“If these aren’t tickets then how did I get out here?”

moroccoPicture this: You’re on your honeymoon in Morocco. When you check in for your flight back to the States, a gate agent insists there’s something wrong with your reservation — and forces you to buy a new set of tickets.

It happened to Elliot Pederson. But that wasn’t the worst part of it. After returning home, neither his airline nor the online travel agency that sold him the original ticket, would take responsibility for the problem, sticking him with a $2,103 bill.

What now?

Pederson fills in the details.

My wife and I were coming back from our honeymoon to Spain and Morocco when we ran into big problems at the airport. At the baggage check-in counter in Marrakech the lady was having obvious problems with the e-tickets we bought through Orbitz.

After about 15 minutes, she leaves with our passports to get help in a back office with a manager. I get suspicious and follow her so I can find out what the hold up is. When I get there they tell me that I don’t have tickets on this flight and that I only booked a reservation. Basically, they think my e-tickets are no good.

I show her my Orbitz conformation print out and how is says right on there “e-ticket” and ask, “If these aren’t tickets then how did I get out here?” She didn’t have an answer.

After about an hour and a half of dealing with this they tell me my only other options is to buy two new tickets to JFK for $2,103 and catch my connecting flight there to SFO.

Subsequent queries to Delta Air Lines and Orbitz sets off a series of confusing exchanges. Delta blames Northwest — never mind the fact that it owns Northwest, and Orbitz points the finger at both airlines. Finally, after weeks of back-and-forth between the airline and agency, Orbitz agrees to a refund of only $800, which is the value of his unused return ticket.

I contacted Orbitz on Pederson’s behalf. Here’s what it had to say:

We contacted the airline on this and apparently the customer got misinformation from the agents in Marrakech.

We talked to NW Customer Care and the service operator secured a refund for Elliot Pederson for the cost of the new tickets he had to purchase at the airport. He had been given some misinformation, however, concerning the actual amount of the refund, so we cleared that up for him today. He seems very pleased.

A really helpful NW agent said that there’s absolutely no reason that this should have happened, because there was nothing wrong with the tickets. The agent said she could only assume that this was a mistake by the agents in Marrakech.

I’m happy Orbitz was able to help Pederson. This is exactly why people prefer to book through an intermediary like an online agency, rather than directly through an airline. They feel protected, in case something goes wrong.

Pederson says he’s happy.

I checked my account today and the money arrived. I got reimbursed for the cost of the plane tickets but not for the foreign transaction fee ($61) or interest (+/-$20), which is fine but it would have been nice if they made that right. It’s worth the 80 bucks to me to have them out of my life, happy it’s over.

Foreign transaction fees. That’s a whole ‘nother thing.

If this ever happens again, my recommendation would be to be patient and don’t allow yourself to be pressured into a last-minute purchase. A call to Orbitz or Delta might have helped clear this up while Pedersen was still in Morocco, eliminating the need to buy another airline ticket.

(Photo: surfzone/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • Lisa S

    I disagree with the preference to buy through an intermediary. The personnel in Morocco are the ones who “got confused” regarding the ticket purchased through Orbitz. Wouldn’t it have been easier if the ticket had been purchased through Delta/Northwest? Then the passenger could have said, “Your company messed this up. Please fix it now.” Alternatively, then the passenger could have bought the second ticket and immediately contacted his credit card company to dispute the charge because the airline was not providing the service that had been purchased, while also requiring from the ticket agent in Morocco a letter in English explaining why this second ticket was bought so that later the passenger could show the credit company how he got ripped off from the airline. These snafus should not continue to happen.

  • Kathyj

    If Pederson disputes the FTF & interest I would think he would win, since the charge was wrong to begin with. Let the credit card company go after Northwest for it, since it was their fault.

  • sami

    I dunno about calling Orbitz while in Morocco. It’s not exactly easy to get ahold of an actual person for these online travel agencies, let alone while you are in a foreign country paying out-the-nose for these phone calls…and, I imagine, are a few hours from boarding an international flight. High-pressure situation, indeed.
    I had to make a phone call at $.50 a minute. Once I got a person on the phone, it was quick, but it was something like 30 minutes of holding, pressing buttons and being transferred….that’s time that the agent probably spent saying “if you don’t do this now, you can’t get on the flight, it is about to close security, etc. etc.”

  • Justin

    Elliott,

    I don’t think this traveler could have done anything different. Let’s assume he arrived at the airport with 2 hours to spare. If he sits on the phone to try to play tag with Orbitz, he might not have time to get through security and catch his original flight. Depending on his need, this may or may not have been an option. Maybe he had to be back in the morning for work or something. Unfortunately with such a mess at hand, it’s obvious a call most likely wouldn’t have solved this problem. The blame game would have taking a while to sort while he sits there in Morocco at an airport and waits. With all these circumstances at hand, he should have just bought the ticket, then disputed the charge on his credit card if all else failed. He had proof of his original purchase, and his credit card would have sided with him without a doubt should others left him stranded.

    Justin

  • David Z

    @Lisa S

    Chris didn’t seemingly recommend booking through a middleman, but neither did he say one shouldn’t. If anything, he appears to recommend, advise, or what-not what to do for this specific situation.

