In April, my husband and I booked flights for a trip to Greece with VIPfares.com, an online travel agent (apparently Globe Travel is also somehow involved in our transaction, though neither company will respond to our inquiries or complaints or take responsibility for their error).
On our return trip from Athens to the U.S., we were scheduled to first fly into London with a Northwest Airlines connecting flight to Detroit and then fly on home to the Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (MBS) airport in Michigan.
When we arrived in London at HEATHROW airport, the agent at the ticket desk told us that the travel agent (VIPfares or Globe Travel) had made an error and booked us on the flight to Detroit out of GATWICK airport, a completely different airport in London nearly an hour away from Heathrow. (Northwest Airlines does not even service Heathrow Airport)
The ticket agent at Heathrow told us that this would be an impossible connection to make, since we had just over two hours between flights and we had to pick up our luggage, go through customs, find a taxi to Gatwick, and go through security once again at Gatwick to check in. They also were in disbelief that any ticket agency would book these flights in such a way.
Since earlier that day in Athens, when we checked in at the Olympic Airline desk, the agent checked our luggage all the way through to Detroit and had not noticed either that we were mistakenly scheduled to change airports in London, Olympic officials admitted their mistake and were kind enough to purchase tickets for us to get as far as Chicago.
I'm trying my best to make this very long story short. Needless to say, the rest of our trip was a nightmare. When we got to Chicago, we were told at the Northwest desk that the cheapest flights into Michigan would cost us an additional $500 each because we were purchasing them on such short notice.
We then decided to rent a car and just drive back home to Michigan (another 5 hours), but after taking the shuttle bus to the rental car office near Ohare Airport, we were told there were no rental cars available for one-way service.
We took the shuttle back to the airport and ended up staying in Ohare airport overnight (sleeping on the floor). After having been up for 32 hours with only one or two hours of sleep, we finally spoke with a Northwest agent who understood that the error was not our mistake and who managed to get us a flight as far as Detroit for $59 each. From Detroit we rented a car, at our own expense, to get the rest of the way home.
In the mean time we were forced to make numerous and costly collect phone calls to our daughter in Michigan to make other arrangements for her to pick us up at whatever airport we were finally able to get to in Michigan.
We are trying to gain compensation from eith VipFares or Globe Travel for the additional expenses we incurred as a result of their mistake. This includes additional airlines tickets to get to Michigan, rental car from Detroit to Lansing, and numerous phone charges to make alternate arrangements for our travel. I would be happy to furnish an itemized list of expenses if needed.
To date, neither company will take responsibility nor answer our emails or phone messages. We filed a complaint with the Better Business Burea in the Cedar Rapids Iowa area (apparently where Globe Travel is located), but they could not find an address for VipFares, and Globe did not respond to their inquiries about our complaint. The BBB told us that since they are not an enforcement agency there is nothing else they can do to help us.
Thank you in advance for your help
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