Galun

Long story short - I made a reservation through the FHR program last week. Today when I contacted the hotel to make some prearrangements on the trip, I found out from the hotel that I was booked into a non-refundable room without FHR benefits. I called PTS and the manager found notes made by the original travel agent that I explicitly said I wanted a non-refundable fare and I understood that I would not recieve FHR benefits - which was a blatant lie.

I had used Amex PTS many times in the past so I am very surprised with this. I am wondering if anybody has suggestions on what to do.

1) So far the PTS manager contacted the hotel to try to change the non-refundable booking into a normal refundable FHR booking, but it will be up to the hotel on whether this can be done, and this will take a few days. If PTS comes back and say sorry the hotel won't do it, what can I do?
2) I think the original agent realized that she made the mistake and put those notes in the system to cover her a$$. I assume the conversations were recorded but they would only be kept for a certain amount of time before they are erased. Frankly, if I hadn't got in contact with the hotel today on a whim to make prearrangements, I won't find out until we get to the hotel during Christmas. Maybe the conversations would be erased by then and it would just be a case of my words vs. hers. I was glad I caught this now but boy was I pissed. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

troyb

They record the calls, have them review yours.

An agent once made an unauthorized reservation for me and I of course was charged a no show fee. They listened to the calls and credited me.

MM983

If this was paid with the Platinum card (or any other Amex for that matter), wonder if plan B would be to file a chargeback.

While I didn't have an issue with PTS, I did have extremely poor service with the regular Amex travel services; I didn't have the Platinum card yet. I filed a chargeback and won.

Steve M

Did you get an email confirmation of your reservation? It should show FHR amenities and/or non-refundability status of the reservation. Always ask for one to be sent to you on any new or changed reservation.

Although if the agent made a mistake or did something wrong on purpose, this won't help prove your case, it does answer the question of "How would I even know until I got to the hotel?" I review the PDF they send and make sure things like dates, rates, and cancellation policies are correct. If something changes after that point, then you have their written confirmation to back you up, and if there is a problem with the booking up front, you know about it right away.

Galun

It never occured to me to check the email confirmation until now. I thought they were more professional than that. Anyways, indeed it did not have the FHR blah blah blah on this reservation. However, I reviewed some of my previous FHR reservations, and I had gotten FHR benefits at places where the reservation did not state FHR. Strange.

Anyways, it's good to know that they record the conversations, as I had clearly stated that I wanted FHR.

Steve M

Although checking the confirmation will catch situations like yours where the agent makes a mistake and then unprofessionally tries to cover it up, it will also catch the much more likely situation of an honest mistake or mis-communication having been made. I always make it a point to go over the confirmation email or check on the vendor's website if possible after doing a telephone reservation, as problems are so much easier to fix if caught right away (for one reason, it's a lot more believable that it was an actual mistake, rather than the passenger changing their mind, not wanting to pay the cancellation penalty, and then "suddenly just realizing" much later that a mistake had been made).

BLV

Good suggestions. I do the same & always have the rep list all of the FHR amenities/rates/specials in the itinerary, because they almost never do it if I don't ask for it.

SNA_Flyer

One thing that would prevent this sort of thing is allowing us to make FHR reservations online. I absolutely hate calling people to do something that would take me 30 seconds to accomplish.

I wonder if we will ever be able to do this?

troyb

In my experience, this didn't work.

When I first realized we were charged a no-show fee, my immediate reaction was to call AMEX and dispute it. As part of the investigation they contacted the hotel, who of course provided them with some sort of documentation that a reservation was made (and it was, just not by me). I again disputed, this time with Travel directly, and the charge was ultimately refunded and some points were given as compensation.

Galun

Amex resolved this by somehow adding FHR benefits to my existing booking of the lower non-refundable rates. I don't know how they did it, but I took the advice of others here and ask them to document everything on the email they send me. The booking is now changed to a 24hr cancellation policy with FHR benefits, but at the lower non-refundable rate that I originally booked at. In the email they even listed who they talked to at the hotel and who authorized the change. We will see what happens when I get there, but overall I am quite satisfied with the resolution (if it works out).