Last edit by: footastic
Sequence of events:
American Airlines (AA) Brazil website misprices revenue tickets in initial calculation on purchase page. Repricing the same reservation by changing billing country resulted in the correct price, even when reverting to Brazil.
Vast majority of tickets appear to have gone unticketed for ~1 week. It appears that tickets were issued manually, not automatically.
AA states repeatedly and to several outlets that they will unconditionally honor all fares.
AA begins cancelling tickets. Subsequently, they send out cancellation emails implying that the "country of residence" was misrepresented. Of course, this is not the case, as AA never actually asks for the "country of residence" but the billing address which includes the country of the billing address.
Since AA repeatedly and publicly stated that they would unconditionally honor the tickets, even when specifically asked about it, many purchasers relied upon AA's representations and made non-refundable plans. DoT regulations require airlines to reimburse purchasers who relied upon mistake fares to make non-refundable plans. It may be worth writing into the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to complain about AA's handling of the situation and ask for compensation even without having non-refundable reservations, because AA went to great lengths to assure purchasers that tickets would be unconditionally honored.
DoT air travel complaint form: http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm
DoT air travel complaint mailing address:
Aviation Consumer Protection Division, C-75
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590
DoT air travel complain phone line information:
You may call the ACPD 24 hours a day at 202-366-2220 (TTY 202-366-0511) to record your complaint. Calls are returned Monday through Friday, generally between 7:30 am and 5:00 pm Eastern time.
As mentioned by classyflyer and posted by pb9997, if your flight had some kind of legal nexus within Brazil, their consumer protections should apply to your ticket. Here is the contact information for the relevant consumer protection agencies within Brazil. Please be clear in your communication and REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS IN PORTUGESE.
To translate your communications before submitting them:
http://translate.google.com
www.reclameaqui.com.br
Quote from pb9997: "This site is known to be the most popular, most viewed upon by companies who care about reputation; Though not official, it has proven to be the most respected by consumers and corporations, who may delay answers on their own channels but do take care to have teams focused on answering for this public site. Information written, from both parties, is public."
www.consumidor.gov.br
Quote again from pb9997: "This is the official PROCON site where consumers and companies present their complaints and arguments. It is official, additional care ought to be taken.
I would highly suggest following the order presented; With the first site the company has room to assess impact, prepare an amiable answer and protect their public reputation.
On the second site... well, it's official and what is written by both parties is the basis to act afterwards in a court of law. Ideally the complaint presented should have the Law that explains why a consumer has been impacted and the expected remedy, according [sic] to the Law."
As of 9/8/15 - Individuals who had tickets cancelled in the first round (8/28) have yet to see refunds post to credit cards.
Feel free to update this Wiki with more complete information.
American Airlines (AA) Brazil website misprices revenue tickets in initial calculation on purchase page. Repricing the same reservation by changing billing country resulted in the correct price, even when reverting to Brazil.
Vast majority of tickets appear to have gone unticketed for ~1 week. It appears that tickets were issued manually, not automatically.
AA states repeatedly and to several outlets that they will unconditionally honor all fares.
AA begins cancelling tickets. Subsequently, they send out cancellation emails implying that the "country of residence" was misrepresented. Of course, this is not the case, as AA never actually asks for the "country of residence" but the billing address which includes the country of the billing address.
Since AA repeatedly and publicly stated that they would unconditionally honor the tickets, even when specifically asked about it, many purchasers relied upon AA's representations and made non-refundable plans. DoT regulations require airlines to reimburse purchasers who relied upon mistake fares to make non-refundable plans. It may be worth writing into the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to complain about AA's handling of the situation and ask for compensation even without having non-refundable reservations, because AA went to great lengths to assure purchasers that tickets would be unconditionally honored.
DoT air travel complaint form: http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm
DoT air travel complaint mailing address:
Aviation Consumer Protection Division, C-75
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20590
DoT air travel complain phone line information:
You may call the ACPD 24 hours a day at 202-366-2220 (TTY 202-366-0511) to record your complaint. Calls are returned Monday through Friday, generally between 7:30 am and 5:00 pm Eastern time.
As mentioned by classyflyer and posted by pb9997, if your flight had some kind of legal nexus within Brazil, their consumer protections should apply to your ticket. Here is the contact information for the relevant consumer protection agencies within Brazil. Please be clear in your communication and REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS IN PORTUGESE.
To translate your communications before submitting them:
http://translate.google.com
www.reclameaqui.com.br
Quote from pb9997: "This site is known to be the most popular, most viewed upon by companies who care about reputation; Though not official, it has proven to be the most respected by consumers and corporations, who may delay answers on their own channels but do take care to have teams focused on answering for this public site. Information written, from both parties, is public."
www.consumidor.gov.br
Quote again from pb9997: "This is the official PROCON site where consumers and companies present their complaints and arguments. It is official, additional care ought to be taken.
I would highly suggest following the order presented; With the first site the company has room to assess impact, prepare an amiable answer and protect their public reputation.
On the second site... well, it's official and what is written by both parties is the basis to act afterwards in a court of law. Ideally the complaint presented should have the Law that explains why a consumer has been impacted and the expected remedy, according [sic] to the Law."
As of 9/8/15 - Individuals who had tickets cancelled in the first round (8/28) have yet to see refunds post to credit cards.
Feel free to update this Wiki with more complete information.
