We were double charged for our flights

Did you receive a reservation number at the time of booking that you could plug into the airline website in order to check in, see flight status, etc? I'm wondering how you discovered only last minute at the airport that the airline did not have a confirmed reservation for you. I assume that whatever booking service you used sent a confirmation e-mail with the airline's reservation code corresponding to your reservation. Did you verify this code before going to the airport, and/or bring the confirmation e-mail with you to show the airline when checking in? Was there a possible mixup with dates? I don't know how this could happen, honestly...unless the airline changed the flight times (or even date, if it was a budget airline) and you were not alerted via email (that could definitely happen).

And this is one of those prime examples of the risks you take by booking a flight through a 3rd party website. And on top of that it’s not even a 3rd party that’s well known such as Expedia or Orbitz.

Sounds like a total mess, and I feel your pain.

This should be between you and the credit card company and then the airline. Is it possible that you had the wrong date? That is my first thought when they said you were a no-show. You need to document you first charge and ticket -- then challenge the first charge using the word "fraud." If you call it fraud, different rules kick. What confirmation do you have about the purchasing the first ticket? That is key. Then you need document the second ticket with proof that you flew - boarding pass, etc. If the details for both tickets match (date and time) then you are in a good position for a double charge.

Ellen, I don’t know the details of your situation, and have never dealt with or even heard of skylevel.com. But I had a similar situation a couple years ago. My booking, made at United, was SFO through Frankfurt (on Lufthansa) to Lisbon (on TAP). In Frankfurt I had to rush to get to the TAP flight. At the TAP counter they had no record of my reservation. Fortunately I had a confirmation number and a print out of the reservation. The staff had to make a call to some off-site “back office” and finally assigned me a seat and I made the flight. The lesson was to always have numbers and papers to confirm your reservation. your case is different, and you might seek out some kind of travel consumer advocate to assist you. Another lesson : book air travel through an airline, not a third party on-line site.

The OP can correct me if needed, but the fly level website is the website for Level, a discount carrier owned by British Airways' parent IAG. So, the OP indeed bought the ticket directly from the airline.

My questions for the OP:

1. Did you have a confirmation number from the original purchase and did you present it at the check-in counter?
2. Did you work with the airline after you returned to correct the situation or did you go straight to disputing the charge with your credit card company?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about how disputing charges works. It’s meant to be an action of last resort. If it was your action of first resort, the company may not have had enough info to apply common sense to the situation; they may actually see you as a scammer trying to get out of paying for a legitimate ticket.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about how disputing charges works. It’s meant to be an action of last resort.

Dave is spot-on there. Disputing charges is frequently abused and credit card companies do not appreciate that. Sometimes it's perfectly appropriate but as he says, should be a last resort, not the first button you push.

Another thing to keep in mind: the "handshake" between different airline systems (any info/tickets that gets exchanged) is imperfect, with sometimes incompatible old systems, things fall on the floor, details are dropped, sometimes reservations simply vanish, requiring some sort of paper/electronic trail and human intervention. Stuff like that happens all the time, so it's best to keep good records and have access to them while you are traveling.

Unless there was a mistake in dates and you were in fact a no-show, your credit card company should reimburse you for the second charge. You disputed the charge and the airline said you were a no-show. That should be a sufficient attempt to resolved the dispute with the airline. If the airline was wrong about the no-show, you're entitled to be reimbursed.

the "handshake" between different airline systems (any info/tickets that gets exchanged) is imperfect,

Except there was apparently only one airline involved -- Level Air. And no third party, as some have said.

Ellen,

I would suggest heading over to the Elliott Consumer Advocacy website. Follow their advice on fixing your own consumer problem. It is very important to read the whole article and to follow its instructions (including don't write a LONG e-mail/letter with too many details). It also doesn't hurt to say "I really enjoyed the in-flight experience on Level, but had trouble at the gate." Be sweet; not caustic. DON'T MISS THE THREE "Ps" OF COMPLAINT RESOLUTION!!!!! If you get nowhere, get all of your documentation in order (including any confirmation e-mails from your FlyLevel website purchase) and contact the Elliott Advocacy team. This is the sort of problem that they would take on if you are not making headway by yourself.

