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CX870 gets into SFO 45 minutes late. Go to drop bags for SFO - ORD and not on flight. CX rescheduled us for next day. This is an AONE5 ticket. AA hands us BPs for original AA554 but in coach. Also told we are now on standby for our connection out of ORD. I ask about compensation and already get run around saying CX is responsible. Cx late due to APU and weak tail winds. These AA flights downgraded and likely missed are not Cx codeshare.

Who is responsible for compensation? Cx miles or vouchers would be useless to me. Can I request AA compensation? I'm also worried about getting run around re mileage for First versus coach as well as the last flight if we end up bussing or driving the last leg rather than spend the night having missed our 20 minute regional flight.

Help appreciated. Sitting in a hot stinky coach on 554 waiting for push back. Will update later on a proper computer when I know more.

p.s. CX really screwed us by rebooking when we could have made all our flights just fine.

I have great experiences with CX CSD. They totally reimbursed me for all the cost related to a delay caused by a plane going tech. I do hold an BAEC Gold card, so that may make a difference. You could have refused the downgrade and asked to be booked on another flight by the way...

Invol downgrades are the responsibility of the issuing agent to sort out the mess of compensation. My AONEx had several such flights. It was issued by CX BKK. QF downgraded and gave me a voucher to give to issuing agent verifying the downgrade. CX downgrades all said to take it up with the issuing agent. Even CX HKG said "contact issuing agent - not our problem, issue or fault (or interest)" . Sorry CX, but your staff attitude (even at F check-in in HKG) left a lot to be desired.

I'm expecting CX BKK to issue a speedy and cheerful refund to my CC for something, but I think hell will freeze over first.

xAONEx rules clearly state you fly in lower cabin if your class (fare bucket) is not available
Nothing in the rules about compensation.
100's of people have bought A or D and flown in a lower cabin

From rule sheet downloaded a few days ago

The only people against whom you would have any possible claim are CX since, if I understand you correctly, they made a misjudgement and cancelled your First Class reservations on the flight you actually took thinking that you would be unable to make the connection. If you actually arrived at SFO with less than the official MCT then your case is quite weak I would say.

Presumably CX offered you a hotel for the night and a First Class seat the following day, but you chose to decline that in favour of travelling the same day in Y.

That's a voluntary downgrade and no compensation could be forced. As a matter of goodwill, since someone in CX clearly made an error of judgement in releasing and rebooking your flight then I think a polite letter to CX might get some form of compensation, but I doubt whether it would be in any form other than vouchers of some sort (upgrade or inflight duty free spend are the usual ones). If you are crediting your flights to AAdvantage then I think you're getting Economy miles and there's more or less zero chance of that changing.

Having said all that, this is one of the annoying consequences of American Airlines giving out free upgrades to all and sundry so that the F cabin almost always flies full. If you turn up after the point at which they have allocated those upgrades you are stuffed.

That only is relevant to when actually booking the flights.

Once booked in A (or D) (in respect to the xONEx fare rules) that class is rightfully yours.

For example, if an EU carrier downgrades you (or you get downgraded on an ex EU flight) and you travel in a lessor cabin than booked, you are entitled to up to 75% of the "price of the ticket" in compensation.

Now, to the OP.

In this case it is a tough one. I doubt even EU legislation would cover the situation.

Your postscript says it all. CX did rebook you in an alternative of the same class cabin. Maybe they were trying to help. In any case AA did what they could and put you on the flight. They had no compulsion to do so; christep is correct - effectively you voluntarily accepted a downgrade so as to continue travel.

In any case, ORC should be available - you don't indicate what programme you were putting the Frequent Flyer miles/points to.

As for Bussing instead of taking a 20 minute flight - if that little flight was part of your booking be very careful; To not actually fly a segment of a booking could result in the remainder of the booking's segments being cancelled.

Thanks all. I'll add some more info.

We are crediting to AA. This was our flight home, so I would not have worried about skipping the last flight, though we actually got on it. Really, the only annoyance was that after coming off CX in First for 13 hours, we got to sit in AA's domestic economy for 5+ hours (thanks to ground stop) a good 9 rows away from my wife. We should have been in First for the SFO - ORD flight.

Here is what happened in more detail:

CX870 HKG-SFO departed 42 minutes late due to either or both cleaning (late arrival) and non-working APU. To make things worse, we had a really weak tail wind and did not make up time, we lost more. Instead of an 11:35 a.m. arrival we had a 12:54 a.m. arrival (according to FlightStats). We were scheduled to connect to AA554 departing at 1:50 p.m.

Got off the plane, through C&I in about ten minutes (priority tags worked). Never connected INT -> DOM at SFO before. Basically no bag drop (except for UA) and you just wind up in the domestic terminal with everyone else like you are checking in from scratch. We already had BPs with seats assigned and our bags tagged through to home. Walk up to counter, hand over bags, asked our name.

