A A Travel

Review: I asked AA travel to apply my son's travel document to China from Chinese Consulate. There was around four weeks before our flight, and the normal process will take 4 business days. Because we booked the flight already, I kept asking them the process. [redacted] told me it was not that fast and I should not bother calling her all the time. Till one week before our flight, she told me that the application is ready to submit. They will use express process and I should pay $200 for that service (the Chinese consulate only charge $40 for the express service). I got pretty angry about their low efficiency and irresponsibility. When I finally got my document 3 days before our flight, I found that the travel document was already issued one week before the time they said they submitted the application. It is very obvious that they already got the document ready, and just lie to me to get the $200 express service fee. This is obvious business cheating and is absolutely unacceptable.Desired Settlement: A formal apology and $200.00 express fee refund.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted] initially applied for a Chinese visa for his son. It was rejected because [redacted] has given us incorrect information about his status in the US. This was the cause of delay in obtaining a Chinese travel document for his son. The Chinese consulate does not give out the document 4 days later unless express service is requested. The Chinese consulate charges $40.00 for express service, but they are in Los Angeles and they do not mail such document out. We have to send someone, in a moments' notice, to the Chinese consulate. He has to wait in line there to be served, explain to the officer at the consulate why express service was not requested at the first place so the officer is willing to go through all the trouble to seek out the particular travel document. [redacted] does not think this someone needs to be paid for the mistake he made - the drive to the consulate ([redacted] does not know LA traffic), parking, waiting, obtaining the document, express mail service and time. We deal with countless clients and are grateful we rarely have unappreciative ones like him. Sincerely,[redacted] / A A TravelTel: [redacted]Fax: [redacted]Seattle, WA 98104

Consumer

Response:

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Dear [redacted],The response from A A travel is totally misleading. 1, The visa application was rejected due to miscommunication. I paid full process fee to AA travel and was a closed case. That was happened more than two months before my travel.2, After the failed visa application, I started the travel document application on Aug 29 and paid almost $600.00 for the process fee (I have the receipt as proof). 3, They told me by phone that my document was not ready to submit till Sep 14th. Since the normal process will take 4 days, there will be no way I can get it back by Sep 20th except through express process (with extra $200.00 charge by A A travel). I agreed with express process because of my flight time.4, I got the travel document back on Sep 19th (I have the receipt with $200.00 fee as proof). However I just found that the travel document was already issued on Sep 12th, even before the time they said to submit the application. 5, I would like A A travel to explain the timeline of the process. How could the travel document was already issued even before the time they submitted it. 6, It was very obvious to me AA travel cheated to get the $200 express fee, which never happened based on the timeline of the process. I will change my mind if they can give a reasonable explanation. Thanks!Sincerely[redacted]

Review: The staff in AA travel is so greedy and rude that they even lie and raise the price after confirming the ticket price over the phone.I complain them before but they didnt admit their fault. Below is the story:My family is planning to go to Taiwan then to China and come back to Seattle through Taiwan. My parents plan to go from 4/6 to 5/25 and my husband and I plan to go from 4/ 6 to 5/10. In case of confusion, my dad wrote down the travel date and names on the paper. On January 23, my parents went to AA travel and wanted to buy the tickets for us. A guy called [redacted] helped them. My dad showed him the schedule which was written down on a paper and asked him to find the flights per the written dates. After searching, [redacted] said the flights for my parents are $935 each and for my husband and I are $1020. And he even wrote down 1020 on the paper. But he said he needed to call Taiwan to confirm the seats to Beijing (my husband and I are going to Beijing after Taiwan but my parents dont). On January 27, [redacted] called my dad said the seats had been confirmed and the price was still $1020 each person. He said we could come in today to pay and lock down the itinerary. Since my dad was busy that day, he asked me to go. We went there after work. [redacted] was busy with another client so [redacted] helped us. [redacted] said since we are leaving on the weekend, he needed to charge $20 more per person. I said we asked before and $1020 was the price your staff told me. He said [redacted] made you two come back the same day as your parents which is a weekday, so it was $1020. But now you said you wanted to come back on May 10 which is Sunday, then you need to pay extra $20. Since I didnt know the conversation between [redacted] and my parents, I trusted him and paid $2080 for 2 tickets ($1040 each).Then I came back and spoke to my parents about this, they said they wrote down the travel dates on the paper and [redacted] wrote down the prices explicitly. It cant be a mistake as [redacted] said that [redacted] made us come back on the same date! It is obvious that [redacted] wanted to get more money out of us regardless of honesty. The next day, I came back and asked [redacted] about this, and he was VERY RUDE and kept INTERRUPTING me. LOUDER isnt better. I have recorded his talking and happy to show to the public how RUDE he was and what CUSTOMER SERVICE I received there. After a bunch of LOUD talking and constant INTERRUPTING of my speech, He said $1040 was the price for the weekend ticket and refused to refund the extra $40 (note: he said $1020 to my dad over the phone, and wrote down the price on the paper next to the trip date! If the trip was for May 25, why did he write down the price on the May 10 section? The date was crossed out and changed from May 9 to 10 as no flights were available on the 9, why it didnt get changed to May 25 if his lie was legitimate!).Desired Settlement: On the day I came back, [redacted] said he could cancel the tickets and I said go ahead. Then he took the itinerary back and said it would be cancelled. He was still SUPER RUDE. Since we have a busy live and didn't want to spend more time on the tickets, my husband went back and signed his name to get the itinerary back. But this DOESN'T mean we agreed on the price. We just want to get our $40 back. I didn't ask for more for their awful customer service!

