Comment from Anonymous
Anonymous AnonymousOpposeIndividual
Summary: A frequent flyer and American Airlines shareholder opposes the proposed involuntary downgrade compensation policy, arguing that the 40% reimbursement rate is unethical and insufficient. The commenter suggests that refunds should be based on the price difference between the original business class fare and the lowest available economy fare at the time of booking.
I am a 20 year Aadvantage Platinum, mostly flying LHR to USA (about 10x per year). This new downgrade policy is an open invitation to AA to intentionally oversell business class seats and then downgrade the overbooked passengers because they know, that with the exception of close-in bookings, Business Class one-way fares are over $4,000 while economy are less than $1,000. Using miles, the comparison is more like 200,000 miles to 20,000 miles. So if for mileage redemption purposes, the economy fare is only 10% of the business class seat, then an involuntary downgrade should reap a reinstatement of 90% of the miles, i.e. 180,000. And if cash paid, 75% of the business class fare, i.e. $3,000. I am a filthy capitalist, and also a shareholder in AA, but the 40% policy is clearly unethical at least, and should be illegal. All refunds should be based on the difference between what you paid, and the lowest price for what you actually received, had you purchased THAT ticket on the day you purchased your business class seat. AA might think that they can screw their passengers this way, but if it happens once to me, and I am sure to many others, I WILL consider other options, because with the dramatic service decline on AA in the last few years (50% of my trips are late, usually by more than two hours), as loyalty benefits get eliminated, there is very little incentive to keep flying AA.