Unless there was a mistake in dates and you were in fact a no-show,
your credit card company should reimburse you for the second charge.
You disputed the charge and the airline said you were a no-show. That
should be a sufficient attempt to resolved the dispute with the
airline.

That is the perfect example of how NOT to attempt resolution. If someone feels there is a charge error, that person should first contact the company DIRECTLY and attempt to resolve the issue. They should NOT first dispute the charge and use the credit card company as intermediary. Other than the blurb given in the dispute, the credit card company has no idea what happened, and the individual has turned his or her advocacy over to a faceless, marginally-informed blob.

There actually is no grounds on which to dispute the second charge according to the Fair Credit Billing Act (see this Elliott article). The OP agreed to a price for a service while standing at the airline counter, and the service was delivered. No one held a gun to her head to make her make the purchase (though, obviously, she felt some pressure to make that purchase). It's actually "friendly fraud" on the part of the OP to ask for a chargeback on that service because it was delivered at the price at which the OP agreed. The product that was not delivered was the original ticket purchase.

That doesn't mean the OP should give up. That also does not mean that the airline does not have a moral responsibility to provide the flight at the original web-purchased price (assuming there is not something amiss with dates and not some important piece of information being left out by the OP).

Generally, once the credit card company has investigated the charge and found in the company's favor, the credit card company has met its responsibility under the Fair Credit Billing Act and is done.

That's why I recommend the Elliott Advocacy website.

Level has basic company contacts on its website: https://www.flylevel.com/en/contact

It looks like Vueling (another IAG airline) is handing Level's customer issues. There are no contacts on the Elliott site for Level, but there are contacts for Vueling: https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/vueling-airlines/

Again, OP should try to get the Elliott folks to help her out if she cannot resolve the problem on her own.

One more thought on amiss dates. I once was asked for my ticket on a German train. I gladly handed by mobile over to be scanned. The conductor look at her scanner and said, "Your ticket is for tomorrow." I had bought a ticket for the right train at the right time one day off because... the calendar on the Bahn app pops up with a Monday through Sunday week. I was traveling on Sunday, so I fell into my default US ways and purchased a ticket for the first day of the week on the calendar without looking at the number/date.

I looked at the Fly Level website. The calendar on the purchase screen pops up with a Monday through Sunday week. October 5 is a Saturday. Any chance you were a day off on your purchase due to the calendar?

Ellen,
What happened during your visit to the ticket counter?

Dave's advice to use the Elliot website is spot on. You'll get the idea of how to proceed...and get your money back.

i did make a claim at levelcare and got an email asking for a description as to what happened. i gave my brief description and got a very nice apologetic email back. they asked for some proof of purchase for the 2nd flight. i took a picture with my phone. i then sent a separate email using the specific claim number with the pics of our boarding passes. i got an "automatic reply". not sure if they received it or not. it said something about communicating with them through their website. i'm 72. i don't know how to send a picture that is on my phone to them, using their website.

that was on tuesday. it's now thursday and i'm obviously very, very concerned.

i'm thinking that i'll call citibank and tell them that they're complicit in the fraud.

i'm thinking that i'll call citibank and tell them that they're
complicit in the fraud.

It sounds like you purchased 2 individual tickets with different reservation numbers willingly (the second flight purchased at the airport was a totally new flight from the perspective of the airline), and Citibank is "complicit"? This makes no sense. The cc company allowed two separate transactions to go through because they look like two separate transactions, months apart and for different amounts. Technically, a double charge is an identical/ duplicate charge for the same good(s) purchased. In your case, it sounds like two different goods, two different dates, and two different prices.