[PREM FARE GONE] AA: GIG/GRU- multiple locations (HKG/LAX/MIA/SFO ETC) ~$200 Y ~$360
#152
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 355
If you're banking on getting AA miles and the AA miles are indeed a dealbreaker, you should probably cancel because 1) AA has already said that they won't award mileage for mistake fares/pricing errors, and 2) "AA were to decide to honour these"...... do you really need AA to tell you that you booked a mistake fare/currency conversion error ticket?
Assume you won't get mileage if it tickets, whether AA tells you or not. Whether you still try to credit to AA is up to you and your comfort level with that risk.
#153
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 355
#154
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: MAD/BCN/MUC/FRA
Programs: UA Premier 1K, AA EXP; A3 Gold; DL Plat, AZ Freccia Alata; Hertz PC
Posts: 54
In this case, is there any way to push reservations up to the top of the ticketing queue? Read somewhere else, that hotline agents could push them in manually, so it would be ticketed within minutes. True?
#155
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 355
Change your date of travel to today The ticket may reprice though.
#156
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: LGA/EWR/JFK
Programs: AA EXP, Amex Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 311
If you call the AAdvantage line, the agents can usually call ticketing and have it pushed through immediately. In this case, however, I imagine there is an internal hold on all these bookings to prevent anything from being ticketed until they've sorted out the mess.
#157
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NY
Programs: The local deli gives me 1 free sandwich after I buy 10
Posts: 4,026
I have a question for a currency conversion expert.
In the OP's example the cost is shown as 1.255,42BRL. Note the placement of either the decimal or comma:
If you put 1.255BRL in any conversion tool is equates to $.035USD
If you put in 1,255BRL it equates to $359.87USD.
Was the placement of the decimal and/or comma one of the factors in this low fare?
Caught up in the 'buy now ask questions later' I purchased a ticket JFK-CHC. The printout says R$17.743,70. However, you can't get any conversion results if you put in R$17.743,70 as configured into any currency converter. If I put as shown 17.743 it equates to 5.08USD. If I change it to 17,743 it equates to 5,087USD
In the OP's example the cost is shown as 1.255,42BRL. Note the placement of either the decimal or comma:
If you put 1.255BRL in any conversion tool is equates to $.035USD
If you put in 1,255BRL it equates to $359.87USD.
Was the placement of the decimal and/or comma one of the factors in this low fare?
Caught up in the 'buy now ask questions later' I purchased a ticket JFK-CHC. The printout says R$17.743,70. However, you can't get any conversion results if you put in R$17.743,70 as configured into any currency converter. If I put as shown 17.743 it equates to 5.08USD. If I change it to 17,743 it equates to 5,087USD
#159
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 355
I have a question for a currency conversion expert.
In the OP's example the cost is shown as 1.255,42BRL. Note the placement of either the decimal or comma:
If you put 1.255BRL in any conversion tool is equates to $.035USD
If you put in 1,255BRL it equates to $359.87USD.
Was the placement of the decimal and/or comma one of the factors in this low fare?
Caught up in the 'buy now ask questions later' I purchased a ticket JFK-CHC. The printout says R$17.743,70. However, you can't get any conversion results if you put in R$17.743,70 as configured into any currency converter. If I put as shown 17.743 it equates to 5.08USD. If I change it to 17,743 it equates to 5,087USD
In the OP's example the cost is shown as 1.255,42BRL. Note the placement of either the decimal or comma:
If you put 1.255BRL in any conversion tool is equates to $.035USD
If you put in 1,255BRL it equates to $359.87USD.
Was the placement of the decimal and/or comma one of the factors in this low fare?
Caught up in the 'buy now ask questions later' I purchased a ticket JFK-CHC. The printout says R$17.743,70. However, you can't get any conversion results if you put in R$17.743,70 as configured into any currency converter. If I put as shown 17.743 it equates to 5.08USD. If I change it to 17,743 it equates to 5,087USD
#161
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: BRU, AMS
Programs: Miles & More, FlyingBlue, Iberia Plus Gold
Posts: 485
They didn't say what amount you have to pay though. Do you carry reals with you ?
#162
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: MAD/BCN/MUC/FRA
Programs: UA Premier 1K, AA EXP; A3 Gold; DL Plat, AZ Freccia Alata; Hertz PC
Posts: 54
#163
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: BSB
Posts: 260
What I found interesting is that the taxes were charged correctly, they werenīt conversed on a wrong rate. It seems that this also happened in Chile. Prices seems to be around 1/10 of regular value, but I donīt think this was due to a misplaced comma.
Maybe AA can absorb the loss caused by an intern/trainee :-), but their major loss might be the compensation to CX, JL and QA for those that booked their first classes.
Maybe AA can absorb the loss caused by an intern/trainee :-), but their major loss might be the compensation to CX, JL and QA for those that booked their first classes.
#164
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: GVA
Programs: BA Silver (OW Sapphire), A3 Gold (*G), Bonvoy LTTE, HHonors Diamond, LeClubAccor Silver, UA Silver
Posts: 1,778
In Brazil a comma is a dot, and vice versa... so you paid BRL 17k or U$5k for your flights which is consistent with today's exchange rate of around 3.45 BRL to U$1. Looks like that is no mistake fare, so unless you think U$5k is a good deal I'd advise you to cancel within the 24h window...
#165
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NY
Programs: The local deli gives me 1 free sandwich after I buy 10
Posts: 4,026
In Brazil a comma is a dot, and vice versa... so you paid BRL 17k or U$5k for your flights which is consistent with today's exchange rate of around 3.45 BRL to U$1. Looks like that is no mistake fare, so unless you think U$5k is a good deal I'd advise you to cancel within the 24h window...