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
#841
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP/2mm, SPG Gold
Posts: 424
I've been on hold for 40+ minutes while the EXP desk is trying to figure out what to do. I'm calling them for the reservation that did not involve Brazil travel. I'll call the Brazilian office for the 2 others that did involve travel to Brazil. I didn't want to call Brazil for the DFW-HKG-DFW one because the Brazilian consumer protection agency would have no jurisdiction there, and it seems all agents know that this was not supposed to work for places other than Brazil by now.
#842
That's odd my are all ex BR that have been cancelled.
Looks like they're manually going through the the ticketed reservations and canceling ones that were made with foreign credit cards.
I've been on hold for 40+ minutes while the EXP desk is trying to figure out what to do. I'm calling them for the reservation that did not involve Brazil travel. I'll call the Brazilian office for the 2 others that did involve travel to Brazil. I didn't want to call Brazil for the DFW-HKG-DFW one because the Brazilian consumer protection agency would have no jurisdiction there, and it seems all agents know that this was not supposed to work for places other than Brazil by now.
I've been on hold for 40+ minutes while the EXP desk is trying to figure out what to do. I'm calling them for the reservation that did not involve Brazil travel. I'll call the Brazilian office for the 2 others that did involve travel to Brazil. I didn't want to call Brazil for the DFW-HKG-DFW one because the Brazilian consumer protection agency would have no jurisdiction there, and it seems all agents know that this was not supposed to work for places other than Brazil by now.
#843
Join Date: Feb 2002
Programs: Hilton Diamond
Posts: 177
Mine cancelled as well, seems like an automatic cancellation rather than a manual one since everyone else is reporting same issue.
I'm guessing this was unintentional since they went through the pain of manually ticketing all of them...
I'm guessing this was unintentional since they went through the pain of manually ticketing all of them...
#844
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP/2mm, SPG Gold
Posts: 424
OK, so the EXP desk is saying that the reservation was auto flagged to be canceled in 3 days "pending credit card authorization", but my credit card was charged over a week ago. He is working on reinstating the ticket, but space is gone (checked with EF he is telling the truth F0 J0). Trying to get him to put me on the next day.
#846
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP/2mm, SPG Gold
Posts: 424
Also, I'm banking on the massive publicity AA got by "honoring the mistake fares" that they won't back out. It's taking a long time for the reinstatement to be approved since the date changed, but let's see what happens.
#849
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
American confirmed in a statement to Airline Reporter that it “will honor mispriced fares that were booked last week,” adding that it hopes “customers enjoy their experience with American and book with us again in the future."
Source: http://consumerist.com/2015/08/28/am...ghts-up-to-90/
In response to the news, American released a statement promising that it “will honor mispriced fares that were booked last week,” expressing hope that its “customers enjoy their experience with American and book with us again in the future."
Source: http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2015/08/...-fares-to-fly/
I would say that now there is no going back.
#852
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYZ/SFO
Programs: AS MVPG, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Plat
Posts: 271
No e-mail notification. When you look up the record locator, it says "Status: Canceled" and no longer appears in the 'My Trips' page.
#853
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 845
OK.
Also AA has charged me twice for the same reservation, one at $499 the other at $505. Both charges has posted.
Should I call them today, or still wait for another couple of days to see if AA themself reverse one of the charges?
#854
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYZ/SFO
Programs: AS MVPG, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Plat
Posts: 271
On the line with AA Brazil right now, the agent doesn't seem to know why it was cancelled. Trying to get it resolved now, he said he's calling the support desk
EDIT: On hold for about 20 minutes now while he's talking to the support desk…
EDIT: On hold for about 20 minutes now while he's talking to the support desk…
Last edited by JamilD; Aug 29, 2015 at 1:26 pm
#855
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYZ/SFO
Programs: AS MVPG, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Plat
Posts: 271
That's strange….I saw two charges pending for mine, but only one posted. :/ I'd wait to see how this plays out in the next few days though…