Kids, don’t try this shortcut to an airline upgrade at home

July 19, 2010

Attention frequent fliers: If you can’t get a confirmed upgrade on your next flight, don’t do what Jim Downey did.

He put a “hold” on two business class seats, in an effort to secure a better seat on an American Airlines flight to Paris — something that’s against the rules — and he got caught.

But did the airline overreact? Perhaps.

He says American punished him by blocking his account and then confiscating some of his miles. But the punishment may not have fit the crime.

Downey explains,

I had an itinerary to Paris booked beginning March 27th. The 10 days prior to the trip I watched the same 7 to 8 business class seats sit in inventory, while my upgrade wasn’t being granted.

Because of my age, traveling that distance in coach is a hardship, and I rely on VIP upgrades for long haul trips. I canceled a vacation for two to Paris in June because the upgrades didn’t come through until the day of departure.

Frustrated, I put a 24-hour hold on two seats, Thursday the 25th, two days prior to departure.

Again, this is a no-no. You’re taking two seats out of inventory in order to increase your chances of an upgrade.

AA’s security department found these and canceled them by noon Friday. At the departure gate for Paris, the agent told me business class was oversold, 28 passengers for 27 places, and that I had no chance of an upgrade. Clearly, because the seats were sold, there was no damage caused by what I did.

Nevertheless, what I did was wrong. I apologize. It won’t happen again.

American blamed him for “inventory shrinkage” and blocked his AAdvantage account, apparently stripping him of 800,000 miles and eight unused VIP upgrades.

I’ve seen this kind of thing before.

Downey didn’t have a strong case. American Airlines can pretty much do whatever it wants to with your miles, including deleting all of them, if it wants to.

I recommended sending a brief, polite and apologetic letter to American. He did.

A month later, he called.

They were on the cusp of sending me a demand letter, giving me a choice of paying $22,000 for their perceived “inventory spoilage” or forfeit 100,000 miles. I took the miles ding, but will complain again in writing, since they had sold all the seats by departure anyway.

Meanwhile, United did a status match, so AA has lost me as a flyer. Since they put a hold on my account, it’s cost them over $5,000 of real lost revenue. And United’s Economy Plus is so much better that coach on AA, if I don’t get an upgrade.

So the lesson here, of course, is: Don’t break the rules. But did American react too harshly by demanding he pay $22,000 or 100,000 miles?

I think so. That’s not to say what Downey did wasn’t wrong. It’s just that he’s also a customer — a very good customer. And now, a former customer.

(Photo: boeing dream scape/Flickr Creative Commons)

SirWired

Just because in the end there was no damage done, doesn’t mean that he did not deserve punishment for what he did. You don’t escape penalty for, say, using a stolen credit card, just because the charge was denied. (Yes, I realize no actual crime was committed here…) AA might have had a hard time collecting on $22,000 for a reservation rule violation, but I think they were perfectly reasonable to put a hold on his account and eventually levy the 100,000 mile penalty. Voiding out the entire account forever might have been a bit harsh, so the 100k seems appropriate.
Phil

Perhaps deleting his VIP upgrades for the balance of the year and then issuing none for the following year would be a just punishment.
cjr

“Voiding out the entire account forever might have been a bit harsh”

Considering the effort made by the airlines these days to try and get people to lose all their miles, this reaction on AA’s part doesn’t surprise me at all.
Dang

Really don’t understand why he didn’t use the miles in his account to secure the upgrade or use its for the free tickets to Europe. Act like a VIP when you want people treat you like a VIP. I travel usually on Biz an First revenue ticket and something very annoyed by Elite Upgrade passengers who dressed like an used car seller who didn’t a shower for days. It happens much less frequently on International routes.
Brad

That’s just BS. I put tickets on hold all the time for various reasons of business travel. They should have to prove intent of malice. And there’s not any laws involved here just corp policy. Which wasn’t about taking care of best customers but focusing on greed. AA sucks!
BucksterSF

Sounds like theft to me. I wouldn’t keep a loyalty account from someone who stole or lied to me. It’s a shame people are so cheap – he could have just bought the tickets if he’s so feeble an infirmed he can’t do coach.
Gary

The airline may have lost real revenue due to this stunt pulled by Jim Downey, not just applying AA miles from a customer’s account. It may seem harmless what occurred, but there are many ways AA may have suffered a financial loss as a result.
The geeks in Revenue Management work to balance inventory and demand. If the seats are not being sold for cash, they start to liquidate for miles. But, if UA or DL or any other carrier has irregular operations and needs First Class or Business seats, they can buy them from AA, unusual, but a real possibility.
Mr Downey got off cheap. I truly believe a court would rule in AA’s favor if it were ever taken that route. And now he is angry towards AA for wanting what is theirs.
He says it is a “hardship” to fly coach for such long distances. If you interview the other 239 passengers on that flight they will agree it is a “hardship” in their minds also.
Roberto

If it’s such a hardship for him to travel in coach, he could, oh gee whiz, I dunno, let me think about it, it’s coming to me… BOOK AN EFFING FIRST CLASS TICKET.
Thalassa

Because of my age, traveling that distance in coach is a hardship, and I rely on VIP upgrades for long haul trips. I canceled a vacation for two to Paris in June because the upgrades didn’t come through until the day of departure.

