Traveler's Aide: Doubling down after a missed connection

Question: I'm writing to you about trouble I ran into with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines in March. I booked a round-trip flight to Mammoth, Calif., from Los Angeles for $168; it was an American flight operated by Alaska. My flight was to depart at 8:45 am, and when I checked on the flight status at 6:00 a.m. on the day of departure, they said the flight was canceled. I was never notified. American had rebooked me leaving at 7:30 am to San Diego and onwards to Mammoth.

I rushed to the airport, got there at 6:30 am and tried to check in for the flight at a kiosk, which redirected me to an agent. I ran to the agent desk, waited in line, explained the situation and then he printed the tickets. By the time I made it through security and took the bus from the terminal to the gate, the gate agent told me aircraft door was closed (even though I could see the plane sitting there with the aircraft door still open).

The gate agent tried to rebook me on a new flight for the following day, but that wouldn't work since I was returning at 5:45 pm that same day. She told me there was an American flight leaving in a few hours for San Francisco, and that she could put me on that, but she couldn't get me on the connecting United flight to Mammoth because it was sold out.

I checked on the United website and found a ticket for that flight. The gate agent told me to call American or wait in line at the American customer-service desk, so I called while standing in line. The telephone agent repeated that she could get me on the flight to San Francisco but couldn't book the United flight onwards to Mammoth. I asked about getting a refund if I booked my own ticket from San Francisco to Mammoth, and she said that wouldn't be an issue, and that I would need to request a refund online for the United flight after I paid for it. I booked the $464 flight and filed the refund request the same day.

I received a response from American stating that it can't refund me for my United flight, but will reimburse me for the leg of the trip I didn't make, and give me extra bonus miles. I don't want bonus miles, I want my promised refund. American referred me to Alaska, which referred me back to American, which then offered me an $84 voucher. Any help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I have already been passed through about five different American customer service reps, and each responds with "I'm sorry, but ..."

— Emily Davis, Los Angeles

Answer: Davis's planned trip to Mammoth fell apart the day before her departure. Alaska canceled the flight, and American indicates that it did, in fact, e-mail Davis about the change. American even supplied the exact time the email went out: 12:27 p.m. on Feb. 28.

But Davis didn't get the memo. Perhaps the e-mail was filtered out as spam; I hear many complaints from travelers—and airlines—about e-mails gone astray.

Despite a valiant effort to make her new flight, Davis just missed the boarding cutoff. That left her stuck at the airport with very few options for her overnight trip to Mammoth. One thing was clear: American couldn't book her a seat on that United flight out of San Francisco.

"We can't say why United did not accept the customers as an involuntary reroute," says American representative Matt Miller. "But it is not uncommon for an airline to limit involuntary reroutes even when they have seats available for sale."

That would explain why Davis was able to buy a ticket—at almost three times the cost of her original round-trip fare—on her own. Davis says the American telephone agent said she could get reimbursed for the replacement ticket, but American counters that its records don't reflect that.

"There is no documentation in the record regarding this conversation," says Miller. "In addition, this is not our policy."

This situation is one I see frequently, but its resolution rarely goes in the traveler's favor. The scenario usually plays out as follows: People miss their flights for any number of perfectly valid reasons. They try to work with the airline to reach their destination, but are hampered by limited flight availability; they either can't fly when they want, or via a too-slow and circuitous route, or the only tickets available are in first class and cost a fortune. Or perhaps they never reach that point because the customer service line is too slow, and the perfect replacement flight will depart long before they get to the head of the line. They then buy new tickets, which inevitably cost vastly more than the original tickets, and expect the airline to pay them back. Davis' case is different in that she says the American telephone agent told her a refund would be no problem.

But American's policy, which is an industry standard, is not to pay for those alternate tickets. The airline will work with customers to find different flights, and if those flights aren't acceptable, then it will refund only the unused portion of the original tickets.

"If the involuntary reroute offered by the airline is not acceptable, the customer can elect to make alternate arrangements themselves, either by air or other means," says Miller. "However, in most situations this would be at the customer's expense."

That's why Davis was stuck with the $464 bill. It didn't help that American and Alaska kept bouncing her request between the two carriers, with each airline telling her to deal with the other.

"This was Alaska Airlines' cancellation and it was ultimately their responsibility to reaccommodate the customer," says Miller.

Despite the standard policy, and Alaska's responsibility to deal with the mess it created with the flight cancellation in the first place, American revisited Davis' refund complaint. The airline agreed to send her a check for $464.

"In a situation like this, reimbursement decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. In this instance, we took another look and agreed that her request was reasonable," says Miller.

How can you avoid trouble?

• Add airlines and travel booking sites to your e-mail safe list, so you'll get news of important changes.

• Check flight status online before your trip.

• Don't expect an airline to reimburse you for replacement tickets, no matter who promises you the refund or how reasonable your request. If you're truly stuck and need to get where you're going sooner than the proffered alternative, you'll need to make a judgment call about whether your trip—or the consequences of missing it—is worth the extra cost. Would you have taken the trip if it cost that much when you booked?

Do you have a travel consumer issue you'd like Traveler's Aide to pursue? E-mail Linda Burbank at usattravelersaide@gmail.com. Your question may be used in a future column.