American Airlines accidentally cancels the passenger’s entire ticket

Dear travel problem solver: I am a frequent flyer with American Airlines and recently booked an award ticket with Japan Airlines, an American partner. The flight went from New Delhi to Haneda Airport and then on to San Francisco.

A few days before my flight, I called American Airlines to change the flight from Japan to the US to business class. Unfortunately, the agent canceled my entire ticket without telling me. I hung up the phone thinking my ticket was still valid.

When I contacted Japan Airlines the day before my flight to inquire about my vegetarian meal, an agent told me there was no reservation for me. I called American Airlines and spoke with a supervisor who reviewed the notes from my call. She said the agent wrote to me saying I canceled my flight. Of course that wasn’t true.

The supervisor tried to get me a ticket, but the only one available was a full-fare business class ticket for $3,548. I booked the ticket but I want American Airlines to refund the money as this was a mistake. A few months ago, American Airlines promised to look into my request, but they haven’t gotten back to me and no longer respond to my emails. Can you help?

– Satrupa Kagel, Taos, New Mexico

ANSWER: American Airlines should not have canceled your ticket and quickly refunded you the extra money you had to spend.

But why not? In reviewing your correspondence with the airline, I can’t find any obvious reason. By the way, it was a great job keeping all the emails. This is your key to a quick solution.

There was a small problem: the emails you sent contained some instructions written entirely in capital letters. (This counts as shouting on the Internet.) American’s agents, who have some discretion in deciding which cases to prioritize, may have been turned off by these statements.

But still, they shouldn’t have been. Agents should not have stopped responding to your messages and emails when you used the assigned case number. There was no written evidence that American Airlines promised to refund your fare.

By the way, you can find the names, phone numbers and email addresses of all American Airlines customer service representatives on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A quick, polite email to one of them might have prompted further review of your case. It appears you have tried reaching out to executives but have not received a response.