# Charged twice by Aer Lingus for the same flight!



## Mongola (15 Nov 2011)

I booked an Aer Lingus flight for next March. After adding all the extra (seat selection/bags) I got to the payment page where I entered my details. I did not even get a chance to click on the pay button that I was brought back to the start: "search again". 

I thought this was strange and waited ten minutes or so as I was unsure whether or not the payment had gone through. Since I was not receiving any confirmation email from Aer Lingus, and since I had not clicked on purchase flights, I assumed that it had not gone through. 
So, I started the process again. This time: I purchase the flights and indeed received a confirmation email. I actually received two of them but it did not register with me straight away as when you select your seats and/or add bags, it is charged separately and they also send you a new confirmation: that is what I thought the second email was. 

It wasn' t until this morning, when I was going through my emails that I realised that I had two different confirmation numbers, therefore: 2 bookings. 
I checked my online banking bank account and I was indeed charged twice. 

I rang Aer Lingus, explained the situation and what surprised me is that the gentleman I was talking to, was in fact not surprised at all!!!! He even said that this sometimes happen. Not only that but it could take up to 28 days for the funds (for secnd flight) to be credited back to me. 

Although annoyed over this, as this was not anything to do with me (and I do not see why I should have to wait so long to be reimbursed) I was also pleased that I did not have to put up a fight over this. There is obviously something wrong with their server as I was clearly told that this was not unusual. 

Has this happened to any of you?


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## flattea2 (15 Nov 2011)

No hasnt happened.

Mistakes happen, technology isnt perfect. They are refunding you with no quibbles.


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## Mongola (15 Nov 2011)

I completely agree with the fact that mistakes happen! But what surpise me is that, it does not seem to be a once-off so why do not attempt to look at what is causing this to happen? 

And also, they should aim to refund within a week to ten days not 28 days in my opinion.


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## dereko1969 (15 Nov 2011)

Mongola said:


> I completely agree with the fact that mistakes happen! But what surpise me is that, it does not seem to be a once-off so why do not attempt to look at what is causing this to happen?
> 
> *And also, they should aim to refund within a week to ten days not 28 days in my opinion*.


 
How long has it been since the transaction was brought to their attention?

I would say the 28 day period is the maximum it will take and it will be sorted well before then, why do you think they're not looking at fixing the bug in their system?


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## Mongola (16 Nov 2011)

I do not think "how long has it been brought up to their attention"  is relevant at all. \it would have no impact on the refund timeframe. 
 I was told a refund will be issued in within 28 days. Why should I be out another 200 euro for something that had nothing to do with me? I have no problem waiting a week or so but asked to wait possibly up to 28 days? I do not think this is right. 

As far as the second question: I am a great believer in listenning to what people say. I think this is a problem known to them for a while apparently and I do not believe they are actively working on it. If they were, the logical thing for the gentleman to say would have been: my apologies, we are experiencing difficulties at the moment and we have had reports of this happening when booking. We are however working on it... Well, maybe not those excat words but something along those lines: it would be what you would expect to hear. But it was not. I was clearly told that it "does sometimes happen, it was not unusual". This is self explanatory. 

I am not trying to make a mountain out of nothing but to me, this was quite cheeky and shocking!


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## elcato (16 Nov 2011)

Funnily enough a month or two ago I was checking in online and I went to change the seat and select another. While doing this I got distracted by someone and when I looked again I had a timed out message appear. So I went to checkin again and was told I was already checked in. When I went to retrieve my boarding pass I saw that my seat was still the opriinal one the randomly gave me and not the new one I had selected which was annoying. I guess they have a problem with their time out not actually rolling back the transaction. 
BTW as an observation did you pay by CC or debit card ? 28 days would be a problem with a debit card but usually not with a CC.


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## Mongola (16 Nov 2011)

A bit of both... It was a VISA debit!


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## redchariot (27 Nov 2011)

Funny enough, this almost happened to me too a couple of months ago. I selected flights, inputted my credit card information and clicked on Confirm and an error message came up on the website directing me back to the home page.

I checked my email and nothing was there, waited about 30 minutes and still nothing so I went through the whole process again and just before I confirmed the booking, my computer beeped alerting me to a new email which had my booking confirmation; 30 seconds later and I would have double-booked the flights; extremely lucky!!!!


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## markpb (27 Nov 2011)

redchariot said:


> 30 seconds later and I would have double-booked the flights; extremely lucky!!!!



I'm not sure about other airlines but I know from experience that the Ryanair website will warn you if you try to book the same flights twice.


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## Mongola (28 Nov 2011)

Definitely not on their website: I am still waiting for my refund. 

Am I just wondering if next time i book a flight, I coudl ring them and ask them if it was ok for me to pay them in 28 days?


