Earlier this year, American Airlines had a mistake fare for travel between the US and China for Business Class for around $450 round-trip. Well, it turns out those who booked this had their reservations cancelled by American Airlines, however the airline just sent the following email to those who booked it:

October 26, 2015

In March of this year, you placed on hold a reservation for travel with us to China. The reservation you placed on hold was for an extremely low fare offered by American in error, and the mistaken fare was offered for only a few hours. Because the fare was offered in error, we cancelled those reservations, such as yours, that had been made but not ticketed.

In our view, given the fact that the fares American offered for China travel in those few hours were so low that it was obvious they were offered in error (a fact widely acknowledged in the social media posts which prompted many of those who reserved the fares to do so), we were justified in cancelling those reservations that were made but not ticketed. However, we will offer you two options for reduced rate travel to China, one for business class and one for coach class. The two options are as follows:

Option A – Business Class: We offer you a $1,500 discount on any roundtrip business cabin fare to Shanghai or Beijing.

· Reservation must be booked by AA and operated entirely by AA (including AA’s regional partners).

· Travel may not be upgraded, by upgrade certificate, AAdvantage status, or any other means, to a higher class of service.

· Travel will not be eligible to earn AAdvantage miles or Elite Qualifying Miles or points, and will not count as Elite Qualifying segments in the AAdvantage program.

· Travel may be ticketed immediately and must be completed within one year of the date of this letter.

· Travel to PEK or PVG should originate and end in the same U.S. airport(s) as in the original PNR with the same passenger(s) (or subset of passengers) traveling as were listed in the cancelled PNR.

· Must be ticketed within six weeks of the date of this letter.

Option B – Main Cabin: We offer you the opportunity to receive a $0 fare basis main cabin fare to Shanghai or Beijing, subject to taxes and fees of approximately $450 (varies slightly by routing)..

· Reservation must be booked by AA for any Q or O class fare to PEK or PVG, and operated entirely by AA (including AA’s regional partners).

· Travel may not be upgraded, by upgrade certificate, AAdvantage status, or any other means, to a higher class of service.

· Travel will not be eligible to earn AAdvantage miles or Elite Qualifying Miles or points, and will not count as Elite Qualifying segments in the AAdvantage program.

· This offer is subject to Q or O class inventory availability for travel outbound starting Sep 1, 2015.

· Travel must be completed within one year of the date this letter.

· Travel to PEK or PVG should originate and end in the same U.S. airport(s) as in the original PNR with the same passenger(s) (or subset of passengers) traveling as were listed in the cancelled PNR.

· Must be ticketed within six weeks of the date this letter.

If you would like to accept one of these offers, please contact American Airlines at the following number to make your flight reservation. Please note the operating hours of this special reservations desk.

800-433-1790 Seven Days Week 0600-Midnight Central Time

Please let the American Airlines agent know that you have received a letter authorizing a special discount on fares from the USA to China and provide the following information:

This offer is non-transferable, applies only to passengers identified in the original reservation, and only in the origin and destination of the original booking. Please note the reservation process may take up to 72 hours for confirmation of your itinerary. After your eligibility for this special discount has been confirmed, a reservation agent will contact you to complete ticketing of your travel itinerary.

Once your travel itinerary is confirmed and ticketed, all applicable fare rules (including change fees and penalties) apply for voluntary changes.

Sincerely,

K. J. Russell
Customer Relations
American Airlines

Bottom Line

I’m glad to see that American Airlines is acknowledging the mistake fare and offering some sort of remedy, though it would nice to have had the original reservations honored.

However keep in mind, both of these new offers do NOT earn elite qualifying miles, so if you’re hoping for a mileage run, think again!