David reached out about a frustrating situation he had on a recent American Airlines business class flight, where it sure seems like the airline needs to do better.
Continue reading: Broken American Business Class Seat: Lowball Compensation Offer?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What would have happened if the guy realized this before the plane took off? Would they have given him the seat of the last person whose SWU cleared?
This is a good reminder to make sure that all of your seat is operational before the plane takes off. You have much more leverage then.
He's lucky he got ANY offer from AA...after all "the schedule is the product."
I think AA does have the ability to offer compensation on board if I'm not mistaken. I can't remember if it was AA or Delta that I flew but I had a broken tray table in biz class with caution tape on it. I was offered 10k miles, wrote in and got 10k more miles.
What they issue is dependent on status, fare class and severity of the issue. This guy ain't gonna get much more than 25k miles without some sort of executive escalation.
Had similar experience with AA. Outbound RDU-LHR paid business class, plane just back from refurbishment, no Velcro to anchor the seat parts. Can only sit upright. Compensation 10,000 miles. Return flight paid for business and upgraded to first. IFE completely inop for entire journey . Compensation zero.
This is where I'd call up the Executive Liaison desk. IYKYK.
Sorry, but I won't post the number. Yes, I am gatekeeping, but I'm not going to be the first one to post it publicly and get it shut down.
All big 3 US Airlines are shitty, cheap and greedy. I had a similar situation with AirFrance, it wasn't even the seat, it was the door not closing and they even game me 35k. My trip was paid for in points too. Bottom line, all US airlines are crappy.
In my opinion the business class seat is the entire absolute purpose of booking business class, and the price difference from economy. To be able to recline and sleep. If that cannot be achieved then what was the point?
But the airline will likely justify that well, you had lounge access, a premium airport experience, boarding, etc. etc. blah blah blah. In order to defend that the seat was only a small part of it. But that's pretty BS.
I doubt any regulation will reach this far to handle when a luxury item is broken. Probably the only recourse is unfortunately to refuse to fly and demand a refund when you discover that the seat is broken. I don't know what happens then though, to your travel plans.
I once flew on AA LHR to LAX in F on the 777-300 with a broken seat. Would not go past recline. The purser on board told me to write to AA customers relations and of course, I was only offered 10k points.
Amount is way low, 35k is fair enough. Real issue is that Qantas should be requesting comp from AA, defending their customer. In turn, that comp should be given back in Qantas miles.
Also, I believe AA FAs used to be able to hand out miles, but that stopped a few years back.
"but always ask crews to document any issues, so that there’s a record of the problem"
How do you ensure that they've done it though, as opposed to them just telling you "yeah yeah, we did that" and having to believe them? Honestly wondering.
United bumped me from business class to premium economy before the flight because my seat was broken. For this LHR-LAX flight, they refunded all the miles I used to redeem the ticket, plus all the money, so I flew for free in premium economy.
@ ImmortalSynn -- No way to know for sure, and not any documentation you can ask for. Honestly, it might not even make a difference, but it's at least worth asking/reminding.
1. Complain to Qantas?
2. I'd reach out to corporate. Every time I hear a supervisor will say the same thing, I ask for the supervisor - I want to hear it from them, not an underling.
BA tariff for this is 80,000 Avios but you often have to fight for it as the AI gets it wrong sometimes and offers 10,000 Avios
Years ago I flew AA on HKG-LAX or DFW: a lot of business class had issues with IFE (not sure if just one side everyone in seats A or the whole cabin) so the crew offered 10,000 miles on the spot. I overheard the crew telling the guy in front of me who was very chatty with her that he will put down also seat broken and give him extra 10,000 although he had no issues with he seat. So the crew sure used to have the ability to compensate and even make up fake compensation. To me 10k miles was great as I wanted to sleep anyway and not watch TV. For not reclining seat or business it should involve also hard cash at least 1,000 USD on intercontinental flights no matter that it was an award ticket.
They probably implemented some broken AI and absolutely 100% believed it. It's not like their tech challenged senior mgmt would know that and god help you if you tell them they're wrong.
Indeed it’s not Qantas’s responsibility as it’s not their flight. I think a voucher or miles equal to at least 50% of the fare would be reasonable as a starting point.
Absolutely! Sat down in J on Iberia ORD-MAD last summer and immediately realized that the seat was broken. Told the flight attendants, who, to their credit, relocated me and companion to a different row with working seats. Only difference was we got the middle seats that are further apart but no biggie. Someone and their young child ended up taking our initial seats. Didn't ask questions but kudos to FAs for figuring something out, but would have been much harder in the air.
Had a similar experience in First LAX to LHR.....there was only one additional seat available and it was a center and not a window. But when they attempted to make THAT seat up....it also was NOT functioning! I complained as it was truly late by now and I was tired.....most I got was a visit from the purser apologizing that it was not their fault....as the equipment is checked on land and not by the crew before takeoff.....Seriously? I dropped it as I had tons of other issues going on at the time....
