Zealex

Alright wow there are so many questions. I am sorry I am "contradicting" myself or not answering questions but:

• I'm a new account, after 5 posts I cannot post for 24 hrs hence my absence.
• There are A LOT of replies.

I do appreciate everyone's feedback, I am going to write a bit of a summary here, then quote everyone and address 'em and summarize what I'm going to with a few options I'd like to share with y'all



A few thoughts...



I don't know why two of my return flights were cancelled, but they were both the EUROPEAN legs of the trips, e.g. my flight to Belgium was cancelled but the Belgium-USA wasnt. Same with Finnair, my flight to FINLAND was cancelled but the FINLAND-USA wasn't. Both European ones were, and idk why I never asked I just wanted to get home and was already irked and confused as what was going on cause I had no return flight cause it was "processing". PLus add the baggage fee, it didnt cross my mind to ask why it was cancelled. I tried looking the flights to no avail, whats the best way to tackle this?



I also referred to my ORIGINAL return as Brussels Air because Brussels Air emailed the itinerary. The first leg was FLOWN by lot, and then when Brussels cancelled the LOT flight I had a flight to Helinski which WAW-HEL was flown by LOT and HEL-JFK was by Finnair. the LOT WAW-HEL was also cancelled. So that's TWO cancelled LOT flights, I am gonna look into claiming some $$ if I can as many of you advised, but first let's handle the baggage.



I will address every user here via quotes, after this I'll have another bolded sentence which summarize what I'm gonna do...no need to read all, I have your usernames in the quotes…but could use advise for the chargeback fiasco at the bottom of this post!



Idk, whats the best way to research this info?

Agreed.





For my WAW-BRUSSELS(FLOWN BY LOT) and BRUSSELS-JFK(FLOWN BY BRUSEELS), the LOT portion was cancelled. Also when my flight was rescheduled to WAW-HEL(FLOWN BY LOT) and HEL-JFK(FLOWN BY FINNAIR) the LOT was ALSO cancelled.



Thank you.

Would you recommend I CB United or LOT? I am thinking LOT here... but also see reason to CB United instead of LOT.



No, I only checked one bag. That one bag under was 23kb/50lb it was like 19kg.





No, I only checked one bag. That one bag under was 23kb/50lb it was like 19kg.



Not sure why they were cancelled, i was just tryna get home and didnt check. Is there a right way to go about researching this or should I just google weather, the flights etc of that day with my info?

I am gonna answer this in my summary, if you scroll down a bit for it… ��


IN SUMMARY...

I am thinking about doing a chargeback against LOT, as many advised and just be done with. In addition to my receipt that the other user uploaded on my behalf since I cant(newb account), I have the receipt for my return flight that went to Italy then Italy to the USA. the flight i TOOK and guess what? The invoice says one checked bag. Why the FInnair agent said no and the lot agent said no over the phone in my OP? Idk, but every flight thats been cancelled has been LOT, this is in my mind LOT's mess. My original return was WAW-BRUSSELS(LOT), that was cancelled. WAW-HEL(LOT) also cancelled. The second legs were all by bigger carrier (Brussel air first case, Finnair second case)

So should I just submit my CB against Lot's baggage charge with the original United invoice and state the original claim, i should have had a checked bag then lot cancelled their flight. Then show the finnair invoice with my flight to Italy then italy to JFK that STATES I ALSO HAVE A CHECKED BAG LIKE MY UA ONE DID? and say I never agreed to a change of contract?

Or do I CB united since they're the "travel agent" and its their responsibility for all this? Keep in mind I'd have to chargeback the original fare which was like 1,100 and change....might be a bit of a diff story(lol). The lot charge is only for the checked bag again which i didn't "agree" too.

After this, I'm gonna figure out this flight cancellation reimbursement . So many replies and advice, so I do wanna say thank you for everyone's help thus far!

jsloan

If you file a chargeback, it would be against LOT for the baggage fee.

Zealex

thank you.

Do you disagree or agree with this choice(a CB)? I'm trying to think of what to say when I call my credit card company(I used a CIP). Just wanna keep it short and simple and submit proof but not too much. No reason to overwhelm the claim agent.

findark

Have you tried to contact LO first, showing them the original ticket receipt and explaining the IRROPS, to ask for a refund? I would try that route first before disputing the charge.

Agree with other posters I'm still confused what baggage charge on LO costs USD 120.00.

Zealex

Yes I called em and showed them that whilst checking in and over the phone.

Said it wasn't their issue and that Finnair had to refund me. Call Finnair and am told only Lot can fix it since it was their flight.

It's legit a he did i,t she did it, finger pointing, guessing game.

findark

The finger-pointing is kind of silly since at all points you had a LO PNR with the first flight on LO, so it should be blindingly obvious what happened. I agree that a chargeback or a DOT complaint would be the next step to hopefully beat some sense into LO.

Agree with others upthread that if SN reissued the ticket (for whatever confusing reason) they probably messed up the fare type.

jsloan

I would file a DOT complaint first. The DOT will respond immediately, and I suspect that LOT will also respond quickly. You generally have at least 60 days to request a chargeback, and I suspect that the DOT process will be much quicker than that. And, the DOT process is really easy; I posted the link earlier in the thread.

