Weather issues recently caused a flight issue (8 - 12 inches of snow were expected, even though no one knew when it would happen), where the reps at the major flight company didn't know if the flight would be cancelled or not the next day and suggested waiting.
On top of that the website of the airline was down throughout the evening as I tried to check it. Due to work, I had to return to my home location immediately and several colleagues suggested taking a rental car and not waiting for the next morning, as a flight delay (or cancellation) would keep me in the city longer than what we wanted. When I asked for a reimbursement, the flight company refused, saying that the flight did take off on time.
Note: this is all domestic to the USA.
- Obviously, there's no way to reconcile this on the flight company's end, other than I'll never do business with them again. However, has anyone ever handled a dispute like this through their credit card (like a merchant/merchandise dispute) and what does the process typically involve?
- I definitely made some poor weather, flight and card assumptions (I am a newb to flying, though I will be flying much more so this is a great learning lesson of what not to do), so I'm curious if there are credit cards that handle disputes like this when merchants refuse, or credit cards with strong reputations that do this. As I've learned, if it's a crunch issue, where I have to be back by a certain time and a flight company can't assure me that they will leave (and they won't refund because they can't make that promise), then the only way to resolve this dispute would be through the payment issuer.