Quark

During online check in on the day before our Continental flight from Newark to Punta Cana I was offered an upgrade from economy to business first for $89 per upgrade. I went ahead and did this for my travel companion and myself. I had a problem with their site and ended up having to input the payment information multiple times before it went through. I got charged 4 times at $178.00 per charge. I requested a refund and Continental refunded 2 out of 4 charges. It should have been 3. Continental is now saying each upgrade was $178.00. This is not true. I know what I was offered and would not have done the upgrade for $178.00 each.

The manager I spoke with a few weeks ago claimed that I never would have been offered an $89 upgrade for this flight. She gave me an example of a route that this upgrade price would apply to, which I can’t remember, but it was a short domestic flight. So I told her that while not the same route, in April of 2010 I was offered this $89 upgrade from Newark to Cancun, which I took for my travel companion and myself, totaling $178.00. This gave her pause. Then she went on to tell me that they would bill each upgrade separately to the credit card, but when I checked my credit card statement form the Cancun trip both upgrades were billed as one charge The manager said she would request the receipt for the Newark-Punta Cana upgrade charge, as I don’t remember seeing it and I don’t have it in my records. I never received the requested receipt so I called again today and spoke with someone else who is going to look into it again and get back to me.

Has anyone had a similar experience or advice about what to do next if they refuse to credit me the $178.00? Thanks

doug_stallings

It's likely that the upgrade was $89 each way; that's the way upgrades are usually done. Are you sure you weren't being offered a round-trip upgrade? Either way, $178 seems pretty reasonable.

lcuy

Whenever I have been offered an upgrade, it's been for one-way. and like Doug says, $178 for a RT upgrade to Biz -First would seem like a great deal to me.

However, years ago I learned the hard way that computers can mess up an order. A screen shot of the last page before payment will prove what you ordered, as the confirmation only shows what they sold you.

mrwunrfl

I'm not understanding Doug's reply about "either way". It is not clear to me that the OP was paying for two one-way upgrades, but that is what I assume.

If both tickets were on the same PNR then wouldn't the OP have been given a choice to upgrade one/both pax on the record? I don't know, I have never done this. But I would expect to see a price for each passenger for a one way upgrade and then a total for the purchase. There should be one creadit card charge for the two upgrades. No? IF that is the case then the first charge of $178 is for the two upgrades and the second charge is a mistake.

If the tickets were on different PNRs then the OP probably made two purchase and each would be a separate charge. That would explain the two charges, each for $178. I'm not disputing the claim that the OP saw a price of $89, each of those charges could have been a mistake (but i would be very surprised if their software made that kind of mistake).

Quark, in addition to getting the airline to give you a receipt, I suggest that you go and see if you have a record of the $89 upgrade to Cancun. You can always file a dispute with your credit card company

mrwunrfl

Quark, did you go to the airline website and look up your reservation(s)? You should be able to view the ticket receipts. Maybe the upgrade charge(s) appear there.

Seamus

1. CO does not offer BusinessFirst on EWR-PUJ, it offers what it calls International Business Class.
2. When CO displays the buy up option the fee is per direction - i.e., x dollars for outbound and x dollars for return. Did you fly upgraded in both directions? If so, you may have paid $79 each way for two people, or $178 x2.

Do you have any status with CO? If so, try calling the Elite desk for assistance. If not, try calling 1-800-300-1547 for technical support, explain the issue to them highlighting the problem you had with inputting form of payment at the time you did the buy up. When you call have the record locator (the six character alpha numeric code) for both travelers.

Quark

Thanks for your replies. I only upgraded us one way. That is the only option when offered these upgrades upon online check in. If I hadn't done this for the Cancun trip I might question my memory of the experience but when I saw my CC statement for the Cancun upgrade and it was the 2 upgrades on one charge I knew I was right. The last woman I spoke with saw the receipt for the PUJ upgrade and she said it was not broken out. I'm still waiting for her to get back to me and I will request the receipt again if she doesn't resolve the issue. I have not been able to find the receipts online by checking past reservations on my account. If anyone knows where I might find it please advise me. Thanks again.

mrwunrfl

login to your OnePass account
scroll down to the Reservations section
click on View All Reservations (on the right)
click on the Past tabclick on View Receipt

the Past tab is between Current and Canceled, just below the title Manage Reservations

This works for me and I can see a receipt for my May trip. Hopefully, it will work for you.

If you don't have a OP account then the only other option I see is to enter your confo number and last name. There is an option for requesting past receipts, but they charge $20 and it says it would take 10-14 days.

mrwunrfl

login to your OnePass account
scroll down to the Reservations section
click on View All Reservations (on the right)
click on the Past tabclick on View Receipt

the Past tab is between Current and Canceled, just below the title Manage Reservations

This works for me and I can see a receipt for my May trip. Hopefully, it will work for you.

If you don't have a OP account then the only other option I see is to enter your confo number and last name. There is an option for requesting past receipts, but they charge $20 and it says it would take 10-14 days.

qwovadis

The upgrades are one way so $178 pp round trip

If you flew upgraded you owe it

If you did not simply file a dispute/merchant reversal

with your CC they will give you an immediate credit

and investigate for free though if you are wrong they

will charge you back.

Quark

As of Saturday Continental did not get back to me but we spoke with the CC company again and they said they will remove the charge. I will let sleeping dogs lie at this point and see if Continental takes any further action.

We only upgraded one way. We owed $178.00 and we paid that it was only the last of the erroneous 3 charges that needed to be refunded.

Also, there was no Past Tab on the the in the Manage Reservations section but thanks for the guidance. it would have been nice to find that receipt there.