Review: My original itinerary booked through AA Travel was Portland, Seattle, Beijing, Hong Kong, Chongqing, Beijing, Seattle, Portland, with (5) day stay in Hong Kong and a ten (10) day stay in Chongqing. At the time time the trip was booked, an AA Travel agent told me I should be OK to travel Hong Kong without a visa due to the fact that the stop in Beijing was merely a layover and not a final destination.

However, while changing planes in Seattle to board the flight to Beijing, I was informed that as a Chinese citizen, I could not fly to Hongkong from mainland China without a visa. It appears visa-free entry to Hongkong is only for directly flights from abroad for Chinese citizens. As a direct result of the agent's failure to inform me of this important visa information, I was unable to accompany my husband to Hong Kong and at the last minute had to re-route myself on a flight directly from Beijing to Chongqing. The new ticket from Beijing to Chongqing cost $211.00.Desired Settlement: I request a refund of total $ 711.00 US dollars: $ 211.00 for the additional ticket Beijing-Chongqing, $200.00 for the portion of the original flight that was not used and $300.00 for the additional hotel fare I needlessly incurred when I was unable to join my husband in Hong Kong.

Review: I purchased two plane tickets for my parents with the reservation code: [redacted] Issue arises when we need to change the itinerary on the plane tickets. I'm told by the travel agent, [redacted],a penalty of $250 per ticket is required which was not on any of the documentation she sent me previously. I called the airline to verify the penality amount and was told it is $100 per ticket. Since then I've followed up with [redacted] several times to verify where the policy is stipulated but has not been successful. I'd like to see this issue being resolved asap.Desired Settlement: I expect to pay the price difference resulted from the schedule change. However, the penalty amount should be aligned with the airline policy of $100 per ticket + REASONABLE service charge necessary for the agent to re-issue the ticket.

Review: I can't believe this place. They booked my in laws airfare for their trip into Hong Kong and flying back out of Guongzhou, China and totally messed up. We didn't find out until we were at the ticket counter checking in to their first leg of the flight into Beijing for a layover to Hong Kong to find out THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO HONG KONG WITHOUT A VISA, why didn't AA travel tell them this? They obviously asked whether or not they were Chinese citizens (to implicate whether or not they needed VISAS to get into the country) so how did they not know they needed it for HK? Once we figured this out, we had to call the airline in China to book a different flight (while checking in at the airport because AA travel will not help) from their layover in Beijing to Guongzhou directly since they were not able to get into HK to visit their families without a VISA. When we called AA travel to let them know of this, they claimed absolutely NO RESPONSIBILITY and was not even apologetic. We ended up having to forfeit the flight from Beijing to HK and replace it with $600 additional airfare purchase for them. This is so disappointing. of course after attempting again while in China to get a visa to HK, it wasn't happening because it will require a longer period than their duration of the trip they are there for only 2 weeks. This is unfortunate since they have not been back for 16 years and will not be able to see some family members while on their trip. Desired Settlement: I am asking that they reimburse for the $600 paid in additional airfare needed because their lack of information and support for needed Visas to get into Hong Kong, forced to change the flight last minute on their last leg of the trip from Beijing to Guongzhou instead of into Hong Kong. Also, another $300 in lodging they had prepaid in Hong Kong they also had to forfeit. Not to mention time loss (forced to have an additional lay over time of 8 hours more because of the last minute layover flight change).