[teocali]

We booked 2 round trip tickets from London Heathrow to Boston Logan last October with departure due on the 15th June 2012. Unfortunately, for medical reasons, I was advised a week ago not to fly. Contacted AA Customer Services, 0844 pay per minute number out of the UK, to find they are based in CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, with limited contact times and long long queues generating lovely revenue for AA!
Was advised by the AA agent that the June 15th flight was cancelled but we could use the tickets until 28 October 2012 and if a medical certificate was faxed (YEP - fax only) they would waive the £100 per ticket change fee.
We looked into other dates but found it was impossible to travel by that date so would have to cancel the tickets - non-refundable, but we knew that.
NOW THE FUN AND GAMES STARTS - in order to claim the ticket costs from my insurance I need written proof from AA that the tickets have been totally cancelled. Eventually managed to get an email through to the South African Customer Relations office which yielded automated reply and ref number but no proper answer. Tried to get time scale of reply -IMPOSSIBLE TO GET - hours on the phone at 5p per minute to South Africa (have to say all agents were very polite and sympathetic) finally yielded the information that there is such a long backlog that they don't know when I will get an answer!!!!!!
In the meantime my insurance claim is held up.
When one books a ticket one gets immediate confirmaton of booking - why doesn't the same apply to a straightforward cancellation with no quibbles????
They are in Chapter 11 and deserve to be there.