Hoc

I'm looking for suggestions here. I checked on the JAL forum, and they suggested I post here. These are the details (taken from a letter I am going to send to AA)

To Whom It May Concern:

This will follow up the catastrophe of last night on an AA booking. In January of 2022, I booked two business class mileage tickets from LAX to BKK, which were confirmed in Japan Airlines in January, and I was sent a confirmation with ticket numbers. The confirmation code for that reservation was XXXX.

On September 24, I was advised that my flights were rescheduled, and I was rebooked, again on Japan Airlines. I was sent a confirmation, but this time, no ticket numbers were included with the confirmation. The confirmation code for that reservation was XXXX. The departure date was December 23, at 11:50 am.

I received an email from Japan Airlines at 8:15 pm on December 21, advising me what the procedures were for my December 23 flight. When I went online to check in last night, my reservation was no longer appearing in the “my trips” section of your webpage. So, I called to check in and to get the JAL confirmation code for my check in at the airport this morning. I was put on hold for three hours while I was shuttled back and forth between the agent and supervisors, and after an hour, I was informed that my JAL flight had been cancelled.

This happened with no advance notice, and had I just showed up at the airport for my flight this morning, it would have been even worse. My original flight had been scheduled to arrive in Bangkok on Christmas Eve on JAL. Now, I was being told that I would have to be rescheduled on a JAL flight arriving at 11:35 pm on Monday night, the day after Christmas.

Even though there were other flights, such as a Cathay Pacific flight that would arrive Christmas morning, and at Qatar Airlines flight that would arrive Christmas Eve, I was told that your “policy” did not allow rebooking onto any of those flights, and I would just have to miss two days of my vacation in Bangkok.

As a result, I lost $2,186 in nonrefundable deposits for car transfers, hotel rooms and tour bookings. In addition, because of the season and the late notice (or complete lack of notice, actually), if I tried to rebook the same hotel room on the shortened time, the room would now cost $3,264 to rebook, rather than the $800 I had paid for room for the the entire trip in January.

When investigating, I learned that the JAL flights (JAL 61 on 12/23, connecting to JAL 707 on 12/24) had not actually been cancelled, and flew out as scheduled. People are telling me that, because of the lack of a ticket number on my September reservation, it looks like AA actually never ticketed the rescheduled flights, and this just cropped up last night when I went to confirm.

In any event, this is absolutely a disaster, and destroyed our Christmas vacation in Bangkok. The lack of any notice compounds the problem.

js1993

Sorry for the problem, but how did you lose over $2,000 for a two-day delay? The hotels wouldn't keep your existing bookings with a later arrival?

You'll be lucky to get a $300 voucher out of AA.

slsgsoccer0201

Sorry to hear about how everything ended up. Recognize this doesn't change the outcome, but in the future if you ever have an award ticket on OA metal rebooked and you notice that it doesn't ticket automatically, best to call AA reservations to get it re-ticketed as soon as you can. They may say it will take a few days, but hold steady.

Hoc

It did ticket automatically. I got a confirmation from AA in September that it was ticketed.

Dave Noble

If you are going to send a letter, it needs to be more concise, stick to relevant facts and detail what you are wanting

Looking at the information given, you had a reservation that was still valid on JL. Did you contact JL about the booking? it could have confirmed if there was any issue - e.g. due to the change that occurred that AA needed to reissue the ticket. If you had just turned up at the airport, the JL staff may have been able to sort things out.

Take out emotion and hyperbole and stick to facts and it will be more likely that someone will read it. No one at AA is going to spend a long time trying to understand it. Also you need to detail what you actually want from AA

As far as hotel goes, contact the hotel and let it know that you will be 2 days late - I would be surprised if it will not hold the room
Contact the company doing the transfers and give it the new flight information
As far as tours go on the 2 days, if they are not changeable, then that will be a cost to see whether insurance will cover - airlines will not accept liability for consequential losses

Hoc

$500 for the rooms, $1490 for two tours (two people for two tours, one on 12/25, one on 12/26) that were nonrefundable after 12/22, Same thing with nonrefundable car service to the airport here and from the airport there, and a 10% cancellation charge at 2 Michelin restaurants for 12/25 and 12/26.

js1993

And if OP is vacationing in Bangkok, expensive car transfers from BKK to the city aren't necessary at all.

guv1976

But no ticket number for the replacement flights, correct?

SirHoundsfield

OP I am so sorry this sounds terrible.

Did you get a locator code, looks like you did, did you check that on JAL site to see if it is valid and ticketed? Like it let you pick seats and meal and such?

Just curious on how others can avoid this because I saw this happened to someone in QR too through AA milage ticket who showed up to return home from MLE (!!!) and had no ticket!

Seems like a rare but can happen thing.

hur88

I assume it's AA's responsibility to re-ticket it and they dropped the ball.
If OP pursues damages in small claims court, is it likely they'd win? (assuming they refuse to compensate OP, of course)

pmarrsouth

If you want to fly then call AA, be concise, and HUCA until you get to someone who tickets it

Forget about letters if you want to travel

Hoc

I got the JAL confirmation code, and I actually picked our seats on the JAL flight last week. Unfortunately, I guess I did not write the JAL code down anywhere, and when the flight had disappeared from the AA "your trips" list last night, I called AA to get the JAL code again. That is when I was informed that the flight had been cancelled.

I was concise. For three hours last night. Spoke to three different people. Ultimately, they were not willing to do anything but rebook us on Sunday, so there is no alternative but to seek compensation now. We are flying out on Sunday, arriving Monday at 11:35 pm.

Dave Noble

Given that you received a departure related email from JL says to me that the reservation wasn't cancelled within JL's system and that if you had contacted JL, the issue may well have been able to have been resolved

AA can only rebook where there is availability - I wouldn't be holding my breath for any compensation from AA; it has rebooked you and would be amazed if it accepted any liability for consequential losses

js1993

Likely? No. AA's contract of carriage disclaims liability for damages due to non-refundable reservations, missed events, etc. Otherwise, people who, e.g., miss weddings or funerals would be suing and winning big money.

Repooc17

OP, if you are still planning to send out your notes to AA, I would suggest removing everything after non-air related costs you are unable to recover. Even the JL commentary can be shortened and summarized - you would be writing to AA, not JL. As suggested, keep concise and stick to facts. No emotions nor speculations. Any feedback you have received in FT should not be included in the letter.

I would look to fly out at the earliest opportunity and deal with this after. Even if you send a letter out to AA now, responses would not be immediately. Good luck.