Questions and Answers

Five months ago I booked my first ever First Class trip for my wife and I. It was on American (through Alaska Airlines) from Seattle to Raleigh. When we went to check in this weekend, we found out that our flight was changed that morning and we no longer had first class seats for the first leg of our trip (Seattle to Dallas). As you can guess, I was very disappointed and frustrated (it also was supposed to be a surprise for my wife). The ticket counter person told me to call a 1800 number at Alaska.

Should I expect to get anything back because of the downgrade? Miles, voucher, etc? I have not called yet, just want to hear the wisdom of this group first.

Were you given a reason for the downgrade?

Have you searched if there is availability on another AA SEA-DFW flight? Or maybe to one of their other hubs, like PHX, ORD, CLT, PHL? AS should be able to re-route you as long as there is space. If there [I]isnt[/I] space, it might be worth calling AS and AA in a 3 way call to work something out since it’s an involuntary downgrade.

If it ends up being that youre entire SEA-RDU trip is in economy, AS should refund the difference between economy and first.

The trip was this past weekend. The flight was changed that morning, not sure why.

I would definitely ask for something. You’d have a clearer idea if the downgrade was for the full trip but I’d still ask.

The downgrade was only for the first leg. I was in first class the second leg and the the complete return trip.

Yes, I understand. I’d request half the one way difference in cost plus a little bit more for inconvenience and spoiling a special occasion. Good luck!

Thanks Gaurav. Sent an email to them today.

They finally got back to me and offered a measly 3,000 miles. If I simply break up the trip into four equal segments they “should” refund me 32,500.

Here is the email:
Thank you for contacting Alaska Airlines Customer Care. Please accept my
apologies for the experience you had with your recent flights on American
Airlines. I have added 3000 miles into your mileage account as a customer
service gesture.

Suggestions for next steps? I thought I would respond to the email asking for the 32,500. If they say no, is there a way to escalate this?

hi [USER=1752]@gooseisloose55[/USER], I don’t want to be harsh because obviously this was a special trip for you and you are right to feel frustrated. However, you also need to be realistic. 32,500 is the full cost of a one way flight in first class on AA metal with AS miles which represents a 20,000 mile premium over economy. Given that only one of your flights in one direction was in Y (one out of two segments), a reasonable request would be a refund of half the difference or 10,000 miles. I would request that as the minimum. Good luck.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 17882, member: 79″]hi [USER=1752]@gooseisloose55[/USER], I don’t want to be harsh because obviously this was a special trip for you and you are right to feel frustrated. However, you also need to be realistic. 32,500 is the full cost of a one way flight in first class on AA metal with AS miles which represents a 20,000 mile premium over economy. Given that only one of your flights in one direction was in Y (one out of two segments), a reasonable request would be a refund of half the difference or 10,000 miles. I would request that as the minimum. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, math freeze here. 10,000 ask would be total for 2 of us?

No, per person.

Good, I was asking for 32,500 total, so 20,000 seems to be okay.

I just love it that Alaska customer service takes 5-7 business days to reply. Wonderful.