#luvswa

Oh what to do when the fees cost more than the vacation never taken?

Yesterday my wife found a great fare from Orlando, FL to Santiago, Chile. OMG – Spring Break with our two teenage boys in Chile and Patagonia – the trip of a lifetime! Only $290 per person round trip. Seriously? YES! All we had to do was get from our home in California to Orlando to take advantage of this low fare. We travel. We have miles. We can do this…

She books flights from Orlando to Chile. Payment is rendered on a Chase United Mileage Plus Credit Card. Confirmation numbers and itineraries are received. This will happen!

Now how to get from Cali to Orlando? Miles are redeemed on Southwest Airlines from California to Orlando. Two tickets using miles, two tickets were purchased. Almost done!

How to get home from Orlando? United Mileage Plus miles are transferred from wife to husband (for a fee) so we can each buy two tickets from Orlando back to California. Flights are found and booked using 100,000 United miles for four, one-way tickets. It’s steep, but this completes the last leg. All-in we booked four round trip tickets between California and Santiago, Chile for less than $500 per passenger. Suh-weet!

Wait a minute! Three hours after booking, Chase United Mileage Plus Credit Card notifies my wife that the fraud detection feature has declined the charges for this trip. OK, call the airlines to re-book the tickets between Orlando and Chile. Three hours have passed since the original booking. You know, the booking that sent us e-mail confirmation numbers and itineraries?  

So Sorry, the fare you booked for $290 per person is now $750 per person. $1,160 just became $3,000. WTF? Try again. “Will you hold please?” [5 minutes pass.] “So sorry, would you like to book at the new fare?” comes the reply. Wife is livid. Depressed. The trip of a lifetime is off. The price is too steep. Keep checking prices, but no luck. The low fare never returns.

The next day, my wife continues to unsuccessfully search for the low fare to Chile. They are gone as quickly as they appeared.  (Felt a little like bait and switch, but can’t prove anything.) So now we have to cancel our flights between California and Orlando and get our credits back. Southwest Airlines – it's no problem. Everything is done online. Miles go back into the account. Ticket fares are credited to the Southwest account for later use. No fees. No hassles.  Well done!

Then onto United. We go online to transfer 100,000 back into our respective Mileage Plus accounts. We see a sentence on the third screen – “A redeposit fee of $200.00 per passenger may apply.” Hmmmmm. Does the “may apply” apply to us? My wife speaks with a United company representative on the phone named Anna. Wife is informed that if we cancel rather than rebook, we will not incur charges to put our miles back into our account.  We are relieved, especially since all this was caused because Chase United Mileage Plus Visa declined a legitimate purchase.

We go through the process online. At no point are we prompted for a credit card number in the event of a mileage redeposit fee. To the contrary, they DO ask for payment information to credit the purchase fees ($5.60 per ticket). Tickets are cancelled. Miles are credited back into the account.

Feeling bummed about no trip to Patagonia, but we got our money and miles back on Southwest and United.

Lesson learned – before booking international travel inform your credit card company that a trip is going to be booked.

BUT WAIT! Now for the heinousness that is United. I just checked my credit card and there is A $200 CHARGE PER TRAVELER on the credit card. United has charged us $800 to redeposit 100,000 miles back into our Mileage Plus accounts. Unconscionable. Beyond ticked-off. Credit card charges will be challenged. Complaints will be filed with the DOT. Southwest? Thank you. United? SHAME ON YOU!