Resolving a Dispute With Frontier Over Credits and Refunds

Dear Tripped Up,

This past June, my wife and I, along with two of our children, flew from our home in India to the eastern United States to see family and visit Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. The trip included three domestic flights over five days on Frontier Airlines: Philadelphia to Orlando, Orlando to Atlanta, and Atlanta back to Philadelphia. The total cost for four people on three flights was an affordable $939.75, including a $99.99 “Discount Den” membership on Frontier. (We also spent $1,269.52 on tickets at Universal.) But our first flight was delayed and eventually canceled, and Frontier’s staff told us the next available flight was three or four days later — too close to our return flight to India. We were given a QR code at the Philadelphia airport to file for a refund, which we did for all three flights. But all we got was an email with a credit worth $339.92 and good for three months, plus four additional messages with a $100 voucher for each of us. Since Frontier does not operate in India, the credit and vouchers are useless. I fought Frontier through my Discover card, but lost. (Meanwhile, Universal reimbursed us in full.) Can you help? Hari, Bangalore, India

Dear Hari,

The federal rule on flight cancellations in the United States could not be clearer. According to the Transportation Department’s website, “A consumer is entitled to a refund if the airline canceled a flight, regardless of the reason, and the consumer chooses not to travel.” Fast-expiring travel credits are not an option.

Frontier’s initial email to you, on the other hand, could not be murkier. You read the email and interpreted it as a partial, useless credit. You forwarded it to me, and I came to the same conclusion.

Yet it turns out the email was trying to inform you that a refund was coming. I learned this after consulting Jennifer de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for Frontier.

The email presented what turned out to be a chronological list of transactions related to your reservation, sent with no introduction or explanation. First, there’s a “Payment: Discover” for $439.91, dated on May 18, the day you made the reservation for the first leg and joined the Discount Den. Next comes the confusing “Travel Credit,” for -$339.92 on June 29, three days after your canceled flight. This transaction includes bullet-pointed instructions on how to redeem the credit, along with other conditions.

Then comes three more confusing transactions: the first, dated July 2…