AA.com.au - Misleading and Deceptive

[Cruiser Elite]

Recently I set about booking LAS-POP Sept 15 / STI-LAX Sept 20.

Went onto americanairlines.com.au - selected Multi City - input flights - selected Business & First and pressed proceed.

Comes up with a list of fare options and still shows Business & First - select fare acceptable and contine.

On next page it clearly shows you complete flight details - but on first sector LAS-POP dep LAS at 23:10 is shows 'FOOD FOR PURCHASE'.

Immediately the warning bells started to ring - so I called AA office on 07 (Qld) number. The call centre i got through to is actually based in Fiji.

I questioned and questioned agent about 'FOOD FOR PURCHASE" - she confirmed confirmed confirmed that if I selected First & Business and did all subsequent steps correctly that indeed all sectors would be in First & Business - so I proceeded to purchase. Nowhere on americanairlines.com.au can you see select seats until after flight purchased when you go into 'Manage My Flight'.

I went back in later and lo and behold seat selector brings up coach cabin for LAS - POP - WTF. Onto call centre again - bad luck sir - if First Cabin full with fare type selected - then you get Coach - WTF? AND - fares are non-refundable - bad luck.

Call Centurion - explained situation - please cancel purchase. Cannot - already procesed - you can put in claim to AMEX.

Back onto AA call centre - please put me onto supervisor - 10 minute wait - no supervisor will talk to me - another 20 minute vigorous discussion where I threated consumer affairs / current affairs programs etc unless I get refund - CANNOT - fare is NON-REFUNDABLE.

Eventually - eventually agent agreed to VOID ticket which effectively cancels ticket and also cancels the draw down process of funds from AMEX. If after one week AA do not draw funds from AMEX then the transaction immediately lapses - which has subsequently happened and I have not been charged.

I just could not believe this - and if you go online now and input same flights and dates exactly the same process unfolds. If you go onto aa.com and input same flights and dates it is different - you can see that First is not available LAS - POP but not so on american airlines.com.au

IMHO Misleading and Deceptive in the extreme.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Trade Practices Act. That should smarten them up.

I have had similar problems with the AA website. I dont believe it is the same offering as the US site and you cant use your CC on the
US site unless you have an Yank address

 

[oz_mark]

Trade Practices Act. That should smarten them up.

Now renamed Competition and Consumer Act 2010

 

[markis10]

Now renamed Competition and Consumer Act 2010

Not applicable for transactions outside the country though.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Not applicable for transactions outside the country though.

But the tranasaction was INSIDE the country - I live in Melbourne - Australian issued Centurion Card - American Airlines | Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations - the (07) number listed on screen shot is the number I called to clarify - if that aint a transaction within Australia I do not know what is?

 

[serfty]

I am glad you were able to get the booking Voided.

I have no problem paying for AA.com bookings using an Oz CC, see here:http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ines-advantage/best-way-book-aa-ex-29112.html

FWIW, the booking class for each segment can be assessed before paying on both the US and Oz sites.

The US is easy as it shows the individual bookings classes against each segment.

The Oz site is different. I try not to use it as the options offered by the Amadeus booking engine are not as good as what SABRE can offer.

With the Oz site, you can click the "fare basis", but this is not really 100%.

It is easy enough to use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/ to duplicate the booking and this will show the booking class for each segment. (Use SYD as Purchase city)

 

[markis10]

But the tranasaction was INSIDE the country - I live in Melbourne - Australian issued Centurion Card - American Airlines | Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations - the (07) number listed on screen shot is the number I called to clarify - if that aint a transaction within Australia I do not know what is?
View attachment 3669

Does not matter where the office is located, it's where the transaction is processed and the location of the domain holder, in both cases with AA this is offshore. AA do not have a local corporate presence as an Australian Entity, transactions are also processed offshore to avoid implications with transfer pricing, and as such they do not fall under the Australian consumer protection system.

 

[drron]

I dont use aa.com.au so dont know their proceedure but on the main aa.com site there is always a warning-

[TD="align: left"]Multi-City Fare Search Results

• Click the Select button for your chosen itinerary.

Fares displayed below do not include all taxes and fees. Foreign taxes based on itinerary or non-U.S. billing address may apply.
[/TD]
[TD="width: 15"] [/TD]
[TD="align: right"]

Your Request:

[TD="class: modTxt borderTop"]Thu, Sep 15 [/TD]
[TD="class: mTxtLR05 borderTop"]9:00 PM [/TD]
[TD="class: mTxtL05 borderTop"]LAS - Las Vegas McCarran Intl
POP - Puerto Plata La Union [/TD]

[TD="class: modTxt borderTop"]Fri, Sep 30 [/TD]
[TD="class: mTxtLR05 borderTop"]9:00 AM [/TD]
[TD="class: mTxtL05 borderTop"]STI - Cibao International Airport
LAX - Los Angeles International [/TD]

[TD="class: modTxt borderTop, colspan: 3"]Service Preference: Business [/TD]

[TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD]

​

[/TD]

[TD="colspan: 3"][/TD]

[TD="width: 640, colspan: 3"] [TABLE="class: modBlue"]
[TR]
[TD="class: moduleHeader3"]Lowest Average Fare 1480.00 USD
[/TD]
[TD="width: 2"][/TD]
[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"]
AMERICAN AIRLINES [/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"]Non-Stop
[/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"] [/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"] 1 Stop
[/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"] 1833.09 USD [/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"] 2+ Stops
[/TD]

[TD="class: matrixCell, bgcolor: #ffffff"] 1480.00 USD [/TD]

The cabin you requested is not offered on one or more of the flights displayed below. Please check under Cabin for difference.

My bolding.When I see this I always check-you can see available seats before completing the booking.​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[Danger]

Does not matter where the office is located, it's where the transaction is processed and the location of the domain holder, in both cases with AA this is offshore. AA do not have a local corporate presence as an Australian Entity, transactions are also processed offshore to avoid implications with transfer pricing, and as such they do not fall under the Australian consumer protection system.

This didn't stop oneworld from removing fares from their website, citing local laws as the reason. I think it was just an excuse on oneworld's part to avoid the very easy method of comparing prices from different countries.

 

[markis10]

This didn't stop oneworld from removing fares from their website, citing local laws as the reason. I think it was just an excuse on oneworld's part to avoid the very easy method of comparing prices from different countries.

Thats not to say other countries laws have longer reach, especially US ones, their corruption laws are very interesting, I had to do a multi day compulsory course on the stuff as just an employee of a US Multinational!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Thank you to all who have contributed - but I stand by my original assertion that www.americanairlines.com.au id MISLEADING AND DECEPTIVE.

Sure I now know to use www.aa.com instead - sure I now know that by digging deeper under the surface the info can be obtained on Australian site - but the average mug punter out there DOES NOT know that and could easily be shafted as I looked like being at one point in time.

IMHO the suggestion that you need to check what one would think is a reputeable major international carriers website integrity by logging into another totally unrelated web site and duplicate the information just reinforces what I am trying to point out.

FWIW I have actually booked LAS-LAX-POP on Sept 15 / STI-LAX on Sept 20 - ALL First and Business for $1,620.00 incl FC 1.9% AMEX booking fee.