I had a similar situation on UA, just from EWR to SFO. I received $500 in credit before even getting off the plane, which covered a good chunk of the ticket. $150 is not at all appropriate here.
This is just another example of how much American sucks. I fly mainly paid first class/business class and I would rather pay a few bucks more to fly Delta or United to avoid American.
I always fully open and close my Business class seat a couple of times as soon as I board. That way I don't have surprises in the air where there are no certified maintenance personnel.
Happened recently Air Canada LHR to YVR cash fare . Was given a 25% off certificate good in any class no expiration for up to 4 tickets on the same booking. Was in my account before landing . Seat worked fine before takeoff and crunched just after flight sold out.
AMERICAN TOOK AWAY THE CREW ABILITY TO ISSUE MILES. SAID THAT THE CREWS WERE BEING TOO GENEROUS. EMAIL THE CEO.
robert.isom@aa.com
Not surprised! My wife and I were placed in adjoining seats, in business class, ON DIFFERENT FLIGHTS from JFK to Heathrow due to a ticketing issue. 8 months later, after 6-8 attempts to resolve, I finally received an offer to 15,000 points or $350/ticket. Very poor customer service and support!
Of course 10K miles was not sufficient compensation. He “paid” for a business class seat and got a coach seat. At the very least, he should have gotten the difference between the number of miles to purchase a coach ticket and a business ticket. Situations like this happen because airlines think they are in the logistics business (getting packages—aka people—from one place to another) instead of the hospitality business.
Interesting. I recently had a litany of issues on LHR-SFO in BA first class (admittedly, it was a redemption ticket) with a broken seat, window shades that technically worked but sounded like a jackhammer, and wifi that kicked me off and then refused to let me re-join. BA customer service offered 50k avios. I pushed for more and they refused. Honestly I don't think 50k was unreasonable, but it's certainly well below 80k. I'm guessing there's a status/CIV element, and I'm a BA nobody.
This flight being from Europe and EC261 applies. There is some precedent for business class seats that don't lie flat being considered a downgrade and thus providing an entitlement to a reduction of 75% of the fair paid. Not sure how it works with reward bookings. If I was David I would reclaim as a downgrade and file a compliant with the Dutch EC261 mediator.
EXP (with ~400K loyalty points per year min spend on CC plus flights on top) and I just got 7,500 miles for a rotten strawberry in my breakfast.
You deserve way more - but I bet status and monetary value has something to do with it so even if you are QF Platinum or P1 they might not care...... That's why I switched to Aadvantage from Qantas FF when I moved to the US......
This happened to me on this exact route last June! I used Alaska miles, but got the same offer. I said no to the American miles – 10,000 isn't much use to me. So, I took the $150 travel credit for both of us. My partner was fine, but I figured it was extra compensation.
A broken seat that doesn't recline makes the trip in between premium economy and business class. The fact that it was AMS-PHL and not the red eye PHL-AMS could move the dial to a little less compensation.
My calculations are roughly 26,326 miles (but 34,596 if it were PHL-AMS).
About 3 years ago I was flying US EWR>SFO as a 1K and my seat got stuck in bed mode right after take off. I had to eat part of my breakfast standing in the galley for about 10 min while a flight attendant fixed my seat. Was given a $600 credit on the spot and was back in my functioning seat after <30 min hassle
Flew ewr to Zurich. 1st class up top 747 Lufthansa. Had been on united and that flight canceled. United rebooked me on Lufthansa, Lufthansa first had a broken seat and I got moved to Business.
Lufthansa told me to take it up with united. United offered $200. 3 escalations later. $200 . This was cash ticket for $6k
@James just because he used miles/points it does not mean he should have received such a low compensation offer as outlined in this article. Did you even bother to read thoroughly or clearly? Points/miles are a form of currency and not just in the airline or hotel industry. You used your money to earn those points/miles and in his case it does not matter if he used QF or AA miles as he should have received a better resolution especially with a follow up phone call.
Also, look at it from another example about why it is not just limited to airline miles redemption if you go to Starbucks and redeem a cup of coffee or whatever kind of drink with your Starbuck stars and something is wrong with it they will make it right. This is seriously funny when the AA CEO wants to make AA more premium. It sounds like just words rather than actions. It is even more ridiculously hilarious when the UA CEO blatantly called out AA by saying they can’t do it.
"CEO Robert Isom telling colleagues that they would have a “rededication and a renewal to focus on the customer experience”"
I had a broken seats with Emirates F 3 yrs ago to the day. I persistently emailed them patiently. When I told them I went to the doctor and reported back and leg pain due to a malfunctioning seat on Emirates and was advised to take pain relievers they freaked out and refunded me like 80,000 out of 90,000 pts.
