Questions and Answers

Hello,

We are flying PVG-DFW on AA in business class (3 people). This is an award reservation. Our final destination is TPA, but because there were no availability that day, I booked a cash ticket DFW-TPA on AA on the same day, giving us 4 hours connection in DFW. What happens is that our flight PVG-DFW is delayed already for ~3 hours (because it is arriving late from USA) and our connection time in DFW is only 45 mins. What are our options here? Because our flights are on different reservations (but the same carrier), are we protected somehow?

It might be smart to contact AA and see if they can get you on a later DFW-TPA flight. [URL=’http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/06/10/oneworld-separate-tickets-protection/’]Oneworld did just eliminate separate ticket protections[/URL] but I’m not sure how that translates when both tickets are on AA.

[USER=85]@David[/USER] – correct me if i’m wrong but if you fly on the same airline with different tickets / PNRs you are still covered? Or at least this is the case if you fly CX?

[URL]http://www.cxagents.com/cxa/gc/en_HK/ln2[/URL]

Thanks. I found old post of Gary (view of the wing) where he explained that AA considers 2 separate reservations on its own metal as the single one, and you are protected.

Anyway, I missed my connection and was forced to stay overnight in Dallas. I found American to be not accommodating and helpful at all. I read Gary’s posts how AA on twitter is very helpful when his connections are tight (meet him on electric car and drive to the gate, etc). But it seems that’s only happened because he is a blogger and gives them a good PR. Yesterday, I had to jump through all hoops you can imagine. Twitter team didn’t want to do anything (even alert the gate that I’m late because of flight delay), they just told me to deal with airport agents. My wife and kid made a flight (because I had to wait for the luggage) and she told GA that I’m running but they told her they wouldn’t wait. Anyway, I reached the gate 2 minutes before flight departure and they closed the door literally in front of my nose. That was the last flight for the day and I had to stay overnight, miss a day of work (because morning flights are sold out). I am not upset, but I was naively hoped that the gate agents would have a little sympathy (because I was late just for few minutes), but they didn’t. And so ‘super helpful AA twitter team’ just would care less.

What was the reason for the delay, besides a late departure from the US?

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 18091, member: 29″]What was the reason for the delay, besides a late departure from the US?[/QUOTE]
Something was wrong with the plane so they have to fix it. So, it arrived to PVG 3 hours late and departed accordingly.

Sounds like a mechanical delay. Have you reached out to AA via email to see if you can make a claim for the hotel night?

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] might be able to provide further advice

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 18096, member: 29″]Sounds like a mechanical delay. Have you reached out to AA via email to see if you can make a claim for the hotel night?

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] might be able to provide further advice[/QUOTE]

I got a hotel for that night. But that wasn’t my point.

My points was that AA (and especially AA on twitter) could care less when you were asking for help. When Gary from Boardingarea wrote that AA did for him when he needed help, I thought AA would try to help me to make a connection (I’m not asking for car drive, etc). Even without their help I was ‘late’ just for 2 minutes, literally. I’m sure if their ground staff cooperated a little bit, I would make it. But after my interaction with those gate agents, and what my wife told me, it was clear they didn’t care at all. My guess is that AA on twitter help only high-profile travels (like travel bloggers), who would write good things about them.

[USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER]–I think as with any service industry, your experiences are going to be highly dependent on the person in front or you. There are some great people at all the airlines and not so great people. FWIW, I don’t think that the airlines necessarily focus on bloggers but higher value customers. Most bloggers fly a lot and are usually in the top tier of their programs so obviously the airline is going to go more out of its way for them as they would with other Executive Platinums. They also tend to me a very knowledgeable lot about benefits, rebookings etc and having that information and ability to head off issues in advance can help significantly in IRROP situations.