saunders111

S.R's question remains an interesting one, though. Not many people in the OP's situation would have had the option of cancelling the tickets and flying on a different airline. So what would the OP's options have been if they bit the bullet and paid the $1500 to check the bags?

After all, AA sold them a ticket that promised free checked bags. AA did not deliver the promised product. So is there some process for recouping the $1500 from AA?

Here is a screenshot from a reservation for the same flight, next March. As you can see, AA clearly promises two free checked bags.

"Cancel your ticket for a full refund and spend the rest of your life in BKK" or "Toss your bags in the trash" do not seem like reasonable responses, FWIW.

Thanks.

Dave Noble

Interesting - since that isn't the correct allowance nor is the detail on additional allowance for status correct. For business class the allowance is 40kg with 15kg extra for platinum status and 20kg extra for executive platinum status

Someone turning up with 3 x 32Kg would be hit with 56Kg / 41Kg/ 36Kg additional fee at $40 per kg - so up to $2240 fees

I suspect that AA would state that the allowance listed on the ticket would trump the information on the webpage

saunders111

I don’t doubt that they would state that, but would it stand up in small claims court, I wonder?

Dave Noble

Indeed - It would be interesting to see what a court finding would be if the person did pursue it - I suspect that in this instance, AA would argue that that page didn't stpulate a weight allowance per bag and that QR would accept 3 bags from someone holding EP status with a total maximum weight og 60kg

Delta141

I went through this exact decision making loop after it become clear that I am communicating with inflexible front line agents. Here is an approximate account:

1. OK - this seems to be a mistake, I'd pay the baggage fees and deal with AA when I get on the other side but I need something from QR to document the discrepancy.
2. Requested fare rules printout and the contract of carriage in order to show AA what QR sees and (hopefully) to demonstrate to AA that their ticketing was either wrong, incomplete or truncated in such way that QR couldn't see the correct baggage settings.
3. After QR refused my several attempts to document the issue, I pulled out of the line and considered the following alternatives:
- fly separately - my wife would fly without baggage the original itinerary and I would book revenue economy/biz with the correct baggage allowance. Ruled it out for a variety of reasons (econ on another carrier was printing at ~$800ish and wife didn't want to split).

- since I had about 4.5 hours before departure I tried to call AA without finding any success in fixing the issue (long cues, dropped calls, a lack clarity on what the issue seems to be). It was at that stage that I figured out that I should cancel or modify the award to preserve the miles and deal with an alternative routing after that (at least remove the ticking clock with QR). I attempted to edit the award online for the next day using AA miles (any routing, any carrier) but there was no availability.

- next up, I started looking at revenue and non-revenue options for the same evening (this event happened around 17:00 local time) or the next day, and I could roughly trade off saving 180K AA miles for flying economy for about $1600 (plus hotel and taxi fares it was closer to $1900 trade off). I tinkered with switching my destination point and dealing with EU local hops but that didn't price well.

- finally, I started looking at the award inventory on United and AC and found a good amount of C and E space for the same evening and the next day.

- booked two saver C awards on Austrian using United miles.

Paying $1500 was very much on the table if I didn't find alternatives, especially given the tradeoffs between the revenue and non-revenue fares. I was unimpressed with the way QR staff treated me and their lack of interest in solving the problem, even if it was outside of their ability, and especially their lack of providing me with relevant documentation that I can take to AA and try to recoup the $1500.

Dave Noble

you were asking for the impossible from QR. The staff checking in at BKK are probably not QR staff anyway but contract agents who provide checkin service for multiple carriers

The fare rules are AA's - you purchased an AA fare not a QR one, so not something that they would have. You would need to go to AA for that, Also Fare rules do not have luggage allowamces listed in them as a rule

Their lack of interest might well be more that it was not a problem that they were ever going to be able to solve - this was between you and AA

Fortunately you found a better option than trying to claim luggage fees back from AA. I suspect that you would have ended up having to go to court for satisfaction

Delta141

Dave,

You made that point several times already. You seem to pass judgement on my requesting relevant information from QR, even giving it a spin of something that almost feels inappropriate. I am the customer, I have every right to ask any question I see relevant.

I asked, politely and respectfully. I did not demand.

Your sensitivity to the other side feels like you are almost offended on behalf of the people manning the QR check-in lines at BKK that weren't helpful to me. It seems your empathy is placed with the wrong party.

I'd agree with you that it is unlikely they were even QR employees, and if that's true, perhaps QR should have a look at the damage such behavior/ culture can cause to the brand. Such situations don't need to be dehumanizing.

There is a saying in business that 'culture eats strategy for breakfast' and most people ignore it but it is a real thing.

"Their lack of interest might well be more that it was not a problem that they were ever going to be able to solve - this was between you and AA"
While this may be clinically true, such attitude hints at a culture that I don't appreciate.

Just curious, what would your decision / action steps would have been in my predicament? Please share something that may be of real practical value to other fellow FTers in such scenarios and stay away from passing judgement on the people that are in a tight spot due to nothing they have intentionally done wrong.

No need to 'blame the victim'.

