Aug 31, 2015, 9:17 am
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
Aug 30, 2015, 3:44 pm
#946
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: LHR (sometimes CLE, SFO, BOS, LAX, SEA)
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 5,895
It has come to our attention that while making the booking referenced above, you stated that your country of residence was Brazil, when our information indicates you are a resident of another country.
Given that we price and sell our tickets on the assumption that our customers provide accurate information during the booking process, we consider this booking to have been invalid when made, and have accordingly canceled it.
The purchase price will be refunded to the original form of payment and should appear with your credit card company within seven (7) days.
If you disagree with the cancellation, please provide to us documentation (i.e., Brazilian passport or residency card) proving that your country of residence is Brazil and we will consider reinstating your ticket. You can send this information to [email protected].
American Airlines
Given that we price and sell our tickets on the assumption that our customers provide accurate information during the booking process, we consider this booking to have been invalid when made, and have accordingly canceled it.
The purchase price will be refunded to the original form of payment and should appear with your credit card company within seven (7) days.
If you disagree with the cancellation, please provide to us documentation (i.e., Brazilian passport or residency card) proving that your country of residence is Brazil and we will consider reinstating your ticket. You can send this information to [email protected].
American Airlines
Aug 30, 2015, 3:50 pm
#947
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 580
I got an email a couple hours ago telling me one of my reservations has been cancelled. I went to check my other ones and 5/8 total have been cancelled, no email yet. The intact ones are all for December and later. I expect those will get cancelled too when they catch up. Oh well.
Aug 30, 2015, 6:39 pm
#948
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: BOS
Programs: B6 Mosaic, Hyatt Plat, SPG/MAR Gold, Nat'l EEE
Posts: 128
My flight from PLS-MIA-BOS for next week is now showing cancelled....time to scramble to find an alternative way to get home from an airport with about 7 flights out each day, FUN STUFF!
Just say you aren't honoring it and I'm not stuck in this predicament, instead I have a few days to find something (vs 3 weeks).
Just say you aren't honoring it and I'm not stuck in this predicament, instead I have a few days to find something (vs 3 weeks).
Aug 30, 2015, 7:05 pm
#949
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: QLA
Programs: SBUX Gold
Posts: 14,507
My write-up on AirlineReporter is here:
http://www.airlinereporter.com/2015/...mistake-fares/
Got a response yesterday from an AA rep with the official company line on this issue.
... “American is honoring the overwhelming majority of fares that were the result of a technical error in currency exchange rates. After reviewing the bookings, a small number have been canceled based on how the traveler portrayed their country of residence.” [Matt] Miller continued, “we price and sell our tickets on the assumption that customers give us honest, accurate information. Some bookings may be invalid because of inaccurate information provided to us.”
The PR issue is a different issue, with a different set of potential problems for AA.
Ultimately, I don't think anyone should be holding their breath at this point.
Aug 30, 2015, 7:06 pm
#950
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: NYC METRO
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Platinum Elite w/ Amb, UA Gold
Posts: 16
The cancellation e-mail from AA is factually incorrect and nonsensical on it's face. First, when making the reservations, there was no declaration of residency, merely a country where the credit card is billed under a section clearly labelled "credit card billing address."
Second, what information could they have come upon now that was not available to them when they ticketed the reservation? Presumably no one called them and said "I'm an American and live in the US", so they had all the relevant information when they confirmed the booking. Tickets were not generated automatically, they were being done with manual individual review, and they still chose to issue them.
Their language of stating that the booking was "invalid" is meaningless from a legal perspective. A ticket number was issued which they are choosing to cancel as an error fare. All of the DOT's requirements (assuming there is a US nexus for DOT involvement) for mistake fare cancellation and reimbursement of non-refundable expenses certainly continue to apply.
Likewise if the cancelled flights in question had any nexus to Brazil (i.e., arriving or departing Brazil at any point in the itinerary) then the Brazil's ANAC and PROCON protections still apply to the ticket, notwithstanding the residency of the purchaser. Brazil's consumer protection agencies and civil aviation regulators seem to be far less cozy with the airlines than our own DOT, and have shown to take swift and decisive action in the past when KLM tried this same type of trick last December. However, in order for PROCON and ANAC to take action, they both need to see a significant number of complaints. I would recommend those affected should go online and file complaints through the respective websites that can be translated through Google Translate. The complaint should also be in Portuguese, also easily done through Google Translate.
