Raymoland

Looking for guidance on this situation. Booked paid first PLS-CLT-SEA April 17th. Inbound CLT-PLS was delayed making the connection to SEA in CLT impossible. Offered rebooking on the website. Only able to get PLS-MIA-SEA on April 18th in Economy, which we took. Have MCE seats, waitlisted for upgrade but as a Gold, don't expect to clear. Assuming we sit in coach, are we entitled to ask for compensation as we were originally in paid F. DId we screw the pooch by voluntarily rebooking economy? Thanks in advance!

FAA1996

First, you need to talk to someone, probably at the gate, and make sure you are waitlisted for an upgrade correctly, not just based on your status, but as someone who paid for first and is only in coach because of IRROPS, hopefully someone can chime in with the correct "code" they need to use. If you end up going in coach, you're not due compensation, but the difference in fare between F and Y: the issue here is that AA uses a horrible formula to figure this out based on the difference between what you paid and the price of Y at the time of flight which is usually absurd, be prepared to be insulted. You can also write customer service and complain about the delay and ensuing downgrade and might end up with a few miles thrown your way as a goodwill gesture. This scenario is the one which upsets me most about AA: you buy F and you MIGHT end up flying F, usually because seats in the new flights have been given out as upgrades too early.

SamirD

Not on AA, but had something similar happen on Delta and it took nearly 6 months to get some sort of compensation which essentially came as a customer service rep having some sympathy versus some sort of policy. I would expect AA to be better at this, but am watching this thread to find out exactly how this pans out.

cssmd27

Like many, I've had this happen a couple of times and FAA1996 is exactly right. For compensation, they use the last minute coach fare which may very well exceed what you paid for F. Regardless, it will be very close and probably not worth the effort to file a claim for $15. Heck, it's been very painful to get any compensation even when they do an advance schedule change weeks out.

The first time I was exposed to this, we were using BA miles to fly J to to Mexico with a schedule change that left us with overlapping connection times. (how does that even happen in today's world with advanced computer algorithms???) Long story, they basically told us we could take what they had in coach despite their error or cancel out trip for a milage refund.

I have found AA very unaccommodating or even concerned about this subject, so don't expect much. But, I wish you well.

USFlyerUS

I've sort of had this happen a few times, too. However, I just opt to wait until the next flight on which F is available. I've never had to wait more than 12-16 hours by being flexible on routing.

Raymoland

Yeah, I expect little when this happens, Definitely first world problems. I'd be happy with a few miles. I spoke to the gate agent in PLS about upgrade priority as suggested above; she was, I believe, an employee, but she claimed ignorance.

No big deal, we are 5 on two PNRs. Party of 3 got business, 2 did not. I let the kids fight over the remaining First class seat, the two losers are in economy. It's good for them.

​​​​​​Probably because it's Easter Weekend, would have had to wait another day for a business itinerary. Not that many options that don't include overnights, three legs or 30 minute connections between PLS and SEA on any airline. Might have considered that if I was going to be in coach, but the two kids are in MCE, they will live....