Well for goodness sakes, how old IS he? I see people of age traveling in coach all the time!

I think this is a case where the OP is wrong, and doesn’t want to accept that he broke the rules.
Wrona

But Brad do you put holds on the same flights that you’ve already booked? Most of the airlines prohibit this practice, and in fact have computer programs that go through and delete duplicate reservations on the same flights. It’s funny because United, the airline Mr. Downey switched to, is particulary good at cancelling out flights for duplicate reservations. If he had tried this stunt on them, he might’ve lost out on all his reservations on the flights to Paris.
Chris in NC

It may be too harsh, but rules are rules and he got caught.

One of my mentors once said “keeping customers happy is about managing expectations.” Many elite flyers are so used to automatic upgrades, they have come to expect them, forgetting that upgrades are on a space available basis, and NOT guaranteed. Unfortunately, the airlines dangle the golden carrot (ie the promise of an upgrade) in front of elite flyers, causing irrational business fare buying decisions, and we fall for it. The only way to guarantee a specific cabin class is (unfortunately) to pay for it.

The OP seems to go through a lot of trouble to use upgrades, including admitting that “he cancelled a trip in June” because upgrades were not available. Why not just buy a discounted business class ticket outright, especially if he cannot tolerate coach class? If he books a ticket in coach he should assume that he will travel in coach. Even if he were upgraded 100% of the time in the past (which was not true), it seems that he has the expectation that he will always be upgraded, and that doesn’t sit well with me. (it feels like entitlement)

Its interesting that he states that UA has offered a match of status, and that AA has lost his business forever. I hope that he won’t do it again, but what will happen when UA has a customer service breakdown and he wants to take his business elsewhere? Call DL and ask for a match? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence!

Back to the original question? Should AA have done what they did? Maybe they choose to make an example out of the OP. He was just one of the unlucky ones that got caught. But, if AA does “bend the rules” then ultimately there are “no rules” and “no accountability.”

Just my 2 cents.
Rich

@Brad.
AA doesn’t have to prove intent of malice. Mr. Downey admitted what he did was wrong. Frankly, he’s lucky to get off as lightly as he did.
I’m not a proponent of frequent flyer programs, but don’t violate the rules and then whine when you’re fairly punished.

From AA website – terms and conditions regarding mileage account…
Fraud, misrepresentation, abuse or violation of applicable rules (including, but not limited to, American or American Eagle conditions of carriage, tariffs and AAdvantage program rules) is subject to appropriate administrative and/or legal action by appropriate governmental authorities and American Airlines. Such action may include, without limitation, the forfeiture of all award tickets, and any accrued mileage in a member’s account, as well as cancellation of the account and the member’s future participation in the AAdvantage program. In addition, American Airlines reserves the right to take appropriate legal action to recover damages, including its attorney fees incurred in prosecuting any lawsuit.
Duke Nukem

Serves him right, in a way…AA should’ve gotten creative with the sanctions, however…Perhaps a “loss of status”, sending him to the back of the list, but $22,000? That sounds like a scam, especially if they actually SOLD those seats.

Sadly, I don’t think he’s the only greedy soul doing that…
Brian

This person obviously isn’t very computer savy? Why would he make FAKE reservations in his own name?? Or from his own home computer (matching IP addresses on reservations).

Not condoning this behavior but at least be smart about it.
http://www.rentersinsurance.org/ Eric A

I think AA was justified in how they reacted. This guy is a cheapskate trying to game the system. I respect AA’s decision to not let the guy off easy.
Monica

I have to say I don’t blame AA for what they did. The passenger clearly stated he needs to sit in first/biz class, but doesn’t want to pay for the tickets up front. Instead he tried to play the system to get what he needed. Seems like he gets what he deserves.