This fiasco is far from over for AA.
Second, what information could they have come upon now that was not available to them when they ticketed the reservation? Presumably no one called them and said "I'm an American and live in the US", so they had all the relevant information when they confirmed the booking. Tickets were not generated automatically, they were being done with manual individual review, and they still chose to issue them.
Their language of stating that the booking was "invalid" is meaningless from a legal perspective. A ticket number was issued which they are choosing to cancel as an error fare. All of the DOT's requirements (assuming there is a US nexus for DOT involvement) for mistake fare cancellation and reimbursement of non-refundable expenses certainly continue to apply.
Likewise if the cancelled flights in question had any nexus to Brazil (i.e., arriving or departing Brazil at any point in the itinerary) then the Brazil's ANAC and PROCON protections still apply to the ticket, notwithstanding the residency of the purchaser. Brazil's consumer protection agencies and civil aviation regulators seem to be far less cozy with the airlines than our own DOT, and have shown to take swift and decisive action in the past when KLM tried this same type of trick last December. However, in order for PROCON and ANAC to take action, they both need to see a significant number of complaints. I would recommend those affected should go online and file complaints through the respective websites that can be translated through Google Translate. The complaint should also be in Portuguese, also easily done through Google Translate.
This fiasco is far from over for AA.
Aug 30, 2015, 7:11 pm
#951
Join Date: Feb 2002
Programs: Hilton Diamond
Posts: 177
Ironic that if you are an American, American Airlines will cancel your ticket.
This has nothing to do with what they stated in there email and everything to do with the US DOT.
They suspended 399.88 which was meant to protect consumers. This gave carte blanche to any airline to cancel any ticket, if it deemed it a clear mistake, at ANY time.
It's ok to get upset at American since they initially agreed to honor the fare. Be assured, however, that the US DOT opened the door to these types of actions.
If you don't agree with American or the US DOT then talk to your congressman about airline regulation and a passenger bill of rights...
OR just move on...
This has nothing to do with what they stated in there email and everything to do with the US DOT.
They suspended 399.88 which was meant to protect consumers. This gave carte blanche to any airline to cancel any ticket, if it deemed it a clear mistake, at ANY time.
It's ok to get upset at American since they initially agreed to honor the fare. Be assured, however, that the US DOT opened the door to these types of actions.
If you don't agree with American or the US DOT then talk to your congressman about airline regulation and a passenger bill of rights...
OR just move on...
Aug 30, 2015, 7:19 pm
#952
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: NYC METRO
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Platinum Elite w/ Amb, UA Gold
Posts: 16
Ironic that if you are an American, American Airlines will cancel your ticket.
This has nothing to do with what they stated in there email and everything to do with the US DOT.
They suspended 399.88 which was meant to protect consumers. This gave carte blanche to any airline to cancel any ticket, if it deemed it a clear mistake, at ANY time.
It's ok to get upset at American since they initially agreed to honor the fare. Be assured, however, that the US DOT opened the door to these types of actions.
If you don't agree with American or the US DOT then talk to your congressman about airline regulation and a passenger bill of rights...
OR just move on...
This has nothing to do with what they stated in there email and everything to do with the US DOT.
They suspended 399.88 which was meant to protect consumers. This gave carte blanche to any airline to cancel any ticket, if it deemed it a clear mistake, at ANY time.
It's ok to get upset at American since they initially agreed to honor the fare. Be assured, however, that the US DOT opened the door to these types of actions.
If you don't agree with American or the US DOT then talk to your congressman about airline regulation and a passenger bill of rights...
OR just move on...
I agree. The DOT absolutely opened the door for this. AA is within their rights, according to the DOT, to cancel the tickets as error fares. However, they must still reimburse affected people for everything they've spent on non-refundable travel reservations that were made before the cancellation. I was thinking the "invalid" language might be an attempt to skirt that requirement.
