Frequent flyer schemes are a scam and frankly I no longer use them. It distorts the market against the consumer. You are not getting anything for free...you pay for this and it ties you to one airline and allows them to artificially inflate their prices.
This is a complicated issue. If a company makes an offer and the offer turns out to be an error, it is NOT obliged in law to carry out the transaction. There have been numerous cases of error, particularly online... where a retailer has accidentily posted say a computer for $5.99 when it should have been $599.00 for example. Some retailers have, for goodwill reasons, honoured the mistake, but they are not obligated in law to do so. So, you could argue that AA were simply in this position.
However, the second error changes the situation. In this situation, AA repeated the error, this time having been warned in advance by Kathryn what the consequences could be if the error was repeated. As a result, Kathryn lost a reservation which WENT TO SOMEONE ELSE. This changes the situation. Now we have a situation in which negligence by AA caused losses to Kathryn. Despite all the legal caveats in the FF programme terms and conditions, I think you would have a reasonable chance of winning this in small claims court, and I think it is worth a punt. I can't think of any other forum where you could seek a remedy, other than perhaps asking if the Office of the Attorney General in your state would be willing to help.
Welcome back Judge... much missed in this forum and delighted to see you back.
|