Seriously, if you know you have special needs, then expect to pay extra to accomodate them. When I traveled with my child when he was young, I was more than willing to pay a little extra to ensure we were seated next to each other. I didn’t once, and they tried to sit my 5-year-old halfway across the plane. It was unacceptable. Fortunately the person next to him was willing to trade seats.
Bill

What he did was wrong. AA might have overreacted, or maybe not. How “good” is a customer who would attempt to manipulate things for his own gain?

Nobody needs customers who are trouble.
Jason

How does one get a status match from a competing airline?
http://www.cutcat.com ChelseaGirl

If I understand correctly, the passenger put a hold on two tickets even though he already had two confirmed seats on that flight. I don’t really get how this would have resulted in an upgrade. But I would be curious to see if there is anything in the contract of carriage that forbids this. And even if there is, taking away miles seems a bit harsh.
Steve

The idea of charging him $22,000 for what he did is beyond ridiculous. But only dinging him 100k FF miles is probably pretty lenient. What I don’t get is with 800k FF miles, why didn’t he just use some of them for a seat in business class?

It’s people like this who make people with legitimate complaints against the airlines (and most of them are legitimate) look bad.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that Chris has been unsuccessful in the past in getting someone’s FF miles reinstated when they’ve done nothing wrong except let them lapse due to inactivity, but this guy only loses a fraction of his balance? I don’t necessarily think he should have had them all forfeited, but American would certainly have a stronger reason to confiscate his than to confiscate someone else’s for simple inactivity.
Wrona

@ChelseaGirl, just guessing but he probably thought that by putting the 2 seats on hold, that meant they couldn’t be sold if someone wanted to buy them, and then when the hold’s were released they would then be available for someone (him) to be upgraded into.
Arizona Road Warrior

@ Duke Nukem – “Perhaps a “loss of status”, sending him to the back of the list, but $22,000? That sounds like a scam, especially if they actually SOLD those seats.”
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
It is my guess that AA will reduce their liabilities by $ 22,000 for those 100,000 miles using the logic that Mr. Downey was given a fine of $ 22,000 or 100,000 miles.
MeanMeosh

@Brad – “I put tickets on hold all the time for various reasons of business travel.”

“Holding” a reservation is only illegal if you already have a confirmed reservation to fly the same route at the same time. What you’re probably doing is asking the airline to hold a reservation for 24 hours or whatever to lock in the fare while you confirm meeting plans – that’s a perfectly legitimate exercise, but not what the traveler did in this case.

@ ChelseaGirl – “If I understand correctly, the passenger put a hold on two tickets even though he already had two confirmed seats on that flight. I don’t really get how this would have resulted in an upgrade.”

It works kind of like this. Assume for a moment that there are 8 business class seats showing up as unsold. You want to upgrade to one of those seats, but the upgrade isn’t clearing. So, you “hold” two more seats for yourself, thus preventing anyone else from taking them. Then, you release the holds just before the flight is ready to go, and viola – there are two unsold seats in business, and since you’re first on the upgrade list, you have your seat.

To me, this guy is a piece of work. He needs business class because coach seats are uncomfortable, but apparently doesn’t what to pay for the privilege, or burn some of his 800,000 miles (which, I might add, would get you 8 round trip business class tickets to Europe). So he instead tries to game the system to get what he wants. I don’t really see how this is any different from people buying “fat finger” fares that you so love to disparage, Chris. If it’s unethical for people to book fares that they know are invalidly cheap, it should be equally unethical to knowingly game inventory to try and get a seat for free that you really should be paying for.

Does it warrant a fine of $22,000? No, but I think a penalty of 100,000 miles and the forfeiture of his upgrades is more than fair. If anything, I’d go one step further and block him from earning upgrade stickers for a year, as someone else suggested.
http://noaddedsalt.blogspot.com Elisa

Oh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Travelling in coach is a hardship. It’s a hardship for all of us – so just grow up. Unless you think everyone deserves a free upgrade just because we want it. Hey, I think I want a new Corvette… but I’m only willing to pay for a 1972 Volkswagen with a rusted muffler and no doors.

You deserved the punishment you got! (In fact… you should have paid the full cost of the two fake tickets, since it was nothing but fraud.)
http://noaddedsalt.blogspot.com Elisa

PS: I bet they DID NOT oversell business seats 28/27. I bet they put a note on your account of something like, “Don’t upgrade this guy, he’s trying to rip off the company.” Someone obviously so familiar with the workings of passenger accounts should know that your past behaviour follows you in your future dealings.
Jason

Or use different name if you don’t intend to purchase the tickets.
Carver

@Elisa

To be fair, the OP is not asking for a free upgrade. He’s attempting to redeem an e-VIP which he earned by flying over 100,000 miles annually with American Airlines.
Riroon

FAIL.

