I booked flight tickets from SFO to Maui(OGG) from Trispta.com for my upcoming trip in May. The first time I attempted to book the tickets, I received an error. The error said that the transaction was declined and the booking could not be completed. I tried to book again and this time the transaction went through.

After fifteen minutes or so, I received two separate confirmation emails from tripsta. I checked my credit card and there were two pending charges from them. Apparently both the bookings went through.

I emailed tripsta about the issue but they refused to refund the duplicate charge. They said hawaiian airlines did not give tripsta the authority to refund the charge. They asked me to contact hawaiian airlines myself for getting a refund. They also refused to accept that their system had an error due to which I made the duplicate booking.

I contacted hawaiian airlines and they said their system showed just one ticket booked on my account and that there were no duplicate bookings made. They said the travel agent(tripsta) should not charge me twice for this booking. They however, also said that they would not be able to help me with this as it was a third party transaction and that I would have to get the issue resolved with tripsta.com.

All this has been a really painful experience. Tripsta.com customer service is pathetic and it took them 15 days to respond to my last query. I also asked them if there is a way I can expedite this issue but got no response. What can I do now? I am worried that if I contact my credit card company and file a chargeback for the duplicate charge, tripsta would cancel my confirmed ticket with hawaiian.

Lesson learnt. I will never use tripsta.com again. Please let me know how I should take this further.