Delayed & Declining to pay roomstorm.com hotel expense
 

Today I received a reimbursement payment from AA from my March 1, 2023 filing after my flight was delayed more than 18 hours from its original scheduled departure.

To my surprise, after sending a 2nd letter on June 1st inquiring for an update, the reimbursement was less than expected. Apparently, AA does feel that it should not pay the "tax recovery charges & service fees" portion of the claim.

My reimbursement was solely for the "hotel nightly rate" as indicated on the receipt submitted. My plans are to resubmit my claim and explain that the minus fees are not a discretionary expense. I wanted to post this information to have feedback from others on how best to resolve this matter if it too has been experienced by others.

Thanks in advance for your comments and feedback.

Can you post the receipt? Or the breakdown?

Were these standard hotel taxes and fees?

Yes.. It was the only tax charged. There were blank lines for other "taxes".

I can't imagine that taxes and fees are worth this amount of effort.
ETA: and why would AA pay service fees to some third party booking site that probably nobody has heard of.

It's just the principle of the matter. I used the card that the gate agent was handling out for those that wanted to pay for lodging rather than sleep on the floor at the airport for the night. Snacks/drinks/blankets were off-loaded from planes were brought in as the terminal was shutting down for the night.

You're right, op should go to small claims and also ask for $500 of lost time! Okay I'm mostly sarcastic because I'm not a lawyer, but corporations hoping you give up are a problem, I applaud op for getting what is owed!

Considering that AA is under no obligation to pay for a room in the first place, I'm not sure what more the OP wants.

Depends on the fees. AA and other insurances have paid out resort fees or other fees.

When I'm looking for a hotel late at night after a delay, I'm not looking at how to minimize AA's cost. I'm looking for fastest and available.

Obviously, I'm not trying to go four seasons at 8x the cost, but I'm not looking at whether $200 is comprised of fees, taxes or both.

And you're making this declarative statement based on....?

https://www.businessinsider.com/flig...voucher-2022-8
https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...20lost%20wages.If my flight is cancelled, is the airline required to provide me with a hotel room, cab fare, a food voucher, or reimbursement for any other non-airline ticket costs associated with my trip?

• No. Airlines are not required to provide passengers with money or other compensation for costs that fall outside of the cancelled airline ticket and fees tied directly to the airline ticket (such as baggage fees, seat upgrades, etc.) when flights are cancelled.

My flight is delayed - am I entitled to money or other compensation from the airline?

• No. There are no federal laws requiring airlines to provide passengers with money or other compensation when their flights are delayed. Each airline has its own policies about what it will do for delayed passengers. If your flight is experiencing a long delay, ask airline staff if they will pay for meals or a hotel room. While some airlines offer these amenities to passengers, others do not provide any amenities to stranded passengers.

Assuming this was a US domestic flight, there are basically no US regs as far as compensation or reimbursement for expenses and you are subject to whatever is in the Contract/Conditions of Carriage for the airline you are flying. It's the thing you agree to even if you don't ever bother to read it (referred to as a "contract of adhesion" in legal parlance). Here is what is in the AA Conditions of Carriage (available online).
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...00cfcb1c0c.png

I'm aware of the CoC. I don't understand why we are assuming the OP didn't have authorization? Also, in my prior case, I had authorization from AA and nowhere did it say that xyz fees were not covered.

No one is disputing what the laws are. They are irrelevant in this discussion though.

A covers hotels on MX delays (and sometimes others) per the link xliioper provided above. Why is the assumption that the OP wasn't eligible for a hotel? Clearly they paid him/her for the room rate

Because the OP name dropped some random booking site that seems to have been around since 2016 but I'll bet very few people have ever heard of. And...

"I used the card that the gate agent was handling out for those that wanted to pay for lodging rather than sleep on the floor at the airport for the night. Snacks/drinks/blankets were off-loaded from planes were brought in as the terminal was shutting down for the night."

Doesn't sound like AA officially offered anything and gave the OP the equivalent of a phone number for a local hotel. The OP got the room covered, going for taxes and fees is just kind of greedy and will make AA do even less in the future.

I don't see how you have enough information to make this judgement.

IMO, frankly not worth the effort, especially since principle is the motivating factor.

My guess is AA won't budge and you are just going to get frustrated.

This is frankly an odd conclusion to me. AA has always reimbursed me when I booked through BAAH/RM/Hyatt/Choice/Radisson/etc directly, even though those also charge such fees. I believe most others’ experiences will mirror this; I imagine this is why OP was confused in the first place, as haggling over these fees is NOT AA standard operating procedure.

Unless you have evidence RoomStorm charges more extortionate tax and fee levies than other sites I can’t possibly fathom how you justify this claim.