7 On Your Side helps woman get American Airlines refund

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (KGO) -- A $1,000 dispute over an airline ticket caused a lot of turbulence for a Peninsula women who ended up calling 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney, who helped bring her dispute to a smooth landing. In the beginning, the whole mix-up seemed like just a simple mistake, but getting it straightened out was quite a bumpy ride.

Dreams of flying off to Sweden and Denmark almost didn't get off the ground for Tabassom Ansari. The Redwood Shores woman was stunned when she saw her bill from American Airlines for nearly $1,700. That was $1,000 more than she expected. "They confirmed three times on the balance they were going to be charging on my card was about $700," she recalled.

Tabassom had cancelled a planned flight to Miami this past spring and earned a $1,000 credit. That credit was supposed to be applied to her European vacation. It was not. "At the beginning, I thought it was just an honest mistake, so I called American a few times," she said.

But Tabassom says she was told it was too late. She would have to take the credit for future travel or cancel her ticket and rebook it. But if she rebooked, she would have to pay even more because the fare had gone up.

"My thought was that somebody made a mistake on your end. What you need to do is do the right thing. Take responsibility for it and just credit me for the extra amount that you charged me, right?" she told 7 On Your Side.

But according to the customer service people she talked with at American Airlines, that was wrong. She took to social media to voice her displeasure. She made multiple phone calls. She talked to numerous people at American Airlines. It didn't matter. They all told her there was nothing they could do.

So she called 7 On Your Side. We talked to American and a spokesperson said, "We refunded Mrs. Ansari's original form of payment in the amount of $1,037. We also waived the change fee so she received the full ticket value back to her credit card."

Tabassom says she had a wonderful time on her trip to Denmark and Sweden. "Thank you. I can't thank you guys enough," she said.