DALLAS — Recently, my family and I were all set to plop down into exit row seats and stretch out as we comfortably crossed the Atlantic…headed for a European vacation. But at the terminal gate, we were called up to the counter.
Hmm, what could they want?
The boarding pass switch-up
The gate agent said they just needed to scan in our passports, and they printed new boarding passes. It seemed odd, but they assured us that everything was fine. I will be much, much more skeptical of odd, but seemingly benign little occurrences like that in the future. The airline just trained me well.
I say that because we quickly connected the dots when we boarded the plane and noticed that our seats were in the row behind the exit row seats we had originally chosen. We took it up with the flight attendants, who checked with the gate agent. As they were investigating, our original exit row seats were occupied by other passengers who now held tickets to those seats. We got a quick apology and were told to have a seat in our much less roomy behind-the-exit row seats.
Not only were those going to be a lot less comfortable, but there was the added annoyance that we had paid a fair amount of money to upgrade to those exit row seats for several of the flights on the trip. We were told we would have to take up a refund with someone when we landed. Upon landing, we were given an email address for the airline and we were told to reach out and explain what had happened.
I did that. And it went nowhere.
The form letter response interpreted my very specific email message as a complaint that I just wasn’t satisfied with the comfort of the aircraft seating and that I may have had trouble understanding the seating map. Way off from what I had written. And there was no acknowledgment of my request for a refund for the upgraded seats I had paid for but had not received.
Airline customer service: It’s about the destination…and the journey
In London, I discussed the matter with a ticketing agent who told me I likely would not get a response by email or phone. She said to reach someone who would handle the matter, I would need to ‘at’ the airline on X (formerly Twitter) because they maintained an entire social media monitoring team there to handle these sorts of issues.
Before reaching out to the airline on social media, I made sure I was using the correct social media handle. I checked that by going to their company website and clicking on the link there to go to their X account. Additionally, on X, their profile included a gold check mark next to it, which signifies that it is an official organization account that has been verified by the platform.
By the way, when I later contacted the airline about a news story on this whole phenomenon, the media representative shuddered at the advice I had been given to contact them via X, insisting that the best way to resolve these matters is through their airline ‘help’ page. Many airlines have similar help pages that provide an array of ways to contact them for different issues.
That said, when I did reach out to them on X, the response was prompt. A representative invited me to click a box and take the matter into a private message thread. Once there, I explained the situation (which eventually included another unwelcome seat reassignment out of my paid for exit row seats for the transatlantic flight on our trip home). Even still, it took a lot of back and forth. I had to clarify some information for them, because their seating records were not correct.
Thankfully, I had saved all our boarding passes and my seat upgrade receipt (with the original seat assignments). It felt as though I had to prove that they had switched us out of higher-cost seats…and demand a refund for the fact that we hadn’t received them.
Eventually, I was told by the airline that they would be refunding the extra charges for those seats (with no compensation for the hassles they had caused by switching the seats. I am still pursuing that with another customer service complaint with the airline). As far as the refund for the seat upgrades: As of this writing, it has been promised but not received yet. I am told it takes 5 to 10 business days to process.
So...what happened?
I wondered why the airline sold the same seats to multiple passengers. A spokesperson explained that this usually occurs when the type of aircraft they are using for a flight is changed. That newly selected aircraft may be configured differently, and perhaps have fewer exit row seats than the original plane they had planned to fly. So, someone (in this case my family and me) must be moved to regular seats.
I get that. But I wondered: In situations like that, is the onus on the consumer to point out that they had paid for the upgrade they didn’t receive? And is it the responsibility of the consumer to demand a refund or should that be automatic? And is the burden on the consumer to prove that the seat they paid for was not what they received, especially if the airline’s records are incorrect?
I was told that the process generally does not require the consumer to jump through a lot of hoops to get their money refunded and that my case (where I did have to do all the prodding, cajoling, demanding, and proving) was a ‘rare experience’.
Save your receipts and your boarding passes!
Beware the spoofers!
Again, you can reach out to airlines on their help pages for these kinds of issues. If you choose to get their attention on social media, beware the spoofers! And this could be true of all kinds of companies and organizations, not just airlines.
When I publicly posted a message to the airline, anyone could see it. And apparently, plenty of people go through this process, which has made the airline’s social media page fertile ground for accounts run by humans and/or bots to swoop in and try to defraud a consumer who is already frustrated and wants to find a remedy.
Some of the fake airline help accounts that reached out were terribly obvious imposters, with conspicuously unprofessional or long profile names or casual-looking profile pictures. But others were much more slick.
One who reached out offered to communicate via an email address that had the airline name in it with the words “customersuppor” also in the email address. That is ‘support’ without the t at the end.
They say things you want to hear like it would be “a pleasure to assist you with a full refund”. That sounds good when you are frustrated with the airline’s unresponsiveness and just want to get back to your travels but take a moment and vet these people carefully.
Like the airline, they asked for information like my name, phone number, and booking or reference number. So, they know the lingo. But unlike the airline, they asked for my credit card information used for the booking, including the card’s full name, account number, expiration date, and CVC number. (I think they meant CVV, the 3-digit security code on your credit card). Once someone has all that info, they are off and running, buying things in your name.
You might just prefer to skip the potential pitfalls of handling this online and try by phone instead. Beware of asking a search engine to conjure up the digits for an airline. This recent Washington Post article, alarmingly titled “I’m begging you not to Google for airline customer service numbers” explains how that doesn’t always direct you to the right place.
U.S. Department of Transportation offers help
I reached out to the U.S. Department of Transportation about this general matter as well. The department oversees the Federal Aviation Administration and has an entire code of consumer ‘Fly Rights’ and a section devoted to aviation consumer protection.
A spokesperson responded that the department, “Explicitly requires that airlines refund fees charged to a passenger for optional services that a passenger was unable to use due to an oversale situation or flight cancellation."
Perhaps more importantly for my situation (or yours, if this happens to you), the department goes further: "The Department, based on its statutory authority to prohibit unfair or deceptive practices, has a longstanding enforcement policy that considers any airline practice of not refunding fees, upon request, for ancillary services that passengers paid for but are not provided to be an unfair or deceptive practice beyond the situations related to oversales or flight cancellations. This would include fees to obtain seats with extra legroom that a consumer paid for but was not provided.”
Even so, some consumers might have problems getting an airline to comply. If that happens to you, you can escalate the matter to the Department of Transportation. A USDOT spokesperson says, “Consumers can use this online form to send a complaint to the Department against the airline.”
Additionally, the department says it is, working on, "Rulemaking to strengthen protections for airline passengers seeking refunds. In 2021, the Department published a notice of proposed rulemaking titled “Refunding Fees for Delayed Checked Bags and Ancillary Services That Are Not Provided.” In that rulemaking, DOT proposed to retain the existing regulatory requirement regarding ancillary fee refunds arising from flight oversales or cancellations, and to further clarify that the refund requirement would apply to any other situation in which an airline fails to provide passengers the ancillary services that passengers have paid for.”
They add that, “The Department is scheduled to issue the final rule in April 2024. See page 38 of DOT’s February 2024 Significant Rulemaking Report.”
With all of this said, I had an amazing vacation. And I will cherish the memories of it (as soon as I finally get that refund). Happy travels!