Traveler's Aide: Book with care on foreign travel websites
— -- Question: I traveled to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics with my two daughters. We booked tickets for a side trip from Beijing to Shanghai on Hainan Airlines.
The airline's website was very difficult to navigate. It wasn't clear that our ticket purchase was confirmed, so I booked a second time, and ended up with duplicate tickets. Our hotel tried to help, but the airline said we had to submit a refund request online. I tried, but Hainan's website wouldn't accept my record locator number, and directed me to a site only in Chinese.
Secondly, an airline representative rejected my younger daughter's ticket at the airport. My daughter was 12 at the time I booked, qualifying for a discounted child's fare, and I input her birth date on Hainan's site. However, the agent and her manager (neither of which spoke English) both said she was too old for the fare and claimed she was 13, even though her passport verified her age. They insisted that I had to buy a full-fare, one-way ticket on the spot to get back to Beijing. We were on the last flight of the day, and were at risk of missing our flights back to the U.S., so I couldn't argue with them.
I am seeking refunds for the duplicate tickets for myself and my oldest daughter, plus refunds for my youngest daughter's two unused tickets. Can you help?
— Michelle Woody, Dallas
Answer:Woody found Hainan's website and ticket confirmation process bewildering, and mistakenly booked multiple tickets for her trip. Not only did she end up with a double booking from Shanghai to Beijing, but she also bought an unneeded set of tickets for the reverse itinerary too, purchasing nine tickets total when she only needed three.
Three of those tickets were child fares for her younger daughter, age 12. Although Hainan's website accepted the bookings, Woody's daughter did not actually qualify for the 50% discounted fare. The airline's youth tickets are for kids between 2-12, meaning the passenger may fly up until their 12th birthday, but not after that.
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