I took American Airlines to Small Claims Court... AND WON!
This is my unbelievable (but true) story involving an incompetent American
Airlines reservation agent, lost flights, a 2nd reservations fraudster using
a 3rd party company masquerading as American Airlines, delay and stonewalling
by American Airlines, a trip to Small Claims, and my hero Pete Buttigieg, the
Secretary of Transportation. I'm writing this to help others who may have had
some of these experiences.
My Trip
In May of 2023, my wife and I wanted to fly from Boston to Columbia, SC to
visit family, then 3 days later fly home to Sacramento going through Charlotte.
Since I'm a senior and use a cane, I treated ourselves to First Class seats for
the long connection from Charlotte to Sacramento. In February I called
American Air's 800 number and purchased the tickets from their agent using my
credit Card. Total cost $2,351.
What could go wrong?...
I'm a details person, so I checked the confirmation and entered the 6-digit
confirmation code into my Google calendar along with the flight number,
dates/times, and seat assignments. Then every few weeks I verified the
information with the airline's iPhone App and their website to make sure
nothing had changed.
In May, before boarding in Boston, I again repeated the verification to make
sure the return flights were as I had planned. We flew to Columbia and visited
with family. Two days later I tried to check in for our return home and our
reservations had disappeared from the iPhone App and the American Airlines
website!
In panic, I called the same American Airlines 800-number I had used
months before to get my flights back. The support people were bewildered by
their own systems. Apparently, the first reservation agent had so incorrectly
updated the database, that the system had removed my return flight when I had
landed in Columbia, and American had sold my seats.
After an hour on my cellphone the connection dropped. I called back and got
a new reservation agent and started all over...
The Fraud Begins
This new reservations agent was very friendly, but she explained that the only
seats available were Coach class and I would have to buy them and get a refund
on my First Class fare later. I had been on my iPhone for over 2 hours, so I
agreed and bought the tickets. I remember seeing the dropdown notice on my
iPhone showing a credit card purchase to the vendor "American" for
$1,788.
I kept the agent on the line until I got the email confirmation for our new
flights.
The next day we flew home to Sacramento, middle Coach seats, my wife and I,
3 rows apart.
American's Refund Stonewall and Pete to the Rescue
The day after I returned home, I had an email from American notifying me I had
a refund of $580, with the banner "Your refund is complete" and no
other explanation.
In other words, instead of First Class seats for $2,351, we had been
forced into Coach seats costing $4,139, and American claimed I only
deserved a refund of $580 (and no apology).
So I started the refund process, which is only done with email exchanges.
Since it's
done via email, one might assume this is rapid. It is not. American Airlines
seems to have a policy of waiting 2 weeks before each response, which means my
3 refund requests (and their subsequent refusals), spanned a 6-week period,
with no person or case number to refer to.
Each refund request included a description of what had occurred, along with
attachments showing credit card receipts, Airline confirmations, etc.
But each refusal was terse and confusing.
- "...a review of your itinerary shows your ticket is used."
- "We received your request for a downgrade. At the time of
purchase, economy class of service was the only option available
for this segment of your trip. As you were seated in the class of
service booked at the time of purchase, no refund is due."
- "We are sorry the class of service you paid for was not available at
the time of your departure."
In frustration, I wrote to Pete Buttigieg, who became my hero.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg
Office of the Secretary (OST)
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590
In less than a week, I received an email from Keith Goodwin in American's
Customer Service, along with his phone number. Finally, someone to talk with!
Thank you Pete!
Keith's email immediately helped, because (unlike the refund denial emails),
his explained that American had no record of my $1,788 payment! Since so
much time had passed, I now had a credit card statement to examine in detail.
Below is a snippet of that statement, with the questionable transaction
highlighted.
The 2nd and 3rd entries were for my and my wife's baggage fees. Note
the addresses for "American" are different on these entries. When I googled
the Houston address, it actually belonged to the company
FlyVaultDeals.com, which was masquerading as American Airlines!
Ha! Now we're making progress.
Recovery Begins
Apparently, the American agent was in cahoots with this company to con me out
of $1,788, then used my remaining First Class funds to purchase Coach seats.
I contacted my credit card company and with my documents was able to get a
refund of the $1,788.
Clawback from American Airlines
With Pete and Keith's help, I was able to separate the wheat from the chaff,
the real airfare charges from the fraudulent ones. And I had a couple of
conversations and phone calls with Keith, giving him information to help
American Airlines track down the fraudster in their reservation system.
But it seemed to me that even with American's $580 refund, I was still being
charged too much for the Coach tickets that I had eventually ended up with.
I hadn't kept the airfare prices from May (why would I?), but I checked
American's website in August and found that the same flight I took was far
cheaper than what Anerican
was charging me, so I contacted Keith Goodwin again. He offered me a $500
credit on American Airlines flights, good until May of 2024. When I said I
wanted a cash refund he said he couldn't do that, so I opted to try
Small Claims court.
Small Claims Court
I've never been to Small Claims Court, so I figured at least I'd get an
education. The soonest I could get a court date was 3 months away. Which
was good anyway, since it gave me time to learn the ropes.
No lawyers can be present on either side. And there are lots of free legal
aids that can answer even simple questions, like "if I'm suing American
Airlines, headquarters in Dallas, where can I go to court?" It turns out, in
California any county's Small Claim court.
I hadn't expected anyone from American Airlines to appear, but they did, via
Zoom call! Which was good because now I could hear some answers.
Like:
- Question: What happened to the ticket that disappeared?
Answer: The Agent did not enter the data correctly, causing
the problem.
- Question: How was my refund calculated when I was "downgraded"?
Answer: All downgrades get a 40% refund of the First Class
fare that was paid.
This last answer was interesting because it was the first time I had an
explanation of American's refund policy. I had been basing my assumptions about
fares based upon the August prices, which could have fluctuated from May.
But American's fixed percentage rule made the assumption that ALL Coach fares
are 60% of their First Class fares (on the same plane). Therefore the difference
is 40% of the First Class fare (in this case, the Columbia-Charlotte-Sacramento
portion).
But I could demonstrate that in August, Coach fare was 34% of the First Class
fare, so the refund for a downgrade should be 66% of the funds I paid.
And by being forced to fly coach, I ended up with an additional $50 baggage
fee.
Two weeks after court adjourned, I received a letter from the court saying
I was awarded $545, to be paid by American Airlines. I had won.
Epilogue
Two weeks after the courts verdict, I received a check from American Airlines
for the $545.
And American's stonewalling continues. Some time after I told Keith Goodwin
I wouldn't take the $500 credit, he left a voicemail saying he had the results
of American's internal investigation of the fraudster. I was curious and
called back and left a voicemail... twice. The next day I sent Keith an email.
I've never gotten a response from either.
Tom Milner