Long story short.
I bought 2 very expensive plane tickets to Bonaire in January of '11. We leave in July.
I bought them on a CC that had a zero balance and then paid them off in full..I usually just book my own air, but since Bonaire is tricky I used Orbitz ( thank God ) Well, a week ago I got an email from Orbitz that my itinerary had been changed. I was supposed to fly into Bonaire on a Tuesday ( I've already booked a tiny boutique hotel and paid for all my diving and rental car ) but my new itinerary had me flying all day- Chs-Clt-Aruba-Curacao arriving at almost 8 PM spend the night in Curacao and be back at the airport at 5 am for a flight to Bonaire.
I called and told the ( very nice ) Orbitz CS person that it was just unacceptable. I wasn't going to spend 12 hours flying to have to pay for an overnight in Curacao and then get up super early again on Wednesday to fly when we should be diving. She offered a couple suggestions but in the end I was told I could either overnight in Curacao and Orbitz would pay for a hotel ( which was above and beyond and great CS ) or I could get a full refund since my dates had been changed and it was a "major" flight change.
I called back asking if I could leave Monday at least so I could still get into Bonaire on the expected day. Nope. USair ( who I hate, BTW ) refused to help me out. That was the straw and I cancelled the flights. Now, I was told by Orbitz - who had me on hold while they verified the info with USair- that my flight was fully refundable.
So, now I've booked a new flight from CHS-Atlanta-Aruba ( flying on Monday ) arriving in Aruba at 2 PM so we have a little side trip, but it's not horrible. We'll then fly to Bonaire on Tuesday as planned and it's all good.
I booked the new flights ( which were only $20 bucks or so more expensive ) on the same credit card. Zero balance, flight refund, new tickets, pay $40 bucks and zero balance again.
But, now I'm worried that the credit won't show up in time. I've been told from 2 weeks to 30 days.. I don't want to tie up more cash by paying for flights I've already paid for and then getting a check from my CC company. Especially since that socked away money is my trip money.
How should I handle this if the credit isn't applied by the time the new bill arrives?
I bought 2 very expensive plane tickets to Bonaire in January of '11. We leave in July.
I bought them on a CC that had a zero balance and then paid them off in full..I usually just book my own air, but since Bonaire is tricky I used Orbitz ( thank God ) Well, a week ago I got an email from Orbitz that my itinerary had been changed. I was supposed to fly into Bonaire on a Tuesday ( I've already booked a tiny boutique hotel and paid for all my diving and rental car ) but my new itinerary had me flying all day- Chs-Clt-Aruba-Curacao arriving at almost 8 PM spend the night in Curacao and be back at the airport at 5 am for a flight to Bonaire.
I called and told the ( very nice ) Orbitz CS person that it was just unacceptable. I wasn't going to spend 12 hours flying to have to pay for an overnight in Curacao and then get up super early again on Wednesday to fly when we should be diving. She offered a couple suggestions but in the end I was told I could either overnight in Curacao and Orbitz would pay for a hotel ( which was above and beyond and great CS ) or I could get a full refund since my dates had been changed and it was a "major" flight change.
I called back asking if I could leave Monday at least so I could still get into Bonaire on the expected day. Nope. USair ( who I hate, BTW ) refused to help me out. That was the straw and I cancelled the flights. Now, I was told by Orbitz - who had me on hold while they verified the info with USair- that my flight was fully refundable.
So, now I've booked a new flight from CHS-Atlanta-Aruba ( flying on Monday ) arriving in Aruba at 2 PM so we have a little side trip, but it's not horrible. We'll then fly to Bonaire on Tuesday as planned and it's all good.
I booked the new flights ( which were only $20 bucks or so more expensive ) on the same credit card. Zero balance, flight refund, new tickets, pay $40 bucks and zero balance again.
But, now I'm worried that the credit won't show up in time. I've been told from 2 weeks to 30 days.. I don't want to tie up more cash by paying for flights I've already paid for and then getting a check from my CC company. Especially since that socked away money is my trip money.
How should I handle this if the credit isn't applied by the time the new bill arrives?
