Airline Lost Return Reservation

Old Apr 23rd, 2012, 11:52 AM
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Airline Lost Return Reservation

I’m posting this in hopes that someone may have additional advice. We booked round trip flights to Spain to visit family. We had problems checking in on the original flights. American Airline agent thought it was due to my husband and son having the same name. We considered this unusual because we have flown together many times (on the same airlines) and both have different passports (obviously) and different middle names. She finally referred us to the Iberia agents in our connecting flight after trying for 2 hours. The Iberia agent had problems as well and even tried reissuing the tickets. After about 2 hours, they were finally able to check both husband and son into the flight but the Iberia agent said “I’m doing something I shouldn’t do” and handwrote the ticket number on one of our boarding passes. Fast-forward to a week later, we arrive at the airport in Spain to return home and they can’t find husband or son’s return reservations. After anxious hours in the airport there, the agent directed us to purchase new tickets home. It appeared that the original agent had lost our reservations. Unfortunately, our original flights were booked and we had to leave the next day. The cost of these new tickets – over 5600 Euros or $7500. We’ve been home for over a month and in this time I’ve contacted Iberia Airlines, American Airlines (original tickets were booked through American) Better Business Bureau and even Chris Elliott to help get a refund on these payments. I can’t dispute the credit card charges on the tickets home because we actually received the service. American says that they were forwarded our request to the refund department but you can’t speak to anyone there. All you get is the heavy call volume message. Does anyone have additional advice or should I continue on the same path that I’ve been?
twoodard27 is offline  
Old Apr 23rd, 2012, 07:13 PM
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The correct procedure is to send an email so that you have a paper trail. Chris Elliott publishes a list of contacts at all major airlines. It sounds as if you two return flights were cancelled due to agent error. Keep it simple. Make the letter no mor Han one rented page, preferably in three or four short paragraphs. Give the ticket numbers if you have them as well as copies of their original boarding passes. The procedure takes a while even in the best of circumstances ... Probably 60 to 90 days. Keep trying.
doug_stallings is offline  
Old Apr 24th, 2012, 11:36 AM
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First rule on all held reservations, get the six digit locator number. With this number, anything else should not be difficult.

Any reference to an airline should always have the locator on all correspondence. Ticket numbers don't mean a lot. If you booked outbound and return tickets as one reservation, you should have the locator number on the ticket. This will be your reference point to the airline. This number should also have been on your reservation.
Rastaguytoday is offline  
Old Apr 24th, 2012, 12:33 PM
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hate to worry or confuse the OP even more but Rastaguy is EXACTLY backwards. The record locator, also called a PNR is the 6 digit # and ONLY means a reservation has been made. IT does NOT mean you have a ticket! The 16 or so digit number is the TICKET number and you need to find out why the TICKET was not issued properly once the RESERVATION had been made.

So 0 - it sounds like your husband and don were not TICKETED properly, yet someone at Iberia put the ticket through but didn't fix the return, That is why you had to buy new tickets?
I would explain that clearly in a letter to their corp headquarters, attn corporate customer service. FYI

American Airlines unpublished customer service number is 817-963-1234.
mztery is offline  
Old Apr 25th, 2012, 03:11 AM
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mstery--thanks for his info. I've just checked documentation from Expedia re an upcoming flight to Europe which states the ticket # as "in process". Several months before I fly, but I will definitely check to see that this # comes through.
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