THERE ARE REMEDIES WHEN YOU
FEEL YOU'VE BEEN CHEATED
In the summer of 2006 I was looking for a reasonable fare to go to Paris and noticed the rates advertised for early fall were unusually high. In the past there were sales with tickets advertised for as little as $500, perhaps $600 tops, including tax and fees, yet in June and July I saw fares for the fall months approaching $1,000.
I decided to surf the Internet for budget agencies, something I am usually loathe to do, and came across a company named FlyCheapAbroad.com, which offered flights to Paris for two hundred dollars less than the airline sites I'd previously checked. The price included tax and fees and had the caveat that, in most cases, one wouldn't know the airline until the fare was ticketed.
I was curious and called the 800 number to grill the heavily accented clerks about the fares. In particular, I wanted to know
if the fares would accrue frequent flyer miles, because I knew that cheap flights were sometimes consolidator tickets that agencies get at drastically reduced prices or through trade agreements with companies that barter radio ads and other
services for plane tickets. In such cases, frequent flier miles were not part of the deal.
I was told frequent flier miles were available for these flights and I repeated the question just to make sure. I also noted
on their Terms and Conditions Page the reference to Frequent Flier miles, which indicated that it was our responsibility to notify the airline of our frequent flier number when the flight was ticketed. This confirmed to me what she'd said, else why urge us to get the number affixed to a reservation?
Still, I waited to see if the regular airline fares might eventually match these tantalizing prices, as there are often fare wars advertised in late July and early August for flights to Europe in mid-September and the subsequent colder wintry months beyond. In the meantime, I regularly checked FlyCheapAbroad.com to make certain its fares were still low, and then suddenly the fare to Paris had dropped another hundred dollars to $609, taxes and fees included.
I decided not to wait for the late summer drop in prices, a prescient decision as the regular airline fares never came down to
the level I'd hoped. However, before purchasing the ticket with this agency, I repeated my query as to frequent flyer miles and was assured once again that the flights would be credited with miles. So, I purchased the ticket and the reservation clerk even took down my American Advantage Number, saving me the extra step that their Terms and Conditions cajoled me to do.
Within a day, my reservation was ticketed and my American Advantage number was duly noted on the
American Airlines website. I felt enormously satisfied and that I'd made a killing with a much lower airfare, plus 12,000 miles
to boot.
Then, after my trip was underway, I clicked onto the AA website and noticed my flights from Los Angeles to Europe had not
yet been posted. Normally, miles are posted within a day or two of taking a trip, and two weeks had already passed. I contacted the AA help desk and received startling news. My tickets were in a service class that did not qualify for frequent flyer miles.
The agency clerks, whom I'd asked on at least three occasions, had lied or were at best incompetent.
When I returned from my one month European idyll I contacted FlyCheapAbroad.com and spoke to a clerk, who expressed immediate surprise when I told her about the miles problem. She said she would look into it and then never called me back. When I called again, I spoke to a supervisor, who took a different stance. She insisted they never guaranteed frequent flyer miles and it was up to each airline to so decide. When I repeated that her clerks had told me differently, she kept saying
the same thing -- it was like talking to a robot.
I raised my voice and referred her to her Terms and Conditions Page, which said nothing about selective airline practices with respect to frequent flyer miles and only warned us that it was our responsibility to get our frequent flyer number to the airline in question. Finally, she took a more conciliatory tone and said she would see what she could do. She said she would contact
the airline and then never got back to me.
In short order I reported the agency to American Airlines, noting that what I was writing about was not the airline's fault, but
I wanted them to know what kind of agencies were representing them. I find that it's always better to track down the name of
the CEO of a company and address your concerns to them. They probably won't read the letter, but it will be referred to someone who in most cases will take action.
And in only a couple of weeks, someone from American Airlines did get back to me, expressing their regrets and repeating
that what happened was not their fault, but in a spirit of customer service and considering my circumstances offered to give me half of the miles I would have gotten -- a little more than 6,000 miles.
