Category: The Travel Troubleshooter

When SriLankan Airlines cancels the flights for Joseph Obiora Ezezue’s wife and son, he requests a refund. But the airline refers him to his online agency, GotoGate. And it doesn’t help him. Who is responsible for getting his money back?

Question

I purchased two airline tickets from GotoGate for my wife and son in late 2020. The tickets were for a one-way trip with SriLankan Airlines from Guangzhou, China, to Kigali, Rwanda. Sadly, the airline canceled the flight. I bought new tickets with Qatar Airways for my family to return to Kigali.

When Mayank Kumar gets into an accident in his Avis rental car, he does everything in his power to return the vehicle to the company. But nothing seems to be working, and now Avis is asking about its car.

Question

I recently rented a vehicle from Avis in Seattle and had an accident while visiting Mount Rainier National Park. A local towing company towed the car away. I reported this to Avis and gave them the towing company’s contact number and address.
An Avis representative said they would work with the towing company to recover the vehicle from them and that I didn’t need to do anything. I still followed up with them almost every day for two weeks to ensure they had the car.

Avis hasn’t recovered the vehicle yet, and it is still at the towing company’s facility. An Avis representative keeps telling me the case is being processed and that the car will be recovered soon.

When Betsy Bair’s husband loses his job, they cancel their Vrbo rental. Are they going to lose all their money even though Vrbo offered them a refund?

Question

My husband unexpectedly lost his job last year [2021]. We had to cancel a two-day vacation rental through Vrbo. I spoke to a Vrbo representative, who agreed to issue a partial refund of $751. I waited a month but did not receive anything.

I called Vrbo and the company told me it approved the refund, but that I would need to contact the property owner since the owner was the one that was holding up the refund. I contacted him again. Now he says he doesn’t know anything about a refund and never agreed to a refund.

Can you help me sort this out? Initially, all I wanted was a refund of the cleaning fee since we weren’t there. But ideally, I would like them to honor their promise of a partial refund. — Betsy Bair, The Dalles, Ore.

When Elie-Anne Chevrier rents a car in Palm Beach, Fla., she expects to pay around $200. So why did Hertz just charge her over $900 for extra days she didn’t have the vehicle?

Question

I recently rented a car from Hertz for three days in Palm Beach, Fla. Hertz billed me for 2 hours and 11 days.

I have contacted the car rental company several times to try to resolve this. But Hertz employees haven’t been able to fix this problem.

When Robert Sharp accidentally reserves two nonrefundable rental cars on Hotwire, he assumes the company will cancel one for him. But it doesn’t. So who should pay for this mistake?

Question

I booked a prepaid, nonrefundable rental car through Hotwire recently. Then, a few days later I booked another car for the same dates by mistake. So now I had two (nonrefundable) rental cars reserved for the exact same time.

I tried to cancel one of the bookings and request a refund. Hotwire refuses. Obviously, I can’t drive two cars at the same time. Their system shouldn’t allow someone to double book. I have used Hotwire for many years. Before this, I was a satisfied customer. Can you help me get my $178 back? — Robert Sharp, Swampscott, Mass.

Donna Fredkove says her online travel agency, MyFlightSearch, canceled her Sun Country flight to Newark without notice. Now she wants help getting a refund for the new, more expensive tickets that this cancellation forced her to buy. Can we help?

Question

Last year, I bought roundtrip tickets through MyFlightSearch for my husband and me on Sun Country from Minneapolis to Newark. MyFlightSearch charged us charged $477 for these tickets.

The night before our outbound flight, we tried to print our boarding passes on the Sun Country website but got the response that we had to check in at the airport. When we got to the Sun Country check-in desk, a representative told us our tickets were not valid. Sun Country staff called MyFlightSearch and found out that the online travel agency had canceled our reservations. We had to book a new, more expensive flight to Newark.

When Kristen Nelson cancels her trip to Iceland in 2020, the refund for her rental car is frozen. The car rental company wants her to accept a credit. Can it do that?

Question

I’m trying to get a full refund from Iceland Car Rental for our trip to Iceland in August 2020 that was canceled because of COVID. At the time we booked the rental, in March 2020, they offered a “100 percent money back” guarantee. We notified them to cancel our reservation as soon as our flight was canceled, in July 2020. Can you help me get my $545 back? — Kristen Nelson, Minnetonka, Minn.

Steven Meisel paid Aurora Expeditions a $5,000 deposit for an Antarctic tour back in 2019, and he wants a refund. The reason? The pandemic forced the company to cancel and reschedule the trip multiple times. Can we help?

Question

In 2019, I booked a trip to Antarctica through Aurora Expeditions, an Australian company. I reserved the tour through Expedition Trips, a Seattle-based travel agency. I made a $5,000 deposit, and the trip was scheduled for late 2020.
Of course, the pandemic caused this trip to be canceled. Aurora rescheduled the trip for November 2021, and we agreed to accept the reschedule.

But since that time, Aurora has rescheduled the trip two more times. Now, they are departing from Chile instead of Argentina due to COVID restrictions. That, combined with some recent health issues, made the trip much less desirable.
I’ve been working with my travel agency, and Aurora has agreed to cancel our reservation and return our deposit.