Frontier charged our colleague for a ticket, then canceled it days later citing a 'credit review' — and now wants more money to rebook it.
Friends don’t let friends fly Frontier.
Yeah, maybe we need more, not less, consumer (and worker) protections. Huh.
Frontier is likely using more automation/algos/AI which is always cheaper than a competent human being. When that goes wrong there is no contingency because contingency planning costs money.
Lesson learned here do not fly on a low class, low rent airline.
George, I recall you enjoy punching-down, but they all use those these days; also, thanks for at least not calling it ‘super’ intelligence…
Is the company credit card Jeremy used in his name or Ben’s? It sounds like maybe Ben’s and that triggered the fraud alert and subsequent cancelation??
So, how is he getting to DEN, now?
Do keep up with the program Bro’.
Just to remind you, I fully retired last year, therefore, no need for seat A2 on the monthly DEN run.
Incompetence is almost always the answer. You’re giving them too much credit implying they have the ability to do something this sophisticated (on a scale where it would be worth it to them) without being caught immediately.
This is a great example of why I set my company’s airline policy that no one flies ULCC airlines as they charge for things we need including seat assignments, full credit cancellations, and carry-on bags. This includes basic economy fares. Sometimes it costs a lot to save $20 dollars.
It sounds like you might want to ban Frontier from company travel as policy going forward...
I guess Frontier is doing Jeremy (and his back & butt) a favor lol. Now he should learn his lesson and fly UA or WN nonstop (or one of DL's nonstop E175s if he wants a true premium experience)
Maybe the credit card company was doing you a favor by rejecting any charge to Frontier. Seriously, though, a DOT complaint is called for to get them to stop doing this. DOT is not always on the side of the flyer, but they take a very dim view of the airline demonstrably lying to them.
What is the date of the flight?
Unfortunate in terms of price change here, but cancelling in advance (and 2-3 days after purchase isn't totally unreasonable here) and emailing customers to inform them so that they can repurchase on Frontier or any other airline is pretty reasonable here.
I agree that there should be a mechanism to correct/refund back to the original price.
@Eric But that should not be happening and it is unreasonable. What you are describing here is in support of corporate greed. According to you, any company can just cancel and ask you to rebook or repurchase at a higher price but yet when the consumers do it we have to pay a hefty cancellation charge unless we paid more in the first price for a fully refundable ticket or cancel within the allotted time period for a hotel stay. For example, some IHG rates allow you to cancel until the check-in date at 6 pm local hotel time but the rate is a lot higher than an advanced purchase rate.
If it's close in, I agree it's problematic, but I think that Frontier is probably acting in good faith here, not with the goal of increasing ticket revenue, but trying to avoid being on the hook for eventual charge backs from actually fraudulent tickets which will, overwhelmingly, be where the credit card name matches none of the passenger names.
It would be great if this was faster (they should aim to cancel and refund a possible fraudulent ticket within a single business day), but what Qatar or other airlines (no notice until check in) is way worse.
Meh.
Ben, IHG sent me an email about a 100% bonus flash sale through 13 Oct. Don't know if it's targeted. FYI.
This amounts to a post-purchase price increase in violation of 14 CFR § 399.88.
Have Jeremy email me the original booking and correspondence and I'd be happy to draft a formal DOT complaint (not merely an online consumer complaint).
Maybe this is relevant or not, but does Jeremy have a bad personal FICO score?
This is clearly Price Re-Jacking. Because fares typically rise closer to departure, canceling a passenger's ticket and forcing them to rebook at current market rates effectively forces a post-purchase price increase (a practice aviation legal experts point out may violate DOT regulations under 14 CFR § 399.88 regarding unfair practices and post-purchase price hikes). Contact the DOT and file a complaint.
Ben, you're probably in best position of us all to fight such practices, so I hope you'll do whatever it takes - public shaming, DOT complaint, whatever - to pursue this. Thanks.
I had this exactly issue with Qatar when I booked a ticket for an employee. No warning until the employee was checking in at an airport in a different city from where I lived.
I got a call from Qatar asking me to physically show up in this city with my card and ID. I sent electronic copies of everything but they didn't accept it. They did not allow the employee to board.
I was forced to drive 2 hours round trip to my large local airport which Qatar operated out of to show my ID and credit card. Only after that was my employee allowed to fly the next day.
I hope he still managed to make it on time to enjoy his stay at La Quinta!
Jokes aside, that's a good teaser for an article on OMAAT's travel policy 🙂
Kenya Airways once tried to pull this trick on me. The day after confirming my booking I received a message ("you recently requested assistance from our support centre" -- which I didn't) stating that they wouldn't be ably to honour the ticket--unless I top up (making it totally unclear what I would get by topping up). After cancelling the ticket they dragged their feet to refund so I had to apply for a chargeback with Amex.