Troubleshooter: Woman billed $1,600 on credit card
DURHAM (WTVD) -- Claire Long was excited about her trip to Spain. She tried to book her flight in April online through Iberia Airlines.
"I got an error message that said your ticket cannot be confirmed, you will get an email with follow up information and call this number," she said.
She called the number and according to her they said, "You don't have a reservation, you don't have a flight and that is just a booking code - it doesn't mean anything."
Claire explained that they told her she did not have a seat on the plane and wouldn't be charged because she wasn't getting anything.
With all that information, Claire went back online and booked another flight she found.
She thought nothing of the Iberia flight until a week later, when she noticed on her credit card bill that she was charged $1,600 for the reservation she says she was told she didn't have.
Claire says she called Iberia Airlines and took to social media to get answers.
"I tweeted at Iberia Airlines and they got back to me and said tell your credit card company the reservation was cancelled from our end," she said.
Claire disputed the charge with American Express, but it got denied.
"I was really upset because it was an expensive flight," Claire explained.
Claire appealed, but American Express denied her claim three different times.
This was something she couldn't understand because she had the tweet from Iberia Airlines which stated that her reservation was cancelled.
"This wasn't right and I wasn't going to sit quietly while they kept denying me," Claire said.
I contacted American Express and a rep said they would look into it right away.
Claire got good news, the charge was reversed and she was credited the $1,600 for the Iberia reservation.
While it took some time to resolve, Claire has this advice for others:
"If you are running into any problems, document absolutely everything and try to get everything that you can. Any sort of written communication, even if you have to use social media," she said.
That is good advice, even though you might not think to take screen shots of any online communication or error message, it could protect you when you run into problems like Claire's.
In this case, even though Claire had the tweet from Iberia Airlines stating the reservation was cancelled, she says American Express still needed to get that information directly from the airline.