Yeah, out of everything that happened to the OP, that might make the least sense of all.

chavala

I think you're making this WAY more complicated than it is.
Most CC companies will just send you a form to fill out which you can attach proof (receipts). it's actually very easy process. (In fact, with Chase it's all online, I don't even have to speak to anyone).
It doesn't matter whose "fault" it is. If the charge is from LO then they are the ones who the refund will come from.

threeoh

I think this may turn out more complicated than you're making it sound. My experience is credit card companies do not always side with the consumer so easily on airline matters, since a lot of consumers knee-jerk file a chargeback because their flight was delayed 2 hours or whatever. Also, presumably OP presented the card to be charged, and there are plenty of posts over on the Chase forum that say basically if you agreed to pay the amount at the time and the service is delivered (the bag was checked), then Chase often rejects the chargeback. The service that was not rendered in this case is that United said "hey we will give you a ticket good on LOT that includes a checked bag" and then didn't do that. LOT never made any claims.

I would try DOT against LOT, then United refunds/CS channels, then chargeback against LOT in that order.

OP: Regarding the potential EUR 600 (depending on the cancellation reason of the flight), you can just file an EC261 claim against LOT (the operating carrier of the first cancelled flight) and see what they say. They will either say yes or no. Costs you $0 to file. If they say no on the first one file one for the second cancelled flight. If they say no on both and you have no evidence it was a "non-extraordinary event", then just drop it.

Often1

This is not an either or situation.

Most CC issuers permit chargebacks to be filed online. Do that. Keep it short & sweet. Leave out all the extraneous red herrings. All that matters is that you were due a free bag and LO charged you for one.

At the same time, file a DOT complaint. Keep that equally short and sweet, Make specific reference to the `14 CFR provision.

If you are lucky, LO simply misses the response deadline to the card issuer and you have your money. If LO does bother to respond, card issuers tend not to analyze the details too carefully and you may well lose.

Next step is small claims court or moving on.

Zealex

Well i get 60 days for a chargeback, maybe youre right here. Try DOT and even if that fails I have more proof to show I tried. I guess it gives me more of a chance, and more evidence to work with.



Btw I was charged 500 Zloty/PLN which is around 127USD, but yeah idk where they pulled that number from...

Thank you, I will try this!
You recommend me doing DOT and chargeback at the same time? I was gonna wait for the DOT then CB since I'll have time. I have a CIP, so I can't do it online(for some reason business cards cannot do it via the Chase portal). But I can ask them to mail me a form.

So...

So I will be doing a chargeback IF the DOT method fails, since 30 days from today is still under 60 for my baggage charge(it was on aug27th).



Here is how I am going to go forward with the DOT form in the description:

"I purchased a ticket for round-trip travel from New York-Krakow, then Warsaw-New York. Although my fare included one free bag, as shown on my receipt, when I checked in for the return trip, I was charged 500PLN(~127USD) to check my bag. On Aug. 28th and 29th, I asked LOT for a refund of these charges and was denied. Please ask LOT to refund these erroneous charges"



What should I upload as proof, my original UA receipt or my Finnair Receipt for the reroute? Or Both? Here is the UA:

Here is the Finnair reroute receipt(notice it says 0PC's for each flight, but down below it says one free checked bag. Is that a contradiction?):

https://imgur.com/a/YX8NqLl

Here is the original UA receipt:

https://imgur.com/a/BzLf5dB



So include one with my bolded quote above, and I’m good? Then I update this thread as I go along?

For a chargeback I can use...:My ticket included one free checked bag upon my return; they accepted my ticket from airline Finnair; they didnt ask me to agree to any new terms; they charged me an additional 500PLN(~127USD). They shouldnt have."



BTW I’m gonna hit 9 posts, so that means I can’t reply/post for another 24hrs!

findark

I would use the United receipt, since it is what was originally purchased, and possibly mention that you were rebooked due to IRROPS (since LO will almost certainly cite this) but that you remained on LO for the first segment. No need to mention which carriers rebooked you etc -- you paid for a fare that included a checked baggage allowance as part of the ticket (not status or CC) and that should be honored regardless of how, when, or by whom you were rebooked.

This situation is really pretty absurd... I note that:

• PLN 500.00 seems to be the excess baggage charge for an "intercontinental flight" on LO...
• Except LO does not publish any zero-bag fares for that stage length. Even the deepest discount Economy fare on LO between JFK and WAW would include 1x23kg. There is no stage length on LO where an extra bag is PLN 500 but a pax has no free allowance.
• The AY ticket receipt includes the fare construction, and although it claims "0 pcs" of checked baggage it also clearly shows the coupon retains the fare which includes baggage (L-NCT not L-LGT).

Often1

No frontline agent at Chase is going to be able to figure out why a UA e-ticket receipt showing one fact ought to generate a chargeback where LO is the vendor.

I would submit the LO receipt for the fee and simply note that it is incorrect under US law and leave it at that. This is likely not going to end well for OP, but at least this puts it in a light which is most likely to succeed, particularly because all DOT will do is require LO to respond.

Zealex

So I should show them my receipt from finnar when doing the chargeback against the LOT baggage?

The baggage receipt has my ticker number, which is on the Finnair ticket, which states I had one free checked bag.

So I can just try my CB with chase, submit finnair receipt and then submit the LOT baggage claim and clearly state that they charged me outside the agreed contract for them to please refund me this erroneous fee?

RobOnLI

I now believe my comments further up thread are right. The images posted by OP show that the "new" ticket has a new ticket number for just the WAW-VCE-JFK segments. The ticket had no way of knowing you originated in the US because those segments didn't appear on the ticket. Also, the ticket number starts with 105 (Finnair ticket), not 016 (United ticket).

I'm not arguing a free bag isn't supposed to be given. The new ticket even says one bag is free. But the charge back has to be against LOT. United has no skin in this game. LOT is the one who charged you the fees so they are the ones who must refund them.

-RM