Our family just returned from a beautiful Hawaiian vacation, but the airline tickets snafus were horrendous.

Here's the story:

In September, 2005, I purchased 5 tickets through Cheap Tickets for my daughter, son-in-law, their two boys, and myself, departing June 16 for Lihue--leaving Ontario, CA, for Honolulu on ATA, connecting with Aloha in Honolulu for Lihue. Return flights on June 23 to Honolulu (3 days to be spent on Oahu), and Honolulu to Ontario on June 26.

On June 13, I called ATA to make a change in my son-in-law's ticket. His work required him to leave Oahu on June 24 although the rest of the family kept to the original schedule.

Change was made with ATA to the tune of $290.66 change fee.

At that point, I found that ATA had changed its departure time from Ontario to 3 hours later than had originally been scheduled, but they had not adjusted the Aloha connecting flight which would already have departed for Lihue by the time we would land in Honolulu. It was an absolute nightmare trying to get somebody to claim responsibilty and help us with getting another connecting flight. Seems that by this time, all connecting flights were almost booked and we couldn't get our whole party on the same flight. Cheap Tickets, ATA, and Aloha were all pointing fingers at each other. And it took literally hours on the phone with all concerned to get things taken care of.

Bottom line, I finally got printed itineraries from Cheap Tickets confirming our itineraries.

To cut to the chase, I know that there's nothing to be done about the inconvenience and the hours we spent trying to get the ticketing straightened out. The problem now, though, is that when we were leaving Lihue for Honolulu on June 23, my son-in-law could not be found in the system by Aloha airlines. The only recourse was to buy another ticket for him at the counter. This ran $94.90. They said that I would have to take this up with ATA.

I've just gotten off the phone with ATA. They said that their system shows that the flight segmant in question has been used. Of course the segment was "used". I had to buy another ticket.

I have the boarding pass for the new purchase. And I will try to have another run at this with ATA. If things continue as they have been, though, I'm wondering what my recourse is. I'm using "my" here, because I am the one who has taken care of all the ticket purchases (my special gift to the family for this trip).

I am extremely frustrated. The tickets ran almost $3000, and then to have all this happen. Does anyone have any input on how to proceed?

Thanks,
Barbara

Do you have a receipt for the new and old tickets? If not, get a copy from your credit card company. I think that's the only way you'll be able to prove it.

Hi, Hills--
I have copies of all the itineraries, including the last itinerary sent out by Cheap Tickets comfirming all flight segments for my son-in-law. There are confirmation numbers on that last email (e-ticket), but Aloha couldn't make sense of them and refused to board him unless another ticket was purchased. I have the receipt for the newly purchased ticket.

If they don't respond, call the credit card company and contest the charge for the new flight. Send the credit card company copies (not originals) of everything. Then it will be up to ATA to prove their case. But you have a limited time to contest the charge, so don't wait too long.

Thanks, again. I'll do just that. And BTW, I was off by a year in my OP. The tickets were first purchased in September 2006, not September 2005. Guess I was a little too bothered as I was posting to do a good proof.

You're welcome.

You need to get the e-ticket receipt for the original trip from Cheap Tickets. That should show, in the fare details, that you paid for the LIH-HNL segment.

Then look at the re-issued ticket and see what you paid for. They probably didn't issue you a ticket, and collect the fare, for the Aloha flight.

You're going to need to show that you paid twice to fly on that Aloha flight. That info is going to be in the fare details of the e-ticket receipts.

I doubt that the $290.66 was all change fee. Maybe $100 change fee and $190.66 fare increase.

Yes, of course, the $290 included the fare increase along with the $100 change fee. I wasn't clear about that. What I meant was that it cost $290 to change the itinerary. I have no issue with that, having known from the beginning that this is the way it works--$100 change fee plus the fare increase. I was underlining the fact that I did everything I was supposed to do on my end. ATA got paid immediately for everything they were entitled to. I, on the other hand, did NOT get the service I was entitled to. Because of some kind of communication problem between ATA, who controlled the itinerary, and Aloha, the connecting carrier, my son-in-law was denied boarding for a segment which was already paid for and CONFIRMED on the e ticket (the final itinerary sent out by Cheap Tickets after I had spent literally hours on the phone with them and both airlines trying to get the connecting flight situation ironed out for our whole group), and a new ticket for that segment had to be purchased for him. I am frustrated that there doesn't seem to be any protection for me as a consumer. I paid. They didn't deliver. And now I'm having to jump through hoops to try to get back amount paid for the new ticket. Never mind the time I've had to spend trying to untangle what was messed up by ATA in the beginning when they altered their departure time by three hours but made no adjustment in the connecting flight segment when they did so. And once again, as regards the fare for the new ticket, neither Cheap Tickets (the agent), ATA (who controlled the itinerary), nor Aloha (the connecting airline) is willing to assume responsibility. The outlay for the new ticket, $94.90, is not a huge amount. What, though, if it had been hundreds of dollars for a European or Asian segment, etc.? It's the principle here, and the consumer is not being protected.

PS--I do have the whole paper trail stored in my computer. I can bring it up at any time. The question is, will anybody look at it and honor it? As I saw, all parties are denying responsibility, and the ATA customer service agent I spoke to yesterday said that there was nothing she could do because their records show that that flight segment had been "used".

