[milindsinghal]

Flight AA 2411 Dallas to San Francisco. Date 2nd August 2014 Depart 7.00pm ....Booking reference FXVPTH (American airlines) and 6PGMYF (British airways)

A very disappointing experience with american airlines!

I made a multi-city travel reservation from Delhi to reach San Francisco with a stopover in Dallas. My first leg of travel (Delhi to London) was operated by British airways and the remaining two legs (London to Dallas and then Dallas to San Francisco) were operated by american airline.

Since i was traveling as a student on F1 visa and it was an international travel I was entitled to an allowance of 3 check in baggage (on request) by British airways. I also confirmed that this baggage allowance is carried on for my entire reservation and i was very convincingly told by customer relations executive on phone that there would not be any problem.

To be reassured i also called American airlines to confirm the baggage allowance on my reservation and the customer relation executive was very confident when she said that "yes sir, the baggage allowance on your reservation is 3 checked bags"...i reconfirmed "this will also hold true for my flight with american from Dallas to San Francisco" and she confirmed that the baggage allowance of the originating journey (or say the most significant carrier) is carried for the entire reservation.

These conversations on phone were convincing enough for me. So i packed in 3 bags to be checked.

I had no problem in checking in 3 bags from Delhi.

After reaching Dallas, i called the american airline customer relations again to reconfirm (i was in a foreign country, so i thought it will be better to confirm and avoid any confusion whatsoever. Moreover i could possibly not get rid of my baggage now!). Again i was assured that whatever baggage allowance was initiated by British airways will be honored. Another reason that I was confirming my allowance again and again with american was that my online flight reservation status/itinerary at aa.com website did not show my checked baggage allowance (it showed a message that said that there was some error in retrieving the information).
Convinced! again! i was ready for my final flight from Dallas to San Francisco, but this time to face much disappointment.
As i reached the check-in counter they would only allow me 2 bags to be checked in. At first i was in shock (i traveled too far to a foreign country and i started with 3 bags from the beginning, NOW THEY WANT ME TO DUMP ONE OF IT!)
"Are you out of your mind!!" I thought to say but that would not have solved the problem. So i started reasoning, but to no effect!..they never wanted to listen. "The contract says 2 bags, then only 2 bags it is"..was the only thing they knew to speak. I had proof that i started with 3 bags but it didn't matter to them.
I also talked to the head of operations Mr. Ciaran . Even he could not understand why it was not updated on their systems. He said that he cannot override what was into the computer system and hence cannot allow a 3rd bag without fee.

This simply means that we have to pay for the defects in their database systems and inefficient management. And their customer relation executives lie!

Now that i have experienced, I despise their services.

I will never recommend flying with american airlines.

PS- they did not allow the 3rd bag and asked for $110 for it to be checked in.
Thank god i was with my uncle (he came to see me off at the airport in Dallas). So with no other choice i flew further with just 2 checked in bags, unwillingly leaving the 3rd.