GA says "you're not on this flight." (it's only about 1:10 at this point) She says we are on the flight the next morning at 6:50 a.m. We say, yes we are on the flight and show her our boarding passes. She types away for 5 or more minutes, then calls over the gate (I think). Tells us that CX must have changed our flights from the 1:50 p.m. to 6:50 a.m. next day. There was a later flight, but it would have involved missing the ORD connection so I guess CX thought we should overnight in SFO rather than ORD.

At no point did CX ever contact us, meet as the gate, offer a hotel for the night, or anything.

As an FTer, I am aware of the whole voluntary downgrade issue. However, we were never technically given a choice. Never asked, "do you want to fly tomorrow morning in First or take the current flight in coach?" We were simply handed a BP with no seat assignment and the instructions "go take these to the gate for your seat." I'm not even sure we were told at this point that the yet-to-be-assigned seat would be in coach (though I figured as much.)

We get through security about 1:35 and go to the gate. The plane is mostly loaded but plenty others are still trickling in. We get seats 9 rows apart, with my wife stuck in a freezing window seat of the MD80 on the DEF side with all seats filled.

To add insult to injury, there is a ground stop in ORD and we do not even close the door for push back until 2:45 p.m.

In ORD (arriving late) we rush to our next gate and luckily have no problem getting on the plane. ER4 is all Y so we had no downgrade issues there.

So, all told things worked out relatively well. My two concerns are: getting F miles for SFO-ORD and getting compensation for an "involuntary" downgrade.

I think getting the proper miles credit is likely the easier task. The compensation is harder.

The GA in SFO was just rude and horrendous to deal with. If it was the average traveler and not someone on FT then I am 100% certain they would have no concept of having voluntarily downgraded. The woman offered no apology, sympathy, or even emotion for that matter. I think she said less than 3 sentences to us. We were essentially handed new BPs and told to get seats at the gate. So, I think I have a legitimate argument that at no point we were given a choice - it is a grey area. If I play dumb, then I have a very strong argument that we were not given a choice.

All in all it was poorly handled. CX should not reschedule people until they actually misconnect. They totally screwed us on that one. AA was just rude and obnoxious in SFO... the GAs for AA Eagle in ORD were just delightful.

It just sucked ending a wonderful 8 week RTW honeymoon with a 4 hour ride (plus 1 hour wait) in AA's cattle class. That's a long way to fall coming off of CX in First.

That all just leaves the question of who to talk to. Can I try to talk to the AA RTW desk about this, or will they direct me elsewhere? They are the "issuing agent" after all. Feel free to offer suggestions if I should be talking to different people about the two different issues re: miles and downgrade.

Thanks again for all the help.

IMHO, CX has always taken great care to be fair and equitable

I really think the only people you can talk to are CX - they really messed up badly if they didn't have people to meet you at the gate coming off F with a misconnect (as they saw it). Hotels should have been automatic. Are you absolutely sure that CX changed your flight? You only have AA's word for this as I understand it. Maybe they were covering up for the fact that you hadn't turned up at the airport at the point they did their "all and sundry up to first" routine and by the time they realised you were there they had no seats left for you and tried to dig themselves out of a hole.

Frankly I would trust CX to do the right thing in this situation rather than AA.

I'm at a loss understanding how AA could have determined at T-40 that passengers with issued boarding passes were no-shows.... If there is indeed a method, I imagine that it must somehow be related to the issuance of checked luggage tags by CX in HKG. Does anyone know if there's a cut-off time for "through" luggage to be rechecked at AA's check-in desk at SFO?

Otherwise, doesn't the "all and sundry up to first" process begin much, much later in the boarding process?

You make a point. The SFO GA was rude so I would not be surprised. She did not say CX changed it, but asked "Was your international flight late?" And she says: "they must have rebooked you." So, it was perhaps just a guess. I think I'll try the nice folks at the AA RTW desk to see if they can at least dig down into who made the change.

Also, yes there was no one to meet us and we were clearly not the only folks on the plane, nor the only folks in F for that matter, trying to make connections.

No clue. I can say this, I was shocked as a first-timer INT->DOM at SFO at the setup. I have only ever made such transfers when you basically re-dropped your already-tagged luggage. To make us go all the way to regular domestic check in gates in the Departures hall is absurd when we already have BPs and our bags are already tagged through. I do not know what SFO MCTs are, but they must be greater than the most basic "suggested arrival time" at the airport for a flight, as you have to clear Immigration, then wait for your bag, then clear customs, then trek a mile, then you are at the departure hall like a regular pax just stepping out of the taxi.