Well, the flight I booked from San Diego to Paris may be too good to be true (see earlier post).

Airfareplanet is claiming that the credit card I used to make my purchase last Tuesday was denied, and that they cannot honor the fair that I had booked (which is $400 less than what they show now).

I called my credit card company, and they said there were absolutely no purchases declined. Instead, they show purchases pending (i.e. in limbo) for one of the two tickets I bought. That doesn’t sound like my card was declined to me!

So I call Delta. They say that the reservation was made, but because the travel agent didn’t issue the ticket, the reservation was cancelled. And there’s a note on the reservation that says the credit card was declined. So I probe a little further, and find out that the fare that I was quoted was a limited supply that had been available up until March 28th.

Here’s where I put two and two together… I was quoted and purchased my tickets from Airfareplanet.com on March 30th. It seems like the travel agency misquoted me and is now backpeddling to get out of the fare by saying that my card was "denied". But when I confront them on this, they say that their system searches Delta’s fare’s in real time, and so that couldn’t have happened.

Does any one have experience handling this sort of issue. I mean, I book tickets through them that are non-refundable and non-transferable. I’m putting myself out on somewhat of a limb, so there’s no room for mistakes on my part. But it’s a total double standard, because it seems like they made a mistake, and are lying to me about the card being declined.

I guess what it would be nice to know, is, (1) is there any chance of getting the fare that I originally booked (2) is airfareplanet’s description of them checking fares in "real time" accurate (3) any thing else that would help me make my case with them. I acknowledge that its entirely in their hands, as Delta has said they can’t do anything because the tickets were handled through a third party, but I’m hoping that in the interest of customer service and accountability, that they will honor the original transaction.

Any help?