I thought this was more than fair and thanked them for their kindness, but felt that the agency should still be reported to the Better Business Bureau for its misleading practices and, perhaps, outright fraud. I wrote to the BBB of Washington, D.C., as
this is where FlyCheapAbroad.com is located, and proceeded to navigate a morass of bureaucracy. The Better Business Bureau is apparently a consortium of local affiliates under the umbrella of the national BBB but run separately with local personnel. Although my letter was full of data, and I faxed them copies of emails to the agency, the agency's Terms and Conditions and pertinent details, the initial people at the BBB with whom I communicated didn't seem to get what my
complaint was about.
I reasoned with one of them, asking pointedly if the BBB was only concerned with outright fraud, i.e. you buy a television
that doesn't work and the TV store won't refund your money? Or were they also concerned about subtler issues such as mine, wherein I'd gotten the flight for which I'd paid but not the frequent flyer miles which I'd been assured?
Finally, they took my complaint and later sent me the response from the supervisor at FlyCheapAbroad.com, which conveniently ignored the specifics of my complaint, repeating the same sort of crap she'd spewed to me on the phone. I replied to her response, step by step and then a few months went by. I figured that nothing was going to happen, as the BBB didn't appear overly interested, and then lo and behold in early May I received a communication from the BBB, which included a new response from FlyCheapAbroad.com.
In this missive, the supervisor repeated that they had done nothing wrong, but to make me happy offered me a ticket on Continental Airlines to anywhere in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico or Latin America. I couldn't believe it, considering their past intransigence, and suddenly had new respect for the Better Business Bureau, at least to the extent that even by forwarding my replies to FlyCheapAbroad.com their organization had the power of intimidation.
I chose Latin America, as it was further and had the most value, and because I saw it as a way to visit Rio de Janeiro for
the first time -- and for free! I called the supervisor on the phone and spoke pleasantly and respectfully as to the offer.
She was friendly to me as well and indicated that all I had to do was get the reservation information to her.
In the space of a couple of weeks I figured out an itinerary for October and gave the flight numbers to the woman. She
took the information down carefully and within a day my reservation appeared on Continental's website, though not yet ticketed. This was in the middle of May.
After waiting a few weeks, I contacted the supervisor when I saw that the flights still were not ticketed, as I wanted to commit myself to other arrangements which would require advance purchase -- such as domestic airline flights in Brazil -- but didn't want to do so before my tickets were finalized. I was assured that it would only take another week or so and during that time
the domestic flights in Brazil increased by over a hundred dollars.
My stomach began churning again, as it was becoming clear, based upon my earlier experience with this agency, that their
word was apparently in doubt. I called the supervisor again, and she said her contact at Continental airlines was on vacation. He was due back on Monday and she'd call him then.
I waited another week, and after contacting her again was told that the travel certificates were based on sales figures for
the second quarter. As we were still in June, we would have to wait until July 15 when the pin code for the reservation could
be used and the flights would be ticketed. I wasn't happy, but it was still almost four months before my departure. However,
I explained to her that other considerations had to be taken care of -- in particular the increasing cost of the flights within Brazil. She wrote back and assured me that I had her guarantee that, whatever happens with Continental, they would ensure I got
to Brazil on the days in question.
Although I wasn't thrilled with "whatever happens with Continental" -- wasn't it a sure thing? -- I was buoyed by her guarantee and bought the ticket on GOL Airlines, locking in the elevated fare cost before it became higher. Then, July 15 came, and
after waiting a week or so the ticket was still not issued by Continental.
At this point, I decided to call Continental and spoke with a woman who provided me startling news. The travel certificate affixed to my reservation was in another person's name -- a woman -- and that in any case it was not even the right kind of certificate
to use for travel in South America. I hit the roof and contacted someone else in the awards department, and the gentleman, while quite sympathetic, confided to me that, based upon what he was seeing, he doubted that I'd ever be ticketed by this agency.
I then called a supervisor at Continental and the woman with whom I spoke actually gave me the name on the certificate
and even the faulty pin code number. With this information, I contacted the FlyCheapAbroad.com supervisor, who was no longer available when I called via the telephone. I spoke to someone else at the agency and said quite strongly that under
the circumstances I was going to take legal action, and only then did the supervisor respond via email, admitting that there
had been a mistake -- how convenient -- and that they had asked for a new certificate.
I said that even if the mistake was legitimate, had I been the supervisor in question I would be mortified and would have rectified the situation immediately. In response, she said simply that I should be patient and it would be taken care of. This went on
for another few weeks and I finally gave her fair warning. Either the reservation was to be ticketed within a few days or I would go to the Continental Fraud Department. No response. I then learned the name of the owner of the company and sent him
the same warning by fax. Again, no response.
