I also agree with Jennifer…

Keep in mind when the consumer purchase goods through the internet it is the consumers responsibility to ensure they have read and understood the terms and conditions placed by the company for the consumer to review prior to purchasing. The Airlines are no diferent. The responsibility lies on the consumer who failed to read. I would say 95% of us do not read these regulation, we simply click on “accept” and continue with the purchase. Then we complain, when we things like this occurs. It was her responsibility. We are all very well aware that every company has rules and regulations still we do not want to take responsibility for not reading them.

How many credit card regulatuions have you read prior to applying and finding out that the APR after 90 days has gone up to 21%.

As I have lived in Germany, I have experienced with threatening letters from companies for services not rendered. Just ignoring them (even living there) never caused any trouble.

Her credit card was rejected, probably because it was either over the limit or she didn’t tell the credit card company she was travelling internationally. That’s her responsibility. They emailed her, and she didn’t check her spam folder. That’s also her responsibility. I’ve never bought anything online (even a t-shirt!) and not checked my spam folder for relevant messages from the seller. If she’s that clueless about email, she shouldn’t have been booking tickets online. There are other ways to do it.

Since the airline did not offer to let her use another card on the spot, it is difficult to side with the airline.

I would suggest that she not pay the airline and await the next move by the airline if there is one.

Of course this means she should never book with that airline until the airline comes foward and reconciles things.

Was the flight booked only 1-2 days before the departure, so that the credit card rejection wasn’t apparent until less than 24 hours before departure? If that’s what happened, I’m siding with the airline – a credit card rejection is ultimately the customer’s responsibility, and they didn’t have the opportunity to resell the seat. The 24-hour rule for refunds is standard industry practice.

It is strange that they didn’t offer to let her use another card when they called her. If I were her, I would have asked about it then or called back, not driven to the airport the day of the flight with my fingers crossed.

I’m not an expert in international law by any means, but the difficulty with that scenario is that air Berlin would have to serve her in the US. That would be necessary to get a default judgment. International service is a b*tch.

Even if Air Berlin were to get a judgment, I have no idea how that would affect travel in Germany, or why would it.

I thought the EU had a “passenger bill of rights” and a strong oversight group I think they need to hear from this passenger

This one?

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passengers/air/air_en.htm

For the resident lawyers: correct me if I’m wrong, but the probable “legally worst case scenario” is Air Berlin sues in their home court, gets maybe a default judgment against Ms. Salvadore, and will likely enforce it on her the moment she’s found in German soil, absent any “agreement” or “treaty” between Germany and the U.S. for specifically this sort of thing? Because if that’s the case, then Ms. Salvadore might have future and potential difficulty travelling into Germany if she especially needs to.

Then again, that’s what I’ve learned from various U.S. and Europe-based lawyers. I guess we can only imagine (can’t we?) what the worst case scenario would possibly be.

It appears to me that she did not take timely (make that immediate) action to resolve the problem once informed of the payment issue. The airline said, “Air Berlin extends the time limit in favour of the customer to initiate the payment – or via a valid credit card, alternatively via direct debit to a bank account.” So that suggests that there was time for her to resolve the matter in advance, but that she just didn’t do so within the window provided by the airline.

Whether or not the airline clearly explained things, I think she opened herself up for trouble by not immediately taking steps to resolve the situation.

In my experience, the WORST way to deal with problems is to wait and bring them up in the high-stress, time-is-money environment of an airline check-in counter. Counter agents don’t want exceptions, they want to keep people flowing to their flights without having to ask their supervisors for approvals and special allowances.