Do airline rules make you crazy? Then fight back, says Frank
Mazzucchi of Pierbusseti Travel in Chicago. Only fight back in a
way that makes an airline just as crazed as you are.
Pierbusseti booked a passenger on American from Orlando to
Dallas for last Sept. 14. Because of an impending storm, the flight
was canceled.
Mazzucchi checked with American and found the airline couldn't
handle the passenger the next day either. He also was told the
ticket was refundable.
The customer had to get to Dallas, so Mazzucchi booked another
airline at a somewhat higher fare but gave the customer full credit
for the amount of the ticket on the canceled AA flight.
That was a no-no because Pierbusseti had violated a rule that
requires refunds to be handled by the carrier. American imposed a
$75 penalty, and Mazzucchi agreed that the agency was liable.
But rather than simply send the $75, he decided to confuse
American's accounting department by paying a bit more.
"To demonstrate our compliance to rule 240," Mazzucchi wrote
American, "we have decided to increase the amount of the penalty by
10%." The agency sent a check for the $75 penalty plus $7.50 as an
"additional voluntary penalty."
It then deducted 5% commission on the $82.50 and added the
Illinois sales tax, just to make it even more interesting.
In the cover letter, Mazzucchi wrote, "We would appreciate your
advising us which rule of yours governs the financing of the new
ticket to be issued for our client. ... What are we to do when the
client needs to have a ticket reissued immediately and is not
willing to wait for American Airlines to process the refund? Your
rule 240 does not clarify this point."
Mazzucchi also dropped a note to the Department of
Transportation. Again he acknowledged the agency's breach of
American's refund rule.
But, he asked the DOT, "What recourse does a passenger have who
cannot afford to pay for another ticket in a situation like this?
Over the years we have experienced monthlong delays in receiving
refund checks from airlines.
"Why should a passenger leave the money with the airlines,
[which], by the way, already had the money earning interest for it
since we issued the ticket on Aug. 31, and why should a travel
agent who, according to the airlines, is their agent, be forced to
advance the money to an airline?"
Mazzucchi said he hopes the "additional voluntary penalty" he
sent American will cause confusion in the accounting department but
ultimately will help the airline attain its goal of "making the
accounting department a profit center in 2000."