    In this specific situation, though, I agree one ought to book directly with the vendor rather than through a middleman or travel agent/agency. But there are certain (or maybe few?) times they do come through as seen here, though that can definitely be avoided.

    YMMV. Your Mileage May Vary.

  • Scott

    In this case, apparently the agent made a mistake. Sometimes, in all the various computer systems that are linked together, your reservation and your ticket are not attached/linked. This can be a VERY big problem, especially for an inexperienced agent.

    LESSON: Always carry documention of your E-TICKET NUMBER, *NOT* just a copy of your reservation.

    I frequently see people who just show a printout from their computer that can be before a purchase. Showing such a printout is not proof that you have a ticket. Good agencies will always have the ticket number on the itinerary, but that is not always the case.

    And as to the question, “If I don’t have a ticket, then how did I get here?” In SOME situations, you may have unfortunately encountered an “inexperienced” agent who could have been the first one who checked you in without you ever purchasing your ticket. I have seen that too, frequently. In a sense, you got “lucky” by getting on your plane without paying for a ticket. But if the ticket was never purchased, you are unlikely to get that fortunate on your return. (For people who can’t read closely, this is provided FYI, not commenting on the above situation.)

  • Carver

    @Scott

    Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that it is possible for an inexperienced agent to check someone in who doesn’t actually have a ticket. I have to admit to being very skeptical about that.

    In any event, I have to strongly disagree with Chris’ suggestion that booking through an intermediary is generally a good practice. Common experiences suggest that the more pieces something has the easier it is to break. My experience is that booking directly with the travel provider provides the greatest chance of a successful trip. Booking through intermediaries permits the various parties to play the blame game to the traveler’s detriment

  • Geoff

    An old school good ASTA travel agent would know to tell his clients that you should have your concierge or yourself re-confirm your return reservations at least 72 hours in advance. With code-share and different foriegn airlines, this is imperative. Now you are not under the gun if there is a screw up.

  • David Z

    @Carver

    I’ve had cases where some people purchased a flight ticket with us, the airline hasn’t billed them or taken the funds off their account immediately, yet they eventually took their flight and were “officially” charged later on. Given that many airlines have up to 8:59PM PST the day/night after the flight was booked to cancel without necessarily any fees, I’d imagine that makes it easier for everyone not to charge yet until everything’s so-called cleared or no last-minute cancellations occur.

    That might be what Scott is referring to on maybe his last paragraph. Just speculating, of course.

  • Barbara

    I stopped booking through intermediaries (airplane and hotel) a while ago precisely because you’re adding yet another bureaucratic layer to the mix. When a problem arises, all parties start foisting any responsibility onto the other vendor, resulting in no one taking responsibility for ameliorating the situation. The bottom line is the bottom line always. What if Mr. Pederson wasn’t able to pony up the $2100 to purchase another set of tickets?

  • Josh

    @Carver

    Not exactly the same, but I have had a UAL ticket agent check us in on invalid tickets (the price had dropped, so I’d called the day before and they reissued the tix and sent a voucher, as normal). On the outbound, the agent seemed to do a lot of extra typing, but checked us in — as it turns out, on the old, refunded, tix. On the return, they claimed we hadn’t flown outbound and had cancelled the new return tix. Luckily we had our boarding passes from the outbound and they reissued, but it did indicate that the first agent was able to override something (I suspect both the old and new tickets were linked to the reservation code, and she was pulling up the wrong one)

  • DN

    @Josh: I think you were lucky; wasn’t there an incident with US Air that Chris had to deal with a few months ago, where a similar thing happened and US Air refused to believe that the family had even taken the outbound flight?

    I do use Expedia and Orbitz to book my flights, but I always go through car rental and hotel reservations directly because cancellation fees are typically waived when you go direct and give them more then 24-hours notice. I’ve had mixed success talking with Expedia personnel (it was much better when I was Expedia Plus and not talking with India) but have not had any problems with Orbitz.

  • Jennifer (the other one)

    “A call to Orbitz or Delta might have helped clear this up while Pedersen was still in Morocco, eliminating the need to buy another airline ticket.”

    It might have… but it would have most likely ended up costing more than the ticket. Anyone who doesn’t believe me is welcome to check their network’s roaming rates to the Middle East.

  • Carver Farrow

    @John and David

    Both of your scenarios make sense to me. In both scenarios a ticket was actually purchased, even if the accounting was a little messed up. Scott’s scenario is where a ticket was never purchased. That’s what i am having trouble with.

  • http://www.flickr.com/surfzone surfzone

    It is nice to leave a comment in Flickr when you pick up somebody’s photo there :-D

  • Ronda

    I think i disagree with most of the comments on here. I understand that in this case the “middleman” was completely obsolete. But personally I prefere to have a “middleman”, especially because they’re job is to help book your trip and to be your advocate when things go wrong. It gives you peace of mind that if something goes wrong like double booking or overcharged or somethning, you have someone who will fix the problem so that your not dragging down your entire trip worrying about getting refunds and stuff.
    That said, I really dont like online travel agency sites. Just based on that you have to jump through hoops to get the refund your owed.