hbaeuerle

Forgive the rant here but after years of flying with AA i have finally given up on them.. booked a trip to Germany PHL - LHR - MUC over the holidays for 3 people (my family) about 6 months ago in First Class. A few months ago BA changes aircraft so no first class.. then on the day of departure AA cancer my itinerary and rebooks me PHL - CLT - MUC. I call AA (am exec plat) and was told BA cancelled LHR - MUC.. i tell them there are flights to MUC 2 hours and 4 hours later so why cancel? Agent has no clue.. i also tell them i need to be in MUC as i have a family event that night.. nothing we can do.. so i cancel ticket and rebook 2 one way tickets (one leg with Aer Lingus and return with TAP) and combined price was same as what I paid for AA.. honestly why bother chasing status with any airline? But AA definitely sucks.

socalterp

I guess I’m confused as to how this is a lack of AA customer service. Was this a mileage redemption?
BA downgauging a flight is not an AA problem.
and as for timing of getting to MUC, the AA CLT flight gets into MUC early in the am, way earlier than any connection through LHR would get in…did the day of departure change push your departure from PHL out a day?

S80

BA is known for close in cancellations and swaps, did EF show any space on the later LHR-MUC flights, or were they sold out?

james318

To the OP: EF is ExpertFlyer, a subscription based site where you can view the number of available seats on flights by fare class. For example, J2 means there are two J fare class seats for sale. S9 means there are nine or more S class seats available.

theroz

OP no customer service would mean AA told you BA Cxed your flight and we are refunding your tkts , seems instead AA came up with an alternative routing. It may not be to your liking or workout for you but AA did come thru rather then simply say Go Pound Sand.

I cant imagine BA not offering the other flights if you were on a Rev tkt, I can see BA saying SOL if you were on an award tkt and not much AA can do when its a partners flight you want to get on

shoodawg

to go out of our way for a particular airline now seems to be a fools errand. Happy holidays.

UKtravelbear

On a day of departure cancellation you should have been dealing with BA. At the very least the BA app would have likely offered you alternative LHR=MUC flights that AA may not have been able to see.

Being on an award ticket would have made no difference due to UK regulations.

Remember AA and BA use different systems and they don't always sync.

Depending on the reason for the cancellation and how late you would have arrived in MUC you may have even gotten some compensation. But given you just cancelled that's not possible now

757FO

Sorry this happened, but not AA's fault.

Adam1222

What on earth does AA customer service have to do with BA cancelling a flight? Did you ask AA if they could help you get on a different flight or just yell at them because you think it was wrong for BA to cancel a flight as ones "2 hours and 4 hours later" (and thus, useless to you) weren't? (That also of course has nothing to with why BA may have canceled the flight.

If you absolutely needed to be in Munich that night, you probably shouldn't have booked a flight on any airline that would've gotten you in at 4pm, if im understanding what happened correctly.

Dave Noble

I am confused - you were booked to fly from Philadelphia to Munich and after the cancellation , you were rebooked onto Philadelphia to Munich. What is the issue? Unless it was a different day, it seems that a logical rerouting was given.

Microwave

I’ve updated the thread’s title to more accurately reflect its contents.

~Moderator

scottinaz

I had a similar situation and was told that since I booked through AA all conversations must be with AA regardless of the actual carrier being BA. What I learned is that AA is very little help in rebooking and the best option once your flight is cancelled it to find your own flights and call AA and ask them to rebook you on them. It would be nice if AA would be more helpful in proactively rebooking you on the most similar flights but that does not seem to be the case. In my case I ended up spending a night in LHR (for which BA reimbursed me) and flying back a day later. Since I had no deadline to fly the flight the next day worked for me.

ryanbriar

In general, the best way to get where you are going with cancellations or IROPS is to bring viable options to the agent. Also, as others have noted, the AA agents may not be able to see all inventory when dealing with award space or well-versed in how to work with the OW liaison desk (this also applies to revenue codeshare flights).

Unless the OP was sent on a different date, it seems like they ended up with a better routing as the long-haul from CLT would have likely gotten them in ahead of any connection via LHR. I’d also argue that AA handling this without any intervention and presumably in the same cabin is a plus.

DataPlumber

Is the issue you were rerouted or downgraded from F to presumably J as the only way to get to MUC? Presumably, the alternative itinerary on the same day would get you there around the earlier/ similar times as waiting at LHR for a later flight to MUC

Adam1222

The OP Is complaining that BA changed equipment, and canceled a LHR-MUC flight though other LHR-MUC flights were canceled. Those complaints are beyond AAs control.
As for "proactively rebooking," there is no indication that AA did not do so here. OP was rebooked. He just didn't like the rebooked option. I humbly suggest whatever experience you had has nothing to do with this.

As for your advice that you should find alternative flights you want and ask to be rebooked on them, that is good advice for flying any airline in the world.