It's still not clear why the airline did not recognize your original reservation, provided that you showed them a copy of the email with a legitimate reservation number that you confirmed had corresponded with the flight you were taking. Did you check reservation and flight status online anytime between purchase date (June 30) and departure date (October 5)?

well, agnes, i wouldn't exactly call it willingly. if we wanted to keep all our reservations in europe, we had to pay $1923.56 to get on the flight.

we presented the itinerary confirmation paperwork to the ticket agent at the level counter. they had no record of our purchase. i even called citibank when i was at the airport to confirm the payment. even gave the phone to the ticket agent. they didn't care--we were not in their computer.

something seriously went wrong. and i don't see why we should have had to pay an additional $1923.56 to get on the flight that we already paid for.

we went on the right day. booked it through the airline directly.

and it says right on my credit card statements that it was for the october 5th flight. on my two statements.

i did file with elliott.org the consumer advocate agency that dave recommended but they want all the paperwork sent in a specific format in a continuous thread and i don't know how to do that. i'm 72.

i also had a conversation going with level and they asked for the oct. 5 proof of purchase. i sent it to them in a separate email and i got an "automatic reply" back so i'm guessing that they didn't get it. very frustrating.

no, we didn't pay double. we paid one and a half times the original purchase price.

i don't know how to send a picture that is on my phone to them, using their website.

Short explanation, assuming you know terminology and are computers like you.
1) Plug phone into computer (USB cable, probably the same one you use to charge it).
2) Phone will appear as a new drive (may have to click "OK" on phone). I.e. it will look on the computer like you a USB memory stick.
3) Go to folder "DCIM" (usually). Copy picture(s) you want to desktop.
4) Remove phone, double-click on pictures to make sure you have the correct ones.

5) Go to website, go to page, somewhere there will be " "Attach" button.
6) Click on that, and select the photo(s) on your desktop.

Or, you can attach the photos to an e-mail.

thank you for your detailed response.

i'm afraid that it's still over our heads. we're going to bring our computer to the apple store and hopefully they can attach the boarding passes to the email thread.

thank you again.

Ellen, do you have any children, grandchildren, friends with teenagers, adult friends? All of these are great resources in helping you with the technology challenges associated with your claim.

Almost anyone with a smart phone could help you. You can certainly learn any of these skills at 72!

I hear the frustration you are experiencing in your posts and I am sorry you have this very difficult challenge of getting your refund to deal with. Lashing out at the credit card company isn’t productive, but I think it is a measure of your frustration.

Please hang in there, get help with the technology, and report back to us when you get your refund.
Sending my very best wishes your way.

Apple Store—good idea. Or, your public library, media centers is what they call themselves these days. This is an outrageous story, but you are on the right track.

Not saying this is a good reason, but I once had phoned reservations go missing when I went to pick up tickets -- later found out it was because the airline had booked us under a slightly misspelled last name. At the counter they didn't know they had the tickets under a CHR name when the actual spelling was CR.

Maybe the booking agent misheard or misprinted the spelling of your name (but got the card number right) before transmitting the reservation to Level's computers ?

Ellen,

I am very, very sorry that you have had this experience. Thanks for the additional information. Your frustration is totally understandable. You are out no small sum of money. I understand, too, that you may be intimidated by the technology demands that companies/organizations are placing on you to resolve the problem.

Given the info you provided, it sounds like Level is indeed morally obligated to refund your $1923.56. I hope they will do the right thing based on your efforts thus far. If not, I still think the Elliott folks are your best bet. They can often solve problems with a single phone call that would take a consumer months to resolve. There are many good ideas on this thread for finding people who can help you get the information to the Elliot Consumer Advocacy folks. I never thought of the library; that's a great idea!

Stick with the three P's -- be patient, persistent, polite. Please don't tell your credit card company they are complicit in fraud. It in no way helps you resolve the problem. Unfortunately, it may get your account closed and get you blacklisted by the company.

Good luck! Please keep us updated on your progress!

