Not happy with AA overbooking then bumping me

[Goodonya]

Got back to Oz yesterday and rang QF today regarding the AA downgrading. Thanks everyone for your comments.
As has been suggested I enquired about the ORC and QF accepted this and will adjust my activity statement accordingly.
They can't see why I was downgraded as I was not a lowest fare and had OW emerald status and they will take up with AA and get back to me. We'll see what happens.

 

[Goodonya]

Sad to read.

In the USA when travelling in the pointy end, the following is essential:

-Preselect Seating
-Do not select aisle seats in the second row of First/Business - Airmarshalls will gazump those seated so.
-OLCI at first opportunity
-If with checked luggage, check-it at least one hour before scheduled departure.
-Be at gate when boarding starts and board when First/Business is called (generally 30-40 minutes before departure).

If you still were downgraded after doing all that then the unlucky stars certainly did align ...

Well serfty it must have been the unlucky stars then

Firstly I could not pre-select the seats on AA or OLCI. Their website wouldn't let me. No problems pre-selecting seats on QF, BA, or CX.
I was at airport > 2 hours before flight even though it was a domestic sector.
I was at the boarding gate 30 min before departure.
I was told to sit down and wait with no explanation.
Was told at the last minute of what the problem was.


I thought something was fishy when I checked my luggage in that they told me that my seat would be allocated at the gate. Hmmm.

 

[Goodonya]

I would like to confirm the following -

1) being on a AONE/DONE fare, you were booked into fare class A.
2) You were a OWE at the time of travel.
3) the flight you were travelling on was the one you originally booked (not on a standby or interrupted op flight).
4) You were at the gate at the start of boarding (not near the last to board).

If all of the above were true, I find it very hard to believe you were the lowest ranking F passenger and therefore the one to get bumped. There must have been someone on a KUPP/YUPP fare in fare class P or on an award booking in fare class P. You should out rank these passengers automatically. I would also like to think that being OWE, you would outrank most others in fare class A. Only fare class F would be clearly above you.

I have to say I would complained quite forcefully if this had happened to me based on the above. However, personally, I may have considered the USD500 voucher as I travel on AA regularly and therefore it may be quite useful as AA F is pretty poor on that route. I would also have a word to QF (for their information only) about how AA is treating QF WP.

The fare was a DONE4 and there being no business seat I was allocated a F seat on original ticket but no seat number (2 months earlier)
I was a OWEmerald at time of travel
The flight was the original booked. No changes were made to my flights.
I was at the gate 30 min pre. Told to sit down and wait without explanation. Only told of situation during last 5 mins I reckon and handed a voucher as I was boarding. They may have made me sign something, can't remember.
Voucher looks like it is only useable by me on any AA ticket office but NOT on AA.com. Big help that is. Haven't checked but chances are that there aren't any AA offices here in Melbourne

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well serfty it must have been the unlucky stars then

Firstly I could not pre-select the seats on AA or OLCI. Their website wouldn't let me. No problems pre-selecting seats on QF, BA, or CX.
I was at airport > 2 hours before flight even though it was a domestic sector.
I was at the boarding gate 30 min before departure.
I was told to sit down and wait with no explanation.
Was told at the last minute of what the problem was.


I thought something was fishy when I checked my luggage in that they told me that my seat would be allocated at the gate. Hmmm.

This sounds like a case of an air marshal.

Air Marshals pretty much have free range to determine which flights and which seats on those flights they want, and the airline (by law) cannot tell you that your seat has been given to one of them (makes sense from a security perspective... although Air Marshals are pretty obvious once you're on board).

Airlines have had to be inventive in what they tell passengers - and you need to read between the lines.

You were probably asked to wait in the gate lounge in the hope another passenger no-showed, just in case they could get you on.

 

[JohnK]

What a mess. Sad thing to happen.

PS they did give me at the last minute a compensation voucher for 500 USD. Haven't read all the fine print on how I am supposed to use this.

