So, I went to Barbados about a couple of weeks ago for a family wedding. It was a great time, but...
When I got to LAX to catch the 11:55 p.m. flight with a stopover in San Juan, I was informed that they didn't have a record of my tickets being paid for. They had the reservation okay, but NO payment. The lady (she did try to help) attempted to get someone on the phone to work the situation out, but as this was Thursday, August 12th, the day before Hurricane Charlie was to hit Florida with such a vengeance, we were put on hold for a while. Eventually, I just said, "Let me just pay for the tickets again, and I'll work this out tomorrow." I kinda wanted to get my vacation up and running. Well, after paying the 7 hundred+ and checking my bag, I up and ran to the gate only to find out that in the interim between me finding out about the problem and trying to circumvent said problem, they had given my seat away.
I was 7 hours sitting in LAX waiting for the next plane out.
I called my travel agent (never used one before this trip, never will use one again), explained my situation to him, and (firmly) instructed him to correct the situation by the time I got to my stopover...
...which was now to be in Miami...
...with the hurricane coming.
When I got to Miami, I called my TA again. He let me know that he had contacted the hotel and car service in Barbados to let them know that I would be getting in later, and the wedding party so they would know that I wouldn't be able to make the rehearsal dinner that night. He also let me know that American Airlines Vacations admitted their COLLOSAL FRAG-UP, and were bumping me up to first class for the remainder of my trip, sending me a voucher for my troubles, and (of course) refunding the SECOND payment I had made for the flight. Luckily (for me at least, though I'm sure those who got hit couldn't care less about my trivial problems), Miami is on the East coast of Florida, and Charlie decided to hit the West coast. So, the second leg of my flight went off fine, albeit 8 hours later than it should have been (a longer layover in Miami added to the 7 hours delay from my first reserved flight).
That should be the end of the story, shouldn't it?
My 700+ bones was supposed to be refunded to me the next day.
I got back to L.A. on the 18th.
The second payment for the flight had been swiftly taken out of my account, but no refund was posted.
I called my TA again to find out what was going on. He told me that he had the refund receipt in front of him, and he faxed it to me, so the refund was official and was on the way. Right?
A week later and I still haven't gotten the refund. So, I called American Airlines refund department yesterday to find out what the bloody hell was going on. They inform me that the computer rejected the refund.
Yeah. It was the computer's fault.
The "helpful" fellow at the AA refund department tells me that because the original error was due to American Airlines Vacations, that I had to call them to rectify this FURTHER COLLOSAL FRAG-UP. I didn't call AA vacations. I called my TA, and instructed him (how I continue to talk to this guy without a torrent of expletives eludes me) to take care of this mound of turtle crap.
He called me back about 20 minutes later to tell me that AA has corrected the "computer glitch" (that's exactly what he said they called it. A "glitch"), and that I should have my refund in the next couple of days.
I'm still waiting for my refund.
Next time I go to Barbados, I'm walking.
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