[RKGOOD]

As background, I travel approximately 5,000 per month on business and travel, and have done so for several decades. Here is the worst experience ever.

I recently purchased with frequent flier miles a round trip between Boston and London on AA. Simple, done quickly. No problems. Took same trip last year with no problems on AA. Nice flight.

AA called the house the morning of my outbound flight and left an automated message that my flight had been cancelled, presumably due to the volcano, and that they could reschedule me on a set of flights the next day from Boston through Chicago. I called and after a twenty minute delay got an agent who booked me. As I thought about it later in the day (I would have to leave the house at 3:00am to catch the first leg of my long trip) I worried a great deal because I have a disability and can get extremely tired -- and what if AA, which had been cancelling all its London flights, did so again. OK, I called AA back at 3:00pm and got a friendly agent who heard me out and told me that British Airways, their code sharing partner, had a flight from Boston to Healthrow that night with seats available. She assured me that there would be no extra cost and that all I needed to do was go out to the airport with my original booking code. She indicated she would cancel the AA-Chicago portion. Great. I ran around packing, confirming arrangements in London, etc. and then called BA to make sure all ok. I was assured that the booking was made, I should use a BA booking code, there would be no charge and I could easily get a seat at the airport.

Got to the airport well over two hours early. An extremely rude BA agent seemed to have some problems with the codes from AA and BA but did give me a boarding pass and took my bag. I gave her a copy of my AA itinerary which I see contained a ticket number (a different one than the one needed). Wished me a happy journey.

Two hours later, AS THE PLANE WAS BOARDING, I was pulled over at the gate by the same BA agent who rudely informed me that if I couldn't get AA to sort out a documentation issue (as the plane was boarding, when I had been having 20 minute wait times.....) I would have to pay approximately one thousand dollars to board the flight. Given that my bag was on, it was the last flight of the day and I was tired and 40 miles from home I paid up. I was told AA would reimburse me.

Got to London and met with BA customer service guy and extremely helpful ticket agent who got into the system and explained that AA had neglected to send over the ticket number (which BA needed for reimbursement), although they had booked me properly (and I had showed a document which did have a ticket number on it). She called an AA supervisor at Heathrow and they had a long conversation which confirmed the problem. I was also told that AA had NOT cancelled my Chicago portion. We did confirm that I would be returning to the US on AA.

When I checked in at Heathrow I asked for an AA supervisor, who was very forthcoming about the screw up. Something about passenger info systems not working (eg., computer error), but indicated that the standing rule was that BA, when they saw the problem, should have called an AA supervisor at Logan who exists to deal with the relationship and ticketing problems. They gave me a comfy exit row seat to come home.

When I got home I informed American Express that I wanted to challenge the BA credit card charge, wrote to BA complaining about how I was treated to Boston and tried to use AA's on line complaint system to document my situation and demand my money back. Hmmmm, it was broken and after a half hour or so was able to get a customer service person who at first didn't want to believe me but eventually got into the system and, as he put it, "saw some notes". He calmed down and informed me that had I not called that very day the records would have been removed from the system -- they only keep them for 48 hours after the last leg of a trip taken (?????). He claimed he put a six month hold on them and urged me to file a complaint with details via registered express mail, asking for my money back, not a voucher,which I did. So far the only response is a post card acknowledging the arrival of my letter.

Now I don't know precisely how this is going to turn out. Amex tells me that B A is stonewalling them, but Amex has offered to try and work on this a bit more. Nothing back from BA, which is all screwed up due to a set of recent strikes. Their Boston ticket person was utterly rude, incompetent and worse.

So, if AA doesn't satisfy me, what do I do? Small claims court? Govt Agency? Basically, AA never sent me the proper documentation regarding my rebooking and so I am utterly dependent upon someone confirming the paperwork. Will AA claim it is BA's problem?????

What is incredible to me is that BA not only confirmed my booking and assured me there would be no cost, but checked me in, gave me a boarding pass, took my bag and only attempted to contact me as the plane was boarding. Had I said I would not take the flight my bag (according to the BA folks at Heathrow) would have gone to London and then shipped back to Boston. This would not only have screwed up any trip I wanted to take for several days, but would have been in violation of TSA rules because bags cannot be shipped for a non-existent passenger. Could I have held up the flight for an hour or so? Or was my bag set aside waiting for me to pay up? Things moved so quickly I doubt it.

Given all this I hardly know who is at fault. Basically, I paid twice for my trip, was treated like a non-person and have had to spend hours trying to sort things out. So any wisdom or help welcome. Oh, this is the second time I had a problem like this with AA, but that story would take entirely too long to tell.

I travel mainly on Southwest and am utterly spoiled. In five years of intensive travel not a single problem. They fix things quickly and are extremely customer friendly.

Thanks for paying attention. Caveat emptor. Know the difference between booking and ticketing.