So, after further research I gleaned the fax number and name of Continental's CEO and also a separate name and fax number for their Fraud Department, sending each a copy of my complaint.
Within a day, the supervisor of the agency called me frantically on my cell phone. "Why did you contact Continental?" she
asked almost crying. "I guaranteed that we would ticket you." I repeated that I had already spent hundreds of dollars for a domestic Brazilian ticket and advance hotel reservations, while waiting and waiting, continuing to hear the same story since May. I would soon have to order a Brazilian visa and would not risk another hundred dollars to do so for a trip that was becoming ever elusive. And because of my reluctance to do so, fueled by a healthy dose of skepticism, even if it had been
their intention to ticket me at the last minute, after continuing to tell me otherwise, I would not be able to get the visa in time.
I was fed up, and since it was now mid-August and considering my experience the previous year I concluded everything
she'd told me was a bunch of bull and said so to the airline with whom they did a great deal of business.
Then her manager got on the phone and assured me the company had been in business for twenty years and had no reason
to cheat anyone. He assured me it would all be taken care of quickly and gave me a date certain as to when it would happen. Then, he passed the phone to the mother of the agency's owner, as the owner was out of town, and she, too, repeated that
the agency honored its commitments. After almost four months of waiting, I seemed to have finally gotten their attention.
Indeed, only a couple of hours later I got an email from Continental indicating my reservations had suddenly been ticketed. Hoorah. I was now free to spend the next two months continuing to make my plans without worrying each day whether the
trip would ever materialize. However, does anyone doubt that my actions precipitated the agency's action? And if they could
do so quickly in this manner, couldn't they have done so back in May?
The lesson to learn is that one doesn't have to take crap from people or companies that have questionable business practices. It may take a bit of effort and some hassling, and everyone certainly has their personal threshold as to how much effort they want to expend. But in the cases indicated, I got 6,000 miles, which are easily worth $125-$150, and a round-trip ticket to Brazil. All told, my labors yielded over a thousand dollars in value and the chance to see a part of the world at bargain prices -- including the amazing Iguassu Falls -- I'd never before experienced.
Follow Michael Russnow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kerrloy
Contact Us
I decided to surf the Internet for budget agencies, something I am usually loathe to do, and came across a company named FlyCheapAbroad.com, which offered flights to Paris for two hundred dollars less than the airline sites I'd previously checked. The price included tax and fees and had the caveat that, in most cases, one wouldn't know the airline until the fare was ticketed.
I was curious and called the 800 number to grill the heavily accented clerks about the fares. In particular, I wanted to know
if the fares would accrue frequent flyer miles, because I knew that cheap flights were sometimes consolidator tickets that agencies get at drastically reduced prices or through trade agreements with companies that barter radio ads and other
services for plane tickets. In such cases, frequent flier miles were not part of the deal.
I was told frequent flier miles were available for these flights and I repeated the question just to make sure. I also noted
on their Terms and Conditions Page the reference to Frequent Flier miles, which indicated that it was our responsibility to notify the airline of our frequent flier number when the flight was ticketed. This confirmed to me what she'd said, else why urge us to get the number affixed to a reservation?
Still, I waited to see if the regular airline fares might eventually match these tantalizing prices, as there are often fare wars advertised in late July and early August for flights to Europe in mid-September and the subsequent colder wintry months beyond. In the meantime, I regularly checked FlyCheapAbroad.com to make certain its fares were still low, and then suddenly the fare to Paris had dropped another hundred dollars to $609, taxes and fees included.
I decided not to wait for the late summer drop in prices, a prescient decision as the regular airline fares never came down to
the level I'd hoped. However, before purchasing the ticket with this agency, I repeated my query as to frequent flyer miles and was assured once again that the flights would be credited with miles. So, I purchased the ticket and the reservation clerk even took down my American Advantage Number, saving me the extra step that their Terms and Conditions cajoled me to do.
Within a day, my reservation was ticketed and my American Advantage number was duly noted on the
American Airlines website. I felt enormously satisfied and that I'd made a killing with a much lower airfare, plus 12,000 miles
to boot.
