The Morning Call (Sunday)

Can Windstar Cruises keep $17K airfare after I canceled?

- By Christophe­r Elliott King Features Syndicate Christophe­r Elliott is the chief advocacy officer of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organizati­on that helps consumers resolve their problems. Elliott’s latest book is “How To Be The World’s Smartest Traveler”

A: Windstar should have disclosed that your airline tickets were nonrefunda­ble. And if the airline refunded your tickets, it should have at least considered passing that refund along to you.

I reviewed the correspond­ence between you and Windstar. I could not find any disclosure of the non-refundabil­ity in its emails to you. Since business class tickets are often refundable, you had every reason to believe you might get a refund — or, at least, a full ticket credit.

In an email sent to you, Windstar pointed out that according to its terms, air travel is nonrefunda­ble once purchased, no matter what your ticket says. So that means even if American refunds Windstar’s travel agency, it gets to keep the money.

I’ve dealt with these double-jeopardy refund cases before, and I have a problem with any company imposing new rules on a purchase.

But that’s not why I took your case. I took it because I could not find any disclosure of Windstar’s refund rules on their website (www. windstarcr­uises.com/ terms-conditions).

You tried to resolve this yourself by filing a dispute on your credit card (more informatio­n on how to do so at www.elliott. org/ultimate-consumergu­ides-smart-travelers/ the-complete-guide-tochargeba­cks-and-winninga-credit-card-dispute). A chargeback is your last line of defense against a fraudulent purchase. You might have contacted one of the executives at

Q: My husband and I booked business class airfare for our Windstar cruise in New Zealand through the cruise line. There was no mention of the tickets being nonrefunda­ble until we received the confirmati­on. We had to cancel the cruise, and we tried to get a ticket refund.

Windstar claims it booked the tickets through a third party called Global Marine Travel and that they are nonrefunda­ble. I called American Airlines, which confirmed that it sent a refund to Global Marine Travel. It looks like Windstar Cruises is keeping our $17,000 airfare. Can you help us get a refund?

— P. McMurtry, Indio, California

Windstar Cruises (found at www.elliott.org/companycon­tacts/windstarcr­uises) to plead your case before trying a credit card dispute.

Mostly, I was curious about Windstar’s disclosure. The paper trail between you and the cruise line did not spell out the airfare refund rules. I contacted Windstar to see if I had missed something. In response, the cruise line refunded your $17,000 airline tickets.

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