AAExecPlatFlier

Ummmm no. QR out of Europe to the US is not a standard schedule change option when you have the JV carriers. And heck, many cities to the US on QR don’t even publish fares.

lhrhappy

Chicago being a major hub, it's going to have dozens of daily flights to all of the other hubs... I know you mentioned DFW, but have you considered routing through JFK, CLT, or MCO if there's a specific product you want for the overwater leg? You might be able to get what you want for a similar price and without much of a layover.

UKtravelbear

And has been mentioned a few times already in this thread you aren't required to pay if you don't want a specific seat and can wait until OLCI opens.

Seats are free for One World Saphire and Emeralds from time of booking and within 7 days of flight if Ruby. No charge in First.

This isn't new.

ijgordon

Hard to really have much sympathy for people who booked international travel months in advance in the middle of a pandemic. These are still not normal times. Schedules are still constantly evolving.

JJeffrey

AA drops JFK-FCO down to 3x weekly in mid August so that might have been an option, however there's only 1x JFK-ORD in the morning so anything via JFK requires an overnight or schlep to LGA, no thanks.

Other than that, CLT-FCO isn't currently scheduled to come back at all, and PHL-FCO doesn't start back up until September.

Sounds like the only reason the OP wasn't happy with the FCO-LHR-ORD option is the potential for an equipment change and having to pay for seat assignments in advance on BA. OP already bit the bullet on the seats so there's not much else to discuss here.

freebeernwine

There is no disclaimer when you book months in advance that American's network planning is going to par down schedules. A lot of advertised inventory has been slashed. This is something I know as a possibility of course given my familiarity so I imagine how disruptive something like this might have been to someone not familiar and expecting exactly what they paid for.

Again, my complaint here is the quality control aspect. American didn't notify me of the record modification, it was simply dropped, and I happened to find it after inquiring when my record details wouldn't display. To make matters worse, the AA product I paid for was no longer available and not due to a network change or
cancellation- this is absolutely an involuntary removal on that basis alone.

Yes, they put me on BA and to some that absolves AA here. At this point my only hope is the equipment remains a 781, club suites 777 or 359. Hopeful they open their ORD lounge as well by late August.

edit: When I contacted AA "Sorry, no business to LHR, we have main cabin available on that very same flight though if that will work" I kid you not. After a "let me see what we can do" was I put on BA. It's not a gift. It's their flight, they are JV partners.

seawolf

There is no crow bar as transatlantic flights are part of joint venture.

enviroian

Tell that to AA

VSLover

while i can understand the op's frustration, i have just accepted that these things are part of traveling right now. i am on a domestic (UK) trip and my outbound yesterday was great and they cancelled my return while i was in the air and the options left are very frustrating. but hey, part of flying right now.

that said, i would be rather confident the plane type sticks. there has been a load of BA equipment changes made over the last month or two...but as the schedule thru july/aug is now down to bare bones, i would doubt there is much chance of another switch.

freebeernwine

Update:

AA customer relations specialist, in Tempe, reached out to me.

She explained 'because covid' a lot is messed up right now, and that it will possibly continue to be messed up. I found her explanation annoying at best, and let her know I have no issue with the schedule consolidations taking place, I'm aware this is the reality of travel. I explained, once again to them, my issue being rebooked and successfully ticketed, not even pending, on the return portion of my trip--when unexpectedly my reservation was not accessible-- and had been cancelled (just one leg).

This is how customer friendly AA is: this lady told me that American was under no obligation to change my tickets for me in the first place and I should have talked to Chase, the issuer of the ticket. Perhaps this is true, however it holds little water because the airline auto rebooks for cancellations and schedule adjustments all the time, which means it's in their interest often to take control of the ticket (in my case I was rebooked FCO-ORD over DFW).

This is absolutely ridiculous they are engaging at this level with customers buying their premium products, it's completely absurd. I mean, I kind of get the "what you pay for" argument, but firmly believe even the lowest fare classes should not be disregarded this way. In response to my record being deleted she claims there were conflicting reservations or a glitch.

The part that really pisses me off--they have this JV, they were able to rebook me off the AA flight into the available BA inventory and resale the space. And for the same product I purchased on AA (two window seats included in fare as obviously AA doesn't charge) I had to upsell into selected seats on BA. At the end of the day, AA resold the two seats that I was bumped out and collected the additional revenue for them (that flight is full in J) and collected for the BA pre seat assignment (although I'm not sure the exact accounting on that and wether its considered shared revenue).

