Consumer complaint received 2018-10-05
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
Wells Fargos actions, reputation and explanation re : this case give the appearance of consumer fraud on a vast scale. 

Airline tickets are promised for credit card point redemptions, most to be used for vacations with friends and family members. What was actually delivered are tickets that dont allow seat selections to be confirmed until flight check-in, usually resulting in friends and family members sitting in different parts of an airplane, or maybe getting no seats at all if theres an overbooked flight. 
Ticket assistance and purchases are made by XXXX XXXX, hired by Wells Fargo as their Corporate Travel Management Company, and also to act as a Travel Agent for credit card redemption customers. XXXX XXXX has the ability to negotiate discounts and rebates from airlines through Volume Purchase Agreements. 
Wells Fargo explained their process by quoting vague waivers buried within on-line Terms and Conditions that allow, among other things of questionable legality, for earned credit card points to simply be erased or not honored. 

There may be another explanation for Wells Fargos and XXXX XXXX actions that is more direct and easier to explain, but either Wells Fargo and/or XXXX XXXX do not understand this issue or do not want to disclose it. I have already reached out to them for an explanation but have not heard back. This continues to be a serious issue for consumers, but may involve negligence instead of fraud. 

Possible Explanation : Theres a new class of airline ticket still in the process of being introduced and structured by airlines called a basic economy ticket. Originally it was introduced by XXXX, XXXX and XXXX to compete with ultra-low-cost airlines such as XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. Its main feature is the inability to choose seating until check-in, and the airlines who use this new class of airline ticket continue to evolve special baggage rules, and also seating confirmation and upgrade rules. XXXX 's, XXXX 's and XXXX decision was originally not matched by other U.S. and foreign-based airlines, but that may be changing or maybe has already changed. 
XXXX, XXXX and XXXX originally referred to this type of ticket class by its original name : basic economy although at least XXXX XXXX now calls these tickets main cabin tickets, probably for public relations and sales concerns. 
These tickets may be appropriate for some business travelers who dont care and maybe dont even want to sit with co-workers, and also for short flights for friends and family members where sitting together isnt that important and saving even a few dollars is a critical issue. 
However, these new types of tickets are being referred to as third class or steerage tickets by many who have experienced them, as they almost always result in seating, if available, being in middle seats probably in the back of the plane. There is also a minimal price differential from standard tickets, which makes their value even more questionable. 
As for longer flights, especially for overnight trans-pacific, trans-atlantic and trans-continental flights, they would seem to be totally inappropriate for family members or friends traveling together who would end up sitting alone in different parts of an airplane. 
Wells Fargo indicates that the airline tickets I requested were N-Class tickets. However, XXXX XXXX does not indicate in their website that an N-Class ticket even exists as one of the options. What they do currently indicate on their website is that preferred seating may be selected at the time of booking, and that choosing your seat is free for all classes of tickets. 
However, XXXX XXXX website does offer the choice of Economy Special tickets, Economy Standard tickets, Economy Flex tickets and Premium Economy Standard tickets. Its possible that the Economy Standard tickets we chose were actually basic economy type tickets - but based on the information currently available to potential customers, this would not be clear. However, XXXX XXXX should know and understand this information, and if true that should have been clearly explained in their Response to my Complaint. 
Also, although Wells Fargos customers make a preliminary choice of airlines, destination and tickets when they first contact Wells Fargo to redeem earned credit card points, Wells Fargo hired XXXX XXXX to act as the Travel Agent for their customers to handle final travel arrangements. This is a system that Wells Fargo created, and they should retain some oversight responsibility to ensure it works appropriately. At a minimum, it would also seem that XXXX XXXX has a professional responsibility to understand and explain what type of tickets customers are requesting, and also to understand and explain that basic economy tickets are probably inappropriate for friends or family members traveling together on overnight trans-pacific flights or other similar longer flights. Similarly, if customers requested airline tickets to restricted or dangerous areas, XXXX XXXX should be able to understand and explain that. What XXXX XXXX does know is that most of their credit card redemption customers are doing so for vacation travel. They are not a mere conduit pushing buttons. 
Whether or not Wells Fargo and/or XXXX XXXX are saving money through discount bulk ticket purchases by having customers redeem credit card points through the system they have created, as professionals with access to much more information and having more knowledge than their customers, it would seem they owe a minimum duty of care to their customers. 
Im not sure if my possible explanation for Wells Fargos and XXXX XXXX actions is in fact what happened. However, if XXXX XXXX was actually selling basic economy tickets without explaining what they were, Wells Fargo should have clearly explained this. Their customers should not be required to investigate or guess about what Wells Fargo and XXXX XXXX did after the fact. 
More importantly for the future, because the same thing has probably already happened to many Wells Fargo customers and will continue to happen to many others, Wells Fargo should ensure that XXXX XXXX discloses to customers when airline tickets initially requested are probably inappropriate. If XXXX XXXX employees do not fully understand the details of the airline travel arrangements they are making for Wells Fargo customers, their employees should be provided with additional training.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation