(Consumer Advocate Column) Airlines Give Customers the Run-Around
August 4, 2008 · Print This Article
As airlines enter code-sharing agreements and buy seats off each other, customers are finding it difficult to get refunds from the right airline. The Times Union’s consumer advocate, Nadja Drost, penned the story of how an Albany, New York, couple tried to get a $150 refund from a 3-leg trip with 3 different airlines in her post, “Airlines Give Customers the Run-Around”.
Click HERE to read their story… and how they finally got the refund (hint: it’s NOT because of the phone calls and emails the couple sent to the airlines).
photo credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas
We are the parents featured in the article. The reportedr did a great job and thanks to her, we finally got the airlines to admit fault and take responsiblity. Truth is however, the situation was probably even more difficult than the reported could convey. The hours we spent trying to get our money back, the run arounds, the wasted time was extraordinary.
We will now do everything we can not to fly. Given the price of tickets, the way passengers are treated and the pollution that airfilghts make, staying closer to home makes better sense anyway.
Okay folks, we now need to take action against the crap service, over charging, lazy, rude employees, crowded planes and flight changes caused by the carriers…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
When an airline changes your scheduled departure, cancels your flight or messes up your schedule with mechanical problems, late departures, flight crews not showing up…THEY NEED TO PAY!
Every change we make on our tickets cost anywhere from 100 to 150 dollars and the airlines need to start compensating each passenger that THEY effect with their changes!
Over the last couple of months I have had 4 airline initiated changes and cancellations and none due to weather or air traffic control…I asked each time for a change fee and only once did I get the equivalent (in travel coupon) from Delta…the rest of the airlines (USAIRWAYS BEING THE RUDEST ON THE PLANET) basically told me to go fly a kite… this is my kite…START ASKING FOR RESTITUTION!