Problem with taxes charged on award flight

[knasty]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I had an award trip I had to re-ticket a couple of times due to change in routing (not destination) and change to higher class. 3 were processed correctly (prior taxes refunded, recalculated taxes charged, no reinstatement fee) but one was not - the new taxes were charged but the prior taxes have not been refunded after 6 weeks, and despite the agent telling me and noting on the system that a reinstatement fee would not be charged, it was. So far I've:

Emailed Aadvantage with all the details, received a response to call the award travel desk;
Called the award travel desk, told it's something refunds handle and to email [email protected];
Emailed refunds with all the details 2 weeks ago, no response;
Faxed refunds department a week ago, no response.

I'm out of pocket $700. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

 

[grussellt]

I think another phone call to AA would be a good idea. (Are you using Skype or GMail to ensure it's a free call?) If necessary ask for a supervisor. How much were you charged for the "reinstatement fee"?

 

[knasty]

The reinstatement fee was $150. The agent i spoke to most recently who said to email Refunds told me there's a system note from the original agent saying the reinstatement fee is to be waived given it was a J to F reinstatement, but despite this it was still charged. I was told last time refunds closes at 4.30pm so 8.30am NSW time, so will just need to make an early (free) call again I guess. The non-response to my email and fax is annoying - does AA monitor their Facebook a/c for this type of feedback?

 

[grussellt]

I think you will get a faster response if you use Twitter. Everything I've seen has suggested an award upgrade from J to F shouldn't be charged the miles reinstatement fee so you should also have that refunded. best of luck.

 

[Kangol]

I think you will get a faster response if you use Twitter. Everything I've seen has suggested an award upgrade from J to F shouldn't be charged the miles reinstatement fee so you should also have that refunded. best of luck.

FWIW, as an AA Gold I have changed a J award to F award without the $150 fee. This was done about 6 months ago. I mention status because only EXPs are exempt from the reinstatment/change fee of $150.

Let us know how it goes...

 

[knasty]

I'm not on Twitter so I messaged on their Facebook site and got a response within 1.5 hours so hopefully it will all work out in the next few days. I'm not too worried about the $150 fee it's very clear it shouldn't have been charged, including an explicit note from the agent on the system saying it's to be waived. It's more the $550 in taxes which have disappeared into the ether. I actually provided very positive feedback about the agent at the time on the AA website given she was so helpful in finding the award seats I wanted vs other agents who couldn't do it. Now I'm wondering if that was a mistake, but equally given she made the right notes on the system it may have had nothing to do with her personally. If only CX awards were available online...

 

[grussellt]

Although you can't book CX online at AA you can look for awards at Asiamiles and/or Awardnexus. I hope you get a refund soon - it's clearly a mistake on someone's part.

 

[knasty]

Well after 4 weeks of emails/faxes/Facebook I finally got the refunds. Whilst the communication (or lack thereof) from the Refunds department was woeful at least their Facebook team seem to get things moving - I sent them a thank you message this morning and they replied in about 2 minutes.