American Airlines Explains How I Was Mysteriously Unchecked In

Hello Lucky and everyone else on this post. My Dad was not so lucky - you won't believe what AA did to him and then today, Jan 16, 2020 an AA customer service rep called me to offer me/my Dad $750 compensation to go away!! Can anyone help me on get this horror story out there? Sorry, it's a bit long... My mother recently passed away unexpectedly. My husband and I have always flown my parents to Playa del Carmen, Mexico every Christmas to spend the holidays together. This tradition continued every year even after my Mother was gone. My Father lives alone and I would NEVER have him spend the Christmas holiday season by himself! As usual, I booked his flight from SNA to CUN and paid for it on December 10th for his travel date of December 23rd: SNA-PHX, flight #486 and PHX-CUN, flight #2002. I also pre-paid $79.00 for a 'main cabin' bulkhead seat and waitlisted him for a business class upgrade using 15,000 of my AA FF miles and $75 knowing this would be more comfortable for him to stretch his legs, as his knees are quite painful staying bent for a long time. Despite my Father's age of 90 years & 8 months old, he is super coherent and bright and NOT forgetful! Let me also mention that I had requested 'wheelchair service' for my Father to and from the gates. I know you cannot book/buy 'Emergency Row' seats if you require wheelchair service (FAA rules) - this will be good know, as you read on. On Dec. 22nd, the night before his flight, the upgrade for the long flight PHX-CUN went through and I was so happy knowing he would be much more comfortable and have something to eat on the 2nd flight. Given that, I told him he didn't need to bring any food with him. I checked him in online, including entering his passport and emailed him his 2 confirmed boarding passes to print. He was (luckily) only taking a carry on and a small satchel, but I asked him to check in with an AA representative once at the airport anyway to see if the first leg; SNA-PHX upgrade went through. He did so and called me to inform me it had not. He went through customs and waited at the gate A7 for his flight (he arrived quite early just to be safe that he arrived on time, as the weather was rainy that morning). NOW, the nightmare begins. I learned that the flight from SNA to PHX was delayed and I called my Father to make sure that he let the AA agents in SNA know that he had a connecting flight. In the meantime, I was on another phone call with an AA agent just to ask what the options were in the case that he did not make the connection; in the case that the SNA-PHX flight were to be further delayed. The agent, a male whose name was never disclosed to me (BUT, it's all in the transcript on a recorded phone call) checked his flight and said to me "he cannot make the 2nd flight, the time is way too short, he'll never make and it's not a legal connection" and said he can't help me and then put me on hold many times. Then he said my Father can fly the next day (Christmas Eve day) at 6:30AM and I said no way is he leaving the airport, going home alone on and getting up at 2AM to get back to the airport - that was not OK. He kept saying hold on, hold on. Then he came back and very quickly said he can fly in a few more hours from SNA through DFW and then land in CUN at 10:50 PM. Meanwhile, I was also, simultaneously on my cell phone with my Father when he spoke to the AA agent at gate 7 and they told him not to worry about the connection, as the next flight's departing gate PHX-CUN could easily be reached in 31 minutes, leaving him the 'legal' 10 minute boarding cut-off time and he was already checked in for the second flight. I then told the AA male agent that we do NOT want to change anything, he has been told that he can easily make the connection in PHX. I was on the phone for such a long time and the AA male agent kept putting me on hold and coming back and saying things like my Father needs to reticket the ticket with an agent - I was very frantic, stressed and confused - he was not telling me the truth or anything about what was going on. The plane from PHX-SNA had landed and they were getting ready to board and I had NO IDEA that the male agent had CANCELED my father's entire itinerary, without any reason or permission from me or my Father. My Father said I'll call you from the plane, we're boarding...then he called me back and said what's going on? - they said I can't use this boarding pass, I cannot get on the plane, what?? - the AA agent in SNA got on the phone with me and said his flight has been canceled, as this was happening, the flight was boarding and I kept saying this is impossible, he's already checked in-he has a checked boarding pass, on the other line I'm asking the AA male agent what is happening!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!! the flight is boarding! I cannot understand any of this, he had a paid ticket, he was completely checked in with his boarding pass in hand that was totally valid hours before and moments prior??? My poor Father was so sad and confused and just said, 'that's it, they gave my seat away, wouldn't let me board and closed the gate!" The AA male agent never got back on the phone, instead his supervisor took over and told me that the AA male agent had canceled my Father's flights and rebooked him without consent or permission. and that he was at fault. He had actually rebooked my Father ONLY from PHX to DFW on flight #1796 (keeping his original SNA-PHX, flight 486- which he actually had ALREADY canceled and was not on board), departing PHX at 1:00PM, which departed 10 minutes earlier than the PHX-CUN flight which the AA male agent said my Father would never make the connection!!! How was my Father taking an earlier connecting flight in PHX, when he was not even on the SNA-PHX flight because the AA male agent had canceled it and not that it matters, since he wasn't going to be in PHX - where was his flight to CUN??? So he canceled my Father's two flights and rebooked him SNA-PHX, WITH A 30 minute connection, even though the AA male agent told me that a 41 minute connection was not a legal connection and could NOT be legally booked by AA and then he forgot to book the rest of his flight to his destination, Cancun??? And now it gets worse. The AA agent at SNA was issuing him a new flight and in doing so, asked for his passport. She re-booked a flight from SNA-DFW / DFW-CUN, same record locator number. She assigned him the "Emergency Row" on BOTH flights and made him pay $50.23 for these. She was NOT allowed to assign (paid or not paid for) 'Emergency Row" seats to a person who requires/requests wheelchair service; FAA rules, not mine. Now, he lands in DFW, has not eaten ALL day and I tell him to please sit down and have a meal as the two new flights were not upgraded and he would not arrive to Playa del Carmen until about 12:30-1:00AM (5 hours later than originally scheduled). No-one ever asked for his USA passport in SNA or DFW until he was at the final gate to go from DFW-CUN. My Father confirmed that the last agent at the gate in SNA had asked for his passport again, as she needed it to rebook the the SNA-DFW-CUN flights - but she neglected to return it to my father. No-one was reachable at the SNA airport, even though it was only about 4:30-5:00PM. DFW didn't have it, it wasn't on the plane -ALL was checked and double checked, no passport and no-one can reach AA at SNA? Needless to say, he was not allowed to fly and we asked for some help. He was put up at the Hyatt hotel inside the DFW airport and given (3) $12 food vouchers, which the restaurant ended up NOT accepting. We were hoping that AA would fly the passport to DFW the next day on the 6:30AM flight. We never reached anyone at SNA until the next day, Dec. 24, it was too late anyway, the flights had departed and no passport was recovered - what did she do with the passport?? The Passport offices would be closed all day on Dec. 24 and 25th and reopen on Dec. 26th. At this point AA was not willing to pay for my Father to stay in Dallas for 2 more nights and the AA rep helping in Dallas offered to fly him back to SNA on Dec. 24th (4 flights in 24hrs to where he started). I did not want my Father to be alone for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My sister was in San Diego with her husband and her son and offered to help in any way that she could. My Dad was flown (standby) from DFW to San Diego in the afternoon of Christmas eve. THANK GOD, my 90 year old, widowed Father was NOT alone for Christmas! How sad and unforgivable for what American Airlines put my Father through. Christmas was just NOT the same without my Dad. After he paid $200+ to expedite a new passport for him on Dec. 26th, I booked him a new flight for the next morning - it cost $701 for a coach seat + 15,000 for an upgrade on one leg only and a $75.00 award mileage fee - I booked it on AA, assuming they would be reimbursing me. Finally, my Father arrived in Cancun in the evening of Dec. 27th. A day later my Father developed a very nasty cough and quickly became quite ill so we took him to the Urgent Care in Playa del Carmen to get checked. He must have contracted something on one of his 6 flights, as he had a serious virus and had to be put on 5 days of antibiotics, plus continue to be monitored for walking pneumonia. AA thinks $750 is a fare compensation! I am asking for help, please!! Appreciatively, Tracy

