stupid computer bills me twice for same bag
 

My tale of woe started when I tried to check in online. I got almost all the way through it but it "could not complete" without saying why. Annoying.

When my two kids and I got to the airport, the kiosk machine started to check us in, charged my credit card $15 for our bag, then (surprise) "could not complete" without saying why. And no refund to my credit card. Grrrr.

So then I tried to get the attention of the desk staff. After serving some other customers a woman came over and I demonstrated the problem for her (getting charged $15 AGAIN). She looked at the screen and said "huh, that shouldn't happen" and proceeded to help other customers. When every other person waiting had been served she just walked off into the back section of the terminal, without another word to me. Now I'm getting ****** off.

Eventually another woman came out front and actually helped me. She said the problem was that kids can't sit in exit rows. Nevertheless, the online system and the kiosk both let me seat them there (knowing they were kids). Duh! And would it be too much trouble for the computer to actually TELL me that was the problem?

Thankfully she did not charge me a third time for my one bag. At this point I had very little time to get through security and get to my flight, so I didn't clear up the issue with the double charges (silly me).

So today I called customer service to get it cleared up. They wasted my time for a good long while then told me to call a different number. That person told me that I had to mail or fax in my baggage receipt so they could "investigate". Like they had no records of the incident. Like they were hoping the whole thing would just fall in the memory hole. Like they were punishing me for their mistake. Like they thought I was really going through all of this to scam them out of $15.

They must really not want my business any more.

I'll keep ya posted on whether I eventually get a refund or not.

I've had this happen on Continental when I sometimes try and sneak my 14 year old nephew into an exit row seat with me (He looks like he can be 17), you can seat them but then the computer will just say something at the end like "requires special" handling. However flying Continental often enough, when you switch to an exit row seat another screen pops up explaining all the rules, which specifically states must be 15 years or older. I believe it does so even on the website If their ages are in the system, the computer will simply make you start over. As for the baggage fee, did you get a receipt each time you were charged for the bag? If it didn't give you a receipt then you were not charged. When you pay for the bag on the website, you won't be charged until you get to the airport and actually confirm that yes you are checking a bag. In this case its helpful because if you decide to not check a bag at all you can then update the info, state you are not checking bags, and no charge to your card. Now if the machine did in fact charge your card each time, then each time you'd get a bag tag. If there was no bag tag, then no charge. If that's the case then the agents could have easily refunded any additional charges to your card.

Just call your credit card issuer. If there are two charges, dispute the second as a duplicate. Done.

It SHOULD do that, but it doesn't.


Not so. It does not give you a bag tag (the agents get them, and only if the check-in completes).

The person who I talked to on the phone actually asked me to mail them the (imaginary) two bag tags. Who saves their bag tags after they arrive?? How are they relevant??


They could have if they had left me with enough time before my flight. Anyway, I figured they weren't stupid enough to actually charge me for an incomplete transaction. It wasn't until I looked at my credit card statement that I knew they had.

Seriously, you gotta wonder about the competence of a company that can have this happen in the first place, and then can't tell from their own records whether it has happened or not. Don't they know how their kiosk software operates? Don't they have records of the failed check-ins? Don't they know how many bags they actually put on the plane? National security regulations require them to associate each bag with a particular passenger, so they can't claim that they don't know how many bags I actually checked.

Yeah, well, you're supposed to try to work it out with the vendor first. Guess I was naive to think that Continental would just fix their mistake over the phone.

You said you contacted them and did not receive a satisfactory response. Time to call the credit card company.

Shame on you!