I'm spending way too much energy here on the snafu rather than letting beautiful memories of the trip wash over me. It was a great trip with quality time for three generations. It is the lack of consumer protection here that is of concern, and I feel I have been victimized since all parties involved are washing their hands rather than helping me resolve the situation.

Since ATA refused your claim, now let your credit card company handle it.

i'm not sure you are taking up the problem with the right company...normally when you book from someone you have to go back to your original booking source..which in this case seems to be cheap tickets as they are the ones who generally make all the reservations and should be the ones to find out what happened...but that is my opinion...I know if there are any problems with my travelers I am there to help get them fixed..although can't say much for the online agencies. My advice to you for the future is to use a travel agent and not book online honestly because that probably could have saved you this big headache..I know with our agency we have packages that have a travel waiver which would have saved you any penalties for that change and would have had to just pay the fare increase and saved you that $100.00 plus the fact that that schedule change would have been known ahead of time, when the airline made the change and then in turn the agent as well all as wholesaler would let you know and in turn go in right away to fix the connecting flight thus fixing any problems before travel to give you less of a headache during your travel. Not tryin to promote us here or anything but honestly a travel agent can be a saving grace in these kinds of situations.

Your receipts are the info that your cc company could use, they are proof of what you paid for. You should find fare details that look something like this for his original ticket:
16JUN ONT FL X/HNL AQ LIH 234.56 ... AQ HNL 45.58 ... FL ONT ...

the one-way receipt shows:
23JUN LIH AQ HNL 72.40 ...

The numbers after the "AQ HNL" being the (example) base fares for LIH->HNL.

Then it is a matter of figuring out what ATA did for your $290.66. Did they take the original ONT-HNL-LIH, LIH-HNL, HNL-ONT ticket and exchange it for ONT-HNL-LIH, HNL-ONT?

Good luck, I hope you get your money back.

Should be TZ for ATA, not FL for Airtran.

Thank you, All. I'm ready to dispute charges with my credit card company, but am not sure what I should ask for. The credit card statement shows an ATA charge for $290.66 for the change in my son-in-law's ticket. The e ticket they sent through to us shows all segments as being comfirmed, but in looking carefully at it, the segment in question, LIH to HNL reads "Status confirmed (Passive) (BK)" while the other three segments read "Status confirmed (HK). I'm not sure what implication this has, if any. My question: do I dispute the $94.90 paid to Aloha to cover the cost of the new ticket, or do I dispute the charges paid for the ticket change with ATA since they did not deliver a valid ticket, or at least a ticket which could be located in Aloha's system. Not only that, but it took hours and hours of phone time with Cheap Tickets (the agent), ATA, and Aloha both before and after the trip trying to get everything ironed out. Nobody, but nobody involved in this ticketing is taking responsibility. I'm inclined to blame the agent here and ask for compensation for the $94.90, and perhaps beyond that, for what would amount to almost a full work day's worth of hours just trying to get everything straightened out with the total snafu stemming from the failure (ATA's or Cheap Ticket's?) to adjust the Aloha connecting flight for the whole family after the original ATA departure time was delayed by three hours (see first post). Am I on or off target here?

you won't get anything for your time. dispute the ticket that wasn't used but charged. that's what the cc co will look at.

Technically, you would only get a credit for the ticket that wasn't used, not a refund. And according to the airline's rules, you didn't cancel it in advance, so it's a goner. Not right, but that's how the airline will view it. Not to mention, they believe your son (?) used it, so you have no recourse there.

I would contest the charge for the flight you had to buy because they didn't honor his existing ticket (though, subsequently, they think it did exist and he used it). To me, that's the valid contest and more easily won given the fact pattern.

I appreciate all the input. If nothing else, it's helped me to siphon off what I've referred to as "frustration" but what I really meant was "anger" (And, hey, Matnikstym, I feel I "know" you, having read so many of your posts on the Africa board, the latest re the ongoing Rocco saga; also, hills, I've come across some of your Africa posts, too. Big, big community, this Fodor family).
Last questions, and then I'll let the questions drop. If I contest the $94.90 only, the charge I made with Aloha at the check-in counter, will Aloha be out the fare due them? Or will they then go after it from ATA? Or do I let the Aloha charge for $94.90 stand, and ask the Credit Card company to substact that amount from the $290.66 charged by ATA?
And, a question for Chris. I travel fairly extensively, but it's been a long time since I've gone into an actually travel agency to arrange for tickets. How is that working these days? Would the agent be able to look for lowest fares for a fee and then be responsible to help untangle any glitches which arise? A fee paid up front would certainly be worth avoiding such hassles as I've had to go through with this ticketing.
Once again, thank you, All.

Contest the $94.90 charge. Give the credit card company the facts and only the facts, without any editorial about whose fault or who should owe the money. Let the credit card company figure it out with the airlines. You're understandably emotional about what happened, which could cloud the agent's understanding of what happened and your ability to collect. So when you call them, keep on telling yourself to stick to the facts...even write yourself an outline (that's what I usually do when calling to complain or making any other difficult phone calls).

better yet, write it out, reread it, stick to the facts and mail. you have more rights with a written contested charge than you do over the phone. remember the fact is you were charged twice for one ticket used..simple as that.
Bo-you planning a trip to Africa? I'll tell you one agent NOT to use!