Then, after my trip was underway, I clicked onto the AA website and noticed my flights from Los Angeles to Europe had not
yet been posted. Normally, miles are posted within a day or two of taking a trip, and two weeks had already passed. I contacted the AA help desk and received startling news. My tickets were in a service class that did not qualify for frequent flyer miles.
The agency clerks, whom I'd asked on at least three occasions, had lied or were at best incompetent.
When I returned from my one month European idyll I contacted FlyCheapAbroad.com and spoke to a clerk, who expressed immediate surprise when I told her about the miles problem. She said she would look into it and then never called me back. When I called again, I spoke to a supervisor, who took a different stance. She insisted they never guaranteed frequent flyer miles and it was up to each airline to so decide. When I repeated that her clerks had told me differently, she kept saying
the same thing -- it was like talking to a robot.
I raised my voice and referred her to her Terms and Conditions Page, which said nothing about selective airline practices with respect to frequent flyer miles and only warned us that it was our responsibility to get our frequent flyer number to the airline in question. Finally, she took a more conciliatory tone and said she would see what she could do. She said she would contact
the airline and then never got back to me.
In short order I reported the agency to American Airlines, noting that what I was writing about was not the airline's fault, but
I wanted them to know what kind of agencies were representing them. I find that it's always better to track down the name of
the CEO of a company and address your concerns to them. They probably won't read the letter, but it will be referred to someone who in most cases will take action.
And in only a couple of weeks, someone from American Airlines did get back to me, expressing their regrets and repeating
that what happened was not their fault, but in a spirit of customer service and considering my circumstances offered to give me half of the miles I would have gotten -- a little more than 6,000 miles.
I thought this was more than fair and thanked them for their kindness, but felt that the agency should still be reported to the Better Business Bureau for its misleading practices and, perhaps, outright fraud. I wrote to the BBB of Washington, D.C., as
this is where FlyCheapAbroad.com is located, and proceeded to navigate a morass of bureaucracy. The Better Business Bureau is apparently a consortium of local affiliates under the umbrella of the national BBB but run separately with local personnel. Although my letter was full of data, and I faxed them copies of emails to the agency, the agency's Terms and Conditions and pertinent details, the initial people at the BBB with whom I communicated didn't seem to get what my
complaint was about.
I reasoned with one of them, asking pointedly if the BBB was only concerned with outright fraud, i.e. you buy a television
that doesn't work and the TV store won't refund your money? Or were they also concerned about subtler issues such as mine, wherein I'd gotten the flight for which I'd paid but not the frequent flyer miles which I'd been assured?
Finally, they took my complaint and later sent me the response from the supervisor at FlyCheapAbroad.com, which conveniently ignored the specifics of my complaint, repeating the same sort of crap she'd spewed to me on the phone. I replied to her response, step by step and then a few months went by. I figured that nothing was going to happen, as the BBB didn't appear overly interested, and then lo and behold in early May I received a communication from the BBB, which included a new response from FlyCheapAbroad.com.
In this missive, the supervisor repeated that they had done nothing wrong, but to make me happy offered me a ticket on Continental Airlines to anywhere in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico or Latin America. I couldn't believe it, considering their past intransigence, and suddenly had new respect for the Better Business Bureau, at least to the extent that even by forwarding my replies to FlyCheapAbroad.com their organization had the power of intimidation.
I chose Latin America, as it was further and had the most value, and because I saw it as a way to visit Rio de Janeiro for
the first time -- and for free! I called the supervisor on the phone and spoke pleasantly and respectfully as to the offer.
She was friendly to me as well and indicated that all I had to do was get the reservation information to her.
In the space of a couple of weeks I figured out an itinerary for October and gave the flight numbers to the woman. She
took the information down carefully and within a day my reservation appeared on Continental's website, though not yet ticketed. This was in the middle of May.
After waiting a few weeks, I contacted the supervisor when I saw that the flights still were not ticketed, as I wanted to commit myself to other arrangements which would require advance purchase -- such as domestic airline flights in Brazil -- but didn't want to do so before my tickets were finalized. I was assured that it would only take another week or so and during that time
the domestic flights in Brazil increased by over a hundred dollars.
