February 24,2011
FlyTelligent has been both inept and unresponsive in regards to tickets I purchased from them. I purchased tickets for my wife and myself on December 10,2010, for a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This involves about 15 hours of flying time with a stop approximately half way in Panama City, Panama. I've never flown anything but coach class before, but due to the length of the trip, the fact that I'm 6'3" and that I'm taking coumadin, we decided to fly business class. The cheapest fare I could find for coach from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires and back was $1,700 for the both of us together. Instead, I bought two round trip business class tickets from FlyTelligent for $5,226.83.
When we got to the airport the night of our travel we were told by the ticket agent at COPA Airlines that while the leg of the trip from Panama City to Buenos Aires and back was business class, the trip from Los Angeles to Panama City and on the return as well, was coach class. They told me I could call the people I bought the tickets from, which I did, but no one at FlyTelligent answered any of the numbers I had. On arrival in Buenos Aires I called and e-mailed almost every day over a period of two weeks to make sure that at least the return trip would be all business class. I got one e-mail back and no return phone calls. The e-mail promised they would reach me again but they never did. Being concerned about whether I would be able to straighten out the return trip and whether I would be able to get a refund for the mistaken leg(s) of my trip from a company that would not answer my calls or e-mails had a negative impact on my vacation time.
On my return, I began calling FlyTelligent again. Of perhaps twenty phone calls, the phone was only answered two times and I only got two calls back. I was earnestly promised that the situation would be resolved in one of those calls. I told them that I would settle for a reimbursement of the difference between what I paid for business class and what coach class would have cost me for just that leg of the trip. I calculated this to be $1,764.00. I was promised that I would receive a call back over a week ago now and have left numerous messages. Since that time I have called repeatedly and again, no one answers the phone.
I paid FlyTelligent a lot of money. I am being very reasonable about what I expect to be reimbursed. I have asked for no restitution for the discomfort I experienced on the trip nor the anticipation of an uncomfortable return flight, nor the nagging concern during the whole time I was down in Buenos Aires that FlyTelligent is a fly-by-night company who I became increasingly aware had defrauded other people and were skilled at avoiding their responsibility to their customers.