Originally Posted by Jen8675309

I am a US citizen and was traveling with my 16-year-old daughter and my 19-year-old daughter in Spain. We were scheduled to return home on August 3 on Iberia flight 2629, which Iberia canceled due to technical reasons. First, Iberia indicated they did not have any available flights to get us home before August 7. Furthermore, they separated our booking codes and had my kids flying out on a separate flight from me. They then canceled that flight for my kids on the 7th and had me flying out separately BEFORE my kids, which then required even later dated return flights. Ultimately, they offered to fly us all out together to return home on August 9 (6 days from my original flight). Meanwhile, they had us in a hotel 40 minutes outside of town where I was placed in a separate room down the hall from my two children.

My daughter suffers from an auto immune disorder and was sick. I informed Iberia immediately when they cancelled the first flight, but they refused to put me in open and available seats on earlier flights because they indicated they would only give us “economy” seats and could not “upgrade” us to premium economy. Desperate to get my sick daughter home I ended up having to spend almost $7000 for a one-way trip home on another airline. For reference, the original ticket with Iberia was about $500 a seat, but Iberia was now listing prices for the last minute seats at anywhere between $3000-$7000 a seat . Iberia’s lack of care in our situation forced me to spend more than 10 times what we had originally anticipated because, current fares were highly elevated and we were essentially extorted and subjected to price gouging.

I have reached out to Iberia many times requesting that they provide a refund for my original ticket as well as the EU 261 compensation for the delay and cancellations. I felt this was the absolute minimum that they should do. They have refused all of those requests. At this point, I am considering filing a lawsuit against Iberia in small claims court for the $7000 in alternative flights.

I could never have imagine that something like this would actually happen to a US citizen and that a company could take such advantage of a customer. It’s unjust and complete negligence on their part and I refuse to let them continue to do this to me and anyone else out there. Their negligence caused me significant financial harm.

My main questions are:
Would I be able to file a small claims court lawsuit against Iberia in Miami Dade county, since they have a registered agent and office there? Would that be the proper venue and would it have jurisdiction?

Also, other than the additional flights and expenses that I incurred for the extra four days that I was stuck in Spain, could I ask for additional damages such as lost wages, and other damages?

Finally, is there an attorney that anyone can recommend that would be able to help me with this matter?