I know you are not technically literate but one way that is easily forgotten to document something is through a screen shot or to take a picture of it. If you don't know how to do that or don't have email on your phone, you can have a companion or friend who does have email take a picture of your phone screen. That is what I have my father in law do instead of having him trying scan something and then email. If you have email set up on your phone you can email that picture to yourself so then you have it on your desktop email or to someone else to help you. I also do screenshots of my computer or phone screen when I make the actual reservations with reservations numbers on it and don't rely only on getting an email. I take photos of business cards, appointment cards, even the number of my hotel room so I don't forget it. If you can have someone show you how to save a picture as a favorite it makes it even easier - this is what I do with my flight itinerary. I also take a photo of my passport etc. When you get someone to help you, consider asking them about taking a picture. This may not apply to you any more or may be more than you can do but I thought I would mention it to others.

i did get a friend to help me to attach the statement from the ticketing manager at SFO along with the october credit card statement. they said that they are still stuck on wanting the "invoice". i ended calling up citibank and spoke to someone in the dispute department. i asked him to review my statement and asked if it justified my being turned down for the dispute. he was flabbergasted. he returned it to the investigator and they'll get back to me in 5 to 7 days. i wrote to the ticketing manager, too (haven't heard back), called the 800 number at iberia and was told that i'd get "support" for an invoice in an email. he was jerking my chain, never got an email. i was even trying to put together a package for jane fraser, the president of citibank, and in so doing, was going through my 1" thick file. came across copies of the electronic ticket itinerary. could this be the "invoice"? very similar to the boarding pass in size but it gave the dollar amounts of our flights. we took a screenshot of it and managed to download it in our computer and added it to the levelcare email. that was sent off yesterday afternoon. i'm cautiously hopeful.

well, it took level airlines 2 days to answer me. but, they're still harping on an invoice. they've further stipulated a VAT invoice. buying it at the ticket counter within the hour of the flight only gave me two documents--boarding passes and an electronic ticket itinerary with the price of the flights on it.

so this afternoon, i had a friend help me download 18 pages of documents and sent them to elliott advocacy for help. and within three hours, i got an email back from dwayne coward at elliott. he had sent the airlines an email. so, we'll have to see if we hear back or not.

meanwhile, i think i told y'all that i contacted citibank and i'm waiting to hear back from them.

i want to sincerely thank dave from spartanburg, south carolina for the great suggestion. i held off doing it for so long due to the amount of pages that it would be necessary to download. it's not like i can walk into apple and ask them to do that for me.

Glad to be of help! Thanks for the update. Dwayne is the member of the Elliott team that works with airlines. That he is involved makes me feel good! And should make you feel good!

well, i didn't know that he tackles airlines disputes. yes, that makes me feel good.

thank you again, dave.

ellen

Any news on the fight to get your money refunded?

unfortunately, we still don't have our money. the man who is working on our case told me to contact him if i had not heard anything. so i contacted him on february 10th. i heard back from him on the 11th and he was going to continue working on it. he did not specify what he was doing.

i'm not going to do anything until he's exhausted all efforts but, i was thinking about going to VISA. i live about 7 or 8 miles from VISA.

and another longshot i was thinking is contacting my state senator.

do you have any ideas? i'm all ears.

thank you.
ellen

Someone correct me, if I am wrong.....but, it is my understanding that if you open a "dispute" with VISA, that they will suspend the charge on your account until such time the merchant (in this case the airline.....or it could wind up being the booking service you used) responds to prove otherwise. If they do not respond within a certain number of days, then VISA would then make it a permanent credit on your account (thereby reimbursing you). Thankfully you used your VISA card, as that gives you an extra layer of protection if you were mistakenly charged the second time (or if there was some sort of gross error on behalf of the original ticketing service, such as if they lost your reservation, despite (as you tell us) you have confirmation of the correct date, flight number, time of departure, passenger names, etc.

BUT, that said, you do need to send in to VISA all the appropriate documentation and detail the attempts (copies or phone records) of the attempts you made to resolve this with the merchant.

This sounds like a really odd situation. Please keep us all posted so we can learn from your experience (and hopefully good outcome).

