Choice Air pricing issue--anyone had this happen?

[hiccups]

This week was our final payment for our upcoming Pursuit cruise in October.  When our TA sent the confirmation, I noticed the amount was higher than it should have been.  We booked our airline tickets through Choice Air in December, and paid for them then, of course.  On the confirmation we received today, the price of the airline tickets was listed, and the price was higher than we paid.  So we were charged the balance of our cruise, and the price differential between what we paid for our airfare in December and what Azamara listed the tickets at on our invoice.

 

I can't figure out why it wouldn't seem strange to Azamara that we would supposedly owe a balance on our Choice Air tickets.  When you click "purchase tickets" it's not like you have the option to select how much you want to pay.  The price on the invoice is roughly 6% more (business class tickets).

I think I bought the tickets on a Friday, so all I can think is Azamara didn't get to the paperwork until Monday, and recorded that day's price, even though we paid for the tickets three days earlier.

Luckily, I have screen shots of the price and our confirmation, and I sent them along to our TA.  I hope this will be resolved promptly on Monday, but I admit the thread about the suites booking makes me a little nervous Azamara may respond in the same manner, even though the dollar amount is small relative to that situation.
 

Edited June 15, 2019 by hiccups
typo

[laurieb]

That does seem odd; I wonder if it has to do with airport taxes being raised at one or more that you’re traveling through.  Have you already been ticketed?

[hiccups]

47 minutes ago, laurieb said:

That does seem odd; I wonder if it has to do with airport taxes being raised at one or more that you’re traveling through.  Have you already been ticketed?

Yes, we have.  And they've changed our flights twice!  I never got notification from Choice Air, either--I found out when I logged into my United account.

 

It's strange, within the first month I got a "change of flight" email from Choice Air when our flight departure time changed 5 minutes.  I made a post on the Cruise Air board regarding the later flight changes--we were booted from the domestic leg of our return flight and put on a flight with no business/first class seats.  I had to fight with United for an hour and 15 minutes to get back on our original flights, and then three weeks later, they did it again! 

The second incident, the time of the flight had changed, moved an hour later, so they put us on a flight leaving around our original time.  But if we've paid for business class, DOT rules say we are entitled to a refund.  This time I decided to call Choice Air and let them deal with it, but it still took me telling the Choice Air agent that rule, and an hour on the phone.  The Choice Air rep kept telling me United said I couldn't be on the flight I wanted because it wasn't part of their bulk purchase.  I pointed out that the flight number hadn't changed, and that was the original flight we'd been booked on, before they finally relented.  That was about a month ago, and so far, those flights haven't been changed.  You can be sure I'll keep checking!

[marinaro44]

Have used ChoiceAir often with excellent results, even getting an amazing business class price with the help of a creative agent for our October 2019 Journey cruises.

 

Just had a similar, but different, experience to OP's when using the best price guarantee to reduce the price of a 2020 cruise.  The new confirmation showed my deposit dropping from $1100 to $528.80.  Huh?  What's even stranger is that I paid $571.20 with a credit card for pre-booked excursions above our OBC amount.  $571.20 plus $528.80 equals $1100!  Somebody goofed.  TA is on the case.

Edited June 15, 2019 by marinaro44

[hiccups]

2 minutes ago, marinaro44 said:

Have used ChoiceAir often with excellent results, even getting an amazing business class price with the help of a creative agent for our October 2019 Journey cruises.

 

 

These were also business class seats at a fantastic price--about half of what booking direct with United would have been.

 

When I had the last go-round with the changed tickets, the Choice Air agent offered to cancel the tickets and refund our money so we could book directly, but at now much more than double the price, I said no thanks!

[marinaro44]

13 minutes ago, hiccups said:

 

These were also business class seats at a fantastic price--about half of what booking direct with United would have been.

Interesting.  Our situation was with United, also.  ChoiceAir final price was about half.  Agent booked it as two one-way tickets, not round-trip, and price was half.

[laurieb]

United Airlines has had plenty of issues with their customer service in recent times.  I know someone who booked using miles, for business class, for part of their trip; they had all kinds of issues and said never again will they fly United, as United didn't honor the first class portion.

As far as not getting notifications from Choice Air with flight changes, seems to be the norm with consolidators; first change you're told about but nothing after that.  I had nightmare flights home from Australia in March, and if I hadn't been watching my flights daily, I would have had a very very bad day.  Not purchased through Choice Air but a different consolidator

[leennp]

I had the exact thing happen when our final payment came due, still listed as amount due on flights that had been booked and paid for months prior through choice air and united, I called and had to go through  few levels and submitted my original email confirmation of the flights from choice air, only after they received the email with the original price I had paid listed did they agree to refund the additional money they had charged, that refund was posted in just a few days though so did not take long.      

[hiccups]

1 hour ago, leennp said:

I had the exact thing happen when our final payment came due, still listed as amount due on flights that had been booked and paid for months prior through choice air and united, I called and had to go through  few levels and submitted my original email confirmation of the flights from choice air, only after they received the email with the original price I had paid listed did they agree to refund the additional money they had charged, that refund was posted in just a few days though so did not take long.      

Thank you!  I hope that my initial PDF confirmation I saved from online after the purchase will serve as proof.  If they will only accept the four-day later email confirmation, then I'm probably stuck ☹️

Edited June 16, 2019 by hiccups

[leennp]

They accepted by PDF confirmation!

 

[laurieb]

That's awesome!  I am so glad it worked out for you 🙂

[bbqoug]

59 minutes ago, leennp said:

They accepted by PDF confirmation!

 

Thank goodness you took a screenshot.

This is a good reminder for me to do the same in similar situations.

 

[hiccups]

12 hours ago, laurieb said:

That's awesome!  I am so glad it worked out for you 🙂

I have yet to hear if my situation is corrected--leennp shared a similar story that was resolved by the PDF, so I hope mine will be as well.

[laurieb]

Oh I’m sorry...

[hiccups]

I heard back from my travel agent.  Azamara/Choice Air claims that as I was booking the tickets, the price went up.  our credit card was charged the lower price.  Choice Air sent a confirmation four days later, which had the higher price.  I didn't question it at the time (which was my mistake), so Azamara says too bad, so sad.  But had I questioned it at the time, I can't imagine their response would have been any different.

 

I am NOT happy about this--they have stuck us with an additional $275 for our airfare.  Billing us extra after we have made the purchase is absolute B.S.  I have asked my TA if there is any way I can escalate this.
 

[hiccups]

After 40 minutes on hold, I finally got through to Choice Air and ironically got the same agent that told my TA I was not getting a refund of the extra amount they charged my credit card.  I asked to speak to a supervisor, and she placed me on hold.  A few minutes later, she came back on the line and said they would honor the price I booked under.  Why that was even in question is still beyond me.  She told me it would take up to two billing cycles for the credit to appear, which I find a little surprising.  You can bet I'll be checking to make sure the amount is actually refunded!

 

 

[Lottie A]

We don't have the option of Choice Air in the UK but you can bet I'm never taking Azamara "included flights" ever again.

 

For my July Pursuit cruise, firstly they told me that my preferred BA flight times were unavailable (they were) and then tried to charge me more than £200 extra to the actual website BA flight costs for flights at a ridiculously early time that I didn't want! 

Needless to say I booked the flights myself and saved myself money and a few hours extra sleep.