American Queen Voyages must have paid you immediately on your rescheduled flight. You have been greater than patient with the company. You made polite inquiries by phone and email, but nothing worked.
However, the unlucky refund is more complicated than it seems. You booked your tickets using Delta SkyMiles. When you asked American Queen Voyages for a refund, you included copies of your old and latest itinerary. You explained that you just needed to redeem one other 31,000 miles for a latest trip. You asked American Queen Voyages for $930, calculating the value of the mile at 0.015 cents per mile.
The problem is that nobody agrees on the value of a mile. Some say a delta mile is price 1 cent, some say 1.2 cents, and still others say it could possibly be as much as 1.5 cents. But one thing is definite: the American Queen Voyages system was created to present you money back for the money you really spend. Mileage pricing can have confused this.
If that is true, then someone from American Queen Voyages must have told you something. Maybe they might make a counteroffer on the mileage? Or explained the company’s policy on refunding miles to passengers? The $930 refund is largely the cost of a latest plane ticket, so it might make more sense to only buy a latest ticket. All of these items must have been determined before you reported your expenses to American Queen Voyages.
The experience you’ve got had with refunds isn’t specific to American Queen Voyages. Many travel agencies delay when it comes time to refund your money. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of American Queen Voyages customer support managers on my consumer affairs website, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one in all them will normally help resolve any such issue more quickly. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur in your case.
You contacted my advocacy team. I contacted the company in your behalf and after several inquiries, I received an email stating that American Queen Voyages was “currently expediting refunds.” In the end, you received a refund of $930.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end. A number of weeks after the resolution of this case, American Queen Voyages ceased operations.
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