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## Mongola (9 Dec 2011)

Update: the refund finally came through yesterday.


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## dereko1969 (9 Dec 2011)

So within the 28 days, should have been done sooner but at least they didn't go beyond their deadline.


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## Monica Bing (17 Jan 2013)

*Aerlingus charged me twice for same flight*

Hi Just stumbled across this forum whilst tryin to figure out how to get a refund off Aerlingus.Filled in all my details and it told me session timed out!!!....Filled it all in again and Then check my online account and they have charged me twice with 2 booking references.......I AGREE-28 DAYS IS RIDICULOUS TO WAIT TO GET YOUR MONEY FOR A MISTAKE THAT YOU DID NOT MAKE!!
....I notice the argument "mistakes happen"-well of course they do.But those messages dated 2011-this is Jan 2013- so they are obviously doing absolutely nothing to rectify the problem....
...What happens to people,not being ageist,but for instance elderly people booking flights who dont use online banking or people who dont actively check their accounts......How many  times has it gone unnoticed?
Almost all airlines and Hotel booking sites have a dialog box appear on screen if you are about to confirm a similar or same booking.... ITS UNACCEPTABLE THAT AN INTERNATIONAL, LONG-STANDING AIRLINE CANNOT MAINTAIN AND UPDATE THEIR WEBSITE!!!...NOT IMPRESSED.:-(









Mongola said:


> I booked an Aer Lingus flight for next March. After adding all the extra (seat selection/bags) I got to the payment page where I entered my details. I did not even get a chance to click on the pay button that I was brought back to the start: "search again".
> 
> I thought this was strange and waited ten minutes or so as I was unsure whether or not the payment had gone through. Since I was not receiving any confirmation email from Aer Lingus, and since I had not clicked on purchase flights, I assumed that it had not gone through.
> So, I started the process again. This time: I purchase the flights and indeed received a confirmation email. I actually received two of them but it did not register with me straight away as when you select your seats and/or add bags, it is charged separately and they also send you a new confirmation: that is what I thought the second email was.
> ...


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## pauloyarvo (17 Jan 2013)

*They charged me too!!*

I was booking a flight for this March two days ago and have seen my emails which gives me two reference numbers for two different flights, meaning that i have paid for two!! My session had 'timed out' when picking the flight details, so i started again. You'd think they would have a system to sort this out.
How have you gotten in touch with them to tell them about this? Phoning them or emailing them? Which would you recon?


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## shesells (17 Jan 2013)

Something similar happened to me when using the Air France app...I entered payment details and got a message "this service is currently unavailable". I then pulled out my laptop and booked via the main site. When the emails came through I realised I had two identical bookings. Rang their customer service, they immediately cancelled one booking and I had the refund by the end of the day.


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## scooper (23 Mar 2013)

Yes, it's happened to me with Aer Lingus and I had to pay £1.50 in phone calls to get my reimbursement "within 28 days!!!!" (Calls charged at 10p per minute and they leave you hanging on). 

It seems they purposefully create a problem with a first booking so that you have to book again. My first booking just 'stopped' and I was actually told to book again. Then I found they had taken £600 off me instead of £300.

The very least they should do is pay interest on the excess amount over the time they have it.

I've now reported Aer Lingus to the EU Consumer organisation. This is totally unacceptable and, judging by this forum, has been going on for at least 18 months. Are they using all our money to prop up their business? Disgraceful and they need to be fined.


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## Strongback (12 Apr 2013)

I booked a flight with Aer Lingus last night and have still not received a confirmation email.  I fully went through the booking process and purchases the flight.  I even got confirmation on the screen that the flight was purchased.  I should have done a screen grab as the booking reference was on it.

I'll have to call them as I wouldn't be happy to just show up as the airport hoping that they have booked me on the flight.


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## mylittlepony (13 May 2013)

*Happened to me tonight!*

I Booked Aer Lingus flight, declined booking a seat Im not paying extras.
I authorised payment clicked purchase but I was sent back to home page!
No confirmation that it was booked. Thought I was timed out.
I nearly re-booked but lucky I checked here and discovered that this been happening since 2011!! Its disgusting!
I nearly panic what happen was it a fake scam page etc. I even nearly thought maybe cos I didn't book a seat pay extra so they can decline until I pay for the exta hidden charges grrr.
I am still waiting for email for over 1hour. will just have to log off and hope that it will arrived in my inbox tomorrow. fingers crossed.
I will complain about this.


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## oisindub (21 Sep 2013)

The same thing happened to me. Their systems allow the same person to book the same flight twice. It is incredible that they have not fixed this. They are refunding but want to charge a booking fee for the double booking! What is infuriating is that no-one replies to my emails. This is just sheer ignorance. I will be writing to the Sundays to get some attention on this. I will pursue them until they refund me the booking fee.


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