[rsevenic]

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Background: My wife and I had purchased a round trip (Spokane, WA <-> Silver City, NM) for $1202.60 through CheapOAir and flew on US Airways to Phoenix, then on a partner airline Great Lakes Aviation for the remainder of the trip on October 10, 2013. We had to cut the trip short when my wife's mother suffered a stroke and needed our help. CheapOAir charged us an exorbitant $1394.80 just for the one way early return. This seemed incredibly predatory to me, but I went ahead. Subsequently, CheapOAir returned $100 when we pleaded a medical emergency and told us to contact US Airways for additional relief on the remaining $1294.80. I then sent a FAX to the US Airways Refunds Department dated October 23, 2013 in which I requested a refund for the $1294.80. It included a letter from the appropriate doctor verifying the medical emergency.
I then encountered an unusual problem in attempting to obtain a refund from US Airways - note that a refund was approved. I have itemized the scenario below to explain the problem with the sequence of events.
1. In response to our FAXed request, US Airways sent me 2 emails on November 1, 2013, each granting a refund of $200 per ticket i.e. $400 total - much less than the hoped for $1294.80, but that's not the problem. Each email indicated that the refund was "issued to your VISA credit card ending in 9038 for this ticket on October 31, 2013". There's the problem ... we do not have a VISA credit card ending in 9038 and did not use such a card to purchase the tickets! We used our Master Card.
2. I attempted to resolve this problem in an exchange of emails with the US Airways Refunds Department, eventually interacting with a person who did not seem to comprehend the problem and then failed to respond to further emails. Somewhere in the US Airways Refunds Department, there should have been someone able to resolve this simple issue.
3. I then attempted to start over, sending another FAX (dated November 25, 2013). I received no response.
4. A complication arose during this process. The company that issues my credit card (Capital One) experienced a security breach which compromised a large number of credit card numbers, mine included. Capital One has replaced my credit card. However, that complication should have no bearing on the failure of US Airways to resolve this issue.

There you have it - predatory charge followed by incompetence.