Chain of Events:
09/2013 - Ticket Booked with British Airways Avios for flight on AA travelling 12/20/2013 - 12/25/2013 for 4 people.
10/2013 - Wife gets US Citizenship and changes her Last Name
11/2013 - Called AA to change last name on ticket. AA Cust Service tried, separated the PNR but could not update as it was a BA issued Ticket. Advised me to go to the Airport on day of travel and have the name changed. Simple and easy. (Never told me that I need to call BA)
12/2013 - Called again at the beginning of Dec to confirm that above was true and talked to another Agent who again tried to change the Name and again advised the exact same thing as above.
Now on 12/20/2013
3.30 p.m. - Reached Airport at 3.30 p.m. for 6.30 p.m. flight to ensure name change happened correctly. Carried all the Legal Docs (US Citizenship Certificate, Court Order of Name Change, 11 year old Marriage Certificate, Indian Passport and US Passport).
4.00 p.m. - After waiting for 30 mins in line, finally spoke to a rude agent who simply refused to even listen and after spending 10 mins with him he said the only solution was for me to talk to British Airways Counter 200 ft away.
4.15 p.m. - Talked to BA Agent who said they cannot do anything and asked to call Cust Service. After holding with Cust Service for 30 mins, they transferred to Exec Club and after holding with them for 30 mins, they transferred to Helpdesk and after holding with them for another 20 mins, the Helpdesk said it was too late to make any changes and told me that the ticket cannot be used. Spent a total of 1.5 hours on the phone.
5.00 p.m. - Called AA Cust Service in parallel asking them to fix the ticket. A very nice AA Agent tried everything he could, but was unable to update the name on the ticket and so he advised me to book a new ticket (it was the last seat on the flight) for a total of 77,500 miles (50,000 Anytime Business Award one way and 17,500 Milesaver Return). This took another 45 minutes on the phone before he could book it, but he was not able to ticket it as the timing of the flight was 6.30 p.m and we were cutting close and so he asked me to have the AA Agent at the Counter ticket it.
6.00 p.m - Agent at Counter called the Ticketing Desk and it took another 15 - 20 mins for someone to pick up and ticket and finally at around 6.30 p.m. my new ticket was issued although I did not have a seat. Luckily the flight was delayed until 7.30 and so I was able to travel.

Now the ordeal does not end here. I went thru Security to the gate to get my seat and to everyone's surprise, my seat was given to someone else and so the Boarding Agent made me wait for another 20 mins with my status in limbo until she could find and convince the person who got my seat to give it up. I finally got a seat assignment at 7:15 p.m. and was then able to grab a bite for the next 3 hour trip.

All this because 2 of AA Customer Service Agents giving me wrong information.

The plan was to relax for a couple of hours at the Centurion lounge (I am a AMEX Platinum), have some drinks, eat some gourmet food and then travel with the family for a memorable vacation.
Instead of the rosy picture above, what I got was my heart was pounding for about 4 hours (3.30 p.m. to 7.15 p.m.) not knowing what was going to happen, constantly on the phone, running from one counter to another, paying a ginormous amount of miles plus $100 in Fees.

I coughed up an additional 77,500 miles + $100 in Fees for an Award when I already had a ticket. I want to understand whether it is reasonable to expect AA to refund my miles? All AA is doing is offering me $200 Voucher for the entire ordeal.
My other option is to take AA to Small Claims Court and I have a Legal Plan with my Employer which I believe will help me with representation in Court.
Your opinion is most appreciated !!!

 

You booked under your wife's maiden name so I assume she was able to travel to your destination under that name.....why not just keep the ticket as it was?

 

AA didn't make you buy a new ticket.

You made a booking with BA and under BA's terms and conditions for which name changes are not permitted

It was a choice to change the name prior to travel

The error that the AA agents made was to not just inform that this was a BA issued ticket and to speak to BA

 

Sorry forgot to mention:
Flight was from DFW to CUN (Cancun, MX) and so Passport was needed.
My wife had an Indian Passport with Old Name and American Passport with New Name.
To use Indian Passport, she would have needed a Mexican Visa and to use American Passport, she needed the name change on the Ticket.
My frustration is with AA Agents who reconfirmed that the Name can be changed at the Airport.

 

I called twice to AA as my flights were on AA to change the name prior to travel. Not once did AA tell me that I need to contact BA prior to travel to change the name. On the contrary, they asked me to go to the Airport on the day of travel and the name would be changed by the Agent who checks me in.

 

So why did you not board the flight with the Indian passport & then present the US passport at the Mexican boarder?
With a BA ticket only BA could have done anything. Nothing to do with AA
This problem was not of AA's or BA's making. Its all yours

 

That the flight was on AA doesn't matter since it is a BA ticket and it is BA that needs to make any changes and BA should have been the 1st port of call

The most generous possibility towards the AA agents is that they didn't notice that it was a BA ticket since the agent should not have suggested that AA would do anything

The problem is self inflicted though and could easily have been avoided by waiting until existing travel was completed before getting the name change done

Why did you contact AA rather than BA given that you had purchased from BA?

 

Yes on all fronts. I would take my $200 voucher and learn from the experience.

OP, when you first started having this problem, why didn't you post here first? It isn't like this is your first post and you are a newbie.

 

Airline won't allow that. They won't allow you to check-in with a passport that requires a visa if you don't have the visa.

To the OP:

Many people here seem to want to place the blame on you when the real errors are on the part of the AA agents who told you the name could be changed and didn't tell you to contact BA. That's where the real problem lies.

It is not reasonable to expect that every passenger knows every arcane airline ticketing/visa/name/etc rule.

For those just tuning in, you cannot ever, as in EVER, change a name on a ticket. All the airline can do is issue a new ticket with the new name on it. Only the issuing carrier will normally do that, and with most tickets, don't count on it.

 

Well the passenger should have contacted the company that issued the ticket, and even if AA said otherwise should've called BA directly since he is an AA plat I would assume he has travelled before and know that travel in 2014 isn't a service oriented customer comes first industry and most companies won't go the extra mile.

However the fault is still AA's since they gave the wrong info and I would assume they should refund the miles and fees, perhaps deducting some "change fee" since they said it could be done.

But yes, if you book a ticked with one name it is generally a good idea to have that name when travelling or be prepared to have some problems.

 

IMO, the offer of compensation was reasonable, and tying up the courts on this would be a waste of time.

 

No it is not. Take the $200 and make a mental note should you need this info for your next wife.

 

Sue! Sue! SUE!!!!

 

Seems to me that it would BA that you needed to address this issue with all along. They issued the ticket and they are the only ones to modify it. Why would you involve AA for a BA issue much less take their advice on how BA would handle it?

 

I would expect nothing less than 77500 miles plus 100. Id take the 100 in a voucher.

BA allows a name change in this case. It is, however, unclear as they also state "this only applies to BA operated flights, not code shares..[etc]"

Do you have PROOF on what they instructed you to do? Like a print out of the notes from the PNR?

As stated above the fault lies with the people TELLING you to do the wrong things. It was not 'self inflicted'.

small claims might get their attention....