Your are wrong Maggie, there is no dispute. Dave, up thread, has explained it very well - several times. It has NOTHING to do with the credit card company. In addition, you only have 60 days to dispute a charge with the credit card company -- essentially two billing cycles. She is well outside that limit. Both charges were proper charges and there is no disputes about the charges. And the credit card company is concluding that.

Her dispute is that she did not receive the services that contracted for on the first billing. That is the big WHY? -- wrong date, wrong name, plain screw up somewhere. That is the question that has to be resolved. What happen??? If it can be determine that the airline is at fault, (only issue) then her compensation for the error should be the refund of the second ticket that she was forced to buy. So far, I have read little about any evidences she has that she purchased a ticket to fly on Oct 5. She has to be able to document that she clearly had a reservation to fly on the 5th. There is a lot of smoke and damn little fire.

Save you visit to VISA or your letter to the president because VISA has done nothing wrong. I know VISA is big company with lots money but they are not the problem. Keep you focus on the airline - that is one who you have a beef with. Stay focused.

i wouldn't be contacting VISA because they've done something wrong. approaching it from the standpoint that one of their merchants is acting in an unethical manner.

what would YOU suggest?

Maggie,

The OP disputed the charge for the second ticket with her credit card company. The credit card company investigated, including reaching out to the merchant. The airline responded to the dispute, stating that the OP "no showed" the first ticket and used the second ticket whose charge she is disputing (i.e, they stated the factually correct point that the OP agreed to a service at a given price at the airport counter and then availed herself of that service and is now disputing the service she received at the price to which she agreed). Unfortunately, her dispute resulted in her advocacy falling on a credit card employee in a cubicle who is paid to adjudicate disputes as quickly as possible, and the credit card company decided the dispute in the favor of the merchant. The charge was reinstated. The credit card company has fulfilled its legal responsibility with respect to the dispute, and this issue is no longer the credit card company's problem.

As I mention above, that should not be the end of the story. The merchant still has the obligation to honor the initial ticket price, which is why I pointed the OP to a consumer advocate.

Unfortunately, the OP made some mistakes in her attempt to resolve her ticket issue that have resulted in her current situation. Her tale is a cautious one with respect to using credit card disputes as a first line of action in trying to resolve a problem with a merchant. Consumers should always reach out to the merchant first to try to resolve the problem (in fact a "good faith effort" to resolve the problem with the merchant prior to disputing a credit charge charge is required by the law that governs disputing such charges).

Most people are not aware of this, and bad advice regarding this issue is given on this forum frequently.

Ellen,

Thanks for the update. I hope you don't take my comments as blaming you or shaming you. I think you followed "common knowledge" regarding disputing charges -- common knowledge that is often offered as advice on this forum. Unfortunately, common knowledge is wrong.

Level is the ultimate responsible party here for having crappy IT that put you in the position to have to deal with this. Again... I really am sorry you've had to spend so much time and emotional energy on this. I remain confident you will get the price of the 2nd ticket back!

Opened this thread at the airport and saw Maggie's message... answered on the plane... didn't see the intervening messages until now... sorry!

i wouldn't be contacting VISA because they've done something wrong.
approaching it from the standpoint that one of their merchants is
acting in an unethical manner.

Unfortunately, I don't think VISA is going to do much at this point. I think contacting them is wasted effort. Level is a reputable company, though, understandably, it does not seem that way to you.

what would YOU suggest?

Be patient. Let Dwayne work his magic. "We're going to write a column that will appear across the US in newspapers and on a national consumer advocacy site about you cheating a 72-year-old lady out of money" tends to go a long way toward getting companies to make "good will gestures."

Ellen,

Maybe it will be helpful for your understanding of this situation to see things from Level's side.

Level has to deal daily with "friendly fraud" on a large scale on a daily basis. "Friendly fraud" is fraud due to inappropriate use of charge backs. Here is a CBS News article that discusses it more and states that "the latest research" shows that 86% of charge backs are fraudulent. If you google "friendly fraud problem airline," you will see that there is an enormous industry built around helping airlines fight friendly fraud.

