If you have followed this blog or our YouTube channels (Dine Drink Travel and Dine Drink Vegas) for any length of time, you know we at Dine Drink Travel like shiny things. On the podcast, John may even make the tiniest bit of me (Bill) for being, as he puts it, “the leader in the luxury lounge.” When I travel, I do indeed want a premium experience. I am travelling to Dublin next month as a party of two, and I wanted to give my travelling companion a premium experience as a birthday present. We have a tight connection in LHR as part of that trip, so I booked American Airlines 5 Star Service. That service promises a lot, but the booking process was way more complicated than it needed to be. Here is what you need to know if you want to book it for yourself.
The American Airlines website describes 2 levels of premium service. Five Star Select is the more premium of the two. However, I am initially checking in at a small regional airport and already have a number of other benefits. What I really wanted was help on a tight connection in London Heathrow– particularly in the event of a misconnect. Five Star Service handles that nicely and promises to provide a premium feel for the trip. You can see the full description below. Unfortunately, the booking process was way harder than it needed to be and not at all customer friendly.
What was the booking process?
Before I go any further, none of these complaints are about the American Airlines personnel involved. I believe I have now talked to six people in an attempt to book this service. Five of those six people were lovely. The other was reading from a very difficult script she was assigned. I do blame American Airlines for being poorly organized. I do not blame the people involved.
Seriously, folks, even when airline personnel are doing you wrong you should try to play nice. Most of them work hard, and even when they can’t do you right they are limited by profoundly unhelpful corporate policies. Be nice to the people around you. As a bonus, that approach is just more strategically effective. Back to the story, however.
I called the Executive Platinum customer service number on Sunday night (AAgent #1) and asked to make a minor schedule change. That agent quickly and effectively did that, and then I asked her about booking Five Star. She said I should be able to do it in London and should be able to pay 45,000 miles for the two people in my party. She needed to pass me to the Five Star Desk, and she made sure to stay online with me until someone answered. Great. The 5 Star agent (AAgent #2) then said I could indeed pay 45,000 miles. However, because I have a connection to Aer Lingus she needed to contact London station to make sure she could do that. She promised someone would call me Monday.
AAgent #3 call from the 5 Star Service Desk Monday morning and was very helpful. She booked it and said it would indeed cost 45,000 miles. She then sent me the receipt for the trip. Unfortunately, that is where things got a little bit complicated.
So what went wrong booking American Airlines 5 Star Service?
I cannot stress this enough. At this point in the story, I have a receipt confirming my purchase of the service. However, the receipt said 54,000 miles had been deducted rather than the agreed 45,000 miles. Fortunately, I got the receipt while the agent was still online with me. She worked at it for quite a while and could not figure out what the problem was. She eventually put in a service request and promised I should have 9000 miles back the next day.
Monday night an agent (AAgent #4) called to say that I cannot book internationally using miles. I have her name in an email, although I won’t be party to harassing individual agents by providing that information. She was the only person with whom I was individually dissatisfied. I also have to show enough grace to realize that she was reading from a very difficult script. However, I was still deeply frustrated that she said I never had a valid booking in spite of my receipt. She kept blaming a miscommunication instead of just admitting that American made a mistake. That’s a real problem for me, because this wasn’t a mistake fare. It is one plausible reading of the website, and one with which the first three agents agreed. More to the point, a deal is a deal.
She stated that the website documents this isn’t allowed for international travel. I took a screenshot and left it above so you can read for yourself. It says you can use miles for domestic travel. It does not say you cannot do it for international travel, and the first three agents read it the same way I did. Also, she could not explain why I had been charged 54,000 miles rather than 45,000 miles.
Then I tried to just pay money
Tuesday morning, I decided to call in and just pay money. AAgent #5 was my favorite of the process, because she worked for 38 minutes and 56 seconds to help me. She did successfully cancel my original booking. She then attempted to create a new booking using money, aaaannnddddd….. she could not. I am arriving in the premium cabin on AA metal, but I am departing in economy on Aer Lingus. That flight is in economy because it was literally the only choice AA offered me for that part of the route. She could not get anyone in London to approve the process even though they already had done so once.
AAgent #5 did acknowledge that American had not done a good job to that point. I appreciated that. Eventually, we decided I would just get a call from someone else later Tuesday confirming whether I could actually do this. AAgent #6 called shortly after noon and said I could indeed book the service. However, before I gave him my credit card I confirmed that it was $450. That is the price on the website and what the previous agents had said.
AAgent #6 said it was actually $540. Apparently, the UK charges a flat 20% tax on this sort of thing. At least that explains why was initially charged 54,000 miles rather than 45,000. Shortly after that, AAgent #3 (the one who completed the initial booking) called me back to apologize for the whole kerfluffle. She was quite gracious and actually admitted that American made a mistake. Come to think of it, AAgent #5 was the same way. AAgent #3 also said she would contact the AAdvantage customer service desk to ask for some miles for my trouble.
So how do you actually book?
It turns out that, eventually, the actual booking process isn’t that hard. You do have to call in. There is no way to do it online. However, just call 877-578-2702. You can email them with basic questions, but you have to call to actually book. Here are the things to keep in mind:
- You can pay with miles for domestic connections.
- You must pay with cash for international itineraries.
- It does not matter what the website says. London costs 20% more than everywhere else.
So anyway, I am frustrated. This process was way harder than it needed to be. American Airlines 5 Star Service is designed to make travel easier. That is not what happened– at least not in the booking process. I appreciate, however, the hard work that several AAgents did to pull this all together. I am going to reach out to American to see if they would like to respond, because of course they should get to do that. Look for another post here late next month to let you know what the actual travel experience was like. Happy travels until then.
Other premium airline experiences
- Whiskey Drinking Robot– JAL First class from Tokyo to Jakarta
- IAH Admiral’s Club
- LAS United Club
- LAS American Express Centurion Lounge
- What drinks are free in the Admiral’s Club?
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