Vacation plans dashed by the coronavirus, couple wants a refund from Amtrak

The vacation plans were two years in the making.

Linda Martelli Ardito and Nicholas Ardito are Disney Vacation Club members, and they booked a special Disney cruise that would set sail from Vancouver, Canada in August 2020.

They also needed to book transportation to Vancouver.

The couple decided to make it an adventure.

“We decided on a cross country Amtrak trip departing from Newark Penn Station to Washington D.C. to Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington,” Martelli Ardito said. “In Seattle, we would board another train that would travel to Vancouver, Canada.”

They booked the travel part of the trip, which included a few hotel nights, through AAA Vacations. It would cost $3,899 and they paid $498, which covered the deposit and travel insurance, records show.

But then the coronavirus pandemic slammed into North America. The cruise was canceled by Disney.

“Therefore, there is no reason for us to take this cross country trip to Seattle, Washington,” Martelli Ardito said. “This was told to the travel agencies.”

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

They contacted AAA Vacations, and their representative tried to get a refund on their deposit.

Amtrak wouldn’t give a refund, emails show, only offering a future travel credit of $458. The travel credit wouldn’t have an expiration date, the AAA rep told the couple.

And it wasn’t acceptable.

“My husband and I are both over 60 years old and have underlying health conditions, therefore we are not traveling right now,” Martelli Ardito said. “They did not care at all and said I should be satisfied with the credit because usually they do not give credits.”

“That is a lot of money for them to hold onto during a pandemic,” she said.

She spent the next two months escalating her refund request with AAA, which followed up multiple times with Amtrak.

But Amtrak still said no to the refund. A credit only.

“This trip was planned for two years so we were really looking forward to it. We would never have wanted to cancel this trip and we did not cancel the trip,” Martelli Ardito said. “The coronavirus canceled the trip.”

The couple asked Bamboozled for help.

GETTING A REFUND

Because of the pandemic, we’ve seen travel companies and airlines treat cancellations differently.

Some companies have been inflexible, insisting on issuing travel credits, while others have made exceptions and given refunds in some cases — but not all. Others have offered partial refunds only.

Consumer complaints about airlines have skyrocketed during the pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said in April 2020 — the most recent month available — it received nearly 20,000 complaints about airlines, up 1,546.4% over the same time a year ago. The complaints were up 292.1% over the March 2020 complaint count.

The large majority of complaints concerned refunds.

DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration said it does not collect data on rail passenger consumer complaints for Amtrak or other commuter railroads.

“We’re also unaware of any central repository for such data mirroring that collected by USDOT/Bureau of Transportation Statistics for airlines,” a spokesman said.

Amtrak’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) did not immediately respond to a request for complaint data.

We reviewed the couple’s reservations and email trail, and then asked Amtrak to reconsider its decision.

The company responded two weeks later.

“It appears this one has been refunded and the customer should already have this in their account,” a spokesman said in an email.

We asked multiple times why it made the refund, but the company didn’t respond.

We told the couple to check their account, and indeed, the funds were refunded.

“I never received an email or written letter. The money was just refunded without telling me. I found out from you,” Martelli Ardito said. “But I am happy for that.”

We wish we knew more about the refund decision, but thanks to Amtrak for making it right for these customers.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.