Definitions:
AA: American Airlines
CX: Cathay Pacific
AS: Alaska Airlines
JL: Japan Airlines
SEA: Seattle
LAX: Los Angeles
I booked my parents on award tickets using my American Airlines miles. Itineraries are operated by AS and CX, but the issuing carrier is American Airlines. They flew their outbound portion just fine. On their inbound portion, they flew the SEA-LAX portion, and needed to get their boarding passes at CX desk at LAX. CX agent refused to issue the boarding passes, citing that tickets were cancelled by AA. They immediately got on calls with me (I was in Seattle at the time), and AA phone desk. AA agent insisted that tickets are still valid, CX agent would not budge. After back and forth, AA agents admitted that tickets were cancelled. AA ended up rebooking my parents on combination of AA and JL, but leaving 2 days later. AA did not provide hotels, and/or voucher for incidental expenses.
Needless to say, I am not happy with the situation. I'd like AA to pay for the hotel and incidental expense. I also took 1 day off work to fly down to LAX using my Southwest points on last min ticket to help my parents. My parents are seniors, well in their 70s, not very fluent in English. They were just not equipped with this kind of travel disruption. I filed a complaint to the DOT, and AA responded, admitting that they provided no notification to the cancellation but they refused to pay my expenses. I have also submitted complaints through their customer relations form, with no results, other than generic response. I've exhausted all non legal means to get AA to reimburse my expense.
Questions:
I put in a small claims in the state of WA, under my name as a plaintiff. The judge dismissed the case. He said that even though he is sympathetic to my parents plight, I cannot file the suit as a plaintiff. My parents have to be the plaintiff. How can I do that if my parents live in Indonesia? It's not financially viable to fly them just for the small claims case. How can I proceed in small claims? Or do I just forget small claims and hire an attorney?
AA: American Airlines
CX: Cathay Pacific
AS: Alaska Airlines
JL: Japan Airlines
SEA: Seattle
LAX: Los Angeles
I booked my parents on award tickets using my American Airlines miles. Itineraries are operated by AS and CX, but the issuing carrier is American Airlines. They flew their outbound portion just fine. On their inbound portion, they flew the SEA-LAX portion, and needed to get their boarding passes at CX desk at LAX. CX agent refused to issue the boarding passes, citing that tickets were cancelled by AA. They immediately got on calls with me (I was in Seattle at the time), and AA phone desk. AA agent insisted that tickets are still valid, CX agent would not budge. After back and forth, AA agents admitted that tickets were cancelled. AA ended up rebooking my parents on combination of AA and JL, but leaving 2 days later. AA did not provide hotels, and/or voucher for incidental expenses.
Needless to say, I am not happy with the situation. I'd like AA to pay for the hotel and incidental expense. I also took 1 day off work to fly down to LAX using my Southwest points on last min ticket to help my parents. My parents are seniors, well in their 70s, not very fluent in English. They were just not equipped with this kind of travel disruption. I filed a complaint to the DOT, and AA responded, admitting that they provided no notification to the cancellation but they refused to pay my expenses. I have also submitted complaints through their customer relations form, with no results, other than generic response. I've exhausted all non legal means to get AA to reimburse my expense.
Questions:
I put in a small claims in the state of WA, under my name as a plaintiff. The judge dismissed the case. He said that even though he is sympathetic to my parents plight, I cannot file the suit as a plaintiff. My parents have to be the plaintiff. How can I do that if my parents live in Indonesia? It's not financially viable to fly them just for the small claims case. How can I proceed in small claims? Or do I just forget small claims and hire an attorney?
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