Upgraded ticket didn’t show

My wife, Kathleen, and I purchased emergency-assistance travel insurance from CSA Travel Protection to cover our 18-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Barcelona, Spain, aboard Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam, April 1-18, 2012.

On April 10, while on a shore excursion in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, Kathleen fell and broke her arm. Back on the ship, Holland America Line (HAL) medical personnel treated her, x-rayed her arm and placed it in a sling.

HAL front desk personnel placed a call for me to CSA Travel Protection. CSA requested an accident report from HAL, and HAL sent same and the x-ray. HAL’s doctor advised CSA that, on her flights home on the 18th, Kathleen should be put in business or first class, and CSA agreed.

On two subsequent occasions when HAL called CSA’s 24-hour emergency phone number (around April 14 & 16), no one answered.

Also, while on the ship, we did not receive confirmation that CSA had purchased the upgraded ticket.

When we arrived at British Airways’ check-in counter in Barcelona for our flight to London on April 18 and later that day in London for our flight to the US, British Air (BA) had no notice from CSA of a business-class ticket having been purchased for Kathleen. She ended up flying home in coach, which was very uncomfortable and painful for her.

CSA contends that they did order the ticket, and I believe them, as an email we found upon returning home included purchase confirmation. When you are aboard ship, you bring up your home email to review. But this email was sent too late for us to note it, as the ship closes all emailing the evening before docking. The email had an attachment, on Altour letterhead and dated April 17, showing Kathleen’s ticket revisions.

It was CSA’s responsibility to make sure the tickets were there. I phoned CSA when we returned home and even wrote a letter to CSA’s president. I was advised that they would not consider any measure to compensate Kathleen for their inability to have her business-class tickets at BA’s check-in counters.

Our travel agent asked CSA to comp our travel insurance cost on an upcoming cruise, as a gesture of compensation for Kathleen’s suffering. CSA refused.

J. DONALD THOR
Solana Beach, CA

ITN sent copies of Mr. Thor’s emails to Holland America Line and received no reply. ITN also wrote to CSA Travel Protection (5251 Viewridge Ct., San Diego, CA 92123; csa@csatravelprotection.com) and received, in subsequent emails, the following information from a CSA public relations representative.

Our toll-free customer service number is available 24/7, so I am not sure why Mr. Thor was unable to connect with our team. We’ve investigated the dates of the two calls and have found no known issues.

We understand Mr. Thor’s unhappiness with not receiving the first-class ticket for Mrs. Thor’s return trip home… . While we are sorry to hear that Mrs. Thor’s flight home was painful and that the Thors were unable to reach us while at the airport, we did put in the order for the first-class ticket… .

We researched this incident… to determine exactly where the breakdown happened. The ticket was purchased by Altour, the travel agency used by Europ Assistance USA (the company CSA contracted with). British Airways should have been able to retrieve the business-class ticket when prompted by the Thors, as it was in the BA system. We simply do not know why this wasn’t the case.

Aside from that, we originally believed a confirmation email with flight information was sent to the Thors but upon further investigation discovered that the email wasn’t sent.

While this wouldn’t have changed the outcome, since the Thors requested all communication come via email and they did not check email before the flight or respond to a previous email requesting information, we do take responsibility for the fact that the actual confirmation email was not sent to the Thors.

We also would like to note that we recently discovered that British Airways sent a written apology letter and voucher for £500 to the Thors.

As a customer service gesture in regard to this new information, we will also refund the Thors’ policy premium ($656).

JENNIFER WILBUR, CSA Travel Protection

ITN wrote to Europ Assistance USA and received no reply. ITN contacted Altour (altour.traveler@altour.com) and ended up speaking with Scott Davis (Vice President, Cruises, Tours, Groups & Meetings, Altour), who explained that, after CSA asked Europ Assistance USA to purchase Mrs. Thor’s upgraded ticket, Altour handled that but, unfortunately, did not send a confirmation email to the Thors. Mr. Davis later wrote to ITN, “After further research, I am able to confirm all airline confirmations are provided to Europe Assist/CSA, who then communicates with the passengers.”

British Air did not respond to an inquiry from ITN, but Mr. Thor confirmed that, on June 21, British Air had issued Kathleen an eVoucher for £500, one that could be transferred to someone else.

The British Air rep explained to the Thors why Kathleen’s booking reference number could not be located at Barcelona airport. It was because the Altour agent who made the booking did not cancel Mrs. Thor’s name from the original booking, and a systems update, which should have revealed the duplicate bookings, did not take place in time to avoid the situation.

By the time the Thors reached London’s Heathrow Airport, the new booking was showing, but the airline could not allow Mrs. Thor to travel on it, as all tickets must be used in sequence. That is, Mrs. Thor could not use the upgraded ticket for the second part of the journey, London-San Diego, because she had not traveled the first sector from Barcelona on the upgraded ticket.

On Feb. 18, Mr. Thor wrote, “Mrs. Thor believes she should be compensated the $5,000 that CSA Travel Protection spent for the business-class ticket they purchased, for which CSA received a refund from British Airways because the ticket was not used. Why should CSA and not Mrs. Thor benefit from CSA’s mistakes? CSA should have had the tickets ready for her use in Barcelona.”

ITN transmitted that message to CSA Travel Protection and received the following response from Scott Crabtree, CSA Claims Manager: “The refunded money from the missed British Airways ticket does not benefit CSA. CSA (through its underwriter) was bound by the policy to cover the ticket. Unfortunately, due to a scheduling mishap, Mrs. Thor was unable to use the ticket, so the unused funds were then returned to the insurance underwriter.

“It is also important to note that travel insurance is designed only to make the policy maker whole, not to compensate for inconvenience. If, in fact, the mistake had cost the Thors additional money, the policy would have covered it. Mr. and Mrs. Thor returned home on their original prepaid tickets. As such, they did not incur any out-of-pocket expenses requiring a refund, but British Airways did provide the Thors with a voucher worth 500 pounds, so they have received some compensation for the mishap.”