Travel Troubleshooter: A ticket-refund runaround

Question:

I'm hoping you can provide me some direction. I recently booked three tickets for my parents on American Airlines for my wedding in the Caribbean. The flights kept changing, and because of overnight layovers and schedule constraints, I ended up having to cancel their flights with American and rebook with another airline.

American agreed to issue a full credit. But a problem arose because I have closed the original Chase credit-card account that I used to buy the tickets. When I spoke to American, they said that if Chase rejected the credit, they would be able to issue a paper-check refund.

This is where the fun began. For the last three months, I have been trying to track down my credit with Chase bank. For whatever reason, they do not have any record of my credit-card account in their system when I try to call their credit-card customer-service number.

I finally received a letter saying that they were waiting for a response from American Airlines. I've tried to call and write the American refunds department to see if it has received the letter, but have heard nothing. I feel like I'm getting the runaround from everyone. Can you help?

- D.C., Houston
Answer: You are getting the runaround from everyone. American Airlines should have been able to reissue the credit as a check when Chase rejected its payment.

Why didn't it? I can tell you why, in principle: Travel companies, and especially airlines, are fast to take your money but slow to return it. It's just part of their corporate DNA.

In practice, I don't know why this particular refund took so long. I asked American about your case several times (more on that in a moment), and I'm not even sure it knows.

This was preventable. When you're waiting for a refund to a credit card, it's best to delay any changes to your account. Some are unavoidable - for example, when your credit card is stolen, you need to cancel the card immediately. But short of that, I'd postpone any kind of upgrade, downgrade, or revision. Changing your credit-card account can confuse a travel company, causing further delay on top of an existing delay - or, in extreme cases, leading to an outright denial of a refund.

I post the names, numbers, and e-mail addresses of American Airlines' customer-service executives on my website (www.elliott.org/help/american-airlines). An appeal to one of them might have been helpful.

But American isn't the only company to blame for this problem. Your credit-card company could have done better. A written appeal to someone higher up at Chase might have helped. (E-mail addresses at Chase usually follow the format: firstname.middleinitial.lastname@chase.com).

I'm not sure whether calling Chase or American helped your case. An e-mail is more efficient and gets you faster results. Phoning may make you feel better, but there's little evidence it accelerates a refund of this type.

Here's another thought: Try making a reservation through a travel agent instead of directly with an airline. An agent would be able to help you with a refund, at no extra charge.

I contacted American on your behalf, and after a few more weeks of trying to track down your money, it finally sent you a check for the full amount of your airfare.