Consumer complaint received 2024-05-31
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: SOFI TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (DC)

SUMMARY : I booked a flight with SoFi Travel. My flight was canceled and all the rebooking options given to me involved overnight layovers without any offer of hotel cost reimbursement, so I requested a refund of the original fare and booked a new flight through SoFi Travel. I am requesting a refund of the cost difference between the two flights. Additionally, SoFi Travels customer service agents claimed to work for BILT Rewards and turned me away when I called. 

On XX/XX/year>, I booked a flight from XXXX, XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX via SoFi Travel. The flight was XXXX XXXX XXXX scheduled for XX/XX/year> ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The total flight duration would be 15 hours and 5 minutes with a layover of 1 hour and 10 minutes. The cost of the flight was {$560.00}. ( See Figure XXXX ) This was the return flight of a 2-week trip across XXXX that I had planned many months in advance. I am scheduled to leave for XXXX on XX/XX/year>. On XX/XX/XXXX, only four days before I was scheduled to leave ( and less than three weeks before the XXXX XXXX flight was to occur ), I received a notice from SoFi Travel that my flight had been canceled. I was told that I could either select another XXXX XXXX flight or request a refund and make a new booking at the prices currently available. ( See Figures XXXX and XXXX ) The first rebooking option given to me by SoFi would depart XXXX at XXXXXXXX XXXX arrive in XXXX at XXXX XXXXXXXX have an XXXX hours and XXXX minutes overnight layover, and depart the following day aXXXX XXXX XXXX to arrive in XXXX at XXXX XXXX. I checked on XXXX XXXX online flight portal and was given a few other rebooking options, all of which also had overnight layovers in XXXX. ( See Figures XXXX and XXXX ) Neither SoFi Travel nor XXXX XXXX offered reimbursement for the hotel, transportation, or meal costs that the overnight layovers would require. Additionally, as a lone XXXX  traveler, I did not feel comfortable taking an overnight layover in a country I had not planned to visit and where I do not speak the language.

I called SoFi Travel and spoke at length with an agent who said that all the rebooking options he found with XXXX XXXX involve an overnight layover, and who said that all the other flight options were substantially more expensive ( well over {$1000.00} ). On his advice, we canceled the XXXX XXXX flight to request a full refund, and I independently booked a new flight via SoFi Travels online portal. ( My case number for this phone call with SoFi is XXXX, and my flight itinerary number was XXXX ). 

My rebooked flight is with XXXX XXXX XXXX, and cost {$590.00}. ( See Figure XXXX ). It was the only option I found that was under {$1000.00} and did not involve additional stops or an overnight layover.

On various phone calls with SoFi Travel, I requested a refund both of the original amount ( {$560.00} ) and the additional difference I had to pay for the XXXX XXXX flight ( {$590.00}, an additional {$34.00} ). The first SoFi Travel customer service agent I reached insisted that they worked for BILT Rewards, not SoFi, and refused to help me. After I re-called the same customer service number ( at base of email in Figure XXXX ), another agent said they could process a refund of the original amount but not the difference between flights. 

I am submitting this complaint to request : ( 1 ) A refund of the difference between the two flights ( {$34.00} ), either from XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX. 

( 2 ) An investigation, either by SoFi Travels own management or the appropriate regulatory authority, into why it is failing to train customer service agents to know which company they work for. I was turned away by one agent who claimed that he only worked for BILT Rewards.