Anybody else have issues with their MPC Gold when flying with American Airlines?
 

Hi all,

I've got a OneWorld Sapphire card (provided via Cathay Pacific) and I was wondering if any of you with Marco Polo Gold are having a similar problem with me when using American Airlines.

The OneWorld Sapphire status is automatically recognised on US Airways, FinnAir, Cathay Pacific Qatar Airways and British Airways - the online system recognises it immediately, I can get my baggage allowance and access to the various clubs (BA Terraces/Galleries; US Airways Club, etc) without trouble. The status is automatically recognised by the computers and staff at all the places I would interact with these airlines.

However, I consistently have problems with AA. It hasn't ever been recognised by the AA systems at any of the places I interact with them: their online system, their telephone operators, their check-in desk staff/computers, and their Admiral's Club staff/computers cannot see the status at all. I've been refused access to the AA Club, luggage, access to MCE seating, priority boarding, and am bottom of the queue on any standby list (rather than being prioritised within the status bands). I show the physical card at the airport and sometimes the check-in or lounges let me in manually, and sometimes they point blank refuse. This is bizarre because in one Admirals Club they refuse me access because they can’t see my status attached to the ticket, but if I go next door to another OneWorld Partner they can see my status on the same ticket!

Its a real annoyance and I hate flying with American Airlines as a result. Do any of you have similar problems with MPC Gold on American? Or is this something that is restricted to my account?

I've phoned Cathay Pacific up several times and they told me that there is no problem with the card, and that AA should recognise the status. However, the AA systems simply do not. I've contacted AA about it several times over the past 2 years. Once, I got a member of AA Customer Relations to phone up Cathay Pacific to confirm my status and they were then happy to manually book and bypass the MCE seating for me. However, all my other attempts at sorting the problem have failed and I’ve never been able to get anybody from AA to phone up Cathay Pacific since. Instead, I still have problems at the airport and I’ve given up trying to contact AA after being passed from department to department for the past two years. I have ended up avoiding booking flights involving AA (trying to do the BA-operated flights from Heathrow to New York/Boston rather than the AA-operated flights).

Does anybody else have this problem at all? Did anybody else get it sorted? This occurs on both US domestic and transatlantic bookings with AA-operated flights which are either AA-ticketed or BA-ticketed. The Customer relations simply can't work out what is wrong - it seems to be something with the AA systems though given that all the other airlines are fine.

So yes, again… anybody else have this issue with their MPC Gold card?

Simon.

i've flown AA about 4 times in the past 2 years and have had no issue with AA recognising CX/OWS status. priority AAcess as well as status is reflected on the boarding passes.

i am not sure if the problem might be that the name on your CX card is slightly different from that in your AA booking and that the AA system is particular about that. i used to have problems because some TAs mangle my name in the booking by switching first, middle and last name sequence although it looks correct in the e-ticket.

Hi epigram,

Thanks for your suggestion :)

I had actually thought about that a while ago and tried about three different iterations of my name over the course of a few months (i.e. including and removing my middle name; removing Mr from my name which is sometimes appended to my forename by an agent). None of the different iterations seemed to work unfortunately.

My name isn't particularly difficult and is spelt without a middle name on my account. Perhaps I just haven't got the right iteration yet for AA to match up with Cathay yet. I'm not sure what else I can do with amending my name on their booking system, short of actually changing my name.

The mystery shall continue, and I'm glad that I'm probably the only one (or one of the few) with this problem and that it isn't more widespread!

Thanks for your suggestion.

Simon.

I've flown AA about 20 times in the past year and a half or so, and never have had any issues with status getting recognized (both SL/Ruby and GO/Sapphire). I have had issues with getting mileage credit for a few flights because "the passenger name did not match that on the manifest" or something to that effect, so, yes, name matching might be an issue in your case. But then again, on those flights, my status was reflected in my booking and when traveling.

I've had no problems either. Domestic or international. Award tickets by CX or revenue tickets issued by AA.

Few years ago I had a problem on AA/BA where although I was a Sapphire with CX, it would always show on their systems as Ruby. It was very frustrating and nobody could solve it (each airline blaming the other, naturally), until one day it stopped happening and hasn't happened since.

I never had a problem with that. I would suggest you bring your card with you when flying on partner airlines (although that is generally not needed).

Anybody else have issues with their MPC Gold when flying with American Airlines?
 

Just flew AA 3 times in the last 2 weeks in the states. No problems of any kind with being recognised on the flight and at the club. In fact even got bump up to so called first class on route to ORD from ATL. I am based in HK and am MPC GO.

I've flown AA 4 times in the last 12 months and never had a problem as GO.

Is the credit card you got still valid?

I've got a flight coming up YVR-LAX 12/02 and returning LAX-YVR 15/02, my first flight on AA so i'll see what happens.

I had a problem adding in my MPC # when buying my ticket, but that was a TA problem, so decided to forget the headache and will just add it at check in.

From the sounds of it most people don't have a problem, so i'm hoping for the best (add to the fact that my new MPC GO card hasn't arrived in the post yet and I'm hoping my 2014 card works)

I certainly sounds like a name matching issue... if it doesn't match exactly, the system may kick out the FF number.

How are you purchasing the tickets? If you always use a TA maybe it's a name entry issue?

The only experience I have that's remotely similar is that when I book tickets for my wife and myself on AA.com (we're both AA PLT/OW SPH), the site won't accept my wife's AA no., even though I'm using her exact same name.

So it's possible, but the online booking engine and direct GDS access are separate systems.

Whatever is happening, my guess is that the name entry is not exactly the same, first/middle/last

9 AA segments in the last two months, zero issues.

Okay, fine, my MPC card has become demagnetized, and some lounge dragons have had to punch in the number manually, but we're hardly going to fault that, now, are we?

AA has been pretty good to recognize me everytime I fly with them, except giving me 3 check baggage. I was fined $150 and even escalation to AA customer service center was no help. Yeah yeah, many flyertalk people in AA forum say AA is wrong, but tell that to my bank account that's $150 less, and I've escalated all the way to AA head quarters Customer Service specialist to no avail. They insist this is CX specific benefit so AA does not honor it.

Flew 22 AA segments in last 3.5 months as SL/Ruby, never had issues with MCE selection, PriorityAccess, or checked baggage. I did have to shell out $25 for 1 bag on an AA-codeshare, AS-operated LAX-SEA flight, and missed out on mileage credit for a few O-fare tickets, but it was probably my fault for not double checking.