American Airlines ripoff Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago Florida, California, New York, Illinois
American Airlines engages in deceptive advertising in regard to international flights that are code shared with numerous partners such as British Airways.
Whether an individual books an AA flight via the AA web site, the AA reservation 1-800 number or an AA office, that person will be informed that they will earn miles through the frequent flyer program for the travel. What they will not be told is that during the portions of travel that AA books through its codeshare partner British Airways the overwhelming majority of tickets will only acrue 0.25 miles/actual mile flown. This is because almost all economy class AA tickets are coded as "discount" or "deep discount" tickets. Only full fare tickets (usually purchased last minute), business class tickets or first class tickets qualify for full mileage credit. Most passengers will not notice this until they recieve thier mileage statement.
In my case I discovered that I had only recieved 790 miles for an AA connecting flight from London, Heathrow to Accra, Ghana (Africa). The actual mileage should be 3160. Considering the round trip aspect of this ticket, I lost 4740 miles on one trip. The original ticket cost me $1,300 to fly from Baltimore to Accra, Ghana. I could have purchased a ticket for $200 cheaper on another carrier, but chose AA because of my long time involvement in thier frequent flyer program. When I called AA to investigate the matter I asked how much it would have cost to fly on the lowest price business class ticket and I was given a price of $6-8,000 depending on various options.
I called back to reservations and the AA sales agent wasn't even aware of the 0.25 miles/one actual mile issue herself. She had to step away from the phone for about 5 minutes to find out about this.
The details of this arrangement are described on the AA web site. But are customers really expected to read the fine print on the web site prior to making a reservation.
I honestly feel that this is truly unfair to the consumer and warrents a class action law suit!!!
John
Havre de Grace, Maryland
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
John
Havre de Grace,Maryland,
U.S.A.
Intentionally misleading advertising
#5Author of original report
Wed, April 13, 2005
1. AA uses its frequent flyer program to promote travel on AA. Closing the program or halting all codes would assure that customers id go to Delta.
2. An individual who calls AA's 1-800 number or goes to an AA ticket agency should not be penalized because they haven't gone to a web site to read the fine print buried in it.
3. Honesty is the best policy. Discovering the loss of thousands miles after a trip is made is a big deal. All they have to do is to inform thier sales people that when making a connection to a code share partner, they should inform the customer that they will not get full credit. The reason that AA doesn't do this is because of the risk of lost business. AND THAT IS THE RIPOFF!
James
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
A class suit? The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, April 13, 2005
You must be joking! The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code share mileage, and rightfully so.
The fact is that you did NOT fly on AA metal. The fact is that the rules are posted on the AA website and are known in advance of purchase. That means YOU are the one at fault here. If you are going to try and play in the bigs, you really should know the rules.
As a Platinum member on Delta, I'm very appreciative that I get full credit on Continental, Air France, etc., because there is no *requirement* for them to do this. Apparently Delta and its SkyTeam partners treat their customers better than AA does.
James
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
A class suit? The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, April 13, 2005
You must be joking! The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code share mileage, and rightfully so.
The fact is that you did NOT fly on AA metal. The fact is that the rules are posted on the AA website and are known in advance of purchase. That means YOU are the one at fault here. If you are going to try and play in the bigs, you really should know the rules.
As a Platinum member on Delta, I'm very appreciative that I get full credit on Continental, Air France, etc., because there is no *requirement* for them to do this. Apparently Delta and its SkyTeam partners treat their customers better than AA does.
James
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
A class suit? The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, April 13, 2005
You must be joking! The net result of such a suit would be the immediate halt of *any* code share mileage, and rightfully so.
The fact is that you did NOT fly on AA metal. The fact is that the rules are posted on the AA website and are known in advance of purchase. That means YOU are the one at fault here. If you are going to try and play in the bigs, you really should know the rules.
As a Platinum member on Delta, I'm very appreciative that I get full credit on Continental, Air France, etc., because there is no *requirement* for them to do this. Apparently Delta and its SkyTeam partners treat their customers better than AA does.