Michael Burz books two tickets with CheapOair — tickets that it confirms repeatedly. Now the online agency says he has no tickets, and wants him to buy new ones. Is that his only option?
Cheapoair
How long is too long to wait for a refund from your airline? If you said one year, then maybe you know Dani Lind, who spent more than 12 months waiting for Air One to refund $670. How could that have been prevented?
Jack Vanesko thought the instructions to the online agents at CheapOair were clear: They were supposed to cancel his traveling companion’s flight from New Delhi to Lhasa. Instead, they canceled both tickets.
When a company does one of its customers wrong, the last person to feel bad for it is usually me. But this CheapOair case has left me deeply conflicted. It involves William Bensinger’s flight from Seattle to Antalya, Turkey — a flight that didn’t happen for reasons beyond his control. And beyond the control of his online travel agency.
And they were not tears of joy at having found a bargain. Elizabeth Hutton’s mother, Mary Ellyn, bought a round trip ticket from Cincinnati to Tallinn, Estonia, with stopovers in Newark and Stockholm. But something was wrong with the reservation, and she had to pay for another flight.
Sneharthi Roy is the senior vice president of operations for CheapOair, a Web site that sells discounted airline tickets and hotel rooms. I asked him about the low travel prices we’ve seen lately and some of the possible pitfalls of buying travel in a buyer’s market.
When Eileen Mather lands in Mexico City on her way to Tapachula, Mexico, she learns her airline ticket isn’t valid. Her airline forces her to buy a new one. Mather asks her online agency, Cheapoair.com, for a refund, but more than six months later, she’s still out $879. Is she also out of options?
There’s bad news for anyone who is considering booking a trip online: the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index from the University of Michigan finds customer satisfaction has fallen to an all-time low. The online travel industry’s aggregate scored slipped from 76 to 75 last year, a drop of 1.3 percent. It’s the lowest reading since the ACSI began tracking online travel agencies in 2002.
Here’s an important footnote to the airline industry’s year from hell. A closer look at the Transportation Department’s 2007 report card shows some carriers were likelier to lose your luggage, deny you boarding, get you to your destination late and provoke a written complaint. And some airlines were above it all.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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