flyerkoush

hello, this is my first post so if it's in the wrong place please kindly let me know where it should be placed.

I need advice on the following situation:

• I booked travel through Hopper for four persons to travel from ATL-BKK roundtrip using Oman Air (WY), with the segments between ATL and DOH being operated by Qatar Airways (QR).
  
• QR denied my boarding in ATL while letting the other three board. They could not see a booking for me on the onward segment out of DOH into MCT.
  
• QR refused to talk with WY to ty to fix anything, and WY also refused to talk with QR. To make it even more fun and challenging, the WY helpdesk for the U.S.A. only runs M-F 9-5, which was outside the timeframe of all this happening.
  
• Given the short timeframe before the last flights of the day, I bought a last minute one-way on Turkish in order to meet my group on time in BKK. Our travel plans beyond BKK were very tight and I could not afford to slip a day in arriving there.
  
• I have since learned that for reasons still not explained to me, WY had divided my ticket out into a separate PNR and canceled the segment from DOH to MCT. This would have happened shortly before the start of the trip, but I didn't get any notification of this until two days after the start of the trip.
  
• I did contact Hopper but they were not getting anywhere in trying to resolve with WY.
• Because of the unused outbound portion of my trip, I could not use the return trip either, and WY's attempts to reissue the ticket went nowhere. So I had to buy another one way to get home.
  
• Total extra outlay for both one way tickets is about 3500 USD. WY has refunded about 1528 USD for the unused ticket. That leaves me with about 1972 USD in extra expense incurred due to the cancelation. (My thinking is, the extra expense minus the original ticket cost is the amount that I should not have had to spend at all.)

I would like to know the appropriate verbiage, terminology , etc. with which to approach WY to recoup the 1972 USD, so as to avoid going back and forth with the communications to the airline.

Also, if you have seen anything in my summary that has other implications such as FAA/IATA violations etc. please do let me know. I just don't want this kind of thing happening to anyone else, or to me again.

I appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

thank you very much.

ISTFlyer

Hi flyerkoush and welcome to FlyerTalk!

In this case, rather than taking this with Oman Air, you could contact Hopper ( your travel agency ) and let them deal with this situation.

SK AAR

Hmm. sounds like something that could be submitted for reimbursement under a travel insurance?

Anyway, Hopper will most likely do nothing for you - as you already discovered, so you would need to push WY for reimbursement in excess of the refund of the ticket amount that you already received. Most likely WY will be reluctant to reimburse (expensive) last minute TK ticket as WY is likely to argue that you took matter into your own hands by buying a TK ticket rather than letting WY deal with it (reinstate the missing DOH-MCT segment) to allow you to travel the following day. Secondly, WY will most likely refuse liability for ATL-DOH segment performed by QR. A lot of potential finger pointing involved here.

Next time don't book complex itineraries like this, ATL-DOH-MCT-BKK with QR and WY is mad (asking for trouble IMO) and book directly with airline.

seawolf

You should file a complaint with US DoT against Hopper as they are the travel agent.

https://www.transportation.gov/airco...umer-complaint

The reason for that is because we don't know how ATH-DOH-MCT-BKK was booked or how many tickets were issued and by which airline. Hopper would know that.

For example:
If the ticket is actually QR ATH-BKK fare, QR owes this problem even if a WY caused the issue. Your complaint would essentially be with QR and not WY. QR and WY would need to resolve among themselves.
If on the other hand, and as an example, if multiple tickets were issued with QR covering ATH-DOH and WY DOH-MCT-BKK then the problem is with WY.

I would also look into a credit card dispute.

flyerkoush

Thank you for your feedback. I'm reaching out to DoT, FAA, IATA for any kind of recourse and perhaps an insurer can help with subrogating the expenses.

flyerkoush

Thanks for your feedback, I'm experiencing that Hopper's cust serv is geared toward small quick-fix issues and something as complex as my situation is

Right now the big unanswered question is, who is responsible for the cancellation? Hopper says it's Oman Air, and Oman Air says it's not them. Who else (FAA, IATA DOT etc) would have authority to look at the PNR and find out the truth? I suspect I got bumped due to oversold seats but noone will admit it.

flyerkoush

Thanks for your feedback, I'm experiencing that Hopper's cust serv is geared toward small quick-fix issues and something as complex as my situation is

Right now the big unanswered question is, who is responsible for the cancellation? Hopper says it's Oman Air, and Oman Air says it's not them. Who else (FAA, IATA DOT etc) would have authority to look at the PNR and find out the truth? I suspect I got bumped due to oversold seats but noone will admit it.

seawolf

Don�t bother with FAA or IATA. Neither will help as it is not their responsibility nor or they deal with travelers. This is within the jurisdiction of US DoT.

happychic

The suggestion to open a credit card dispute is solid if you don't get anywhere. You paid for a service to Hopper, you did not get said service. You have grounds to dispute the charge. Document all the attempts you have made to resolve the issue with Hopper, you will need to provide it.