VK Travels is a travel agent who booked a ticket for my friend. Since he was out of town, I had to pay for it, and I sent them a credit card authorization.
People in the Airline trade are aware how tickets are charged. The airline charges the buyer's credit card and the agent gets a commision.
Heena from V.K. Travels told me $160 would be the lowest rate the airline will be able to offer me. She asked me to send an authorization form for the same amount. Later, an itinerary was sent to my friend. Everything was fine.
A few days later, Anil from V.K. Travels calls me and says the airline made a mistake and charged me twice, one charge of $109.50 and one of $160 to my credit card. He asked me to copy these charges and send them to him so he could follow it up with the airline and send me a check. I copied the charges and sent him.
While copying, I noticed that the $109.50 charge was made by the Airline, while the $160 charge was made by V.K. Travels. I did not think much of it at the time.
A few days later, I got a receipt (Airline receipt printed on ticketing paper) in my mail that said total fare $109.50. I got wind of the fraud, and I sent an email and dropped voice messages asking them to refund $160. Heena from V.K. Travels called and yelled at me, and threatened to cancel my friend's flight since I was creating issues. She claimed there were other issuing fees etc. That were not on the invoice. Repeating her threat, she hung up on me saying she did not want to talk to me.
I have booked several flights in the past, and I know the amount on your ticket-paper receipt is the actual final amount. I called United Airlines, ensured three things
1. $109.50 was the total ticket price, not $160
2. Only the passenger could cancel the ticket, not the agent.
3. I asked them to put a special note on there to ensure that the ticket did not get canceled.
Since the ticket was $109.50, and the airline had charged me $109.50, there remained no purpose for the $160 charge on my card, as I had not received any services for this amount. I called Chase and had them mark the transaction as disputed.
If the agent had actually told me the ticket is $110, and they would charge me an extra $20 for booking, I would be okay. I have issue with deceptive business practices, in this case, involving a claim of the airline having double-charged me.in addition to fraud, these people had tarnished the airline whom they book through, while they had done no wrong.
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