On July 28th, I shared a post about my quest to get a refund for two JetBlue plane tickets. The flight from Connecticut to Orlando, Florida was scheduled for mid-April 2020 and apparently proceeded as planned -- even though theme parks were closed due to coronavirus and travelers from my state were faced with a mandatory two-week quarantine upon arrival.
Needless to say, my husband and I did not get on that plane! Like everyone else who had planned to travel earlier this year, our honeymoon turned into a staycation.
The tickets were nonrefundable, but I had purchased travel insurance back in January just in case our plans changed. I thought it would be easy-peasy to file my travel insurance claim and get a refund, since I had no intention of using JetBlue's flight credits.
But to my disappointment, the claim was denied. I contested the decision, wrote some angry emails, and entertained (then discarded) the idea of "calling my local new channel".... As I was venting on Facebook about the situation, a friend suggested that I file a merchant dispute with my credit card company.
For the possibility of getting back $800, I figured another hour on the phone wouldn't kill me -- that's a lot of money to wave goodbye to so easily. So I called up Bank of America and told them what happened.
In July, I noticed that there was a credit on my account! I thought this was it, but upon closer examination, the credit was only temporary -- so that a person wouldn't have to pay interest on the balance while the dispute was being investigated. It would be removed if the transaction turned out to be valid.
This was discouraging -- after all, we did buy the plane tickets. But with the extenuating (historic!) circumstances, perhaps we could get some leeway.
Lo and behold, I noticed several weeks later that JetBlue had issued a refund. The temporary credit was removed and I had the original money back! Trust me, I was surprised!
Since my husband and I had paid for the tickets shortly after purchase using money from wedding gifts, there is now a credit of $800 on the card. The timing is perfect; we have some essential household purchases to make in the next few months, so I'll just throw the card in a draw until then to avoid eating away at the credit balance.
Again, the moral of the story is that it pays to be the squeaky wheel. The little guy doesn't always emerge victorious from situations like this, but it's well worth your time to try. (Also, I won't be booking any travel through Orbitz or purchasing AIG travel insurance any time soon!)
Have you ever had a win like this? Or lost a similar battle? Leave a comment and let me know what happened!