So, a guy in a Level cubicle received your dispute from VISA. He looked you and your credit card up in his computer. His computer said you no showed ticket #1 and you flew on ticket #2. He looked for comments from customer service regarding you contacting the company about the problem; there was nothing. He thought, "Caught you, scammer! You missed your first flight; now, you are trying to get your replacement ticket for free." He probably didn't even look to see that the tickets were the same date/same flight. Possibly using a tool offered by one of the companies that helps airlines fight friendly fraud, he crafted a response to VISA saying you missed the flight on ticket #1 and you flew the itinerary for ticket #2, availing yourself of the very service that you are now disputing. He may have even wrote something like, "Clearly friendly fraud -- got the service she is now disputing." VISA agreed.

I hate to tell you this, but he is right about you being a friendly fraudster (though he is not right about you being a scammer). Why?

Here is a Forbes article that gives details of the Fair Credit Billing Act and its regulations regarding chargebacks/credit card disputes. Look at the three reasons the Fair Credit Billing Act allows a consumer to dispute a charge. Your last contact with Level prior to disputing the charge was to agree to the price on a service the merchant was offering -- a flight to Spain. Once home, you did not contact Level to try to correct the problem with ticket #1. You just disputed the charge on ticket #2 -- a ticket which, again, you agreed to the price for the service. Since you didn't contact the company to make a "good faith effort" to resolve the problem, you do not meet any of the criteria for an allowable dispute. Level could actually argue that your dispute should be dismissed because it doesn't meet criteria under the Fair Credit Billing Act; this tactic has been used with success by some companies when customers do not contact them to try to correct the problem before the dispute.

My opinion is that VISA was legally correct to find in favor of Level because of the paragraph above and because you received the service at the agreed upon price. You don't get to agree to the price with the plan not to pay it and the expectation that the credit card company will rubber stamp your unilateral decision to violate the agreement you made with the merchant. That VISA made the legally correct decision (at least in my opinion) is a big reason why I don't think further contact with them will be helpful to you.

Once more... all of this does not mean that Level does not have a moral obligation to honor your original ticket price. They should, and they should refund the price of the second ticket. Level is at fault for economically harming you. The initial channel you chose for resolution was the wrong one. It was a mistake, but it was a mistake that probably 75% of the population would have made.

So... give Dwayne time. 👍🏻

Okay.....I (THINK) get it now, after I went back to re-read more closely (apologies, I should have read it twice..or three times... before posting).......I see she is past the 60-day window, that the second ticket (not the first missing ticket) was what she was disputing....when it is the FIRST ticket purchase for which she received no value (or service) that should have been disputed, despite assurances she has given us that the date/time/airport, etc. was all correct for that first ticket purchase.

Yep, a mess of a tangle to work out. And likely would have been better to submit the two-ticket tangled mess to the airline for resolution, and then (if no positive response from the airline) for credit card dispute review before the 60-day required timeframe, along with a clear written explanation of what happened (with documentation and notes of who was contacted at the airline and when, their responses, etc.)...but what is done is done.....so now to just try to untangle, now many months later.

Yep, Dave, at this point, following your advice does seem the most logical...and sounds like that is the path she has now taken.

To the OP, sincere best wishes for getting this all untangled and worked out. Please post when it is all resolved (or at least figured out).
Dave, you are a dear to help her, best anyone can from an on-line forum :)

Ellen, I am sorry you are dealing with this. I also had a problem with Level .
I booked a round trip with them last year. Two months after I booked, they cancelled the outbound flight. It was refunded, but they would not refund my return flight because it had not been cancelled .
Their customer service is horrible and you will get nowhere on the phone. Mine was resolved by filling out their online form.
Do you by any chance save your boarding pass or luggage tags? That would help prove to them you were on the flight.

I know it doesn’t help you now but Level is horrible. TripAdvisor is full of stories, usually about cancelled flights. I had family members stranded in Paris when their return was cancelled. They had to purchase one way tickets from another airline to get home, $4000.

Any updates?