Description

Monday February 19th: I booked three flights With American Airlines (AA) on Travoport's website. These were "economy seats". There was no mention if bags were allowed with these cheap flights, so I did click on the link that was in their website which brought me to a page that described AA policy of one carry on item, one personal item. At no other place on their website is their information about bags allowed. I have checked many times. About an hour later I received a call from Henry Williams, an employee with Travoport. He stated that my purchased tickets were "promotional" and could be changed or canceled at any time. Also, I would not be allowed any bags whatsoever, not even a purse. I asked if the tickets I purchased were economy as listed on their website. He stated they were not really economy, they were "special" economy tickets that were a promotional price and not guaranteed flights. He then asked if we could be flexible with our travel plans. We could not. I pointed out to Henry that this information was not in the flight plans or anywhere on their website. He stated it was. I went on the website while on the phone and tried to re-book the same flights. There was absolutely NO information stating this was a promotional price and not guaranteed. And again, the baggage question led me to AA general policy. I pointed this out to Henry and he stated, "Yes, but that is for non-promotional tickets." I was informed this purchase was non-refundable. Also not listed on their site or in any of the forms. My only option was to upgrade my tickets for additional money. As this additional money was very close to AA site pricing, we agreed. I was told I would receive confirmation of my flights/tickets in 24-48 hours. Wednesday February 19th: At the 48 hour mark, I did not have my confirmation. I called AA directly and confirmed that Travoport had not booked my flights with them yet. I called Travoport and again talked with Henry Williams. He told me I needed to be patient and that the flights would be guaranteed soon. I told him that I was told I would receive confirmation in 48 hours, and that is what I expected. This is not hard in the digital age. Henry seemed to become agitated with me and told me I would get my confirmation. I called back later and spoke with James Cooper. James agreed to help me get my ticket confirmation. However, he insisted I go to Google and write a favorable review, and then he would email my confirmation. Desperate for my tickets, I did so. I suspect this is why Google has any favorable reviews of this company at all. I did receive my confirmation with my e-tickets after writing this review. I used the AA confirmation codes provided ont he AA website to confirm I did indeed have three tickets on flight 1851 from Grand Rapids to Fresno. All seemed ok. Not great, but ok. Wednesday 2/26/25 I received a call from Henry with Travoport. It was bad news. My flight had been cancelled. I asked Henry how this occurred because my tickets were supposed to be guaranteed. I had paid several hundred dollars extra at Travoport's insistence that this was the way I would be garunteed a seat. Henry stated that this was completely out of Travoport's control and that AA had cancelled flight 1851 altogether. I confirmed with Henry that the entire flight was cancelled, not just my tickets. He stated, "Yes. The airline has cancelled the flight. There is nothing Travoport can do". I called AA and spoke with a representative named Chanelle. She was very helpful and informative. She was able to confirm that flight 1851 had NOT been cancelled, but my tickets were. She was able to find that while a few days ago, I did have seats on AA flight 1851, I no longer did. She stated, "this doesn't make any sense. I don't know why this happened." I was escalated to AA corporate. There I spoke with a representative that confirmed that Travoport had canceled my flights on their end. There was nothing they could do to help me since this was a third party booking. I called Henry back at Travoport. He, again, seemed agitated with me when I questioned what happened. I was told my only options were a flight that would put me landing 3 hours away from my destination, or pay more money for a flight, or they would allow me to cancel at this point. I decided to cancel and receive a refund. Henry told me I would receive and email stating that my flight was to be refunded. I did not. I called back several times and reached Allen Wilson. He confirmed my refund had been initiated and agreed to send me the email Henry failed to send. He was able to send it while I was on the phone and I at least had it in writing that I would get a refund. I was told the refund would take 15 business days. I stated this was absolutely unacceptable and I would need my money by the next day since it was all digital transactions. Allen would not confirm that this would occur. I asked Allen to explain what occurred with my supposed "guaranteed" seats that I had booked and asked for a paper trail explaining what happened and how they were cancelled. He stated he needed to put me on hold and talk to Henry Williams. I was on hold for 30 minutes, and then they hung up. Thursday 02/26/25 I have received my funds back into my bank account. Unfortunately, this company has robbed me of the ability to see my military son before he deploys as flights are now prohibitively expensive. I suspect the idea was to make me pay more and more for my flights as the time drew near, under the guise that my flights were not secure unless I paid more and more money.