Swiss and AA Suck

A few months ago I purchased an economy-class ticket to New Orleans with American Airlines. I'm a music fan and wanted to attend the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. It was a great festival, I met some cool people, and I hope to attend again some year.

The choice of flying with American Airlines was partially due to cost but mostly due to the Travelclub partnership with Swiss. Travelclub is your basic loyalty and rewards program where customers can accumulate points and later spend them on rewards such as a free flight.

After returning from New Orleans, I completed the points claim form and had it rejected. After a telephone call to Travelclub I learned that I flew in a booking class that did not qualify for points. I was confused. Didn't economy count?

Apparently American Airlines has numerous booking classes and I happened to be in a class that did not qualify. This wasn't clear when I booked the flight: My online agent Ebookers.ch only notified me that I was flying in economy. Had I been in class A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q (only if sold outside Europe), R, S, V, W, Y, or X I would have been eligible for the points. I flew class O.

I'm disappointed with Swiss, American Airlines, and Ebookers for obscurring this information. American Airlines has a complicated booking system (23+ classes?!) that only came to light after I got screwed. In the end, I missed the fine print and I'm not surprised. I'm certain it's somebody's job to do this.