Questions and Answers

Hello Ben,
I enjoy reading your blog and posts, interesting travels and reviews…
Of the past few years, I spent the majority of my life travelling around the globe, I have gained elite status on a few airlines as a reward and I love it.
As an astute traveller I like to maximise my airline points accumulation, I know the relative cost of flights from here and there and do not like to be “ripped off”, so to speak. As such, I spend a lot of my time researching flights.
A few days ago, I booked an awesome Business Class American Airlines flight (one of the recent sale fares) from Auckland (New Zealand) to Los Angeles via Auckland, Sydney (Australia) and San Francisco – quite the route! The return was not as lavish, but still quite good.
Today, I received a call advising that my flight would no longer be in business class and thus, the ticket will be made void.
I was astonished. I had paid for this ticket, it had been ticketed, but apparently the seats were not secured. Like big deal, sometimes I don’t arrange my seat until the airport.
My question to you – have you experienced this type behaviour before and what do you suggest as the best means to resolve?
I am eager to fly the route as it is a great trip, hope you can help.
Many thanks,
Joel

hi @Aussietravlr Can you clarify what AA said when you told them the flight had been ticketed? If things really happened as you describe them and the only thing you did not do is make a seat selection then you should be entitled to reinstated ticket. I would definitely file a complaint with the DOT and any consumer agency available to you in Australia.

Hi there Gaurav… thanks for your diligent reply.
I have not experienced this type of behaviour before, hence my decision to reach out to the community.
AA said that the ticket cannot be met as the seats were not secured at the time of booking…
I suspect this actually means that the ticket was not “properly” ticketed, even though I had been charged and received the confirmation email.
**They mentioned that there was nothing they can now do as the price in seats have changed considerably.**
I did book the flight on the very last day of the sale period, so I dare say it just scrapped through and they are now not willing to meet it.
Thanks for your advice re DOT….

I’ve read about this consumer advocate getting great results when airlines pull this kind of stuff. Chris Elliot. [URL]http://elliott.org/[/URL]

Yes, I agree with Mark S. We, in the States, have his column in the Sunday Papers Travel Section….. he ALWAYS gets a nice resolution for the traveler with issues. (It’s rather comical how he always gets refunds for the individual.)

Elliott is a good option too but I would also file with DOT and whatever Australian agency deals with consumer issues. If you have documentation that the ticket was charged and a confirmation email it’s going to be hard for AA to deny travel.

Did you ever receive a confirmation email and eTicket number? That will be the main question, and your most useful argument.

Thanks for the support and great suggestions. I have the 6 digit record locator (I think they call it that), which of course now is useless and a booking confirmation email – which all follow my credit card being charged.
I am growing less confident that Australia law will not cover this, due to the ticket being purchased internationally. After some research, I am not sure any laws will. This seems to be a grey area in consumer law.

Does your email confirmation have the subject line “E-Ticket Confirmation-PNR###-DATE OF TRAVEL” ? If it does, on the bottom of that email should have a “Receipt” section with the travelers name, ticket number, fare, taxes and ticket total. This should be more useful when arguing with American