[private] Full email to AA
Dear AA : please find below the full email I wanted to send you, but which does not fit through your form and was rejected through your email service.
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Dear Greg Avis, Dear customer relations representative:
Thank you for your response to my filed complaint related to flight AA49 on December 13th 2014 which was operated with an official delay of more than 4 hours. It's disappointing by itself that it took American Airlines more than 4 weeks since the flight and since my complaint to provide a run of the mill response.
The response you provided, summarized as American Airlines does not want to provide the compensation stated under European Union Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament and Council (despite the fact that this International Flight was delayed with more than 4 hours per the records provided by AA) is not satisfactory to me. And more importantly, all rulings in court and by the EU have clearly stated that the argument provided by American Airlines for not providing the defined compensation is not acceptable.
Specifically, the argument "Since flight 49 was delayed because of mechanical issues, which we considered to be extraordinary circumstances, American Airlines is not required to provide the compensation that you have referred to." has been overthrown by the courts and the EU in every case brought to their attention. Mechanical difficulties found prior to the plane leaving the gate are specifically not considered "extraordinary circumstances". This has been confirmed by the clarifying guidelines issues by the EU (see press release issued July 2013 by the commission, European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Air Passenger Rights Revision - Frequently Asked Questions Air passenger rights – summary), and the full detailed list related to what is and what is not considered extra-ordinary (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/passengers/air/doc/neb-extraordinar...) published in April 2013. The recent court cases all support this argument:
- June 2014, Jet2 vs. Huzar (including appeal court judgement which upheld the decision, mechanical fault)
- January 2013, Jeff and Joyce Halsell vs Thomas Cook (mechanical fault)
Based on these very specific rulings and the EU guidelines and clarifications, I do continue to believe that I am due the defined compensation of 600 Euro. I would like to give you an opportunity to review these additional arguments (on top of my initial complaint, as summarized in the attached claim letter) and provide me with the appropriate compensation.
If American Airlines continues to debate the legal issue (i.e. no compensation is due because of a mechanical failure which was determined more than 8 hours before the scheduled take-off of my flight as evidenced by the AA delay communication I received) then I will refer the case to one of the established for-profit intermediaries in order to have my rights recognized. As a frequent traveler on this route DFW-Paris and on AA as a whole, I'm very disappointed in the way AA is handling this case (pretty much the delay-and-peanuts strategy as documented all around the internet) and as such will absolutely push forward.
If American Airlines recognizes the rightfulness of the claim, but would like to avoid the actual cash-out of the due compensation (600 Euro cash, not travel vouchers), then I would propose that American Airlines provides the value by means of 60K qualifying miles in 2014 (qualifying and 2014 being the key words here) - which would for me personally bring the benefit of bridging the small gap I have to renew my Executive Platinum membership for 2015 (I am Platinum for life, and achieved 85K qualifying miles in 2014 - hence falling short of the qualifying criteria).
Please let me know how you would like to proceed - you can contact me at (919) 345 2432 or through email.
Kind regards,
JURGEN
The details
* Flight AA49, CDG to DFW, on Saturday December 13th
* Delay of more than 4 hours upon arrival (confirmed with official records)
* Mechanical failure identified more than 8 hours before the flight scheduled take-off as communicated by AA to passengers through the flight status updates
* Record locator JACNRT (business class)
* FF 0uj2074
* Complaint filed 12/14/2014 - reference 1-2602939045
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Shortened form as sent through the Customer Relations Website (limited by the form):
Response to AA Ref#1-2602939045 filed 12/14, response 01/12
Flight AA49, CDG-DFW 12/13/2014
Delay of more than 4 hours upon arrival (confirmed with official records)
Mechanical failure identified more than 8 hours before the flight scheduled take-off
Dear Greg Avis:
Thank you for your response to my above complaint. It's disappointing to receive a run of the mill response after 4 weeks.
The response you provided ("Since flight 49 was delayed because of mechanical issues, which we considered to be extraordinary circumstances") is not acceptable to me. More importantly, Courts and by the EU have clearly stated that the argument provided by American Airlines for not providing the defined compensation is not valid and has been overthrown by the courts and the EU in every case brought to their attention. Mechanical difficulties found prior to the plane leaving the gate are specifically not considered "extraordinary circumstances" documented by
- Clarifying guidelines issued by the EU commission July 2013
- EU published list of what is not considered extra-ordinary circumstances April 2013
- Recent court cases all upheld the same argument: June 2014, Jet2 vs. Huzar, January 2013, Jeff and Joyce Halsell vs Thomas Cook
I do continue to believe that I am due the defined compensation of 600 Euro. I would like to give you an opportunity to review these additional facts and contact me at (919) 345 2432.
My full email: http://www.jurgenlison.com/private-to-aa
