In these troubled times this is the last thing we want to hear from Cayman Airways. They make a change at the last minute to a flight and because they don’t open their office until after the new flight leaves they didn’t confirm the booking to the other airline. The customer has to pay for the new booking they had already paid Cayman Airways for otherwise they would have missed the flight and the connections to Grand Cayman. When they try to be reimbursed, Cayman Airways say it is not their responsibility.

Luckily the customer has a happy ending but no thanks to Cayman Airways who suffer the bad publicity internationally .

Here is the story:

Problem Solver: Vacation turns costly, refund frustrating

By Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune

Giannina Lozano, of Chicago, had trouble being reimbursed for a flight after an airline changed one leg of her itinerary and canceled other flights on the trip to the Cayman Islands.

The flight was scheduled to take off at 5:45 a.m. on May 25, but Giannina Lozano didn’t mind getting up early.

Her trip, booked in April through Travelocity, was still a heck of a deal. For less than $2,000, she and her husband received round-trip airfare to the Cayman Islands and four nights’ lodging at the Westin Grand Cayman Resort.

They were supposed to fly from Chicago to Charlotte, N.C., then on to Grand Cayman.

But when they showed up bright and early at O’Hare International Airport to board their US Airways flight, they were told they were not booked on the first leg of the trip.

They were perplexed.

The couple called Travelocity from the airport and were told that the airline providing their return flight, Cayman Airways, made a change to the May 29 flight. Because of that change, Cayman Airways had to call US Airways to confirm the Lozanos’ seats on the Chicago to Charlotte leg of the trip, she was told

Problem was, Cayman Airways did not open until 7 a.m.  By then, the couple would have missed their flight to Charlotte, and subsequently the connecting flight to the Cayman Islands.

“We spoke with a Travelocity associate … who advised us that the only way not to lose our trip was to purchase the outbound ticket from Chicago to Charlotte out of pocket and we would be reimbursed by Travelocity,” Lozano said.

With the clock ticking, the couple plopped down an additional $307.90 each for new tickets to Charlotte — $615.80 total — and boarded the plane.

The rest of the vacation went smoothly. But when the couple returned to Chicago and tried to get reimbursed from Travelocity, they hit a brick wall.

Travelocity told her it would not reimburse the $615.80 until Cayman Airways gives Travelocity the money, Lozano said.

She tried calling Cayman Airways, but an airline representative told her it was not Cayman’s responsibility.

Frustrated, Lozano emailed What’s Your Problem?

She said it had already been more than three months since her trip and she has made no headway.

“All (Travelocity) keeps saying is too bad, it’s not our fault,” Lozano said. “Travelocity doesn’t want to be responsible. Nobody even cares about the customer.”

The Problem Solver called Travelocity spokesman Joel Frey, who researched the situation.

Last week, Frey said that when Cayman Airways changed the time of the return flight, it canceled all of the flights on the Lozanos’ itinerary, including the US Airways flight from Chicago to Charlotte. Cayman Airways was supposed to contact US Airways to “re-validate” that portion of the Lozanos’ trip, but never did, Frey said.

A spokeswoman for Cayman Airways did not respond to requests for comment.

Frey said Travelocity will refund Lozano the $615.80, then work with the airlines behind the scenes.

“At this point it’s just making sure the customer feels good about what is going on,” he said. “This was definitely a case where we were happy to facilitate it.”

Lozano was pleased.

“Oh, my gosh, this is great,” she said.

For more on this story go to:

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-77337009/

EDITOR: This is not very good PR for Cayman Airways and the Cayman Islands.