Here's what to do if American Airlines loses your AAdvantage award. And yes, it does happen–it happened to me with a ticket I booked months ago, then finally got around to assigning seats for. This was for my own work travel, not for a client, so I wasn't very concerned with assigning seats right away. When I brought up the record locator on AA.com, however, I noticed that the business class transcontinental segment was completely missing, and that the original positioning flight was changed.
Why Do AAdvantage Award Tickets Sometimes Go Missing?
If you were in fact ticketed, the award ticket may be changed or lost if you're flying an AAdvantage partner airline, and something happens to one or more of your flight segments. For example, in my case, the business class flight was mistakenly dropped when a change was made, due to the airline no longer flying the first segment of my itinerary.
The other big issue occurs if you were never actually ticketed; more on this below.
When Holding and Booking an AAdvantage Reservation Always Save or Print Out a Copy
No matter how busy your day, I strongly recommend you always save or print out a copy of your AAdvantage award hold or ticketed reservation. Don't just write down the record locator or ticket number; it's much better proof to have an electronic copy or print out showing the award hold or ticketed reservation.
Ensure That Your AAdvantage Award Actually Gets Ticketed
Unlike some other frequent flyer programs you may be used to, when booking with AAdvantage miles your award is queued for ticketing, it doesn't ticket instantly. Sometimes it just takes a day or two, but other times it can take a week or more. Until it actually tickets, when you put in your record locator number on the AA.com site, it will show as “On Request.”
Keep Monitoring Your AAdvantage Award Even After Ticketing
Once you're ticketed and have a confirmation with ticket number, don't just assume you're good to go. Periodically you should pull up your reservation at AA.com and check that your flights are the same ones you booked. You'll want to do this as well if for some reason you don't want the award any more and are looking for a major schedule change so as to be able to cancel and redeposit miles without a penalty.
If the Award or Part of the Award is Missing or Changed, Call AAdvantage
If you do notice your award no longer shows the flights you booked or has suffered a major adverse change, call AAdvantage. Given the changes happening to American's U.S. phone systems today, which have dropped every single one of my calls (when I could get through, that is) I recommend speaking with American's UK AAdvantage line.
If Needed, Push Politely to Have American's Liaison Work with the Partner Airline to Get Your Award Back
An inexperienced or unhelpful agent may tell you that since the awards you book no longer exist, you can get a refund of the miles. That's probably not what you want, so don't accept that answer. Politely ask that the agent get in touch with the Help Desk and ask an AAdvantage liaison get involved to help get your missing flights reinstated. This isn't an instant process of course, so be patient–it could take a few days.
If the Liaison Can't Get You Back on the Partner Airline, Try to Find an American Airlines Route That Works
If your flights either no longer exist at all or the liaison isn't able to get them for you, say because the flight is now sold out of even paid tickets, then research the best option you can find on American Airlines operated flights, since AA is able to open up space on their own flights in cases such as this.
Has American Airlines ever lost an AAdvantage award that you booked? Did you manage to get it reinstated?
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