antarius

Wait, so you used stickers, ended up in PE and then didn't get them back?

AAdamE

Ah, I assumed that they might bump a few plat and gold if there were empty seats and not an oversell situation. Good to know.

meechyathere

I did eventually get em back, but it took Gary writing a piece on it. (thread on that sitch here).

But our chance at the upgrade was shot (and given to a nonrev.) It was a split second-decision between keeping quiet and taking PE, or raising a ruckus / going and finding a supervisor, just for the benefit of either getting in J all riled up, or offloading and going the next morning (which would have likely cleared as it was at C4). Like the OP, we chose peace and took PE that day.

Since we had time on our side, I did call reservations as we boarded hoping maybe they could step in, but was given the 4hr wait! (which there's yet another thread on!)

FlyingEgghead

Still nothing from AA?

AAmerican

Any update from OP? Its sad I've been conditioned to the point to arriving like 30 min ahead of boarding to make sure this doesn't happen to us.

meechyathere

Same! In fact one time, at a gate at CLT that lacked a priority lane (and everyone already in one giant line), without even thinking about it I went to the counter and confirmed that our upgrades wouldn't be dropped!

FlyingEgghead

Any update?

FlyingEgghead

I see you're around, posting in other threads the last several months. Should I assume you still haven't heard anything on this?

aacar

Sorry, totally forgot to update this thread (not sure how I missed the last couple posts)! I did hear from AA and come to a resolution (though not particularly generous) - here goes:

I received a call from someone at Customer Relations, who initially offered 15,000 miles/pp as a "gesture of goodwill," with no mention of returning the SWUs. While he apologized for the inconvenience, he also didn't really seem to grasp what had happened, stating that seat assignments can change and class of service wasn't guaranteed . I explained the situation once again and stressed that 15k miles was woefully inadequate (I've gotten as much in the past for inop wifi); he said he would discuss with his team.

He called me back a few days later, and in addition to the 15k miles/pp, offered half of the value of the upgrades back, since they were "used" from DTW-CLT . One correction to my original post: I had actually applied 2 SWUs plus a mileage upgrade (15k + $175) for the third companion, not 3 SWUs as I had recollected. So, he offered to reinstate 1 SWU out of the two and refund the $175 co-pay for the mileage upgrade. I obviously explained that the CLT-HNL leg comprised >90% of the total distance upgraded, but he wouldn't budge and stated that "they" view all segments equally. And he still refused to admit that the GAs did anything wrong, insisting that seat assignments are subject to change per the CoC. I expressed my dissatisfaction and he (very reluctantly) agreed to follow-up again with the "leadership team."

The next week, he contacted me again and agreed to reinstate the second SWU (but, for some reason, still not the mileage portion of the miles + copay upgrade). He made it quite clear that this was the most they would offer, so I accepted. In the end, after factoring in the cost of the upgrades, the net compensation was 15,000 miles x 3 (for 4 passengers); IMO that's insufficient for a downgrade on a 10 hour flight, but I guess I shouldn't have expected more from AA and decided to move on. I was also (naively, it seems) hoping that they would actually acknowledge the GA's mistake rather than framing the incident as an inconvenience permissible within the bounds of the CoC - oh well.

Sadly, I wasn't given any indication that such an incident won't, or even shouldn't, occur again in the future. I've actually experienced a strange sort of PTSD before my subsequent AA flights this year, and nowadays am usually the first to board!