American Airlines

[nalismom]

I booked 2 tics from DFW to AUA for 1/31-2/15 2013 1 month ago for $655 RT ea. today the same exact itinerary is $575 RT pp. I called to see if they would credit me the difference but it will cost me $150 change fee to get $160 back!!!!!!! This is ridiculous.......no wonder they are going bankrupt. What is the incentive to book early. We have traveled this route for 12 years and the fares have consistently been around $775 or higher so I thought $655 was a good fare.......now they have dropped it even lower!

I am so annoyed!

 

[x3 skier]

If these complaints about AA keep popping up on the board, they may move ahead of Delta on the Major Airlines Bad Boy List.

As far as refunds for a lower fare, what you experienced is standard practice AFAIK.

Cheers

 

[winger]

One good AA experience

We have one good experience to report - a couple of weeks ago, AA moved our flights from 7:10AM'ish to 6:30AM, which made our Saturday getaway to Hawaii in November almost undoable (long story). Since getting away Friday at 6:30AM would work alot better, we called and asked AA to see if they could open seats for us - these were four FF mile seats, so I was expecting to encounter ALOT of pushback since there were NO FF seats on that Friday flight. However, I spent no more than one minute explaining our situation, and the nice rep repeated to me to ensur he understood the situation. He then placed me on hold for about 3 minutes - and came back and said all was taken care of, and he also apologized AA's schedule change impacted our vacation travels. He spent about another two minutes to ensure everything in the system was changed/updated correctly.

Now, THAT is a GREAT EXPERIENCE!

AA is not perfect, but neither is UA, whom we also fly with, being based out of SFO. However, if we here MORE of these type of positive stories, AA will emerge a better company, IMO.

 

[Robert D]

I booked 2 tics from DFW to AUA for 1/31-2/15 2013 1 month ago for $655 RT ea. today the same exact itinerary is $575 RT pp. I called to see if they would credit me the difference but it will cost me $150 change fee to get $160 back!!!!!!! This is ridiculous.......no wonder they are going bankrupt. What is the incentive to book early. We have traveled this route for 12 years and the fares have consistently been around $775 or higher so I thought $655 was a good fare.......now they have dropped it even lower!

I am so annoyed!

This is one of the benefits of using Southwest. They don't charge a fee to change to a lower fare if it comes available. Unfortunately, they don't fly outside the US.

 

[Ken555]

Most people I know have this happen to them at least once. It's all part of the airline fare game. There shouldn't be any expectation that they would honor a lower price, given the market conditions surrounding air costs. If you didn't know about this policy, I'm sorry for you, but if you did then I don't see a reason to complain.

 

[DebBrown]

I try to track the price for a few days before purchasing because I notice that it often fluctuates during the week with the flights being cheaper if purchased mid-week rather than on the weekend. I don't really have an explanation for it.

It is definitely frustrating to see the price drop after a purchase. Its just the chance you take. On the plus side, you are still lower than you expected at that $775 rate.

Deb

 

[Carolinian]

All of the legacy airlines have change fees, unfortunately, and usually in about the same range, at least in the cheaper fare buckets.

As a result of the recent changes at UA, it is now AA that has the most attractive ff program out there, especially if you are at the elite levels. US wants to take them over and that could downgrade their ff program fast, but it looks like BA is willing to throw them a financial lifeline to prevent that happening.

 

[Carolinian]

duplicate post deleted

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I booked 2 tics from DFW to AUA for 1/31-2/15 2013 1 month ago for $655 RT ea. today the same exact itinerary is $575 RT pp. I called to see if they would credit me the difference but it will cost me $150 change fee to get $160 back!!!!!!! This is ridiculous.......no wonder they are going bankrupt. What is the incentive to book early. We have traveled this route for 12 years and the fares have consistently been around $775 or higher so I thought $655 was a good fare.......now they have dropped it even lower!

I am so annoyed!

Let's say that you owned a couple of floating week timeshares at a resort, and you put them up for sale for $2000. You sell one of the weeks for $2000, but the other is just sitting there. So a month or so later, you decide to drop the price on your remaining week to $1000.

Now the person who bought the week for $2000 comes back to you and says, "Wait a minute - you dropped the price for your weeks to $1000. I think you should refund me $1000."

Would you refund $1000 to the buyer? Or would you say "A deal is a deal"? If you wouldn't refund the timeshare buyer, why do you think the airline should refund you?

 

[x3 skier]

Let's say that you owned a couple of floating week timeshares at a resort, and you put them up for sale for $2000. You sell one of the weeks for $2000, but the other is just sitting there. So a month or so later, you decide to drop the price on your remaining week to $1000.

Now the person who bought the week for $2000 comes back to you and says, "Wait a minute - you dropped the price for your weeks to $1000. I think you should refund me $1000."

Would you refund $1000 to the buyer? Or would you say "A deal is a deal"? If you wouldn't refund the timeshare buyer, why do you think the airline should refund you?

Well said.

Cheers