mvoight

But they didn't do that until they were 1/2 way to Boston, and at that point the ticket was cancelled for refund.
I don't quite understand why there was a rush to cancel the ticket, and request a refund, as they still had to obtain a ticket to the destination, and that ticket would have been valid from Boston to their destination.

FlyingEgghead

I would suggest "Any recourse for cancellation and botched rebooking?" That would orient the reader to the nature of the problem.

TravelerMSY

Generally, no. They’re fairly generous with the rebooking options, but they’re not going to write you a blank check on your own arrangements. Worth asking though. I’d love to see them make an exception for you.

There is some discrepancy between the inventory they can book displaced passengers onto, versus what they might offer for sale. I know I’ve stood at the counter when their screen had zeros, but aa.com showed something for sale. Maybe something to do with oversales vs. no-shows? Back when the hold policy was more generous, I put that flight on hold and then had the agent move my ticket number over to it and reissue. They weren’t super happy about it, but were they were able to push it through. Getting rid of same-day holds fixed this loophole.

VegasGambler

I've noticed that if you go past the passenger information screen at booking, but don't pay, it will create an on-hold PNR that will show up in your trips until it gets auto-cancelled (which takes a while; at least several minutes).

If you are literally at the counter, could you do that to put it on hold for long enough to allow the agents to do what you described (assuming that they are willing and able to)?

vasantn

Thanks for all the input. We actually showed the agent that we could buy the ticket and she said she still couldn't see it as an option for rebooking although she could see that revenue seats were available. I think that's a point that we will emphasize. If seats were available for sale the agent should have been able to book us on that flight. If she couldn't, that's a service failure IMO.

The app issues that I was referring to were likely connectivity issues because the app kept timing out. I just mentioned that to explain why we didn't buy the ticket while we were still at PVD. While my friend was futzing around with buying the ticket we were already in the car and on our way to BOS.

The cancellation was for WX.

vasantn

Yes.
I'm using "flight" and "itinerary" interchangeably here. The entire 3-flight itinerary was available.
The timing of the cancellation is irrelevant. If we waited to rebook until we got to BOS, we would very likely have lost the availability.
We were not going to use the itinerary offered by AA. No point in holding on to the booking.
Possibly, but we did not have a lot of time to think things out. The focus was on getting them to BHM by 6pm and sort the rest out afterwards.

ijgordon

There have been similar posts in the DL forum I think recently. I forget exactly how they do it, but people are able to buy the ticket and then have an agent get the new PNR transferred into the original one (or something like that), and then the new ticket refunded. But I think it’s all done before actually taking the flight.

vasantn

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to do that as we had to drive to BOS fast, and just made that flight.

BlooJoo

I'm thinking the new itinerary you found was an invalid routing that was being offered by selling ticket tickets in the back end (unbeknown to you.) Perhaps new ticket sales workflow allows for two tickets to complete and itinerary, whereas booking workflow does not. Just a guess.

vasantn

Seems unlikely, but anything is possible. I don't expect to be successful, but I'm going to hang my hat on "if I was able to buy the itinerary, you should have been able to rebook me on that itinerary". I'll report back when I get a resolution.

jghassell

I don't think it's unreasonable if you could buy the new itinerary you wanted that the agent could have rebooked you on it. (If she were truly unable to do so, then that's certainly AA's fault for having a stupid QIK overlay and not native Sabre.) While I doubt they would have reimbursed you the cost of a new ticket on OAL, it's not unreasonable to expect a refund of the difference between your original ticket and the new ticket you purchased on American. They shouldn't get to profit from IRROPS and they should be responsible for getting you to the destination they promised.

js1993

Well, anything is possible at a price. But the new itinerary being $1,000 more, the agent not being able to see it, and the odd "app glitches" you reported all suggest the other person above was right about it being an invalid routing.

vasantn

How could it be an invalid routing if we were able to purchase it??

The "app glitches" is a red herring; it was a connectivity issue. We were actually able to show the availability on our phone to the agent while at PVD, and to purchase it during the drive to BOS.
Exactly. That's a service failure and that's the only thing I'm going to focus on in my communication with AA. The rest of the story is just noise.

SamOF

There's absolutely no requirement that you stick to a valid routing under ticket rules after a cancelation.

js1993

I can purchase all sorts of itineraries that AA won't offer for free as a change or re-routing.

Then why did you call it an app glitch, as if that was yet another AA failure?