Question: We booked a flight to Europe in business class using 180,000 award miles, and we’ve just learned that some of our flights will be in economy class. We need your help.
My husband, Richard, is retiring this year and we have been saving our American Airlines miles for a trip to Europe. It was important for us to fly in business class because my husband is a big man and is not at all comfortable in economy class.
Yesterday, when I called to finalize our reservations, I double-checked to make sure we were flying each leg of the trip in business class. It turns out only two parts — from Tucson, Ariz., to Dallas and from London to Bordeaux, France — are in business class. American will not give us the business class seats we reserved and paid for from Dallas to London. Can you help us? — Anita Fancon, Tucson, Ariz.
Answer: If you paid for business class tickets, you should be sitting in business class. I don’t blame your husband for wanting to sit in the forward cabin. The seats in steerage class are too small and wedged too close together, and spending nine hours in one is a dreadful way to start your vacation if you’re a big guy.
What’s more, 180,000 miles is no small number. If American promised you business class, it should deliver for all of the flights — not just some of them.
It helps to understand a little bit about how award miles work. Most airlines treat award seats the same way they do non-revenue tickets. In other words, they’re assigned the lowest priority in the system, and are almost always scarce. (You’ll hear the term “space available” thrown around by industry types — that just means if a paying customer claims the seat, you’re out of luck.)
If you find yourself in a ticketing Twilight Zone, there are several ways to escape. A call or e-mail to your airline might help. In your case, if the AAdvantage folks weren’t helping, maybe an appeal to someone higher up might work. Here’s who to reach at American.
A review of your frequent flier program’s terms and conditions suggests that you basically have no rights. Your miles expire if you aren’t an active member of the program, the rules can be changed whenever the airline wants, and the awards probably don’t even belong to you. But as a practical matter, American — or any other airline — knows you’re a valuable customer and should want to keep you happy.
You might want to reconsider the practice of collecting miles and depending on them for your flights. Award tickets aren’t a sure thing to begin with, but a vacation in Europe? And in business class? That’s really taking your chances. You’re better off buying a business class ticket or an upgradeable economy class ticket.
I contacted American Airlines on your behalf, and it cleared your seats for the flight from Dallas to London.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
As somone who flies on FF miles a lot, here’s one warning / lesson learned on buying upgradable seats.
I flew Continental two years ago when Newark had one of its all too frequent melt downs that required that they cancel every flight from my airport to Newark on that day. When I was rebooked, I was told that I had to wait two days because I had an upgradable seat. It turns out that FF tickets and upgraded seats are treated differently. If I had a a FF ticket, they would have accomodated me on their Sky Team partner who has a major hub here but since I had an upgradable seat, the Sky Team partner would only accomodate me in coach.
It got worse. Two days later as I plan to fly to Europe again, Newark had another melt down causing me to arrive in Newark 4 hours after my flight left. I was rebooked the next day in to a coach seat. Why coach? Continental requires 48 hrs for an upgrade to clear since they delayed me in Newark for 24 hrs, no luck on the upgraded seat eventhough they has seats available in Business.
Short version of the long story. I eventually found someone who took pity on me combined with them being overbooked in coach to move me up.
The moral of the story at least on Continental is that an upgraded seat is not a Business Class seat. Its a coach seat. If bad things happen, you’ll only get a coach seat and you can not be move to a codeshare partner.
I think the problem is that when you try to buy a premium class seat, whether for money or miles, the system will present you with a coach seat if a premium class seat is not available on any given segment. If you don’t pay close enough attention, you will think that you bought a business class seat when in fact you have a hybrid coach/premium seat.
I have to disagree with Chris about your practice of collecting miles for large trips. IWhile I agree that purchasing a cheap coach ticket and upgrading is often a better use of miles, anecdotally, it is easier to just get a business class award ticket, especially if you have a little flexibility with the dates. Also, on American, you can change your business class award ticket with a small fee at any time.
If expiring miles are an issue, you can always make a small purchase using any one of AA business partners to renew the miles for 18 months.
My $0.02
More of the airline “Gotcha” game. Thanks to folks like Chris we as customers have some recourse despite what the T & C’s state.
NO ONE likes bad PR and I’m convinced the only way to deal with airlines is through public forums like this one and if that fails then drag their everloving assets into Smail Claims Court, the DOT or the states Attorney General
Frequent Flier miles never appealed to me. I fly international many times a year and the miles are the last thing I worry about. I saved 100’s to 1000’s per flight by not restricting myself to a particular airline. By the time I would have earned a free seat on days I would never fly I normally have saved enough money to buy one if not two extra international tickets.