Dresden
Feb 13, 05, 10:41 am
I am trying to help a friend who is scheduled to leave in a week, and really need some concrete suggestions to salvage her trip. . . Here are the details:
She booked a flight leaving on February 19, 2005 from MIA to ELH. She was only called February 11, 2005 to be told that route is discontinued. Now it is so late in the season that all flights to this route--ELH--are full except for one which requires an overnight stay in Nassau and a very late return.
She had chosen this route specifically because she has a young child with a disability and it was nonstop from Miami to ELH (North Eleuthera). The only solutions that US Airways gave me was to leave on the 18th from MIA and stopover in Nassau for overnight before leaving from Nassau and continuing on my destination to ELH at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. That adds a considerable amount of hassle with a small disabled child, in addition, it adds to my expenses because I have to pay for a hotel and expenses of transfer from airport-to-hotel and hotel-back-to-airport the next morning. I called a supervisor at Customer Service, Caroline Kear, who said she was not authorized to refund hotel expenses and said for me to call Consumer Affairs 866-523-5333. I called and they said they could not refund my money for a hotel but only provide a travel voucher in the amount of my hotel expenses.
Her vacation home in ELH is already paid for and the money non-refundable. The owner's policy is 30 days prior notice. US Airways only gave me a week's notice--too late for me to cancel and leaving me scrambling to find hotel reservations and costing me extra money--not to mention the hassle which is the worst part of it!
I would really appreciate your input about how to deal with this issue, and the sooner the better.
She booked a flight leaving on February 19, 2005 from MIA to ELH. She was only called February 11, 2005 to be told that route is discontinued. Now it is so late in the season that all flights to this route--ELH--are full except for one which requires an overnight stay in Nassau and a very late return.
She had chosen this route specifically because she has a young child with a disability and it was nonstop from Miami to ELH (North Eleuthera). The only solutions that US Airways gave me was to leave on the 18th from MIA and stopover in Nassau for overnight before leaving from Nassau and continuing on my destination to ELH at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. That adds a considerable amount of hassle with a small disabled child, in addition, it adds to my expenses because I have to pay for a hotel and expenses of transfer from airport-to-hotel and hotel-back-to-airport the next morning. I called a supervisor at Customer Service, Caroline Kear, who said she was not authorized to refund hotel expenses and said for me to call Consumer Affairs 866-523-5333. I called and they said they could not refund my money for a hotel but only provide a travel voucher in the amount of my hotel expenses.
Her vacation home in ELH is already paid for and the money non-refundable. The owner's policy is 30 days prior notice. US Airways only gave me a week's notice--too late for me to cancel and leaving me scrambling to find hotel reservations and costing me extra money--not to mention the hassle which is the worst part of it!
I would really appreciate your input about how to deal with this issue, and the sooner the better.