Air travelers are sure to fly off the handle when they hear this.
American Airlines has quietly instituted a new policy that would allow it to downgrade first-class passengers to economy — but keep the money passengers paid for premium seats, according to a new report by View From The Wing.
First-class tickets are a hard sell in this economy, but even those with the good fortune to afford the best seats are frequently getting the shaft on American.
More than other airlines, wrote travel expert Gary Leff, American has become synonymous with poor quality as a plague of broken seats and aircraft swaps has seen frustrated passengers moved from first-class to economy without their consent.
Whereas other airlines might offer compensation for such an inconvenience, American is taking the opposite approach with a policy change that promises only “40% of the ticketed fare on the affected segment.”
In some cases, this could translate to receiving less than half of the difference paid between first class and economy.
This means a downgrade from a $1,050 first class ticket to a $200 coach ticket would result in a $420 refund, rather than the $850 different between the two airfares.
“This seems like a big incentive for American Airlines to oversell and keep the money,” Leff speculated in the report.
This flies in the face of the Department of Transportation’s requirement that airlines “refund the difference between the original fare and the downgraded fare.”
An official complaint filed to he DOT is already underway, alleging that American’s practices are “illegal and deceptive,” per Leff, and asks the agency to force the airline to follow the law.
This reportedly isn’t the first time American has tried to pull a fast one on its customers. In another sneaky move, the airline previously attempted to argue that its website — where a vast majority of customers book and pay for airfare — does not count as a “ticket sales office,” and thus falls outside of federal rules, simply because the website did not exist when regulations were written 60 years ago.
American has been seen as increasingly chintzy in recent months. Last December, customers were in uproar after the “greedy” airline announced they’d no longer earn miles or other perks from the purchase of economy tickets.
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