Unsuspecting Airline Ticket Holders Bullied Into Paying Twice For Tickets From Airfare.com; Call for Victims to Join Pending Class Action Suit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Baltimorehudhomes.com) February 18, 2010 -- Milwaukee, WI, USA, — An email to resubmit credit card information for tickets already purchased from Airfare.com by a Milwaukee woman has led to a nightmare consumer fraud scam crossing International borders.
Upon contacting Airfare.com to verify why a second request for credit information was needed for tickets purchased for a May trip to Switzerland, the woman was notified that her tickets were canceled and in order to keep her flight dates, she must now pay $500 more per ticket.
Luckily I had enough common sense to check the Airfare.com website. The price jump seemed ridiculous o me,” she states. Indeed. The price Airfare.com was charging for the same tickets was $40 less than the tickets the woman purchased a month before. When the woman pointed this out, she was handed to a manager who then informed her that because her paperwork wasn’t received, her tickets were canceled by Swiss Air.
Now Airfare.com was charging me a $200 penalty to rebook my reservation. I thought it unfair because I had no control over how my paperwork was handled in their offices, but clearly I was getting no where with this company." She explains how the manager informed her she must stay on the line while he sent her an email with a new reservation. When she received it, she was to type word for word exactly what he said and email it back to him. She was instructed not hang up or she will lose the special price he had found for her.
Obviously the flags went off here,” she continued. “I deliberately mistyped the information he dictated to me, and left out the part about agreeing to let him charge the credit card. When we hung up, I called Chase Bank and alerted them that they were not authorized to charge on the card.
A three way call with Chase Bank, Airfare.com and the woman confirmed that the charge could not go through and the reservation must be canceled.
I thought the matter was settled until Airfare.com decided to recreate the first canceled reservation and recharged the card again! I was shocked."
A request was sent to Airfare.com to complete the voided reservation yesterday ended with the most shocking response of all. Airfare.com charged the woman's credit card again for another pair of tickets. As it stands today, each time she tried to correct the situation, another charge is made to the account. There are now six tickets booked on Swiss Air and nearly $5,000 worth of charges held against her account. Chase Bank has an active case against Airfare.com and the matter is under investigation. “Swiss Air has been very helpful, too. They actually were the ones to alert me that the first tickets were never canceled. It was proof the tickets I bought were mine all along. Airfare.com just wanted scare me into paying more so I wouldn't jeopardize my travel plans."
When asked to give advice to those purchase tickets online, she warned against bargain shopping the discounters. “The airline was selling the tickets for the same price. I should have checked and bought from the airline that was flying the plane. The sad thing is, I figured this out. How many people out there got scammed and didn’t know it?”
A call for other victims of Airfare.com is being made. If you were a victim of this scam, please send your story and verifiable information to: airfaredotcomscam at gmail.com
Information is being gathered for a pending class action suit and your case will be followed up on when an attorney has been chosen. Read the ongoing story on the blog: airfarecomscam.blogspot.com
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About the author
Name: eightseconds
Company: eightseconds
Telphone: 414-235-8058
Email: ***@eight-seconds.com
Website: airfarecomscam.blogspot.com