At least you got USD500 compensation. You might be able to put it towards a fare to Asia.

 

[serfty]

Re the voucher, posts on FT indicate that you should be able to call to use it with no assisted fees.

In an effort to work out how such may be avoided for others I ask a couple of questions.

How recently did you book?

Also were you unable to allocate a seat from the time you booked?

How did you try to allocate seating? By calling or via qantas.com or your TA or getting the AA SABRE PNR and try to allocate seating using AA.com?

 

[Goodonya]

What a mess. Sad thing to happen.


At least you got USD500 compensation. You might be able to put it towards a fare to Asia.

The last two legs of my trip were PVG and BKK. I may need to have a hit with you one day in BKK or perhaps Mission Hills?

 

[Goodonya]

Re the voucher, posts on FT indicate that toy should be able to call to use it with no assisted fees.

In an effort to work out how such may be avoided for others I ask a couple of questions.

How recently did you book?

Also were you unable to allocate a seat from the time you booked?

How did you try to allocate seating? By calling or via qantas.com or your TA or getting the AA SABRE PNR and try to allocate seating using AA.com?

The ticket was booked early April, two months earlier.
Because I couldn't select seats via qantas.com, I tried to select seats through AA website but not able to do so. It wouldn't allow me access.

 

[JohnK]

The last two legs of my trip were PVG and BKK. I may need to have a hit with you one day in BKK or perhaps Mission Hills?

Let me know when you are around in Thailand and we can certainly have a hit or 2. I am there again in September, November and February.

Are you playing golf with us at AFF #8 or did you say you were going overseas?

The ticket was booked early April, two months earlier.
Because I couldn't select seats via qantas.com, I tried to select seats through AA website but not able to do so. It wouldn't allow me access.

A few years ago I had similar issues on AA website trying to pre-allocate seats. It would appear it was not recognising my Oneworld Emerald status. Most people are OK yet some of us are having issues.

 

[serfty]

The ticket was booked early April, two months earlier.
Because I couldn't select seats via qantas.com, I tried to select seats through AA website but not able to do so. It wouldn't allow me access.

I am really trying to understand ... I presume you had the AA SABRE PNR ... if so and it still did not work on AA.com then I would have been on the phone ... I suspect in such case something was wrong with the booking data ...

... sorry if I come across like a dog chasing a bone but I would not have rested until I had that seat selected ... even if it meant changing flights to do so.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Firstly I could not pre-select the seats on AA or OLCI. Their website wouldn't let me. No problems pre-selecting seats on QF, BA, or CX.

QF, BA & CX are all system users of the Amadeus GDS so your which is why your QF booking reference would've worked with BA & CX. You can always contact the travel agent who booked it & ask them for the AA pnr, in fact some agents actually do the seat allocation for their clients.

I was at airport > 2 hours before flight even though it was a domestic sector.
I was at the boarding gate 30 min before departure.
I was told to sit down and wait with no explanation.
Was told at the last minute of what the problem was.

I thought something was fishy when I checked my luggage in that they told me that my seat would be allocated at the gate. Hmmm.

Uh oh. So the writing was on the wall at checkin. I thought you had an F boarding pass at checkin but were bumped sometime after checking in & getting to the gate however it seems the oversale situation was there before you even arrived at the airport.

I know hindsight is always 20/20 vision but did you happen to ask the lounge AAngels about your seating issues at all? I guess the only difference would've been that you found out earlier about the downgrade & didn't get a nasty surprise at the gate.

Sorry you had to be the sacrificial lamb for AFF however when one has an issue others all learn from your experience too eg the row 2 thing which I hadn't heard about.

The fare was a DONE4 and there being no business seat I was allocated a F seat on original ticket but no seat number (2 months earlier)

So you mean you were booked in the F cabin however did not have a seat number assigned to you at that point?

 

[Goodonya]

Sorry you had to be the sacrificial lamb for AFF however when one has an issue others all learn from your experience too eg the row 2 thing which I hadn't heard about.