On American I always check the recline as soon as I get to the seat and would deplane if the seat was broken. Sorry to hear about the OPs experience.
Wait outside of the parking lot of Fort Worth HQ at 5AM and wait for Isom. Bring flowers for the secretary.
Flt AA79, Feb 23, 2025 First Class LHR to DFW, seat 1J broken and could not recline. Offered $12,500. Insulting that AA values their service so little as I guess it was only worth about $125.
The flight time is at least one hour more. Each person values sleep mode differently.
Same thing happened to me on a paid business class flight from
LHR to JFK on AA about 5 years ago. Believe received either 10 or 15k miles despite escalating the complaint. Situation still irritates me.
I'm guessing you meant 12,500 AA miles and not $$$ (one sounds a lot better than the other)
American wants to become more ‘premium’? Whose propaganda have you been reading?
United gave me $125 flight credit for a plug point not working in Business class... And it was just the main plug point so USB charger options all still worked.
Clearly a terrible offer for the SEAT being inoperable (literally that's what we're paying for, especially on US carriers...)
Had a similar experience DFW - CDG. Dispite AA having 6 hours in their major hub, they did not/could not/did/not want to, fix a non functioning businesses class seat. They offered insignificant compensation. The counter person (offering another example of there is no limit to a customer the lies an airline employee will say, irregardless of your status to a customer), told me I got bumped because I was the last person to buy a ticket, dispite the fact I purchased the ticket 11 months on advance. Since then, I switched my alliance to Skyteam and have not looked back since.
VS DELLHR, November of '24. Full fare, not miles. I was in one of two broken UC seats. Wouldn't recline. On board offer was 10,000, I managed to get this up to 25,000 with customer service. Silver member.
Is anyone surprised that AA continues to languish at the bottom of the World Airline Rankings (#71)?
We will soon see if passengers opinions of this airline have improved when the 2025 results are announced.
This is exactly why I quite like what Finnair has done with business class in their A350s.
LH First Class on miles early Jan 2025 (slightly OT but yes, you can still get them - booked them in May 2024 as a LH (lifetime) SEN - actually I snagged 2 LH first on MUC - DEL in the A380 return, on the exact dates i wanted, for me and for my partner ). All other seats taken. Separation Screen did not stay in raised function in bed mode, the rest of the seat was OK. No major issue for me, you know that if you fly LH First, the cabin is not particularly private. The friendly purser lifted it manually, but it wouldn't stay in that position. I jokingly said that he could stay there all night holding it. After waking up, he came to me, appologised he had not stayed there all night to hold the screen but that a 300 € compensation would be in my mailbox before landing. And so it was, i didn't even need to ask.
I had similar experience last week LAX-HND. The seat did not recline at all and was known before boarding. It was a busy travel day so it's either take it or no go, not even possible to downgrade (for a "better" seat). I asked for 30k compensation to customer relation and got 5k. Another round of email got me another 5k. There were no compensation mentioned at gate or onboard. The cabin crew didn't even feel apologetic. So I had to beg them for any compensation.
The whole process felt like I was wrong to get a broken seat. I guess they were right. I was wrong for choosing AA on the first place.
Same thing happened to me in paid J AKL to DFW, 14 hours. A helpful FA documented the problem. AA only gave me a lousy 10k miles. Ridiculous. I was PP at the time.
I had a partially inoperable seat on British Airways in business class. Got 100k points from the cabin crew via her Ipad. It was a miles ticket, but it should not matter. American is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel in terms of customer service. They give out miles like confetti for stupid credit cards bonuses, but are suddenly stingy with them for customer service failings? AAvoid
On BA, I received 40,000 Avios for Club Suite door that wouldn’t close. It’s somewhat important for me in terms of sleep quality on a red-eye - but nowhere near the level of an inoperable seat.
Did I just read here a couple of days ago AA wants to be a premium airline? Lol
They did you a favor.
Not many occasions to ditch your wife for a few hours and get paid.
Maybe your wife was planning this all along.
Oops, I misremembered. It was 25k miles. I had requested LPs, but that never works.
United Bru-Iad, Polaris, asked the purser if perhaps my power plug was broken (I wasn’t even sure). She said she was terribly sorry and sent me a $250 voucher at the spot. Didn’t even ask for anything. Colleagues have similar experiences. Now guess why we keep flying United.
Flying for a previous job, Air France Cdg-Pek, business. Seat lost all power could not get back from recline, broken. No compensation even after emailing customer service. Business and Eco were otherwise full, but first empty, but the purser “could not just upgrade anybody”. That purser and customer service cost AF a few million in lost revenue for me and my team as we cold quit AF/KLM.
Hi, Ben. I'm a Brazilian and reading your article I could not help but remember the recent episode with an actress flying from MIA to GRU. The issue was also a business seat malfunction that made the crew request her seat in premium economy for that business passenger.
