Last week I wrote about a cancelled flight in business class where we ended up having to fly coach to Toronto. I wondered if we were owed compensation from American Air.

During this trip to Toronto, many things went wrong. Due to a mistake with our booking, I’m waiting on a refund of 40,500 Avios + $143.79 from British Airways.

During this whole saga of bookings mistakes and cancelled flights, the one thing that did turn out well was Marriott customer service helping us out so we didn’t lose a free night certificate.

While I’m still waiting on my refund for British Airways to post, I heard back from American Airlines Customer Relations much faster than I had expected.

The main question you’re probably wondering is if AA gave us any compensation.

I was looking for some sort of compensation for having to fly coach since we were booked in business class while also asking for a reimbursement for two extra cab rides which ended up costing us over $100.

Half of my complaint was answered promptly which is impressive in itself.

Here’s what I found out in an e-mail from AA Customer Relations:

First, AA apologized for what happened and seems to have cared that we were disappointed in what took place. They even mention that input like I had sent in is “critical” to their continued success.

AA apologized for not getting us to our destination and claims that on-time departures are one of their most important service goals. Of course there were also reasons why this can not always happen, mainly due to uncontrollable factors like air traffic congestion.

I do appreciate the apology but the reason given for our cancellation failed to mention a flight crew member not being at the airport! It makes me wonder what the real reason was for our flight not taking off…

The customer relations rep let me know that my refund request was passed on to the Passenger Refunds department and they will be addressing this. I won’t hold my breath that I get a refund but at least I wasn’t told no yet.

To “encourage us to continue to travel” with AA, 5,000 bonus miles were added to Kim, Lucas and my AAdvantage accounts.

While I am happy with the miles, (they’re more than the Avios we’ll end up paying to get to Toronto) I still would’ve preferred to have avoided this pain and had more time at our destination!

For now, I am feeling positive about how American Airlines has addressed my complaint. Hopefully they’ll continue to do the right thing and refund us for the extra cab rides somehow.

Now if I could only get an update about what’s going on for our broken stroller claim!