Moral of the story I should have requested a refund at the time, however I knew I would need to deal with a redepositing of the cash into chase preferred, and then rebook another flight at a premium (flights were going for about 1500 more per person versus when I booked in Feb).

My story is not unique, I get it, one of many regarding AA abusing customers--I've been reading these threads for years and always surprised at the vitriol in stories of post 2015 AA, heck I used to think it was some weird hype and that perhaps AA's FF base was easier to piss off versus UA, WN, & DL. Now, I certainly get it. I wonder if this dissent ever reaches a critical mass- as they chase after low a lot of low yield customers it may not be as relevant. I certainly can see long term more and more business travelers and high yield fares booking away from AA with the general opinions that are now widely accepted amongst a large tier of FF's across multiple airlines and really could be damaging to both AS and B6 as well.

travelgeek1197

This is in no way a personal attack or shot at you, just the statement. My spend with AA 3 years ago was ridiculous, paid business to Asia WAAAAYYYYY too many times a year. They had issues but every airline does.

But things got worse and worse operationally and I just started finding new routes to avoid AA. I found they stopped caring and stopped doing “the job”.

Fast forward to today and it’s laughable.....and these statements and comments is exactly what AA would have you believe and perpetuate. Bottom line I burned the last of my miles this week and it was a great reminder of why I did and drive two hours to catch flights rather than fly AA——it’s that bad.

There is a lot AA and any company can do to take a bad situation and soften the blow, to take a bad experience and make it a customer service win, to let people know you care and value the choice they made to buy your services. But AA chooses not to do that, not with their customers and certainly from what I see not with their employees.

Simply put, they exist because either someone has few other options or AA has to price like spirit and the customer just can’t say no to the price and knowingly knows what they are signing up for. I’m not one of those people and I wish people would stop letting AA slip out the back door of accountability.

Cheers,
TG

Antarius

I'm not going to defend AA's abysmal service and operational standards. They're pretty spectacularly bad and should be held accountable.

That said, this is an ever changing situation with flight schedules not being static. I can't fault them too much.

freebeernwine

I don't consider United or Delta, and especially Southwest- which I avoid, to be much better than American. However, I do see a marked difference when comparing AA to all the aforementioned- AA is clearly in last place without question when it comes to customer communications, the majority of onboard comfort and airport experience, and certainly irregular operations. I believe this now to be a common accepted opinion about AA amongst the middle and higher yield customers, FF and non, alike. Furthermore, I don't see this far and wide opinion not affecting the company into the post pandemic recovery.

AA continues to solidify itself, especially domestically, as very anti-customer. Now, their international customer experience is becoming like their 737-800 cabin, miserable. Luckily, for AA, they still have some frontline gems working for them and they are the only saving grace, but I'm noticing the frontline is tired and exhausted (like every airline) and the gems are less willing to help the customer. It's not solely covid exhaustion either, it's the exhaustion by pissed off customers because of anti-customer policies and the culture.

UKtravelbear

OP can you please add some line breaks to your posts.

Dense text is very hard for some people to read and almost impossible when viewing on a phone or small tablet device.

freebeernwine

Update:

As stated above- I was accommodated to club suites on the 5:05pm BA flight when I was mysteriously removed from AA's 5:15pm.

BA finally cancelled the 5:05pm flight today--I called AA and they told me they were happy to book us to LHR in premium economy...The AAgent said, "there is first class available, but I will have to talk to my supervisor for authorization" I didn't know what she was talking about because the inventory systems I have I clearly see BA's second flight and AA's flights are non-first equipment... (351, 789). She came back online, said she can't do that, which makes sense because it doesn't exist.

I talked to the supervisor and now amazingly we are back on flight 86 in .... J seats (but at least we're in business class).

For anyone interested in keeping up with this story, we have been displaced out of business twice now by AA/BA. AA 110 (cancelled)-> (rebooked) AA 86 (AA cancelled res)-> rebooked to BA (BA cancels flight) -> rebooked to AA 86.

I'm frustrated that if AA hadn't cancelled us off 86 in the first place, we would still be holding that flight and seats. I know some have it much worse, still frustrating. And AA offers nothing for all of this except covid blame.