I needed to change my flight from Seattle back to Cleveland by one week. I called on Aug 18 and they said that there were opening for the 26th and 27th for the $400 fee for changing the flight. That is $150 per person for cheaptickets.com fee and $50 per person for united airlines fee. Two of us equals $400. The lady from India I was talking to told me there were plenty of flights open on 26 and 27th for only the $400 fee. I called back on the 19th and the new person from India stated that all the prices went up within the last 12 hours. On the 27th it would now cost me $900 per person and the following even sept 1,2, or 3rd would cost $900 per person. He said prices are going up as we speak. The 26th of Aug would cost $638 total for both people. I kept asking him to recheck and I would take anytime and any day. I asked why it costs so much more then what I was quoted 12 hours before. He only said prices change minute to minute. All five days that were available 12 hours before were now gone and my last remaining choice is now $638 more. Not counting that I already paid $775 for the original flights and they get to sell my other one-way ticket to someone else for $638, so they made double the price.
I took it.
Then I checked with United and I could fly on Sept 1,2 or 3 for $191. Per person. My total would be $362 total if I would have just bought from United directly.instead I paid $638. And if I had bought for Sept 2 then I would have paid $1,800 from cheaptickets.com.
I called and the next person stated that I paid $238 too much, but he couldn't do anything. Then I got to talk to a manager. He said that the person that sold me the ticket was correct. I agreed to the price, no matter if it was incorrect or not. He listened to the recording of the conversation between me and the agent that sold me the ticket. He said unless I stated that I wanted an overnight flight he couldn't give me a refund. I told him that I said I will take anytime over the two-week period, whatever is cheaper. He came back and said the agent stated that 11:55 was open and I said I would take anytime next week or first week of Sept. The manager said that "anytime" could mean any day, not time. So the agent could believe that I only wanted 11:55 am. Then he said that the agent could have thought that I only wanted the same price as mine, not anything cheaper because I did not ask for it specifically. This is because on the recording I stated that I only wanted to pay for the $400 fee and see if there was anything out there that was the same price as my original tickets so I would not have to pay anything more. He said that there was something out there cheaper my original airfare price and since I did not state that I would take a ticket that was even lower then that then the agent would not know that I wanted something cheaper then my original price.
So I asked him to give me all my money back and they could sell my seat and make profit and I could pay for a cheaper price directly through United. He would not. I asked for my $238 back, which I paid over what I should have. He said he could not, even though I had called back just 4 minutes after the transaction took place. I had just found out that there was a mistake but they did not want to help me.
So they blackmailed me out of the money by stating all the prices were going up as we spoke and now there was only one day left that was $638 total-and everything else would be $1800 total. The price jumped up that much in 12 hours, so I was afraid not to take it. I thought if I called back the price may be more or not there at all.
If anyone is out there that is going to sue them please let me know.
Also I am an Emergency Medicine Resident. Contrary to what people think we don't get paid much during residency. We only get $42,000 per year and most of us have $300,000 in student loans that we have to pay off-not like thirty years ago. I have to pay $2300 per mo in student loans. So every penny counts right now.
Ok, thank you for listening. I hope someone will help.
Jeffrey
Federal Way, Washington
U.S.A.
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