Dave Noble

It isn't blaming the victim for what happened - what happened shouldnt have happened

HOWEVER

the issue was one that was purely between you and AA. The issue is that you seem to be blaming QR for not doing anything in a situation that was not anything to do with them

As far as resolving the situation, I think that your approach of booking another ticket was a good one - since I wouldn't have had that option, I would have been trying to get AA to reissue the ticket such that it properly reflected a baggage allowance - this is a bizarre problem that AA has and havent heard of any other airline having such a problem with basic ticketing

As a last resort I would have paid for the baggage fees and tried to reclaim it off of AA - but wouldn't be expecting it to be easy to get it to do so. If I was at an airport that offers shipping ( e.g. as I used to do from London in past a few times ) I would have paid to check in essentialsand then used the courier service to deluver the rest

There is a big difference between blaming the victim vs addressing that the QR staff had no ability to fix the ticket and it wasn't their job to do anyway

My empathy may be aimed at those being attacked for something that there is no reason to attack them for

In your original post you were praising the airline that was the sole cause of the problem whilst insulting those who both had nothing to do with the ptoblem and were not responsbe or in position to fix the problem

Delta141

Quote:

"In your original post you were praising the airline that was the sole cause of the problem whilst insulting those who both had nothing to do with the ptoblem and were not responsbe or in position to fix the problem"

Well, my comments regarding AA handling the calls in a professional manner without solving my problem was hardly a 'praise'. My requests for backup documentation from QR check-in staff so I can substantiate a claim against AA was done in an polite and friendly manner. It wasn't a demand but a simple request. You interpreted it to be 'insulting' without being there or anything to substantiate it as such. That's what makes me think that for some reason you tend to have a bias and lack of sympathy for the what-I-call-poetically 'the victim'. Your default presumption is that the 'victim' is demanding, insulting and in the wrong. Let me remind you, I did not do anything wrong. I was hoping to resolve a sticky situation without any emotion. I tried to de-escalate. There were no raised voices or moving hands. So, honestly, I don't understand what informs your position. Perhaps some bias has formed somewhere and somehow.

Having said that, your suggestion to ship/store is very potent. I did consider it, as I frequently use shipping/storing in Japan and storing in Singapore (happy to provide fellow FTers with pointers to these services, and they are quite reasonable). I also considered storing my baggage with my hotel, something I have done in the past, but given that I had roughly 100 minutes to find a solution, none of these options seemed plausible at the time. I have never looked into storage/shipping options at BKK and the airport was a zoo at the time. If anybody knows of such services at BKK or even other airports around the world, it wouldn't hurt to have them listed in a sticky.

Quote:
"My empathy may be aimed at those being attacked for something that there is no reason to attack them for"
Nobody attacked anybody. One can't attack attitudes or cultures.

Happy

OP just reiterated while he has contemplated shelling out $1500 to buy a revenue ticket, he decided to check UA award and was able to find availability for the same evening or the next day. He ended up canceled the AA award and got back 180K, then flew Austrian to come home.

See below -

And that was what I had said,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy
"Reread OP's first post. He did not pay but canceled the AA award. At the end they flew another program's award tickets in J."

that you commented that my comprehension was wrong... All I wrote was to tell the poster who was thinking about whether AA would compensate had the OP paid the baggage fee - that the OP did NOT pay but flew on another program's award.
I dont think speculating on a hypothesis that the premise never exists is of any meaning or usefulness. Besides, we may reasonably conclude that this would be a huge uphill battle for OP to get any reimbursement from AA. Obviously you may disagree...

Flying for Fun

While not QR related, it is AA. I have a revenue J (I) ticket next week that was originally BA SEA-LHR-MXP, the return of an itinerary with the outbound flown in March. Do to a schedule change, I am now flying BA metal, YVR-LHR-MXP in full J class on AA codeshare flights.

Interestingly, there is no baggage allowance & BA wants to charge $70/$90/$170 = $330 for three bags. I am OWE. There was no issue selecting seats without fees.


No checked baggage allowance on BA in full J class.

So apparently this isn't just a QR J/F award issue.

James

Antarius

Interesting.

I suspect youll be able to work with the BA check in desk better than the OP was with QR. if you cant cut it at the DMV, you end up as a QR front line agent. Either that or you work at APFA.

Flying for Fun

I love your humour. I am not really concerned as I don't check bags anyway, but I do think BA would find a resolution (Q)uite (R)eadily.

James

riced

No one has offered a viable solution to what the OP experienced. Delta 141 ended up cancelling and booking another FF ticket, but most of us would be left potentially stranded. Paying $1500 and claiming back from AA-never gonna happen. Shipping bags separately-not enough time. Sorting ticket out with AA agents-I am highly doubtful any of us would get an experienced agent that could re-ticket, especially when time was running out.
In fact who has actually had their QR ticket, re-ticketed by AA to sort this mess out? Are there any data points as none of the agents I spoke to would offer me that option. The only other thing that I would have done is perhaps called Qatar customer service or even the ticket office in Bangkok.

Dave Noble

I seem to recall that with the similar issue with EY , that I have read that there has been successgetting AA to reissue ticket and getting baggage allowance to show

I think that contacting QR ticketing and customer service would lead to both referring back to the issuing carrier.

Other then knowing to check bookings are ok at time of ticketing so as to have no time constraints , not sure what can be done - the OP seemed to have a decent amount of time, so might have in position ( if there is such as service at the airport ) to send using a shipping company

The OP was fortunate in having other miles to use and there benng availability on other carriers

Would be good if AA was to fix the root cause