Don’t try to game the system. Yes, airlines are money-greedy, souless SOB’s. It gives you no right to act any less human.

Vote with your wallt. Not with acts of fraud.
Juan

He got off easy. He could have used his miles for first class tickets instead of being a scamming cheapskate.
AA will not miss the moron.
http://Dorothy4mkay@msn.com Sasha

A thief by any name…
Thomas

What a moron! How stupid could you be? As someone else has already stated, USE A FAKE NAME AND LOG INTO YOUR NEIGHBOR’S WIFI.
The Good Doctor

If he had that many miles to forfeit, why didn’t he use them for an upgrade?!? Or one of his eight UNUSED VIP upgrades? Sounds like he’s a cheap hoarder trying to game the system, to AA’s detriment. Let’s see how well UA lets him play that game – I hope someone from Mileage Plus is reading this site!
Carver

@Several folks

A few people have asked by the OP didn’t use his miles to upgrade. Without justifying the OPs actions,:

1. Upgrade using miles clear the same as e-VIPs, so upgrading using miles isn’t useful in this context.

2. There may or may not have been award availability for business class, even though there are seats available for purchase

3. Award tickets don’t count for status requalification, although upgraded tickets do.

Anyone ExecPlat flying on AA will always purchase a cheap ticket and upgrade.

Where the OP went wrong was that he was supposed to call a really high level supevisor who could have changed his flight to one with upgrade award availability. It can be done. I know, I’ve done it.
Keith

@ Carver – “Anyone ExecPlat” doesn’t always buy a ticket and upgrade.

I follow a simple approach. If I *have* to be in J, then I’ll buy it or I’ll use award miles. US-CDG awards might ding him a 65K each way, but with 800K of miles he’s not hurting.

Living in Paris, I’ve done the CDG RT 6 times this year. 4x clearing on SWUs and 2x I’ve paid for J.
Allison

One note about holding tickets on American (not sure what other airlines’ policies are): you can only “hold” a reservation if you are in the AAdvantage program and have a valid AAdvantage number. You might also need to be Gold at least, but I’m not sure. So, trying to use a fake name or someone else’s name wouldn’t have “worked” anyway unless they were not traveling with you and you knew their AAdvantage number/s.
John

What I would really like here to see is Chris Elliott take a solid stance in the airline’s favor for once. Chris, you KNOW that what this loser did was wrong and that he’s a thief. He deserved to get caught and deserved to get everything confiscated. If AA went to court on this one, I can almost guarantee that they’d win a judgement for at least the $22k. So seriously, just come out and say it…the guy is a lair, scam artist, and VERY CHEAP. He had 800k miles and wasn’t willing to get an award ticket if he HAD to fly business class?
Chris in NC

@ Carver,

Sometimes an upgrade just isn’t available. So, if a ticket is booked in coach, the only thing that is guaranteed is a seat in coach. I remember once on a long haul flight on US Air (I was Chairman’s at that time), I was #1 on the upgrade list, and I never cleared, even at the gate. The gate agent was quite apologetic and actually blocked the seat next to me in the exit row.

Its the OPs perogative to book coach and use VIP upgrades, but unless he booked a confirmed seat in business class, it is not guaranteed (regardless of status). I agree with your statement that the OP should have called someone who could have cleared the upgrade. But, an upgrade is never guaranteed, regardless of status!
http://www.executiveroadwarrior.com Jonathan

I’m surprised no one has commented that multiple people at United Airlines have surely read this thread and made a notation in Jim Downey’s dossier.

I would imagine everything he does will be subject to great scrutiny going forward.
Carver

@Keith

Admittedly I should have been more precise. ExecPlats on AA generally book coach and try to upgrade. My point was that the OPs behavior in doing so is consistent with ExecPlat behavior on AA.

@John

Despite your strong feelings, your legal analysis, such as it is, is plainly wrong. No judge would award AA a dime. The legal reasons are numerous. The simplest one is that despite AAs protestations, it didn’t lose any money due to the OPs shenanigans and consequently without a loss there are no damages.

@Chris

I’m not sure what you are responding to in my post.

@Jonathan

I doubt it. How many Jim Downey’s fly on United. It might be alot.
Carver

@several people

What the OP did was wrong. It was a violation of the T&C. My question is why such strong reactions. He’s being called a thief. What did he steal? Had the upgrade cleared he would have paid for it. Others call him a liar. What lie did he tell?

I”m tryingto pin down the source of these strong reactions. What about Downey’s action hit such a raw nerve with many people.
Carver

@Chris

We’re missing one part of the story. Its generally impossible to book two tickets under the same account using AA.com. It won’t let you hold it, let alone purchase it. Did the OP do something else which suggested to the security department that this wasn’t an honest mistake.
Wylie H.