If they are claiming it's an error that is causing the cancellation, however, the cancellations should be uniformly applied to everyone who had a ticket. The "residency" language in their e-mail attempts to deliberately blur those lines. There is not currently, nor ever has there been, any declaration of residency when purchasing a ticket -- merely the country where the credit card was billed to. My thinking is that in order to cancel a ticket under the rationale they are attempting, they would therefore need to to demonstrate that the credit card was not billed to that address. It has nothing to do with residency. Their attempt at making people prove Brazilian residency is a complete red herring.
Last edited by ClassyFlyer; Aug 30, 2015 at 7:25 pm
Aug 30, 2015, 8:46 pm
#954
Join Date: Jan 2006
Programs: AA Exp
Posts: 836
Have had some tickets cancelled before and always moved on sort of underderstanding why the airline did what it did.
On tickets honoured, I also always only booked positioning flights and/or booked hotels after it was clear I could fly as ticketed.
This one is different though. AA's flip flopping is just horrible and I already incurred non-refundable expenses that I feel are 100% AA's own fault. May take the legal route...
On tickets honoured, I also always only booked positioning flights and/or booked hotels after it was clear I could fly as ticketed.
This one is different though. AA's flip flopping is just horrible and I already incurred non-refundable expenses that I feel are 100% AA's own fault. May take the legal route...
Aug 30, 2015, 9:06 pm
#956
Join Date: Feb 2002
Programs: Hilton Diamond
Posts: 177
Have had some tickets cancelled before and always moved on sort of underderstanding why the airline did what it did.
On tickets honoured, I also always only booked positioning flights and/or booked hotels after it was clear I could fly as ticketed.
This one is different though. AA's flip flopping is just horrible and I already incurred non-refundable expenses that I feel are 100% AA's own fault. May take the legal route...
On tickets honoured, I also always only booked positioning flights and/or booked hotels after it was clear I could fly as ticketed.
This one is different though. AA's flip flopping is just horrible and I already incurred non-refundable expenses that I feel are 100% AA's own fault. May take the legal route...
Aug 30, 2015, 9:08 pm
#957
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: SFO
Programs: AA EXP/4MM, UA GS, AS MVP GOLD 75K
Posts: 3,362
https://cms.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/fi...t_05082015.pdf
I'm in the same boat (my first ticket was scheduled to leave this Friday, September 4) and got cancelled; after getting it ticketed last week, I booked positioning flights, hotels, etc. In total, about $1,500, so am planning to contact AA tomorrow to figure out reimbursement process.
Aug 30, 2015, 9:10 pm
#958
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 82
Quote:
Originally Posted by delusion
Can anyone help share experience to get non-refundable hotel/tour reimbursed by airline? Through DOT or simply reply to airline? I had some non-refundable tour booked ...
Thanks!
Here's the official DOT document on it:
https://cms.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/fi...t_05082015.pdf
I'm in the same boat (my first ticket was scheduled to leave this Friday, September 4) and got cancelled; after getting it ticketed last week, I booked positioning flights, hotels, etc. In total, about $1,500, so am planning to contact AA tomorrow to figure out reimbursement process.
Originally Posted by delusion
Can anyone help share experience to get non-refundable hotel/tour reimbursed by airline? Through DOT or simply reply to airline? I had some non-refundable tour booked ...
Thanks!
Here's the official DOT document on it:
https://cms.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/fi...t_05082015.pdf
I'm in the same boat (my first ticket was scheduled to leave this Friday, September 4) and got cancelled; after getting it ticketed last week, I booked positioning flights, hotels, etc. In total, about $1,500, so am planning to contact AA tomorrow to figure out reimbursement process.
Aug 30, 2015, 9:15 pm
#959
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Washington D.C.
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 131
Being a Brazilian, I know my fare will be honored but since I booked a mileage run I'm wondering if AA is gonna start enforcing the "no miles" policy on mistake fares.
I know a couple of people already reported getting the miles but those were flown very close to the ticketing date. I'm worried that AA has now had time to run database scripts to invalidate all mileage earning on these tickets.
Does anyone have more concrete information on this issue?
Thanks!
I know a couple of people already reported getting the miles but those were flown very close to the ticketing date. I'm worried that AA has now had time to run database scripts to invalidate all mileage earning on these tickets.
Does anyone have more concrete information on this issue?
Thanks!