Dear Brickfish commnity, In December, 8 other students and I purchased round-trip tickets from San Diego, CA to Accra, Ghana departing July 10th from lastminutefare.net representative Michelle Shaw. This is for a volunteer trip we are all taking through Alternative Breaks @ UCSD. After we had paid, she kept putting off sending us e-tickets with various excuses. Naturally, we were suspicious and demanded our tickets or a refund. She responded by sending us two confirmed tickets through Northwest which, when we checked with a Northwest agent, were valid. She failed to send the other tickets after further pressure and we contacted our credit card agencies to report fraud. Seven students were able to get refunds through their credit cards. Because at the time I had a valid ticket, I was told by my credit card that I couldn't claim fraud. I had technically received the goods promised to me. My friend, Caitlin, was in the same boat. Caitlin and I were at a loss and contacted Northwest to find out if we could block our tickets from being tampered with by the scammer. We were assured several times that it was secure, but were refused written confirmations. After being shuffled through several agents we finally reached someone who agreed to notate on our account that our tickets could not be altered by the agent (oh ya I forgot to mention Michelle got my name wrong-Jennier instead of Jennifer- and Northwest repeatedly told me the agent had to change this mistake despite the fact I said OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT SHE NO LONGER EXISTED AND HAD SCAMMED 7 OF OUR MEMBERS! This was a typical conversation with Northwest: Me: Hi, I have an issue with my ticket. Here is my reservation number XXXX. Them: Ok, I see your flight from San Diego to Accra. Is this Jennier Teschler? Me: No, this is Jennifer Teschler. That is one of my problems, my name is misspelled on my ticket. Them: Ok, you have to take care of that through your agent. Me: That is my other problem. My original agent has disappeared and scammed eight other students. I know I still have a ticket, but my agent is a scammer and no longer exists. I want to change my name and ensure that the original agent cannot cancel this ticket. Them: Ok, you're going to want to confirm this information through your agent, we cannot help you directly. My inner monologue: God, you're stupid. No, that's mean maybe I'm being unclear. Let's try again. Me (Out loud): My original agent has disappeared and scammed eight other students. I know I still have a ticket, but my agent is a scammer and no longer exists. I want to change my name and ensure that the original agent cannot cancel this ticket. Is it clear that I cannot work through my agent as she is a scam artist and I have no way to reach her? Also, why can't Northwest help me with a Northwest ticket? Them: I see. Well, you're going to have to make these changes through your agent, Northwest cannot make any changes to this ticket. My inner monologue: Nope, you're really stupid. I hate you. Eventually, I got someone to notate on my account that the agent would definitely NOT be able to cancel my ticket. They also promised that I would not have a problem with the minor name misspelling, but still refused to change it. Stupidly, I relaxed. This is my first major trip and I thought everything was now ok (this is the beginning of February). A couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I double checked my ticket and saw that it had been REFUNDED! Amid hiccups and sobs I spoke to Northwest agent supervisor, Sandra Dee, who confirmed that this was in fact true, the agent had filed for a refund on February 20th! I called Caitlin, but her ticket is still there and not refunded, so she doesn't know what to do. I explained my situation to Sandra and how I had been promised by at least three agents that this would not happen. In a very nice, appeasing way she said tough shit. Apparently, because I bought a consolidated ticket through an agency, the agency owns it, not me. I asked about the notation that had been made on my account and she read it back to me as "Northwest cannot make changes to this ticket, made on Jan. 27th by C." I was shocked. I told her that I had been told the notation said "the booking agent cannot make changes." She had no reply, other than they should not have promised me that. When I asked why this system would be in place if it allows blatant fraud like this to happen and why I had been explicitly told it would NOT happen to my ticket she said that "This doesn't usually happen." Well, that helps! I'm not trying to be a martyr, but I'm working two jobs (around 40 hours/week) to pay for tuition and this trip. Before this I was going to have JUST enough money to pay the program fee, but now, even if I get my money refunded through the credit card I can no longer afford to go on a trip I have been working towards all year (we have done at least a dozen fundraisers and have spent all year learning about Ghanaian culture, plus the anticipation has just, in general, been building since October). I don't know what to do. I feel lied to and cheated by two organizations, lastminutefare.net which no longer exists and has had its license revoked by the BBB, and Northwest who at this time is telling me there is nothing they can do at the same time that they're telling Caitlin her ticket is definitely secure despite her worries that the same exact thing can happen to her in the months to come.