Complaint Review: 1st-air.net - Internet

Finally - 7 month after our cancellation - I got an answer! Thank you! We were informed that 1st-air has a cancellation policy. Which I copied from there webside: Refund Policy Any purchase from 1stAir that is not completely used and for which a refund is requested should be sent to our offices at 500 N. Michigan Ave, Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60601. All ticket purchases are fully refundable, less a 1stAir cancellation, penalty which shall not exceed $750, or any other airline imposed penalty or cancellation fee. Over 75% of 1stAir transactions do not carry an airline imposed cancellation fee. An airline cancellation fee may mean that some or all of your ticket is non-refundable. This policy comes into effect as of December 1, 2003. Please contact your global travel analyst for an explanation of the penalties that may exist for your specific itinerary. As I mentioned in my first report, I know from the airlines personally that there was now cancellation fee from the airlines! Due to the reason that I used to be a travel agent, I can assesses how long it takes to deal a booking like ours.

I am aware of the stated transaction. The stated deposit is approximately correct but it does not reveal the total sale price which we can not post here because of privacy concerns but can state that it was well more than 3X the amount of the deposit. For the pricing provided with special routings, there are conditions which all customers are advised of prior to acceptance of payment. Acceptance of these terms are acknowledged by the customer through the completion of a sales agreement signed by the customer. Special travel arrangements do have varying penalties but there are also stipulated cancellation penalties. As any professional service business, our compensation is paid by our customers and not by any supplier. For complex travel arrangements , 15-20 hours of expert travel time were spent on our customers behalf which was priced into our quotation. Under the terms of our sales agreement and under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles our fees are earned as services are performed. In the case of an airline, their fees are not earned until a passenger boards an aircraft and uses a different revenue recogniztion time point from ours. As time spent on a specific clients behalf can only be recovered and compensated by that specific customer our fees are non refundable once our services have been utilized regardless of if or when travel actually takes place. In this particular case, our services were utilization for trip calculation, pricing and preparation though several months after the customer agreed to our proposal they were not able to take their trip. They are responsible for to pay fees for our services but not to the carrier as the carrier did not provide transporation services. This is similar to most other professional service business. As we are U.S. based , a customer from Switzerland was most likely compelled to utilize our pricing and routing methodolgy as it was not available to them in their home country. The upside for them was that if travel did take place it would be more efficient, comfortable and less expensive than they would be able to prepare on their own. However, as with any supply chain 1stAir is an intermediary between the traveler and various suppliers. There are costs associated with our service that are paid regardless of actual travel.