The fare was a DONE4 and there being no business seat I was allocated a F seat on original ticket but no seat number (2 months earlier)

So you mean you were booked in the F cabin however did not have a seat number assigned to you at that point?

Don't mind being sacrificial lamb for AFF and happy to learn from others what I did wrong. Yes I was booked into F cabin but no seat number assigned.

 

[serfty]

Don't mind being sacrificial lamb for AFF and happy to learn from others what I did wrong. Yes I was booked into F cabin but no seat number assigned.

I have had some off line dialogue with Goodonya (we were both outbound on the same flight earlier this month with shared lounge time both in SYD and LAX).

The problem seems to be they did not have a seat pre-allocated at any stage for any of the AA flights. This left it open for AA to assign the First cabin seats as they wished and in the case of the flight in question, leaving them high, dry and downgraded.

Pertinent Information:

• The DONE4 booking was made with a TA who uses the Galileo GDS.
• Goodonya had the Galileo PNR and the Amadeus PNR.
• The Qantas/BA flights appeared on Qantas.com using the Amadeus PNR and seat selection for the QF and BA flights was available, and indeed, successful.
• They noted the AA flights did not show on Qantas.com/yourbooking.
• They tried both the Amadeus and the Galileo PNR on AA.com without success. Did not realise they needed a SABRE PNR.
• On check-in they were offered alternate routings/connections rather than being downgraded but it would have meant getting to the destination too late for a specific meeting.

While experienced with flying, the OP is not fully conversant with all facets/nuances of such travel and was not aware that an unallocated seat on a Domestic AA flight could lead to being bumped/downgraded.

They did not know of the existence of the SABRE PNR and it's use for selecting seating on AA.com.

I suggest that the entity really at fault here was the Agency - a Good TA would proactively arrange for seat selection where possible.

Finally, they have another DONE4 coming up in August and will be ensuring seats are selected for all flights. They now know how to dig up the SABRE PNR for the AA segments.:idea:

To reiterate an earlier post:

Sad to read.

In the USA when travelling in the pointy end, the following is essential:

-Preselect Seating
-Do not select aisle seats in the second row of First/Business - Airmarshalls may gazump those seated so.
-OLCI at first opportunity
-If with checked luggage, check-it at least one hour before scheduled departure.
-Be at gate when boarding starts and board when First/Business is called (generally 35-40 minutes before departure).

If you still were downgraded after doing all that then the unlucky stars certainly did align ...

 

[Goodonya]

Thanks serfty for advice. Not a DONE4 but the trip coming up Aug/Sep with SWMBO is MEL-LAX-DFW-CUN-JFK-SFO-LAX-MEL.
I have now been able to pre-select all my seats including all my AA sectors and also have the code to access the AA.com site to view my booking.

Fingers crossed the lucky stars are aligned now.

Thanks again to everyone for their advice

 

[MelUser]

I have just moved all my October segments from second Row to 3rd Row on AA

 

[drron]

Time to give your TA a blast.Ours always has seats preselected with the exception of JAL-but we always end up in the first or second row of J anyway so I no longer worry about that.She can give me the AA PNR.
However what I do,as I usually have no time worries,is use the airline website to contact their consumer relations to ask for their PNR.It has worked with AA in the past and on this trip with BA when on an AA ticket.

 

[Goodonya]

Time to give your TA a blast.Ours always has seats preselected with the exception of JAL-but we always end up in the first or second row of J anyway so I no longer worry about that.She can give me the AA PNR.
However what I do,as I usually have no time worries,is use the airline website to contact their consumer relations to ask for their PNR.It has worked with AA in the past and on this trip with BA when on an AA ticket.

Yes I'm now learnt that for the USA flights I need to be more proactive and will be having words with my TA.

On a bright note, Qantas credited me with the ORC SC's so that now I've already re-qualified before the new "enhancements" come into effect.
Now WP to at least end April 2016