Consumer complaint received 2021-10-26
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (DC)

On XX/XX/2021, I received an email from Chase Ultimate Rewards ( CUR ) acknowledging their mistake in an airline booking dispute that caused me to pay an extra {$2400.00} in cash beyond my original booking issues. 

The original mistake -- I called Chase to break up my flight reservation for my wife and myself from XXXX to XXXX. However, Chase canceled my reservation, and swapped my wife 's flight for what mine should have been. Both flights needed to be rebooked. 

After a series of phone calls and weeks of their review, Chase acknowledged their mistake. They listened to the recordings of my calls with customer service representatives.

You can see the email from CUR acknowledging the mistake in one of the PDF 's attached. 

Here is a section of the email acknowledging their mistake : Cash refund amount - {$1000.00} and {$1300.00} Total refund amount - {$2400.00} Additionally, the email said that my banking institution, also Chase, would resolve the issue within 7 business days. 

Almost two months later, on XX/XX/2021 I called CUR to say I had not received my refund as promised. 

On XX/XX/2021, I received an email from CUR saying I would receive a fraction of the money owed back to me. You can see the 2nd email also attached. 

Cash refund amount - {$110.00}, Points refund amount - XXXX Total refund value amount - {$870.00} Both emails are attached in PDF form. 

I have again called Chase Ultimate Rewards where they acknowledge their mistake but again say they need another five business days to review to scope of the complaint in order to see if I should receive a refund. Their internal issue has to do something with not being able to identify a 2nd itinerary # for my booking. I was never given a 2nd itinerary #. Nor if I log into Chase.com and review my bookings is there a 2nd itinerary # to be found. 

My original itinerary # is : # XXXX The most recent internal complaint reference number for the phone call is XXXX # XXXX. 

However, they are not " allowed '' to email this to me or to my personal banker at Chase who helped escalate my complaint. 

There appears to be a built in bureaucracy that is designed to frustrate customers and prevent them from getting timely responses. The CUR team has a call center that takes incoming calls. Then an " offline team '' reviews these calls and then adjudicates them. But these two teams are not allowed to talk over the phone. Because every separate call I make to the call center, I have to reexplain the the circumstances to a new representative. Each conversation has consistently taken 40-90 minutes per call to explain the situation and then move the process forward. Then an online team takes days to respond or does not respond at all. 

Any mistakes for their adjudication then forces a customer to interface with their call center again. Again they have to spend an excess amount of time escalating the complaint. 

Most working people don't have multiple hours on end to fight faceless representatives to recover thousands of dollars. Given the creation of uncertainty the Chase Ultimate Rewards team creates, their structure appears designed to have their customers either accept partial reimbursement out of frustration or forget about the money owed to them because of months with no response.