My stomach began churning again, as it was becoming clear, based upon my earlier experience with this agency, that their
word was apparently in doubt. I called the supervisor again, and she said her contact at Continental airlines was on vacation. He was due back on Monday and she'd call him then.
I waited another week, and after contacting her again was told that the travel certificates were based on sales figures for
the second quarter. As we were still in June, we would have to wait until July 15 when the pin code for the reservation could
be used and the flights would be ticketed. I wasn't happy, but it was still almost four months before my departure. However,
I explained to her that other considerations had to be taken care of -- in particular the increasing cost of the flights within Brazil. She wrote back and assured me that I had her guarantee that, whatever happens with Continental, they would ensure I got
to Brazil on the days in question.
Although I wasn't thrilled with "whatever happens with Continental" -- wasn't it a sure thing? -- I was buoyed by her guarantee and bought the ticket on GOL Airlines, locking in the elevated fare cost before it became higher. Then, July 15 came, and
after waiting a week or so the ticket was still not issued by Continental.
At this point, I decided to call Continental and spoke with a woman who provided me startling news. The travel certificate affixed to my reservation was in another person's name -- a woman -- and that in any case it was not even the right kind of certificate
to use for travel in South America. I hit the roof and contacted someone else in the awards department, and the gentleman, while quite sympathetic, confided to me that, based upon what he was seeing, he doubted that I'd ever be ticketed by this agency.
I then called a supervisor at Continental and the woman with whom I spoke actually gave me the name on the certificate
and even the faulty pin code number. With this information, I contacted the FlyCheapAbroad.com supervisor, who was no longer available when I called via the telephone. I spoke to someone else at the agency and said quite strongly that under
the circumstances I was going to take legal action, and only then did the supervisor respond via email, admitting that there
had been a mistake -- how convenient -- and that they had asked for a new certificate.
I said that even if the mistake was legitimate, had I been the supervisor in question I would be mortified and would have rectified the situation immediately. In response, she said simply that I should be patient and it would be taken care of. This went on
for another few weeks and I finally gave her fair warning. Either the reservation was to be ticketed within a few days or I would go to the Continental Fraud Department. No response. I then learned the name of the owner of the company and sent him
the same warning by fax. Again, no response.
So, after further research I gleaned the fax number and name of Continental's CEO and also a separate name and fax number for their Fraud Department, sending each a copy of my complaint.
Within a day, the supervisor of the agency called me frantically on my cell phone. "Why did you contact Continental?" she
asked almost crying. "I guaranteed that we would ticket you." I repeated that I had already spent hundreds of dollars for a domestic Brazilian ticket and advance hotel reservations, while waiting and waiting, continuing to hear the same story since May. I would soon have to order a Brazilian visa and would not risk another hundred dollars to do so for a trip that was becoming ever elusive. And because of my reluctance to do so, fueled by a healthy dose of skepticism, even if it had been
their intention to ticket me at the last minute, after continuing to tell me otherwise, I would not be able to get the visa in time.
I was fed up, and since it was now mid-August and considering my experience the previous year I concluded everything
she'd told me was a bunch of bull and said so to the airline with whom they did a great deal of business.
Then her manager got on the phone and assured me the company had been in business for twenty years and had no reason
to cheat anyone. He assured me it would all be taken care of quickly and gave me a date certain as to when it would happen. Then, he passed the phone to the mother of the agency's owner, as the owner was out of town, and she, too, repeated that
the agency honored its commitments. After almost four months of waiting, I seemed to have finally gotten their attention.
Indeed, only a couple of hours later I got an email from Continental indicating my reservations had suddenly been ticketed. Hoorah. I was now free to spend the next two months continuing to make my plans without worrying each day whether the
trip would ever materialize. However, does anyone doubt that my actions precipitated the agency's action? And if they could
do so quickly in this manner, couldn't they have done so back in May?
The lesson to learn is that one doesn't have to take crap from people or companies that have questionable business practices. It may take a bit of effort and some hassling, and everyone certainly has their personal threshold as to how much effort they want to expend. But in the cases indicated, I got 6,000 miles, which are easily worth $125-$150, and a round-trip ticket to Brazil. All told, my labors yielded over a thousand dollars in value and the chance to see a part of the world at bargain prices -- including the amazing Iguassu Falls -- I'd never before experienced.
Follow Michael Russnow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kerrloy
Contact Us
