MUSKEGON, Mich. — A trip meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience continues to be an unending source of frustration for Pamela Hunt.
It started back in March 2020 when she and her husband Greg were set to attend a wedding in the Dominican Republic. The flights they had booked were soon canceled due to COVID-19. As a result, the two were given flight credit to use another time.
But the pandemic left an even bigger mark two years later when her husband died as a result of COVID-19. Despite the loss, Hunt moved forward with the trip with her daughter, bringing along her husband’s ashes as well.
Not only was the flight a thousand dollars more than what it was before, but she was unable to apply her husband’s credit.
That’s when she began to try for a refund.
“Delta sent me an email and said, ‘Hey, send us a death certificate, flight information, all that kind of stuff. And we'll send the refund back.’ I did that,” Hunt said. “In March, they sent me an email saying they refunded the money.”
Though the refund had technically happened, Hunt was told by Delta the money went back to the company she originally booked through – Priceline.
Not only is she asking for her husband’s $474.50, but she is also hoping to be compensated for the increased ticket price she ended up paying for.
“I know, Covid hit, and everybody has had a problem with that, but we bought the tickets – you think they would have just rebooked the flight for us and not made us pay an additional $1,000? Having, you know, gone through all of that, but no, they didn't,” Hunt said.
Since March, she’s been fighting with the travel agency. She estimates that she has spent more than 50 hours on the phone.
Though there are several printouts of receipts and emails at her home riddled with scribbles of numbers and notes – she hasn’t made much progress. Every phone call, she starts from square one, and it ends up going nowhere.
“It's a two-hour ordeal,” Hunt said. “I'm so frustrated, I get run around to this department, that department – I have to explain my situation over and over again, give confirmation numbers, all this kind of stuff – I'm so frustrated every time I talk to them.”
According to an email shared with 13 On Your Side, on July 25, Priceline said a refund for $474.50 had been processed, and that a check could be expected within the next 15 days.
Hunt said she never received a penny.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ This is ridiculous,” she said. “They’re a multibillion-dollar company and they couldn't pay me a measly $474.50?”
Questions that were submitted to Priceline’s press team on Nov. 3 went unanswered.
13 On Your Side joined Hunt on one of those phone calls. Within the course of more than an hour and 20 minutes, we heard from three different customer service representatives. The last person told Hunt that an operations analyst named “Janet” would call her back in 3-5 business days, but that call never happened.
Hunt, still determined to get her and her late husband’s money back, said she isn’t a person who gives up.
“It was my money. I paid for it, and I should be refunded for the consumer,” she said.
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