American Sells Flagship Business Plus Fare, Refuses Perks, Gaslights Customer

I know American Airlines is trying to become premium, but sometimes the airline is just really bad at taking money from customers and delivering even the most basic services that it promises.

American denies Flagship Business Plus passenger perks

OMAAT reader Alan booked a business class ticket for his mother from Dallas (DFW) to Santiago (SCL). Rather than booking the standard Flagship Business fare, he booked the Flagship Business Plus fare… what a nice son he is!

For those not familiar, American introduced Flagship Business Plus fares in 2022. The idea is that customers can pay extra on top of the standard business class fare to receive additional perks, including access to Flagship First Dining, Flagship First Check-In, an extra checked back, etc. Below is a screenshot of such a fare.

However, when it came time to travel, Alan’s mother was denied access to Flagship First Dining at DFW, which was the whole reason he paid the premium for this fare. This offers a la carte dining within the Flagship Lounge, and is supposed to be a much more premium experience. However, the agent in the lounge claimed that the fare was not eligible for access to the facility.

So he contacted American customer relations, and received the following response:

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. I understand how disappointing and frustrating this situation must have been, especially since you purchased Flagship Business Plus specifically so your mother could enjoy Flagship First dining at Dallas/Fort Worth.

Based on your correspondence, it’s clear that your mother was denied access to Flagship First dining despite the additional $325 paid for Flagship Business Plus, and that conflicting and inaccurate information was provided by lounge staff regarding eligibility. I also understand your concern that either the ticket may not have been properly coded or that the access qualifications were not correctly applied, resulting in an embarrassing and upsetting experience for her.

We are reviewing whether the ticket was correctly issued and coded as Flagship Business Plus at the time of travel, as well as whether the Flagship First dining access policy was applied correctly by lounge personnel. Your feedback is being shared internally to help ensure clearer understanding and consistent application of these access qualifications going forward.

Because the benefit you specifically paid for was not received, I have submitted your request to our Refunds team for further review. They will assess the fare difference between Flagship Business and Flagship Business Plus and determine the appropriate resolution.

That’s actually a shockingly good response from American customer relations, so kudos. Unfortunately that’s where the kudos end.

It took nearly four weeks for customer relations to reach out to Alan, at which point he received the following response:

Since the value of your ticket has already been used, we’re unable to issue a refund. Please click HERE to submit your claim through the Customer Relations portal. Compensation and reimbursement requests are handled by Customer Relations.

Ouch. Obviously they didn’t even bother to try to figure out what was happening. So he once again emailed customer relations, but didn’t receive a response. He followed up again, and received another nonsensical response.

So after weeks of back-and-forth, he submitted a consumer complaint with the Department of Transportation (DOT), since he didn’t get the service he paid for. When airline customer relations stops functioning, this is one of the best courses of action, since typically a real human who understands policies get involved. Or at least that’s what you’d hope…

American denies that it denied any perks

After the DOT complaint, Alan finally heard back from American once again (with the DOT CCed on the correspondence), and here’s what they wrote:

I sincerely apologize for the time it has taken to respond and for the frustration caused by not receiving an update after your follow-up more than a month ago. I understand how discouraging it is to feel left without acknowledgment, particularly when you took the time to raise a valid concern and expected clarity much sooner.

I have carefully reviewed your itinerary and the details surrounding your Flagship Business Plus purchase so that I could provide you with a clear and complete resolution. Your ticket was fully flown and utilized, and for that reason, no refund or compensation applies. While Flagship Business Plus does include enhanced services such as Flagship First Check-in where available, additional checked baggage, priority boarding, and Flagship Lounge or Flagship First Dining access, these benefits are limited to specific aircraft types and defined international markets.

Under American Airlines policy, Flagship Business Plus benefits are offered only on American Airlines prime flights operated on Boeing 777-200, 787-8, or 787-9 aircraft within eligible routes. Although Dallas/Fort Worth is an eligible departure city, Flagship lounge and dining access from DFW applies only on flights to Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Frankfurt, or Madrid. For itineraries to Santiago (SCL), Flagship Business Plus eligibility applies only when departing from New York (JFK). Because your itinerary operated from DFW to SCL, it did not meet the market eligibility requirements for Flagship Lounge or Flagship First Dining access.

I recognize that this is not the outcome you were hoping for, and I regret the disappointment this caused, particularly given the delay in communication. My intent in explaining this thoroughly is to ensure you have a clear understanding of how the decision was reached and to bring closure to the matter with full transparency and respect for your time.

This completes our review and serves as the final resolution of your concern. No further action is required. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to address this issue, and for your understanding.

Unbelievable. So the person who “carefully reviewed” the situation and wanted to provide a “clear and complete resolution” based on “American Airlines policy” is just outright giving false information, in response to a complaint submitted with the government. Oh, and this is final, and “completes [their] review process and serves as the final resolution.” SO don’t even bother reaching out again!

Dallas to Santiago isn’t an eligible market for Flagship First Dining access on Flagship Business Plus fares? Well, how do you explain the screenshot I just took, which I posted above? Let me just post it again below, with the key point boxed in red (note the “select cities” provision is there simply because there are only two Flagship First Dining facilities). So is American admitting that it’s falsely advertising?

That’s not even the extent of this agent’s misinformation. She’s also claiming that Flagship Lounge access is only offered to Flagship Business Plus fares in select markets, which is completely wrong — it’s offered for all flights marketed as Flagship Business, even without the “Plus” fare!

It really makes my blood boil to see the extent to which airlines just outright lie. No wonder consumers so often feel helpless when dealing with airlines. I mean, just think about it. Someone paid extra, above a standard business class fare, to have a premium experience. This dude is basically making a donation to American’s bottom line, paying $325 for a meal in an airport lounge. But the airline even fumbles that.

Alan is honestly too nice of a person. I asked if I can forward his information to contacts at American, and he wrote “as I said, I’d given up on hounding AA, and that wasn’t the original motivation behind reaching out to you.” And indeed, he originally wrote “I’ve given up on trying to actually get any compensation from American, but I’d just like for either American to actually disclose that limitation on AA.com, or at the very least to make people aware that buying a Flagship Business Plus fare on AA does not mean you’ll get access to Flagship First dining.”

Alan, STOP BEING SO NICE! American stole money from you — you paid extra for a product you didn’t receive. I will be forwarding this to contacts at American, and I’m going to be asking them for a statement on this, and I’ll be providing an update, so stay tuned. I expect American to not just refund him the difference paid for Flagship Business Plus, but also to provide some compensation for the insane amount of hassle he has dealt with.

What’s so bizarre here is that the first customer relations response was shockingly professional, while the last one was just infuriating (when you consider the misinformation they’re spewing in response to a complaint involving the DOT).

Bottom line

American wants to be be more premium, and wants more premium revenue. Not much is more premium than a customer not only paying cash for business class, but paying an extra $325 for a few extra services that cost the airline almost nothing.

Unfortunately actually getting the services you paid for seems to be a challenge, though, as the customer was denied Flagship First Dining access on a Flagship Business Plus fare. When the customer contacted American, they initially sided with him. Unfortunately it all went downhill from there, with a DOT complaint yielding one of the most misinformed and nonsensical responses I’ve ever seen from such an escalation.

What do you make of this situation?