Consumer complaint received 2026-04-10 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
Company : Capital One , N.A . Product : XXXX Credit Card Dispute Case # : XXXX Merchant : XXXX Airlines Disputed Charge : {$1900.00} Transaction Date : XX/XX/XXXX ( posted XX/XX/XXXX ) I am filing this complaint regarding Capital Ones handling of my billing dispute under the Fair Credit Billing Act and Regulation Z. Capital One temporarily credited a disputed XXXX XXXX charge of {$1900.00}, then rebilled the amount and closed the case, relying primarily on a merchant statement that no cancellation per policy was received. I believe Capital One failed to conduct a reasonable investigation and failed to reconcile the merchant statement against substantial contrary evidence. Original paid purchase : I paid for the original XXXX XXXX itinerary on my Capital One card. My statement shows XXXX XXXX airfare {$870.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Cancellation attempt before departure ( avoiding no-show ) : On XX/XX/XXXX, after XXXX cancelled XXXX positioning flight, I immediately contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX properly and avoid no-show fees. I made XXXX calls to XXXX XXXX that day, including multiple long calls ( XXXX approximately XXXX minutes each, another approximately XXXX minutes, and another approximately XXXX minutes ). I cancelled approximately XXXX hours before the XXXX flight departure. I have call logs and recordings. Fee disclosed by XXXX policy and by the agent : XXXX own fare rule/fee display for my itinerary showed penalties such as {$130.00} and {$540.00} in case of no-show. I was not attempting to no-show ; I called and cancelled prior to departure. I was told by the agent there would be a cancellation fee ( ~ {$120.00} {$140.00} ) and I accepted it. I reasonably expected the fee to be processed because my credit card was saved in the app and I was not directed to any payment screen during the cancellation flow. XXXX never sent any notice that a fee remained open or unpaid. No notice + booking remained active : After the cancellation, I received no email/SMS/app notice stating that any fee was unpaid or that my booking would be blocked. Instead, the reservation continued to behave as active : I received an Online Check-in email and I received a boarding pass in the XXXX app. I also received an operational email Change in Your Flight Plan hours before travel, consistent with an active reservation. Pay-to-board demand and forced airport payment : On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX issued a time-limited payment demand for XXXX EGP ( {$1900.00} ) tied to my reservation code. At XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX staff stated I could not board unless I paid immediately. I paid under necessity to avoid being stranded abroad and missing my U.S. semester start date. I received a new ticket number for the same travel. The charge posted to my Capital One account as airfare. Merchant inconsistency : XXXX later emailed that they could not detect any withdrawals under my name and asked for my credit card statement, despite the charge posting to my Capital One accountindicating merchant billing/system inconsistency. Capital Ones dispute handling failures : I submitted substantial evidence to Capital One ( original purchase proof, posted charge proof, call logs, XXXX fare rule/penalty screenshot, check-in email/boarding pass, operational update email, payment demand email, and XXXX response ). Capital One initially closed the dispute quickly citing insufficient documentation ; after I escalated, it was reopened. After about XXXX weeks, Capital One closed it again and rebilled based primarily on the merchant statement no cancellation per policy, without addressing the evidence that I cancelled before departure and without reconciling the penalty policy amounts ( $ XXXX {$540.00} ) against a forced charge of {$1900.00}. Why this is not a reasonable investigation : Capital One relied on a conclusory merchant statement while ignoring or not addressing : ( 1 ) documented cancellation-related calls before departure, ( 2 ) the reservation remaining active through check-in/boarding pass issuance, ( 3 ) the lack of any notice of an unpaid fee, and ( 4 ) a pay-to-board demand. Even if a penalty applied, the merchants own policy display shows penalties on the order of {$130.00} or {$540.00} ( no-show ), not {$1900.00}, making the charged amount materially inconsistent with the disclosed policy and made me pay for the same flight twice, I paid XXXX $ for the entire round trip on XX/XX/XXXX and then they charged me {$1900.00} for one trip only in order to go back to the XXXX from my family visit. Important : The only written disclosure I ever received about penalties was the original fare rules/fee display at the time of purchase, which listed penalties such as {$130.00} and {$540.00} in case of no-show. I was aware of these penalties, which is precisely why I contacted XXXX XXXX and canceled approximately XXXX hours before departure and explicitly requested that this not be treated as a no-show. In other words, this is not a situation where I failed to understand the rules ; I acted specifically to comply and avoid the no-show penalty. Despite that, XXXX XXXX provided no subsequent notice that any penalty was still open or unpaid, kept the reservation appearing active through operational communications and online check-in/boarding pass issuance, and then forced a far larger charge ( {$1900.00} * * ) at the airport as a condition to board.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation