It is somewhat remarkable to me just how often certain airlines default to the most customer-unfriendly way of doing business. Before I even say who I’m talking about, you probably just assume it’s American. And you would be right. Today we’re going to talk about customer-unfriendly example number 3,958: how American finds a way to make money during a schedule change. We’re not even talking about Basic Economy passengers here. American makes life difficult for the very people it so loves, those “premium” customers who pay extra for better seats.
These seats could be so-called “preferred” seats which are just toward the front of the airplane or they could be Main Cabin Extra (MCE) which actually includes extra legroom. Either way, American requires travelers to buy a ticket and then — assuming they don’t get access for free with status — pay a separate ancillary fee to sit in those seats.
This in itself is not a problem. Everyone has better seats that you can pay extra to sit in. The problem comes down to what happens during a schedule change. This, as most of you know, happens very frequently if you book further in advance. In fact, it will likely happen more than once if you book REALLY far in advance.
We’ve seen a lot of these shenAAnigans at Cranky Concierge lately, and it drove me crazy enough that I finally decided to write it up here. So, let’s use an example… with details changed to protect the innocent.
Our good friend CR Smith is flying from Tampa to Quito next summer, and he is flying coach. But good ole’ CR is 6′ 2″ so he needs extra legroom. He paid for Main Cabin Extra which at the time cost $20.73 to Miami, $73.69 down to Quito, $78.38 back to Miami, and then $24.38 back home. (I changed names and exact city pairs, but the numbers are real.)
Suddenly, American decides it is going to cancel that second daily flight from Miami to Quito and back, so it processes a schedule change. Now, CR has been moved on to the remaining flight that operates which is at the other end of the day. The flight back from Quito no longer had Main Cabin Extra available, so American just pushed a refund for that seat and moved him to a regular seat. On the flight down to Quito, MCE was still there, so he was automatically moved into it. Here’s where it gets obnoxious.
American, for reasons unknown, didn’t bother to touch the domestic connections to make them link up better with the new flight times. Instead, it left gaping holes with over 8 hours on the way out in Miami and more than 10 on the way back. Keep in mind, this isn’t because there was no availability. American’s system is just not programmed to properly handle reaccommodation in a case like this, apparently.
At least American put CR in Main Cabin Extra on those short hops between Tampa and Miami during the automated process… but now the real trouble starts. Under schedule change rules, the traveler can move to the better domestic connections, but what happens if CR does that? American says it will auto-refund the MCE seats and then he has to re-purchase them.
Remember, Tampa to Miami was $20.73 with the return at $24.38. But now, American is revenue-managing the cost of MCE on its flights. So on the flights to and from Tampa that match with the new long-haul trip, the cost has risen for the exact same seats to $40.03 and $41.05. American does not care, and the only option is to buy those new seats and eat the extra cost.
But wait, there’s more. Remember how when the first schedule change was done, American refunded the seat cost on the flight from Quito that had no availability in MCE? Well, that has put the whole original purchase of seats on all remaining flights into the seventh circle of hell where nothing further will happen. The “automatic” refund of the MCE seats on the domestic flights does not exist, because the Quito seat was already refunded. And if you try to go through the refunds page at American’s website, it will just tell you that a refund (for Quito) has already been processed. There is no other way to request it.
So instead, the only option is to click “Contact Refunds” way at the bottom and hope that eventually someone at American will read the correspondence and do something about it. Even if by some miracle that happens, CR is still going to be out $26.43 because the seats now cost more than they did before. And all of this is because American couldn’t be bothered to build a functional process that actually thinks about the customer here. Do keep in mind, this was on a very short hop. The additional expense on longer flights is significantly more meaningful.
What the Others Do
I naturally reached out to American to ask what it had to say about this process. This is the kind of thing that I would imagine the Department of Transportation (DOT) might consider a “deceptive practice,” though I don’t think there’s anything that specifically prohibits this unfair behavior — other than saying you’ll get an automatic refund when you don’t. Instead, a spokesperson tells me:
When a schedule change affects a customers’ travel plans, we try to contact the customer in advance to rebook their flight or move the customer to a similar seat or cabin. Customers who choose not to fly on the changed flight or accept rebooking on an alternative flight, are eligible for a full refund as outlined in our conditions of carriage and if they then choose to shop for another itinerary, current fares and ancillary fee pricing applies.
So if you like the terrible option that American gives you in a schedule change, you’ll get the same seats you had (if available). But if you don’t like 10 hours in Miami, then too bad. Pay up to avoid that fate. At least, that’s how I interpret this.
I reached out to other airlines to get their policies. Delta treats its extra legroom section — Comfort+ — as a separate booking cabin so that’s not impacted. But for those pesky “preferred” seats, I didn’t quite get a straight answer, but I think this says Delta will honor the original payment.
- Our Schedule Change process attempts to keep customers in a like for like seat when executing schedule changes. It takes into account several preferences when moving customers, including preferred seats, exit row, window vs. aisle, etc.
- Customers who do not want to remain on the rescheduled flights are free to change to other flights without needing to refund the ticket. If preferred seats are no longer available, the customer is eligible for a refund of the previously paid preferred seats.
- Customers can also opt to cancel all open segments and receive a full refund of fare and ancillary fees.
A follow-up email to clarify did not receive a response before publishing, but we have seen Delta put people back in preferred seats in a schedule change, so I’ll assume this is a correct reading. Alaska does the same thing for preferred and for Premium (extra legroom) seating, which is the right thing to do.
As for United, a spokesperson had this to say about Economy Plus and preferred seating:
We try to accommodate a customer’s seat preference whenever possible, including during a schedule change. If that isn’t possible, their seat purchase is automatically refunded after the flight.
That’s how it should be.
Why, Just, Why?
Presumably American isn’t doing this specifically to punish customers. My guess is that American simply doesn’t consider the customer impact at all when it creates these plans, and thatʻs just as bad. Though I certainly could be wrong, the fact that it does transfer MCE seats for the automatic reaccomodation tells me that this is just either a functionality issue OR American just doesn’t trust its agents with the power to waive seat fees on new flights. Or both. The latter seems much more likely for an airline like American, but then again, the former doesn’t seem all that off either. Either way, the customer isn’t part of the conversation, and thatʻs a big problem.
