Purchased a specific itinerary from Cheap Air on US Air to avoid long layovers for my son and his sons. Week of flight, he was notified that a change meant his flight from HDN, to DEN to PHX to KOA had dropped the DEN to PHX leg and it would be necessary for him to find a way to get to GRJ to catch the PHX flight. We live 220 miles from Denver and 175 miles from Grand Junction. I specifically paid extra for flight out of Hayden, which is 17 miles from home. He ended up driving to GJ - overnite stay with meals in order to catch the PHX flight. I believe that I am owed a refund for extra cost of local departure that couldn't happen.
Then when time to come back from KOA, received email with new flight details indicating the US Air flights had changed to United for trip home. When arrived at Kona airport 2 hrs. before flight they were told that United did not have reservations for them as indicated. Were sent to US Air counter to be told that reservation had been changed to United. Ultimate insult came when told no seats available except for first class and clerk was not authorized to upgrade them, so guess it was best for airline to fly with the 3 empty seats rather than accommodating 3 passengers who were supposed to have been booked on the flight? Was told to call Cheap Air and received a recording saying they were closed and call back during working hours (on east coast). Had purchased insurance, but when called them, was told it didn't apply to this situation. I assume they would have spent the night in the open air airport until next day when were rebooked on next night's flight. Fortunately, I (mother) was still in a condo with a rental car, so took them back to Waikoloa for the night and brought back the next night. Upon checking in they were told that flight was couple hours late and all connections had to be rebooked with long layovers and not arriving til late afternoon back to Hayden. After losing an extra day of work and school, my son said "never again". I feel that someone owes me for failure to provide the itinerary I paid for. It's interesting that Cheap Air is blaming the two airlines, and they are blaming Cheap Air. I will never use Cheap Air (which was NOT cheapest flight I could get) and am hoping that another carrier will come on line for my future flights to Hawaii.
