No ticket, but they remembered the bill

gulfQuestion: I’m writing to you on behalf of my roommate, who is serving overseas in the Navy. She recently paid $1,767 for tickets from Bahrain to Atlanta for two weeks of R&R. Her online travel agency, Travelocity, had to issue a paper ticket because the two airlines she’s flying — Gulf Air and Delta Air Lines — don’t have a ticketing agreement.

But the tickets never arrived. She contacted Travelocity, which told her to buy a new ticket and file a lost ticket application. She paid for new tickets and flew back to the States. But when she asked Delta for a refund, they turned her down because she had gotten paper tickets through Travelocity.

After a few more phone calls and emails between her, Delta and Travelocity, she realized that no one was going to refund her money. So she disputed the charges for the first ticket on her credit card — and won.

Today I received a letter at our home address to her from Travelocity. They say they are going to turn her over to a collection agency if she does not pay the money in 30 days. What should I do? — Jamie Tuttle, Augusta, Ga.

Answer: You shouldn’t have to pay for airline tickets you didn’t receive. If neither Travelocity nor Delta can give your roommate a full refund for a ticket they failed to deliver, then why should she have to cover their loss?

But whose fault is this? Was it Travelocity, which printed the tickets and shipped them to your roommate? Maybe; but probably not. Was it the shipping service? Possibly. Then again, perhaps the package was held up by Bahraini customs.

The bottom line for your roommate is that the tickets never arrived, through no fault of her own.

The round of finger-pointing that followed was inevitable. Travelocity, which promises, “everything about your booking will be right, or we’ll work with our partners to make it right, right away,” and, “we’re available 24/7 to help ensure your trip goes as planned,” told your roommate to file a lost ticket application with the airline.

I can understand why, after several frustrating calls, your roommate decided to pursue the credit card dispute. This seemed like a no-win proposition.

Could it have been prevented? I think so. A short and cordial email to Travelocity after your roommate’s trip, explaining the problem and invoking the company’s “guarantee” might have gotten the wheels turning and eliminated the need for a dispute. The airline industry has all but eliminated paper tickets since this incident, which happened several months ago, so this problem is unlikely to repeat itself.

Threatening your roommate with a collection agency was an understandable move, from a business point of view, but it didn’t exactly represent a high-water mark for customer service. Had Travelocity taken the time to understand your roommate’s problem, it would have never come to a credit card dispute.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf, and a representative agreed that Travelocity should have filed the lost ticket application on your roommate’s behalf. The company agreed to stop the collection process.

  • http://www.singleparenttravel.net John F

    It amazes me that Travelocity just assumes that an enlisted service member just happens to have a spare $1800 kicking around.

  • Patricia

    I hear story after story about these online “travel agencies.” What I don’t understand is why anyone uses them at all? They certainly don’t provide the customer service like a real travel agent would. Anyone who ever tries to get service is on hold or on the phone for hours. If you are stuck en route with a missed connection or whatever mishap, wouldn’t you rather be dealing directly with the airline right there in the airport? I have seen passengers who used Travelocity or Expedia for example who couldn’t get help with anything at the airport because they didn’t book directly, and then called the “agent” only to be told to ask the airline to fix the problem.

    Is the savings really that great to justify the hassle? In the case above, it was just airfare and not bundled with hotel, so what exactly was the savings that made it worth using a third party? And if you do book hotel, is it really worth paying for all nights of a hotel stay up front? I can’t tell you how many times I have arrived at a hotel to find that it wasn’t as advertised or that I was going to be walked to another property. Since I reserve the total number of days but only pay the first night, I can just leave without losing money. If I use Travelocity, I’ve paid for the whole thing up front and am stuck. What exactly is the advantage here? Please enlighten me.

  • http://cestbeth.com/ Beth

    I don’t understand why Travelocity did not issue two e-tickets, one for Gulf Air and one for Delta. Usually when one buys multi-carrier itineraries, one receives all e-tickets, with PNRs (aka confirmation codes) for each airline that comprise the itinerary.

  • Lisa S

    It is because of all the problems I hear about Travelocity and the poor customer service I have received when trying to book tickets that I do not use this company. I prefer to book tickets directly with the airline. It is worth the extra money to avoid this hassle.

  • Jake

    I thought all companies had agreements with the credit card issuers barring them from pursuing payment if the credit card company rules against them in a dispute?

  • Ames

    Why are our service people being left to find their own flights and deal with messes like this? Isn’t it enough that they are in harm’s way so the rest of us don’t have to be? Travelocity, the aitlines and the collection agency should all be ashamed of themselves. Isn’t there any way for active duty personnel to get their tickets without fallling prey to silly hassles like paper tickets being delivered to a foreign country?

  • Carver

    @patricia

    I’m with you.I don’t understand why anyone uses these companies is beyond me. I always book directly with the travel provider because it makes finger pointing very difficult

  • Chicky

    @Carver, I’m with you and Patricia. I may look at an online site to get a general idea of what the hotel or car rental rates are, but when I book, I usually do it through the company’s own site — because, as you said, Carver, it makes finger pointing very difficult. Also, the companies often offer better rates through their web sites than anything you can get through an online travel agency.

    If I were booking a complicated itinerary to Asia or something, I’d probably go with a local, human travel agent. But for a straightforward booking, I choose the company web sites.

  • David Z

    I don’t understand why Travelocity did not issue two e-tickets, one for Gulf Air and one for Delta. Usually when one buys multi-carrier itineraries, one receives all e-tickets, with PNRs (aka confirmation codes) for each airline that comprise the itinerary.

    Beth, it was mentioned above that Gulf Air and Delta don’t have a “ticketing agreement” which would’ve otherwise allowed e-tickets to be issued. Even if the travel agency issued it, the airline/s likely won’t recognize it.

  • Joel Wechsler

    This last is not entirely accurate. Two separate e-tickets could have been issued, one validated on Gulf Air, and the other on Delta. The possible drawback is that the total fare might have been higher than a through fare combining both carriers.

  • http://www.claws-and-paws.com/ Douglas Muth

    To echo Jake’s post, I too thought that most merchant agreements prohibit merchants from trying to collect on successful chargebacks.

    If the person who got the collection notice wants to make things just a little more painful for Travelocity, they could forward that letter to their credit card company.

  • The Roommate

    I happen to be the roommate in question, so I thought I would fill in a couple of the details Mr. Elliot had to leave out. And I should say how thankful I was for my friend for contacting him, and for him helping me out!
    1. The reason I used Travelocity was because it was by far the cheapest because most American airlines didn’t have any kind of direct connection. I wasn’t aware that I had to receive paper tickets until I was all the way through the booking or I might have considered other options. Even the military discounted flights were hundreds of dollars more expensive.
    2. I actually started contacting T-city and Delta weeks before my trip and I got the run around constantly. And I was paying for it on my Bahraini cell phone. They would leave me on hold for 30 min at a time! (Oh, and the mail was through an APO, no customs involved.)
    3. Delta wouldn’t let me file the lost ticket app because a. they would have charged me a fee ($150), and b. they would only have refunded their half of the fare.
    4. The flight they booked me on ended up having a horrible layover, so I missed my connecting flight, and the because I still had e-tickets in the system and paper tickets in hand, the maneuvering they had to do to get me on a new flight actually deleted my return flight, which I didn’t know until I showed up at the airport! Fortunately, they got me on a plane back to Bahrain somehow.
    5. When I heard about the collection letter, I immediately contacted my bank who said they would have no grounds for collection since they didn’t contest when the bank stopped payment. However, I was getting ready to deploy, and didn’t have much time for a legal battle, even if I would have won.
    The whole thing was a crazy mess, and when I got the e-mail from Mr. Elliott saying they were going to back off, it was a huge relief!