tubulus

My wife is booked in premium economy on a certain flight. I saw the business award price came down to a great level so I called to put that on hold two days ago. She was unreachable at work so we couldn't finish the ticketing (they won't ticket if the miles owner isn't there). The agent was aware of the PE ticket, put the business ticket on hold, and told me it would be on hold for 5 days. I called back in today when we are finally in the same room for a while and they told me the hold was cancelled since she is already booked on the same flight. The original agent was aware of this and never told me this would be an issue. The ticket now prices up 50k miles higher. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Dave Noble

There is nothing to do other than rebook if desired

For AA, it is against the CoC to make impossible or duplicate bookings and AA is within its right to cancel

tubulus

So why would the agent tell me it was completely fine? (Beside the obvious answer that the agent was simply an idiot). I told them exactly what I was doing.

Dave Noble

Agents make mistakes

tubulus

I mean that's true but this is an easy mistake to fix. Agent makes a mistake the customer shouldn't suffer. "Apologies the agent should have told you would need to call back in with 6 hours (or whatever) to finalize the reservation. We see you have been an AA member for 20 years, we can override the cancellation and allow you to book now." Easy.

Dave Noble

Except that there really isn't anything to fix

The reason you put it on hold was due to not being able to pay for it at the time
If the agent had acted correctly, the hold request would have been refused and you would have had to pay the rate applicable at the time payment could be made. You couldn't have had even 6 hours

tubulus

No the reason it was put on hold is that AA requires speaking to the person whose account it is before ticketing. My wife's job does not allow her to answer her cel phone most of the time during the day.

Dave Noble

Yes - exactly what I referred to - you were not in a position to be able to complete the booking at the time

What the agent should have done is simply tell you to call back when the person was available. It reads that you did call back when the person was available and found the hold had, quite correctly, been cancelled and quoted the current ptice

tubulus

If the agent had told me the correct information I could have called in that night to complete the booking. I wouldn't have even had to go through the hold rigamarole (I assume the ticket would have been available 4 hours later) But the agent said 5 days, and generally I've had insane wait times on weekday nights, so I waited until the weekend like they told me I could.

tubulus

To recap:
1) Agent tells me I can do X and secure the ticket.for 5 days.
2)I do X.
3)I call in later and they tell me that actually I had to do Y.

The fix is make 1) true. Allow me to secure the ticket that I was told I could have, and that I easily could have had if the agent had given me the correct information. FWIW there are actually more empty seats now than when I made the booking, so it's not like there aren't seats available.

Dave Noble

Regardless, you are in the same position as if the agent had given correct information. If no hold had been made and , as you stated, you called when the account owner was available and "finally in the same room for a while" , you would have been given a quote based on price at that time

By your own statements, you could not have secured the ticket at that time since the account holder was not present and was also unreachable

If you had been able to complete the transaction at the time you would have been ok

If the account holder was present , could have completed the transaction and wanted to complete it, but the agent suggested/encouraged that you put it on hold rather than complete at the time, then I would agree that the airline should honour the original quote

If you had cancelled the original booking at the same time the hold was made for the new booking, then you would have been compliant and no issue - if a similar situation occurs in teh future, cancel the original

Centurion

I think the OP may have duplicate reservation and the system canceled the on hold but I am not sure. Either way next time get your wifes login information and you are good to go on your own and just do it all online.

tubulus

No, you are not understanding. It is much more annoying for me to deal with this during the week as we are busy running around, getting homework done with the kids, etc, but I could have. I could have called in that night to do it, even without doing the hold, if the agent had told me I needed to (presumably the ticket would have been the same price that night or close). It would have been a pain especially given the hour+ weekday wait times I've dealt with, but I could have don't it. But since the agent told me everything was fine and I had 5 days to do it I waited until a more convenient day when I had more time and I knew the wait time would be short. Also note that the agent I spoke with today seemed to indicate that if I had indeed called in within 24 hours the cancellation would not have happen. Again, I could have made this happen if they had told me.

Dave Noble

The agent that told you that it would not cancel within 24 hours was not providing information that is in line with CoC

The CoC prohibits making the hold in the 1st place - not that you could have held and called back in 6 hours , 12 hours etc

I wouldn't be assuming that the price would have been the same if you had waited until the evening

Your options are to either stay in premium economy or call when the account holder is available and pay the rate that is current then

nyc6035

Dude,

Book the award on the website, logged into your wife's account and have her credit card nearby to enter the payment details. No need to speak to a human - nor for your wife to be in the room. Use this method in the future. There's nearly never a reason to call in.