I myself almost had the same issue in Feb: my seat could not move from a certain point and I had to "help", forcing, gently, of course, until proper position. A seat on a crashing course for sure...
It seems AA has a problem in cabin M&R...
UA once gave me $500 for downgrading me from First to Economy... on EWR-BUF (a 1 hour flight on a regional)
Presumably if he turned in QF miles what was his status with OW? Had he been an AA EXP or higher he may have gotten a better result.
I wonder if they'd consider asking around the cabin for someone willing to switch.
When I fly in the daytime, I don't need/want to sleep. I'd be fine swapping with someone who wants to do so.
I flew MEX-PHX in F 2 months ago and did not receive any kind of meal service due to barely noticeable "turbulence". I complained and got a canned response and no compensation offer.
I replied to the canned response asking for some kind of compensation since I had paid double the miles to fly F and the meal service is a fairly big part of why you pay for First on a 4 hour flight.
They replied with another canned response saying they were sorry I didn't enjoy the meal and gave me 7,500 miles. I thought this was overly generous tbh, I was at best expecting maybe 3k or 4k. But also it was clear from their reply that they didn't really digest what I was complaining about, other than something to do with meal and they automated their response from there.
I had the same experience with American on a Transatlantic flight in business class. The leg rest part of the lay flat seat was broken. There were no other seats available except in economy. It was documented by crew and my photos. I was offered 10k miles by CS and when I pushed higher to a supervisor I was also told that was the maximum that they could offer me. As an Executive Platinum member (or not) I felt 10k was nowhere near a satisfactory compensation. I will say the crew was great and after unsuccessfully trying to fix it manually, placed one of their service trays under the part to roughly hold it partway up without ability to adjust.
I guess partner miles is also what made this tricky.
If redeeming on operating carrier I won't settle for anything less than miles difference, up to full refund.
A very similar thing happened to me on an AF flight last year from CDG to ATL. Broken business class flatbed seat stuck in recline position not fully flat nor fully upright!! Business class completely full so could not be moved. Very frustrating experience with AFKLM customer service that also offered ridiculously lowball compensation.
I mention this because only when I posted this issue to OMAAT a senior person at AFKLM read it and offered reasonable compensation!! OMAAT does get read by people far and wide.
United offered $150 for a broken Polaris seat - SFO to EWR. Wrote to them and needed up with a $500 credit toward a future flight.
I was on Delta flight from LHR-ATL few days ago. Seat was dirty and didn’t recline more than 25 percent. Paid for ticket in D1. I didn’t ask but FA proactively gave me 75,000 miles and I was told contact a number. They refunded the entire fare of 3800ish out goodwill. Maybe bc I’m delta 360. But they took care me and I didn’t ask. They wanted make a bad experience correct.
I would be looking for the difference in miles between a business and prem-eco redemption. 30k seems reasonable.
Nice! They can downgrade me on that sector every day of the week and twice on Sunday for that level of comp.
Haha! Yeah, AA is not Egyptair level of awful. But "premium" is a stretch of the most vivid imagination.
Personally I always check if seat functions work before a flight departs; that being said, it’s not a guarantee that maintenance staff would’ve been able to fix it in time, and there might not have been any great alternatives....
If you do that .. AND they can't fix it, they might say its IN OP and put you back into Coach, or say, OK, if you accept this seat as is, no compensation. They will NOT hold up the flight just to fix your seat.
Yup, AA lost all of my future business over a similar, but worse situation. 15 minutes out of Barcelona my business class seat automatically reclined and never went back up. The flight attendant and I worked on it for an hour, no luck and there was no other empty seat in any class. Not only was I full reclined the entire way across the pond, I was in an unsafe position for landing. I was offered 10,000 miles when I should have at minimum been refunded $2,500 of my $4,000 round trip fare. Letters and phone calls did nothing, I finally gave up. There is a very legitimate reason UA and Delta are eating AA’s lunch.
Back in 2019 I experienced a ton of delays and issues on AA (summer of hell with their mechanics "strike") and UA. I received $0 comp from AA after numerous requests in ridiculous scenarios, while I received travel credits and hotel vouchers in excess of what I thought was reasonable from UA. I had no status on either airline.
I picked up a travel job shortly after that summer and since then have directed well over $100k to UA and less than $5k to AA.
Iberia offered me 10 euros for downgrading business to economy on local flight Alc-Mad
Was booked on LH First MUC-CLT booked with Lifemiles.
Before departure I was called to the gate and informed that my seat would not be working properly, but since F was full, there was no option to assign a different seat.
I was unable to notice any problem, the seat worked just fine, but was given a €300 LH travel voucher „for the inconvenience“.
Just yesterday we were offered 50$ voucher for not working IF on DL international flight. I have received the message while still in the air and they managed fix the IFE. I was very impressed.