Questions and Answers

We were [B]involuntarily downgraded[/B] to economy on Charlotte,NC to London, Heathrow on one leg of our recent trip. American Airlines has magnanimously offered through our credit card company Bank of America a $225.00 travel voucher each as compensation. My letter to AA requesting a refund for [B]a higher amount not a voucher [/B]goes unanswered. Any legal case precedents? BTW Bank of America will not go forward with an arbitration because I do not have a credit slip from AA to prove my requested refund amount! So I asked BOA to ask AA how they arrived at the $225.00 voucher. I was told that is not in their procedures! Short of a
lawsuit and suggestions?

Hi Richard, sorry to hear about your flights, that’s always rough when it happens.

Can you tell us more about the situation? Were these paid tickets, or awards? Was there a flight delay? If so, why? Anything you can tell us will help give more specific advice.

Sorry about the situation Richard. Can you also elaborate about these vouchers through BoA? I’m curious if they refunded part of your costs for your tickets or if these can only be used on AA?

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 12167, member: 7″]Hi Richard, sorry to hear about your flights, that’s always rough when it happens.

Can you tell us more about the situation? Were these paid tickets, or awards? Was there a flight delay? If so, why? Anything you can tell us will help give more specific advice.[/QUOTE]

The two business class tickets were paid for via our Bank of America Visa card on April 25, 2015. $6179.91 was paid directly to American Airlines and $1896.89 to Wholesale flights, Inc. The scheduled, on-time flight was October 8, 2015. There were no delays. Actually they issued business class tickets at the ticket counter and took them back at the gate and issued economy seat tickets. When we returned from our trip I contacted the wholesaler and they said AA would only give us some type of credit on a future flight. I then decided to start a chargeback process through Bank of America. The bank claimed after two months of correspondence that since I did not have a credit slip of some sort that AA would only issue two vouchers for approx. $250.00 each. We priced economy to London at $804.00 and business to Vienna at 319.00 thus seeking a cash refund of the difference of 421.98 each. ($1544.98-$804.00 and 319.00) BTW AA ticket boarding agent stated that they had to substitute equipment which was the cause of the downgrade. Since I had paid for the tickets over five months prior to the flight I asked why should we be downgraded rather than a more recent purchaser. He said the decision came from higher up!

[USER=1454]@Richard McGinnis[/USER] — Well, that’s frustrating. I don’t want to make assumptions here, but it [I]sounds[/I] like the problem could be with how your travel agent booked the tickets. Have you contacted them at all?

If you’d like to send your original eTicket receipts over to me at tiffany AT pointspros DOT com I’d be happy to take a look.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 12224, member: 7″][USER=1454]@Richard McGinnis[/USER] — Well, that’s frustrating. I don’t want to make assumptions here, but it [I]sounds[/I] like the problem could be with how your travel agent booked the tickets. Have you contacted them at all?

If you’d like to send your original eTicket receipts over to me at tiffany AT pointspros DOT com I’d be happy to take a look.[/QUOTE]

I sent you the tickets last week. Have you had a chance to look at them?

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]

Yep, I’ve looked at it, and it’s perplexing — I was expecting the tickets to not be in I class given how you purchased them. I want to call AA to follow up, but with the storm it’s been ridiculous. Will update as soon as I know more 🙁