On June 6, I was denied boarding on flight 5682 from SGN to Seoul. No reason was given. It was a Korean Air flight operated by Vietnam Air. I bought the ticket over the internet thru CheapTickets/Orbitz. I had no trouble using it to get to SGN from ORF.
I called CheapTickets/Orbitz who were absolutely no help. They told me to talk to Korean Air who sent me to Viet Nam Air who ran me around to Customer Service and even to other airlines not even involved with the trip. I spent the rest of the day at the airport being jerked around with no results; no answers. I talked to anyone who would listen, but got no answers, no reasons, no suggestions. The buck passing never stopped. And some of the things I was told were so stupid I nearly had to LOL. (For example, there are no flights between JFK and ORF). I called CheapTickets/Orbitz again and they were no help and offered no suggestions except to talk to KA.
Finally my flight left and I ended up sleeping on chairs in the airport. The next day things continued as previously. No one would even help me make a phone call home, even though I had a heel operation scheduled that day which I would miss, and was limping pretty badly by that time. I even talked to the American Embassy which was absolutely no help. Once again a call to Cheap Tickets/Orbitz yielded absolutely nothing.
I finally bought a one way ticket on United which, of course, cost more than my round trip between ORF & SGN.
I must emphasize that everyone was extremely polite, including myself, and I had nothing to drink and not even a pain pill for my fractured heel. Le Manh Cuong was the highest official in Korean Air I spoke to. He was polite but completely useless. If it were up to me I would fire him and buy a smiling mannequin.
My point is that CheapTickets/Orbitz knew my ticket was OK. They have records and there was never a question about its legitimacy in any way. I am sure someone at CheapTickets/Orbitz knew who to talk to at KA, even if it someone not in Saigon. And I'm sure they had the clout to fix the problem easily by talking to someone at KA instead of running me, their paying customer, around. And as of this time, I am still getting a run around about a refund.
I have used CheapTickets/Orbitz 15 - maybe 20 times with no problems in the past. But after this, I will pay the extra dollars and buy the ticket directly from the airline. At least if something goes wrong, I can talk directly to the airline or to VISA. With CheapTickets/Orbitz you can expect nothing if you have a problem.
Since arriving home I have spent 5+ hours on the phone with CheapTickets/Orbitz. You guessed it, run a rounds, "I will have an answer in 3 hours," "please hold," "call back in 2 hours," "I have to talk to" etc... Nothing accomplished; much time wasted. I still don't know why boarding was denied, nor do I have any idea how to get a refund.
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