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A disheartened entrepreneur shares how his travel arrangements turned into an ordeal when he made a minor mistake on the reservation, resulting in the airline informing him that he must purchase another ticket for £9,000 – over quadruple what he initially paid.
Alex Coombes, aged 39, from Worthing, West Sussex, who runs a series of local eateries named Perch, has set his sights on attending a major hospitality exhibition happening in Shanghai, China, next weekend.
His coworker Damian Wilkins, aged 45 and hailing from Eastbourne, had been planning to join him at the global event. Together, they were searching for fresh concepts to fuel their growing restaurant venture.
However, mere weeks after securing their reservations at £2,100 per person through China Eastern Airlines, Mr. Coombes observed a minor mistake on the ticketing information.
He omitted a 'k' and spelled his colleague's last name as Wilins instead of Wilkins.
Mr. Coombes was certain that this minor mistake could be fixed; however, he asserts that he has endured "weeks of stress, escalating expenses, and utter corporate nonsense."
Even after dedicating several hours on the phone with American Express Travel Agency, where he purchased his tickets, along with accumulating an extensive international calling fee while conversing with China Eastern Airlines, neither company has managed to fix the problem.
He was instructed to cancel his ticket and buy a new one for his associate, with the current price being £8,948.12.
That number is expected to increase further still, he has been cautioned.
Mr Coombes now faces losing substantial amounts of money either by purchasing a new ticket or by canceling his travel arrangements entirely.
Out of desperation, his coworker considered going through with a name change via deed poll just to be able to retain the incorrect ticket.
Today, the restaurant owner characterized his experience with a single minor spelling mistake as 'outrageous,' noting that a stonemason employed at one of his establishments humorously commented that 'it would have been simpler and less costly to fix the ticket if it were engraved in granite.'
Reflecting on his experience, Mr Coombes shared with MailOnline: "Towards the end of November, following a lengthy day at work, I settled down to reserve our tickets for China."
We opted for an agent instead of booking directly with the airline, as we had previous experience with AmEx.
It was 11 pm at night—I recall the precise hour well because I was exhausted.
The journey was intended to be brief — merely a couple of days — as both of us cannot stay absent from our enterprise for extended periods; however, what ought to have been an easy reservation escalated into a nightmarish experience.
'I didn't notice until January when printing and organizing our travel documents that I had incorrectly spelled the name.'
It's completely my responsibility, and I have no intention of avoiding that.
'We reconnected with American Express Travel stated back then that it did not appear to be an issue.
However, after going through several hours of waiting on hold, making request calls, and receiving callback attempts, it appeared they were unable to assist us.
Next, we reached out to China Eastern Airlines, which was a new choice for us; however, it became apparent that they do not operate from the United Kingdom.
They have a location in London that we visited, but there's nothing left at that spot now.
If you call the UK number, it disconnects after 20 seconds. The sole method to reach them is by paying £1.80 per minute to call China, and we've spent countless hours attempting to resolve this issue.
We sent emails to every contact associated with the airline that we could locate, including checking LinkedIn.
I simply cannot fathom how such an insurmountable challenge could remain unresolved.
When his efforts with the airline proved fruitless, Mr. Coombes went back to Amex and learned that the sole option available was to cancel his travel plans and forfeit the ticket price.
Following his complaint, a different customer service agent informed him that the airline would provide a refund of the original fare less £380, provided they bought a new ticket.
However, at that point, the costs had skyrocketed to £3,800, which meant he would incur a loss.
With each passing day, the problem remains unsolved, and the ticket prices have surged to approximately £8,948.12 – a sum quadruple what he initially paid.
Mr. Coombes also asserts that regarding the terms and conditions for the airline, he couldn't 'locate anything, anywhere.'
He stated, "Nothing is documented about it, and whenever you inquire about this, nobody seems capable of sending them through."
The irritated traveler mentioned that although American Express advised him to contact the airline, China Eastern Airlines told him they could only address his issue with the booking agent he used initially. This left him stuck in an unresolved predicament involving both parties.
'I have never encountered something so absurd,' he stated.
We won’t be using this travel agent anymore – and supposedly, if we had booked directly through the airline, they would allow modifications. However, the airline seems reluctant to communicate with us since our agreement is with Amex.
We've really struggled with getting people to return calls and make any sense of this situation.
I simply wish to have the last name changed on my flight reservation. It baffles me why it’s so complicated.
I find it hard to believe that achieving this would be such a difficult task for anyone.
'This is a massive expenditure for our budget to undertake such a project. We genuinely aim to innovate and make a significant impact, yet it feels as though this process has been dragging on endlessly.'
'Expending a tremendous amount of effort merely to alter one character in a last name.'
I realize I erred, and a management charge is completely justified, but £9,000 seems utterly excessive.
MailOnline has reached out to American Express and China Eastern Airlines for comment.
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