Refunding made disadvantageous

After booking, on Air Berlin’s website (www.airberlin.com) on Feb. 9, 2009, a round-trip flight between New York and Düsseldorf in May, I unhappily discovered that reserving two economy seats would cost an additional €60, or $86, round trip. Nevertheless, on Feb. 20 I phoned Air Berlin’s US office (866/266-5588) and paid this amount to ensure that my wife and I would have adjacent aisle and window seats.

With a scheduled departure time of approximately 6 p.m., the outbound overnight flight (AB 3551) from JFK Airport on May 26 was nearly full. The seats we reserved (as well as the two immediately behind us) had no operative reading lamps, neither seat’s entertainment system worked, and one seat’s reclining mechanism was broken. No alternative seating was available without being sandwiched between other passengers.

We had no such problems on the return flight.

After returning from Germany, in mid-June I complained by e‑mail to Air Berlin’s customer service department about the outbound flight’s seats. I received a prompt reply saying that I would be refunded $43 for the cost of those seats.

Later that day, Air Berlin notified me that Visa would not credit my credit card account, the one I had used to book the flight and pay for reserving the seats, but if I would provide Air Berlin with complete information concerning my bank account, including its routing number, they would deposit $43 in that account.

I contacted Visa and was informed that there was absolutely no reason that Air Berlin could not process a credit to my account using the same information I had provided when I had paid Air Berlin for reserving the seats. When I so informed Air Berlin by e-mail, I received a reply that my Visa account now had been successfully credited.

A few days later, however, I received another message from Air Berlin saying that Visa would not credit my account but if I would send complete bank account information the refund would be deposited there.

I was not interested in receiving the refund as a bank deposit. Apart from not wanting to disclose bank account information, I didn’t want nearly all of the refund to be dissipated in the wire transfer fee which the bank would charge me.

Therefore, I again contacted Air Berlin and explained that they could, and should, process the refund as a credit to the same Visa account from which they received the original payment. In reply, I once again was informed by the airline that a credit to my Visa account had been processed successfully, only to receive a few days later still another message that Visa had refused the credit.

At that point, in early July, I sent a tart message to Air Berlin asking that the manager of the customer service department become involved. I then wrote to ITN, who contacted Air Berlin in September ’09. I received an e-mail from Air Berlin on Oct. 7, one which I find rather incredible.

The airline now stated (for the first time) that the reason they continued to ask for bank account information from me is that their “related application works on security parameters that do not permit transaction and/or refund via credit card after a period of three* months between the date of booking (transaction) and the date of refund (transaction).”

Of course, when I contacted Visa about this latest development, I was informed that this is not a policy of Visa and that a credit to an account can occur at any time after the transaction. Obviously, what Air Berlin now is telling me is their own policy.

It is interesting that, having twice told me that they had successfully credited my Visa account and then later stating in each case that Visa had refused the credit, Air Berlin now asserts that their policy is to not process refunds via credit cards three months after the transaction date.

I suspect that many credit card payments for air travel with Air Berlin, and with other international carriers, are charged months prior to travel dates. Should the passenger have to be concerned about not obtaining a refund unless he or she has a bank account and is willing to disclose full information about it to the carrier?

In my case, the $43 at issue is insignificant, but ITN readers should be aware that this is something they might encounter with Air Berlin. Dealing with a low-cost airline like Air Berlin can become a headache.

KEVIN JOYCE

Davithonville, MD

*ITN mailed copies of Mr. Joyce’s letters to Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (Saatwinkler Damm 42-43, D-13627 Berlin, Germany) and e-mailed service-center@airberlin.com and received the following reply by mail. (Note “two months,” not “three” as stated above.)

We strongly regret the inconvenience caused for Mr. Joyce. To hear about complications with Air Berlin is never nice for us.

After intense proofing of the payment procedures concerning the Visa card of Mr. Joyce, we finally learned that our related application is working on security parameters that do not permit transactions and/or refund via credit card after a period of two months between the date of booking (transaction) and date of refund (transaction).

I am really sorry that our service department was not careful enough to communicate that relevant detail to our passenger Mr. Joyce, but our customer service is going to contact Mr. Joyce and explain more exactly why and that, to realize the refund, he needs to provide the data of his bank account.

Our target is to meet all requirements of our customers before as well as during their flights. We assure you that we will carefully… evaluate the behavior of our customer service.

DIANE DAEDELOW, Press Officer, Air Berlin