cygone

Tvl4free

Makes a valid point; we should band together and demand action against both Global Pass and TACA. Notifying the media and discovering who is culpable for this debacle should be our primary goal at this point. I believe we should use every option available to bring a speedy resolution to this matter. I disagree with tvl4free on one small point that we should hold off on notifying the FTC. I believe we should use every bullet in the arsenal to proceed against both GP and TACA immediately. What we desire is a speedy resolution to this matter and no stone should be left unturned.

First note some precautions to take immediately:

1. Go to www.checkmytrips.com and print out the itinerary you booked, these bookings may disappear very soon. Checkmytrips makes a much nicer printable version of reservation than the TACA site!
2. Enter Global Pass account and print your message both requesting award and denial of award.
3. If you booked by e-mail or fax, save copies and request official notification from GP in writing they will not be ticketing award
4. Go to Global Pass or TACA Web site and print out copy of identical reservation to the one you have, same class of service and dates, To be fair use least expensive airfare option and print copy of what reservation will cost to replace. Do not make fake reservation however!
5. Document everything, phone calls, times etc.


Some actions that are available to us now are:

If your state has a department of consumer affairs, (New York and California, have very vigilant ones, and other states may be equally helpful) notify the departments and supply documentation of the present situation.

Notify the FTC and ask them to investigate these two companies for acting in collusion to defraud the public.

Send a demand letter, certified mail, return receipt requested, to both Global Pass and TACA, enclose a copy of the itinerary and the amount of money you will accept as compensation for the denied reservations. Remind the recipients they will be held responsible for court costs when you prevail and advise them you will see this matter thru.

fetchem

I am confused. Why Global Pass and TACA? If Aeropostal awards were being honored on June 30. It should be TACA only. Leave Global Pass alone if it was TACA's fault. Did anyone receive a ticket on AeroPostal last week?

BOA VIAGEM

No one has mentioned American Express, and how they have a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 mileage conversion, as you state it sounds like it would be construed as a Ponzi scheme (something to make us laugh in this mess)
Honestly I did a 17K transfer from my Membership Rewards account to GP, only to have them reduce it (to next to nothing). I wonder if AMEX will continue their relationship w/GP, and if anyone else has transferred reward points to GP???

Sydneyjb

To All GP + Taca employee lurkers , I hope you are out there reading all these facts and I do mean facts ! You can run but you can't hide !

Harvey108

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidental_beneficiary

Explains our situation in relation to TACA if, as GP has written, TACA breached their contract with GP by TACA not providing tickets that they were obligated to provide for the GP mileageholders. Even if GP does not try to take action against TACA to honor such obligations, the mileageholders, who are intended beneficiaries, can take direct action against TACA.

cygone

fetchem,

We really do not know who is at fault yet but if it truly was TACAs fault alone; would it not be logical GP would now be taking some action to force TACA to live up to its contractual obligations. GP states they are in business for the long haul, yet they are willing to alienate many of the best customers they have? This does not make any sense? If TACA really deceived GP; GP should be taking legal action to defend our rights now and I have seen no indication of this. In fact it seemed a little too convenient GP had an email prepared on the morning of July1, they would not be honoring reservations. TACA and GP have always had a very close relationship in fact if you remember they both shared the same offices in Miami.

fetchem

Cygone,

Your points are well taken. However, Global Pass told us exactly what happened:

"TACA Airlines has not provided and assigned the necessary ticket numbers to complete the awards."

They clearly point the finger at TACA. I think we should believe Global Pass and not conjecture. I certainly do. Unless, of course, someone made a reservation on Aeropostal and received the same email.

How funny would this email be:

"TACA Airlines has not provided and assigned the necessary ticket numbers to complete the award reservations on Aeropostal."

davistev

Actually not too far fetched. I was recently (May, 2005) issued an Award ticket on Aeropostal strictly on Taca ticket stock.

BOA VIAGEM

I too was issued a KLM ticket strictly on Taca stock. The one I keep telling you about & NO one will accept responsibility for & can't simply change a return date. Plus I contacted GP BEFORE the Alliance w/KLM expired telling them I wanted to change the return date and even today they say the tkt is good for one year, but I still can't get it changed!

BOA VIAGEM

@:-) GP like all other FF programs "I'm sure" have a clause that states they can END the program AT ANY TIME, WITHOUT NOTICE, NO RECOURSE, ETC.
Has anyone looked at the CONDITIONS of CONTRACT, or can tell us ALL where to find them?

