July 25, 2008

My wife and I were traveling through France, Spain and Morocco recently (from June 21-July 12). The leg of our trip in France involved us spending time with my wife’s French family who live throughout France. The first portion of our trip was spent in France and we had the good fortune to be shuttled around by various members of my wife’s family, the other portions of our trip required a EuRail pass (to navigate through Southern France after we left the family, and also to move through Spain on our way to Tangier, Morocco), and also the purchase of a flight from Tangier to Paris on July 11 so that we could make our flight back to the U.S.A. the following day (July 12).

Towards the end of our time spent with my wife’s family, we made flight reservations from her Uncle and Aunt’s house in Thouarce (France) on June 29 on via a online booking service that routed us to Iberia airlines’ website Iberia.com. I printed out the online receipt which contains the reservation code (33UHSX), flight numbers, times, and confirms payment from my capital one card in the amount of 3,162 Dirham (or approx. $451 U.S. dollars).

It is worth mentioning (because it is important later) that neither my wife nor I had computer access until July 4th (the day we arrived in Madrid which can be confirmed with our train tickets). We were able to check our email a couple of times after this point in Madrid and also many days later in Tangier. We received no emails regarding anything unusual about our supposed flight in Tangier.

On July 11, my wife and I took a taxi from downtown Tangier to the airport. We arrived at the airport about 2.5 hours before our plane was to depart at 12:45. At the ticket counter, we encountered problems as we tried to check in. We were told that our reservation was invalid and that we had to go upstairs to speak with the Iberia representative to make a new reservation. They refused to answer more questions, so we followed someone upstairs to meet with the Iberia man.

The Iberia representative told us that the Tangier airport did not have the technology to dispense or honor online tickets and he told us that we had to buy new tickets (at about 3 or 4 times the price we already paid) in cash because the credit card machine didn’t work. We told him that we wanted answers about the tickets that we already purchased first and he said not to worry, that our bank had not been charged. We told him that we simply didn’t have what amounted to $1,000 U.S. dollars in cash, and he responded by saying that they had an ATM.

This seemed very fishy to my wife and me. She was becoming scared and I was becoming quite agitated. My wife, thinking quickly on her feet, told him that our banks would not allow us to withdraw such a large amount from an ATM and that it would be impossible because it was 5:00 a.m. in the States and there would be no representative for us to talk to. Eventually he relented to us using a credit card for the purchase at a price about $300 or $400 US dollars cheaper than what he originally quoted us. At this point I asked him if it was normal to extort Americans in the airport of Tangier and I told him that I needed to make a collect call to my credit card. He was very hesitant to let me use his phone, but after repeatedly telling him that he wouldn’t be charged, he let me make the call. If your company recorded the call, it was made on July 11 and you should be able to distinctly make out the panic in my voice as I ask the customer service rep. about the charges made on June 29. Meanwhile, the Iberia representative became more agitated and started making all sorts of noises and eventually yelling at me to get off of his phone- so I hung up with Capital One.

The information I got from the capital one agent said that there was a charge on my card on June 29 for $400 and something dollars. It was hard for me to pay attention though, because at this point my wife was crying and I was getting extremely angry and scared. In retrospect, I’m not sure if Iberia charged me on June 29 because I have not since been able to see the charge when reviewing my account online.

So we wound up paying 6,070.00 Dirhams (approx. $867 U.S. dollars) for two more tickets. As the agent was running my card, I told him I needed his name because I planned to contest the payment and that I needed to reference this terrible (and what I felt was illegal) event). With that request, he through his name badge at me and began a melodramatic spiel about how we were going to blame him for everything etc. We told him that we didn’t care about getting him in trouble, but that we were going to refuse to pay for these tickets.

When we arrived in Paris, my wife and I spoke with an Iberia representative at the Orly airport. She told us that our tickets had been cancelled on July 2 from Casablanca (also in Morocco). We asked her how that was possible since neither of us had computer access at that point and that we’d certainly never been to Casablanca. She told us that she didn’t know, but that it would be easier to resolve when we arrived in America and could speak with someone who knew more English, she then gave us the phone number for the Iberia office in Miami.

Our plane departed Charles de Gaul airport on Saturday July 12, and I called the Iberia office the following Monday. That office gave me the run-around until I spoke with an agent named Gina (agent #1944) who was finally able to confirm that our reservation had been cancelled due to agent error in Casablanca (where apparently the N. African reservations are routed through). I told her that I expected a full refund and she explained to me that I needed to fill out a claim on the Iberia website. I filled out the claim and didn’t hear anything from anyone until I called on Tuesday July 22 to ask what was going on. Gina returned my call on the following Wednesday (July 23) and said that the Madrid office would have to handle my claim. I asked her how long this would take and she responded that I should hear from them in no more than 72 hours. It is now 3:00 pm Friday, July 25, and I am tired of waiting and hoping that this matter will be appropriately resolved by the company.

I would like to contest all charges made to my account from Iberia airlines on June 29 (if there are any) and on July 11. In the very least, I expect my and my wife’s flights from Tangier to Paris to be free due to the extreme grief my wife and I experienced because of Iberia airline’s error. I believe that the actions of the Tangier Iberia representative (Omar Haj Taieb) on July 11 were extremely reprehensible, and I also whole-heartedly believe that he was trying to overcharge us and demand cash payment so that he could pocket the difference between the actual cost of the ticket and the payment he expected us to make. I expect Capital One to halt all payments to Iberia on my behalf based on my years as a loyal Capital One customer. My wife and I will gladly extend any efforts to help in this process and we have saved all paperwork and records pertinent to these claims.