[ParadigmIntnl]

On May 1, 2008, I booked two tickets to Kiev for my brother and I for travel starting March 3, 2009, using 100,000 miles from my Flying Blue account. My trip started in Charlotte and his in Detroit. These miles were to expire a few months later. A short time before we were to travel, my brother had unexpected events at work prevent him from traveling and I made numerous calls to Flying Blue to see what could be done. Since we could not find any available flights before the miles expired, I had no choice but to cancel both tickets to be able to have the significant amount of taxes refunded. Considering for how long we planned the trip, it was a considerable disappointment. What made it a financial disappointment was that I lost the 100,000 miles.

To add insult to injury, Flying Blue charged a $50 penalty for each ticket. I asked the phone rep to wave the charge, since I was already losing such a considerable number of miles. I was told that I had to put the request in writing and fax it to them. On March 5, they confirmed receipt and gave me a case number 09188120.

When I phoned on March 25, I was told that they closed the case because the charge is a penalty. I told them that I did not receive any kind of response. They said they would reopen the case to get a response to me. On April 27, I phoned and Marie told me that my file was closed because they charge a penalty to refund taxes. I told her I was aware of their reasons for charging the penalty and that was why I wrote my request for consideration but had still not received a response. She said she would open the case again. On July 3, Grace told me that she would make sure a response was sent.

On August 17, Josina said that a response was sent on July 8 saying they would not refund the penalty. I told her I did not receive any letter. I asked her to email the response to me but she said I need to fax a request for her to email the response. Instead, I phoned the next day and Mark said the would send an answer by the end of the week. On August 26, Claudia told me she said a note saying what Mark told me and that she will have someone call me. No one did. On August 31, Kristy told me a letter will be sent the following week.

I finally received a letter dated September 4 saying "we wish to inform you that we have received your request for a copy of the fee charge of $50 for the reimbursement of taxes for your award booking. As per your request, we have included a copy of the fee charge."

After more than 5 months and numerous phone calls, I do not even get the courtesy of Flying Blue being able to provide a denial to my request. Instead, they respond to a request I never made and do it for only one of the two tickets. I really would like to have the $100 refunded but now it's not for already losing all the miles but for having to deal with such an incompetent customer service department.

It took a lot of flying to generate that many miles and although under the circumstances, I think a good way to maintain relations is to at least reinstate some of the miles, I understand why an airline does it. I think it is truly a lack of understanding for customer relations that it has been so time consuming and painful to even get Flying Blue to understand my request for their consideration. As it stands, I will fly with ANYONE else if I can in the future and will make sure everyone I know does the same. At this point, I would appreciate any help that anyone can provide to help me make the point to them, if only on principle.