I had an interesting close call a few weeks ago flying from RDU to CVG via CLT. My leg to CLT was to be on an Oasis A321 (and was excited to try it out too) with 20 first class seats versus the standard 16 that are slowly being replaced. When my upgrade cleared they placed me in row 5 on the map but ended up changing my seat to row 4 so I could be closer to my friend who was in row 3. When I boarded the flight I noticed that they had swapped the A321 with a non-Oasis aircraft which meant whoever was in row 5 was presumably downgraded. Because of my seat change (or perhaps I had higher status than other status that cleared), I was able to keep my upgrade. Moral of the story- if flying on an Oasis A321 (with 5 rows in first class) beware of booking in row 5 until they have more aircraft converted.

If I were the passenger seated in 10A or 16A it would have been a big deal to me if I had to give up my assigned seat, especially if I had to go from main cabin extra to a middle seat in the far back.

@Randy -- perhaps you could tell us more about Ben's red sweatshirt in between all this highly illuminating discussing of the tech? That should get to the bottom of it.

@Ben and @Nizzy "@ Nizzy — The point is that they didn’t immediately downgrade me. I was in first class, and all of first class was checked in. Since it’s likely at least some people will cancel within 24 hours, it’s logical that they wouldn’t yet bump me to economy, but rather would leave me confirmed in first class without an assigned seat." That is the exact point I was trying to make. Just pulling up a boarding pass on the app will still pull up an old boarding pass. You need to look at the reservation in the app and refresh and the seat would be gone. Has happened to me and I will call or take action at the airport. Some of us read your blog - to save us time - since you capture all the key big items on Flyertalk and post - so you are filtering for us. I am also more concerned about technology, fares, changes, glitches, etc and less so on the "Reality" aspect or the review of airlines that I would likely not fly. @Larry - to each his own - this blog has sort of become a new version of FlyerTalk - reduced with focused topics - so I don't see anything creepy about discussion. I suspect Ben likes it that why as it provides lots of hits.