I don't see Taca as being liable since WE belonged to GP, unless Taca already issued a ticket OR a tkt. # is on Taca's site. Only then "I'm sure" would we have ANY recourse w/Taca.

cygone

I would believe Global Pass if they were doing anything to defend the rights of the injured parties. What action or actions have Global Pass taken to force TACA to meet its contractual obligations. If Global Pass had a contract with TACA and TACA did not meet the terms of the contract than Global Pass should be defending the injured customers, not making excuses. In fact if TACA actually did what GP says they did and refused to issue tickets while a valid contract existed than GP may be able to seek punative damages against TACA. Certainly TACAs default damages the reputation of Global Pass and they will loose some very valuable customers. If Global Pass does nothing to enforce the rights of damaged customers, than they can only come up smelling very bad.

If Global Pass sends me an email within the next week and says something to the extent "Cygone, we are sorry for what happened and we will file an action against TACA to enforce your rights as well as other injured parties" than they will have my loyalty. If they do not do that than GP should expect to be served with a lawsuit of their own.

Unfortunately the only way we will ever know what really happened is to bring both Global Pass and TACA into court at the same time. It will no longer be a he said she said, and the truth will be unearthed. Just because Global Pass wrote "TACA Airlines has not provided and assigned the necessary ticket numbers to complete the awards" does not mean that really happend. Actions speak louder than words and GPs reaction to TACAs supposed default is muted at best and makes no sense.

Djlawman

The Booths have gone from spearheading a Latin American airline alliance to running a travel agency.

There are two possibilities, as I see it. First, TACA decided it did not want to be responsible alone for fulfillment of all the remaining award tickets, and pulled out and refused to continue to provide tickets. Certainly possible, particularly if the contract requires them to accept some sub-optimal compensation for flying the award passengers.

Second possibility is that GP would be required to provide some compensation which TACA still deems acceptable, and that TACA will not provide any further tickets BECAUSE GP has not been paying for the award tickets, but is in the hole.

Not sure which is more likely, but I believe these are the two most likely scenarios.

cygone

Global Pass may have had the right to terminate the program or amend it as they saw fit without notice and they did so when they posted this addendum on the Global Pass website.

“Effective June 30th, 2005, GlobalPass will no longer offer “award” seats in the traditional airline manner. GlobalPass Affiliate Airlines (Aeropostal, KLM, Southern Winds and TACA Airlines) will no longer participate in GlobalPass and customers will no longer be able to earn flown miles as of June 30th, 2005. GlobalPass customers must have confirmed award reservations by June 30th, 2005 and award travel must be completed by June 29th, 2006.”

Although they may be able to change terms of the program without notice, they may not change terms retroactively. In this case: Global Pass was very specific as to how they intended to modify the program. If you read the statement very carefully you will note no requirement is stated that the reservation must be ticketed by June 30th, only that you must have a confirmed award reservation by June 30th.

In my case I called TACA to make reservations, on June 27th and informed them I was using Global Pass frequent flyer miles, TACA made the reservations and issued confirmation codes of the reservations. I was able to print out the reservations information from the TACA website and sent the reservation information to Global Pass to ticket on June 27th.

You ask why TACA may have some liability, let me point out a portion of an email they sent to all four members of my family on July 1, 2005


“Termination of GlobalPass agreement

Please note that as of July 1, 2005, we have terminated our agreements with the GlobalPass frequent flyer program, which includes Aeropostal
and KLM airlines and non-air partners such as hotel chains and
rental car agencies.

As a result DISTANCIA members can no longer earn miles with
GlobalPass or redeem existing miles for travel rewards with the
companies associated with that program."


As you can see TACA admits being a member of the Global Pass program until July 1, 2005. When TACA issued a reservation on June 27th they were a full member of Global Pass. TACA benefited from its relationship with GP until June 30th and also must assume the liabilities it accepted while a member of Global Pass. Ticket stock non availability is not a viable excuse.

I would agree if you do not have a confirmed reservation before June 30th you have no legal recourse, but when TACA made the reservation and I completed the reservation process as stipulated by Global Pass, a contract existed.

I believe what TACA and GP are trying to do together is issue as few tickets as possible, but they really do not have a legal leg to stand on.

BOA VIAGEM

Cygone,
Excellent points and well taken! I too had my request in prior to the cut off dates for both programs (& even KLM). From what you pointed out... they are BOUND to honor ALL the request that were submitted in a timely fashion and before THEIR (and I stress) THEIR cut off date. It started making sense how they just decided to scr*w a goodly portion out of their miles and tickets, even though we followed the 'last min.' rules.
BUT if they could, would, AND THEN DID, change the rules would they have the right to modify at the last moment, again? If their 'Conditions of Contract' from the very beginnning state that "For NO reason, and without notification, we can modify the program at any given moment", then like I said before...they may not be liable? Yet they sent notices-how odd, and because of that it may be their un-doing.

Fiumicino

They are the ones that own GlobalPass:

http://www.avgroupllc.com/

Vice President of Marketing:
John H. Jackson,
Direct phone : 305/870-7546
Office : 305/876-9339 Fax : 305/876-9325
E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]

Hope it will help solve your situation