When I was Exec Plat on AA, if I wanted to guarantee a seat in business or first class… it was real simple, I bought a business or first class ticket.

This guy got off light.
Art

My brother and I “fired” 10% of our customer base at our software company that were causing the most headaches and actually costing us money. This enabled us to provide far better service to our existing customers and gain thousands more in a few short years. We made it a practice to “fire” the bottom 10% every year and the majority of our customers loved us for it.
Fernando

Good customers don’t cheat the system. Full stop.
Chris in NC

@ Carver

What hits a nerve is the impression that the OP feels that his status and VIP upgrades should guarantee him an upgrade. Perhaps thats not the case, but thats the impression that I get.

He got caught, but instead of accepting the consequences, he complains about it (“I took the miles ding, but will complain again in writing”) and tries to justify it as no harm/no foul (“since they had sold all the seats by departure anyway”) If you’re truly sorry, take your punishment, learn your lesson and move on.

To add fuel to the fire, the comment of “Because of my age, traveling that distance in coach is a hardship” REALLY hits a nerve. I don’t think this needs additional explanation.

—

My previous response was to your statement “Anyone ExecPlat flying on AA will always purchase a cheap ticket and upgrade.”

and while that may be true, sometimes an upgrade just isn’t available. If thats the case, then you fly coach!
John

Carver…

You’re completely wrong. We don’t know the exact fare buckets in question here, but AA generally sells business class with J, D, and I buckets (in order of most to least expensive). What if the OP put the last two tickets in the D bucket on hold, thereby causing only J tickets to remain? Now, someone searching for a business class ticket is quite possibly going to get a more expensive price on AA than on another airline, since no more D fares are available. The pax will book with the other airline, thereby costing AA many thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Whether that did or didn’t happen in this case, we don’t know. But the point is that when you take seats out of inventory without any intention of purchasing them, that’s a big abuse of the “hold” privelige. This is just as bad as stealing from AA. The OP got off easy, as many here have said.

And I completely agree with whoever said that some customers should be “fired.” It makes perfect sense. Apparently, the OP claims that AA will lose $5k in revenue. So he was Exec Plat with only $5k spent? He definitely seems like the type of pain in the @$$ customer that should be “fired.” If I were AA, I would ban him completely.
Chuck

AA can oversell tickets/flights

Rules are stacked against traveler

AA should change rules to prevent this in the first place

Miles are so hard to use, yet AA promotes the hell out of it
Carver

@John

Actually, your understand of law is flawed. There is no chance of AA recovering any money from the OP. Not even a little one. The reasons are simple.

1. Your scenario is sheer speculation at best as proved by the prefatory language, “What if..”. Speculation will not support a judgment. Speculation won’t even get past you the initial pleading stage.

2. But even assuming your scenario happened, once the business class tickets were released into inventory they were “sold”. Whether for cash, miles, or eVIPs, we are not told. To support a judgment, AA would have to show that (a) putting the tickets on hold violated some contractual relationship between AA and the OP and (b) that there was someone, who was willing and able to purchase tickets and didn’t because of the OPs actions.

A quick search didn’t show anything in the contract of carriage prohibiting multiple holds, nor a quick search of the AAdvantage program. This we can dispense with (a). Regarding (b), that would be a hard sell considering that AA regularly oversells class (e.g. 29 of 28 seats sold). Thus negating your argument further

In short, no way, no how, not at all, could AA get money from the OP’s actions.
Carver

@Chris

Fair enough. Its the entitlement mentality times 2. I’m important and old so I’m doubly entitled to the special perks.

It’s interesting how different people see things. I didn’t get that impression (at least not as much as others did) about the OP. I got the impression that the OP was sorry, but his issue was that the punishment was disproportionate to the crime.

On that point, I tend to agree with the OP. I believe that for a first offense, a strongly worded letter would have been sufficient. Although I do believe that there is more to this story given that AA won’t let you book two reservations under the same account number.
Carver

@Open Letter

Does it seem strange to anyone else that we engage in a spirited debate about the propriety of fat fingered fares. At least half of the posters saw nothing wrong with knowingly booking an erroneous fare, and almost everyone who would book one believed the travel provider should honor it.

Yet, almost every poster strongly condemned the OP for putting seats on hold that he didn’t intend to use. Is that really worse than taking advantage of an error to enrich ourselves at another’s expense.

Therefore I must conclude that the real reason for the vitriol is not that the OP did something that was so bad, but rather, “we” collectively dislike him.

I find that a bit disturbing.

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