ellenbw

My friend and I traveled to South Africa and Rwanda in September. Our return flight to the US was from Kigali, Rwanda at 1:30 am on Turkish Airlines. We booked our airfare separately and we each used United FF miles for the return flight. We received confirmations from United stating that our international flights included 2 free checked bags each. We each had 1 checked bag. United does not fly from Kigali but booked us through Star Alliance partner, Turkish Airlines. We had United and TA confirmation numbers.

When we checked in for our flight, we were told that our flight did not include checked bags and we needed to at $250 each for our checked bags. We spoke to a manager who insisted this was the case because they only received $79 each for our flights from United. They claimed that this is United’s fault and we need to address it with them. They were adamant and it was 12:30am by this time, we were exhausted from getting up at 5:00am for a gorilla trek and we wanted to leave Rwanda with our bags so we paid the $500 fee.

Since then I have had several email exchanges United and a strange email with Turkish Air that suggested that we must have had heavy or unusually sized bags (no!). Turkish Air is very unresponsive to further emails and United claims that since we didn’t pay them, it’s not their issue to reimburse.

Any suggestions on how to proceed to get our $500 back?

MmePerdu

Did you have travel insurance? I have no experience with anything similar but it's my first thought. Is there coverage for ransomed luggage?

AJPeabody

Contact elliott.org which often solves these sorts of problems.

MmePerdu

I noticed this in today’s NYTimes travel newsletter:

”If you’ve had a travel disaster that you haven’t been able to resolve, please let us know about it by sending an email to: [email protected]. “

MmePerdu

The columnist for the Tripped Up articles I mentioned above is Seth Kugel if you decide to write to him. At the end of the latest column he writes this:

“Use email, rather than calling, using social media or filling out online forms to reach customer service, starting with the contacts on this amazing page updated regularly by the consumer activist and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott.”

The link includes corporate email contact addresses for airlines which may be more useful to you than calling.

(My previous post is being reviewed but will turn up eventually I hope.)

balthy

Can you push back on those airlines for further clarification on the situation? UA is right in that they cannot reimburse you for money they did not take from you, the reimbursement needs to come from TK, if there is one due. But UA should be able to provide evidence of the baggage allowance for the FF sectors they booked. If TK say there was no free luggage allowance then they need to prove that as well. Can you ask for copies of the reservation from their reservation systems (not the email confirmation, that might have had mistakes on it) but the actual reservation printout from their reservation system, which would be archived by now (travel September) but they can still get copies of it. TK would have a note of the weight of your luggage when it was checked in. Their baggage rates are very expensive, an extra bag is USD230-290 so yes I can see how you paid $250 for each bag.

ms_go

There are multiple threads on Flyertalk about Turkish charging fees for bags on United award tickets. See several links in this post - I didn't read all the way through them, but there might be some useful information here. Looks like it is a recurring issue, though.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33592205-post46.html

janisj

Ditto ms_go. With a question like this, flyertalk is your friend . . .

ellenbw

Thank you for all the helpful replies. I will follow up on these suggestions.

I used the Chris Elliot’s website when United immediately rejected my request to investigate the matter. He recommends elevating unresolved problems to an Executive before writing to him.

I emailed an executive in customer service at United and got a much more responsive person who has been following up with Turkish Air and agreed to give it one more try. I’m not optimistic since the latest Turkish Air response (via UA inquiry) is simply to confirm that yes, we did pay for our luggage.

I’m going to check the flyertalk website as well.
Thanks so much!

AJPeabody

Actually, TA's confirmation that you paid for luggage is a big plus, since your ticket had free luggage. Get this info to Elliott and to your contact at United, saying that the forced payment was an error requiring reinbursement.

P_M

If you paid by credit card, have you disputed this charge? You have proof this was extortion.

ellenbw

I thought I posted another follow up but I don’t see it here.
In response to a comment - I do have proof of my payment for the bags that was given to me by the TA manager in Kigali and signed by him. This was shared with TA and United.

My United contact got back to me and said that TA is refusing to reimburse but as a goodwill gesture they gave me a $500 airline credit with United, good for 1 year. I thought this was a very fair gesture on United’s part.

They are also passing on feedback to their operations - the flyertalk forum has several instances of this happening to travelers using United miles so it’s clearly not just my problem with them. Although it would have been ideal to get my money back, I should be able to use this certificate since I do travel a lot.

I am still going to contact Elliot’s org with my story because there is clearly a problem with TA honoring other Star Alliance airline agreements. I think it really makes sense to elevate issues to the executive emails as Elliot recommends - I got a really responsive person up the chain of command at United.

thanks for all of your suggestions!

annhig

ellenbw - if you booked through United your contract is with United and they broke the terms of the contract by charging you for luggage that under those terms was free. United therefore owes you $500 plus extra for the stress and time you've spent sorting it out. It seems to me that they know that because they have made this offer to you. What I don't know is how you would go about suing United in your state, so if you are happy with the offer and think that you will be able to take advantage of it, it's probably a good idea to take it.

balthy

UA did not charge for the luggage, TA did. TA could not see in their system that the travellers had a baggage allowance included. Without seeing the purged PNRs in both systems, with all the remarks & history, it’s hard to pass judgement on who or what is at fault. Just read the threads on FT, every thread has different theories as to the root cause, all have different outcomes. What is clear is that the traveller shouldn’t be caught in the middle.

Escalating with UA did bring about a good outcome, if not the answers as to why & how to stop it happening to others. That could be where the Elliot org could help.

yestravel

Anything updates on your situation? We are flying Turkish air withUA miles next month. Our resrvation also staes free baggage. Thanks

balthy

I’d call TK & ask them to check yr baggage allowance as they see it in their res system.

yestravel

I called TK and the very unhelpful agent said she couldn't see what it said. She said it didnt show anything. It had to be one of the most confusing conversations I have ever had with an airline agent. She made little sense in her response to my questions and efforts to get clarity.

balthy

That doesn't bode well if the agent said it didn't show anything.

Maybe re ask the question on TKs facebook page via messenger, see if you get someone more helpful. Or Twitter. I find social media methods to contact airlines better however I've not tried communicating with TK. I'd also reread the threads of similar things happening on Flyertalk although none when I read them gave any tips/resolutions, however I might have missed them or they might have since been updated/new cases.

ms_go

yestravel, did you book through United? If so, then there should be a notation like below in your eticket itinerary and receipt email. Having that printed to show at check-in maybe could help - or maybe not. Sounds like this is a pretty common issue from the FT threads I posted above. We haven't flown with Turkish in a number of years - and when did, the problem then wasn't charging us for bags, it was that the bags came home 3 weeks after we did.

yestravel

ms-go -- Yes, booked biz class with UA miles and yes, that's exactly what I have. I will take that with me to the airport, but not sure it will help if they say we have to pay baggage fees. I have read everything I could find on the internet about this. Seems hit or miss. Some have said you can appeal through DOT and I would do that if the airlines dont reimburse. We have flown TK before, but I think it was booked with them. But I do remember they had horrible customer service.
What's also odd is when I put my confirmation number and name in it comes back with the UA ticket number but says I need the TK ticket #. The agent on the phone wouldn't give me that #.