[Laxison]

My husband and I recently flew from Washington, DC to Fort Meyers, Florida. We paid for a direct flight and arrived at the airport to learn that the flight was changed from a direct flight to a lay over in Charlotte. We encountered an unbelievably rude ticket agent who belittled us (well, sir, we weren't notified beforehand. It turns out that the change was made only that morning), flew into an ice storm in Charlotte and were grounded for over 3 hours and lost an entire day of our vacation once we finally arrived in Florida. OK, complaining aside (no one can control the weather), shouldn't I get a refund for the difference in the cost of the direct flight and the flight with the stop?

The US Air customer rep was very nice and explained that I was not owed a refund because they reaccomodated my husband and myself and because the change was due to unforeseen circumstances. "Snow storm," she explained. Well, wait. We left from DC where there was no weather issues and were to fly to southern Florida where, needless to say, there was no snow storm. We were flown into an ice storm because of the reroute. I could see switching from a stop over in Charlotte to a direct flight because Charlotte had an ice storm. What gives? Is a fast one being pulled on us?

The rep noted that the change in flight was made that day but my father in law checked the US Air website and said that our direct flight was still noted as being on time and on its way to Fort Myers. 4 hours after we landed from our new flight. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill but it doesnt seem like the change was because of "unforeseen issues" but what is the use of paying for a direct flight only to arrive at the airport and be rebooked for the cheaper flight that I could have saved money on in the first place? Nevertheless, we lost a whole day of vacation, are out money (albeit a small sum) and after the whole ordeal (my God...what a nightmare it turned out to be) my husband and I swore that we would never fly US Air again (I've requested that my company reroute all of my business flights with a different carrier; I fly to NYC on the shuttle quite often and will now just take the train).

Any thoughts? Am I out of luck? We were ripped off? PS We flew out on December 18; a week before this massive snow storm on the East Coast. We flew back on the 26th in the middle of the snow storm on the direct flight that we booekd in the first place. Weird...