Antx

I had a trip with fully AY-marketed flights HEL-JFK-DCA. The JFK-DCA leg was on AA metal and AA canceled the flight (actually all JFK-DCA flights on that day) a couple months before the first flight of the trip. After contacting AY CS, I was given three options: 1) Fly one day earlier rerouted HEL-ORD-DCA, 2) Fly HEL-LHR-IAD with BA metal, or 3) Switch airports (JFK to LGA) at own cost and fly LGA-DCA.

Flying one day earlier was not an option, as was not flying LH with BA to IAD, so I had no other option than to accept the change from JFK to LGA.

So out of this I have two questions:

1) According to AY CS, I am not entitled to get a reimbursement for the taxi ride from JFK to LGA. Is this correct?
2) As the new routing resulted in less tier points since the new flight was not an AY codeshare and also booking class credited less on AA, can I request points to be awarded based on the original routing?

Obviously we are not talking about a huge difference in points since it is a short flight, but would like to understand this for future needs as the impact of such change would have been much greater on a longer flight.

Rerouting through LGA also caused an unexpected problem with checked luggage. I accidentally had bought a Light ticket, but at that time I did not think it would be an issue as I would have only one checked bag and as AY+Gold I have +1 bag for Light fares also. However, now that the bag could not be checked thru to DCA from HEL, AA was insisting at LGA that I pay $50 for the bag. In the end I did manage to negotiate the bag a free of charge, but I think that it was just sheer luck to get an agent who was willing and could override the computer that said no.

miamiflyer8

$50 for a bag sounds fishy, the AA standard first bag fee is $30 and the second bag $40. Don't know how they calculated it to $50 but I'm glad you didn't need to pay as OWS/AY Gold you are entitled to 2 bags free on AA flights regardless of fares.

Normally if you deliberately purchased tickets involving JFK-LGA transfer then the cost isn't included, but since this is IRROPS then you should be refunded the cab or uber, given that HEL-NYC-DCA was the only option to DCA presented to you for your travel day. Technically speaking your desired destination was Arlington, Virginia and not Dulles VI with DCA being closest while IAD is 30 miles away. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Someone more knowledgeable than me will tell you about the ORC as I've never needed to deal with it before.

ffay005

DCA and IAD are considered the same city, as are eg. JFK and EWR or LHR and LGW. My understanding is that if AY presents an option (BA to IAD) and the customer rejects that, anything else that AY might agree on at their discretion will be negotiated case-by-case, and AY does not have to pay for taxis. Likewise, if AY and customer had agreed on an overnight transit, AY would not have paid for the hotel as AY presented other primary alternatives without overnight transit.

OTOH, if the only option AY had presented would have included overnights or changes of airport, then AY would have needed to pay.

Antx

I was under the same impression but I was told firmly that for "basic economy" non-AA-elites will not receive the bag benefit. Whether this is actually true or not, I don't know, but from my experience one rarely succeeds in getting what they want in the US if one starts arguing with the person behind the desk. I don't know where the $50 came and could not find it from the price list either, but that is what the agent said, multiple times. Maybe she just tried to "make a point" that one should never buy an HBO fare.

Antx

This is what I assumed also. IAD was totally the wrong way for me and thus I originally selected DCA. Rental car already booked from DCA meant that I would have had to take a much more expensive taxi from IAD to DCA, but AY had fulfilled their end by offering the BA flight.

miamiflyer8

She was wrong, NOWHERE does it say about non-AA elites not getting bags on BE fares. For transatlantic BE the charge is $60 for the first bag for those without status, not $50. I think she simply made up her own rules and manually entered the $50 amount in there to rip you off.

Just escalate and ask for a supervisor, if they're not budging have them pick up the phone and call further. Usually at that point they roll their eyes and relent.

Jainzar

I assume you didn't notice "a couple months before the first flight of the trip". This is no IRROPS.

Antx

Yeah, I was taken by surprise and even though I felt like she was wrong I took the soft skills route just in case I was actually wrong. She showed the monitor showing "NIL" bags and complained that the computer won't let her check the bag in without a fee. Then after a long discussion she asked for my physical AY+ card (I told her the number is on the booking but she said she needed the card as she "had to remove it from the booking and add it again") and vigorously typed on the keyboard for a while and finally got the tags printed.

miamiflyer8

Correct. Thanks for clearing.

miamiflyer8

Glad it worked it the end. In the AA forum there are countless reports on OW tier members being charged incorrectly over bags, but after an email AA usually refunds it so you wouldn't have been totally out of luck.

fransknorge

Hi. What would be the best lounge (J passenger) at BKK for, respectively in order of importance:
- breakfast food
- breakfast drinks
- views
?

Steve_Hun

You can check this thread: Best OW lounge in BKK?

jcrossen

Generally do not like to reply to myself, but my first Finnair flights were quite nice.

I am in Dallas, so it is most always AA/BA via London to Europe (minus anywhere AA flies directly). I started off at LAX and did LAX-HEL-WAW and back, with a one way from LAX-DFW at the end.

I was surprised how good the food was on the short HEL-WAW flight. Had a Pineapple chicken on the way back that was really tasty. It was a bit of a walk through HEL from between gates, but the airport was very nice and so much easier than LHR.

The Business Class seats on the long haul were comfy, the flight attendants were fantastic. I thought the seats were similar to the AA 777 configuration, much better than the old BA 747 seats (have not flown their new configuration). Anyway, I pretty tall 6' 2" and was able to stretch out and slept well, They could have a little more of a privacy screen, but that is a minor complaint

My first time drinking Bilberry juice and the cocktail, which I enjoyed. Ate my first Reindeer, very pleasant flight overall and when possible will be flying via HEL instead of LHR. Even though the flight route took be a bit out of the way, when you factor in not having to transfer at LHR, the overall travel time was at worse the same, probably a bit shorter with 1/10th of the hassle.

The only small complaint was the in flight entertainment content was a bit lacking compared to BA/AA .. but that is not really that big of a deal, had plenty to watch on my tablet. I did like the flight schedule (meal times, etc) and the cameras.

The glasses were really cool, sent a picture to my wife, they are neat looking.

I only spent 20 minutes in the lounge on my way there, thought it was perfectly fine.

Overall, I was impressed.

ffay005

In summer, you could try DFW-ORD-HEL. AY has a daily JFK-HEL, but I think AA stopped serving the DFW-JFK route and fly to LGA instead.

miamiflyer8

They still do very much fly DFW-JFK, did you get mixed up with the temporary DCA suspension from earlier ?