Last year, we bought tickets
to fly to Israel for Shavuos to celebrate my son’s bar mitzva. We couldn’t
afford regular priced tickets and were grateful to see Dan’s Deals advertise an
unbeatable deal through Air Serbia. I think it was around $260 round trip per
person! Yes, it was inconvenient – we had to stay overnight in Serbia on the
way back –but there were plenty of other Yidden in the same “boat,” and we all
found each other and made arrangements to stay at Airbnbs and get food from
Chabad.
Then Corona hit. We hoped
against hope that we would still be able to make it, but by Pesach time, we
realized it was not happening. Time to cancel the tickets. Dan’s Deals always
emphasizes that you should never be the one to cancel the tickets. Always wait
for the airline to do it; otherwise you may not get your money back. However,
we had bought the tickets through the Chase portal using some miles and our
Chase credit card. Their website is very helpful, and they encourage people to
cancel tickets with a message like, “We at Chase will work to obtain refunds
for our clients.” Figuring it would save me time and anxiety so I wouldn’t have
to wait until the last minute, I hit the cancel button. Next day I received an
email from Chase letting me know that they had cancelled our tickets and given
us a credit on Air Serbia. (Actually, the email said the credit was for Alaskan
Air! They must have been so overwhelmed.)
Nice try. These prices would
never happen again, and I had no other plans to fly Air Serbia. I then started
a six-month process of trying to get my money back. Chase sent me to Air
Serbia. Air Serbia wasn’t open. I chatted online with Chase. They tried to
reach Air Serbia. Air Serbia told them we should talk to Etihad since they were
the “parent company” that actually sold the ticket. I emailed, called, texted, and
chatted online with Chase, Air Serbia, and Etihad multiple times for many
months. They were all pleasant and helpful – and blamed it on someone else.
They repeatedly told me they would try to help me and would send emails to the
others’ billing departments. Nothing worked.
I filed a complaint with the Department
of Transportation. Now to be fair, my tickets were nonrefundable, and I did in
fact cancel them myself. But my reasoning was that Chase had misled me into
doing so. If I had realized that I would only get a credit, I never would have
cancelled. I sent them screenshots from their vague “cancel” screen.
Finally, I decided I wasn’t
getting anywhere with all these lovely Indian people. I did a bunch of googling
and found email addresses of the top executives at Chase. Apparently, they have
staff in their corporate offices who handle complaints like this. I emailed the
CEO and a few other addresses. Very shortly afterwards, I received a phone call
from a lovely assistant who clearly understood what had happened and took all
the information. She said she didn’t see why they couldn’t accommodate me, and
she would get back to me within a day. Next day, I got a message from her that
she is terribly sorry, but they cannot offer me any additional assistance at
this time. I emailed back and asked for clarification as I still felt I had a
very strong case. Her response was curt: she basically told me the case was
closed and advised me to stop contacting them.
At that point, I got scared
that they would close down my account (which Dan says happens often when people
become too difficult) so I decided gam zu
letova – it was for the best. B”H, we
were all alive and well and would just have to swallow this financial loss.
Surprise! A couple of days
later, I received a computer-generated statement via email from Chase Travel
that I had been refunded all the money. It showed up on my credit card shortly
thereafter. Go figure!
That’s part one. Part two is
my husband. He was flying separately and on a different ticket because of his
work schedule. After the debacle of canceling my tickets, I was smart enough
not to cancel his. He was supposed to fly back with Air Serbia, and they cancelled
his flight. Hurray, now we could get his money back! It was $325.
Guess what? The same thing
happened. I called Air Serbia. They sent me to Etihad. They sent me to Chase.
Chase kept promising they would communicate with Etihad, then Air Serbia, then
Etihad again. After a few months back and forth, I called Etihad and demanded
to speak to a supervisor. They told me no one was available. I got angry. They
told me someone would call back within an hour. No one ever did. I filed a
complaint with DOT. Still no progress.
Finally, about a month ago, I
spoke to a helpful Etihad agent, who told me I have to wait until a full year
has passed to get my money back. He couldn’t explain why but he advised me to
call back once the year was up.
I called them back last week.
They said it’s not their responsibility and I should call Chase. (Sound
familiar?) Chase said I should call Etihad. G-r-r-r. Finally, I spoke to a nice
supervisor at Chase who said he would email Etihad and I would hear a response
within 48 hours. Forty-eight hours later and no response. I called Chase again.
This time, the nice supervisor said he would call Etihad and try to fix this today. After a lot of back and forth, he
told me their financial people were working on it and I should call back Chase
in two hours for a resolution.
Two hours later I called back
Chase. The supervisor offered to call Etihad again. This time, they told her
that their records state I never actually paid for the ticket. If I could
produce the receipt and have it validated from my credit card company and email
it to them, they could try to get me the money back.
Okay, now I was furious and
frustrated. I hung up the phone and pulled up my old credit card statements.
February 2020: yup, it was billed. But then I dug a little further. In May 2020, it was refunded to the credit
card.
Bottom line: I had been
fighting for a whole year with
everyone and his mother and not a single agent or supervisor was able to
clarify that they had already given me the refund, probably as a response to
the very first or second request I made a year ago.
So, the final question is:
Was the approximately 50 hours I spent on this worth the money? I still can’t
decide!
