Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic my review I Fly Business would easily have been 4 or 5 stars. I have used them for travel from Los Angeles to Europe several times over the last 5 years and recommended them frequently. Steve Kaplan not only booked Business Class at discounted prices, he also suggested itineraries using airports that were much more convenient to the places we were traveling. All that changed this spring with the arrival of Covid-19.
In October 2019 I purchased round trip tickets from LAX to France for a wedding in Paris over Memorial Day weekend. When the wedding was postponed in March 2020, I contacted Steve for guidance on canceling the flights. He asked if I had taken out travel insurance since the tickets were non refundable. I had not (my bad). He told me there was nothing that could be done. In April 2020 I read an article in Consumer Reports that due to the coronavirus, airlines would refund, not simply offer travel vouchers, for all flights if any leg of an itinerary was canceled by the airline. I tried to confirm this with Kaplan but he never responded to voicemails I left on his phone nor email that I sent. At the end of April I received an email from Delta notifying me that a leg of my itinerary had been canceled. Again, I tried to contact Kaplan. Again, no response so I decided to file a claim directly with Delta online. The website indicated that due to the high volume of cancellations, it may be two billing cycles before the credit appeared on my credit card statement.
At the beginning of July 2020, after receiving two cycles worth of Visa statements and still no refund, I called Delta. This time I actually got through to a live agent after navigating countless menus and waiting on hold. The Delta agent put me on a short hold while he located my claim. When he returned to the call, he informed me that my claim had been honored and that since I had purchased the tickets through a travel agency, the refund had been sent to I Fly Business on May 27, 2020.
Hearing that, I tried calling Kaplan again. This time he actually took the call. When I identified myself, he told me he was on another call and would get back to me in 20 minutes. A week went by, then 10 days, and still no call from Kaplan. At this point, on July 14, 2020, I decided to send him a certified letter, return receipt requested. On July 23, 2020, Kaplan called me. I told him I wasn't interested in flight or travel agency credit. I wanted the refund (almost $6,000). He told me he would have his office put a check in the mail to me. On July 28, 2020 I called Kaplan again to inquire about the check. He told me it had been sent out.
When the check still hadn't arrived by July 31, 2020, I had my attorney prepare a demand letter for payment no later than August 7, 2020 or I would take further legal action. The check dated August 5 arrived on August 7, 2020. On August 12, 2020, the certified letter I had sent was returned to me. Kaplan never claimed it.
I Fly Business never informed me that Delta had refunded my tickets. They didn't return calls or email initially. Kaplan lied to me when he told me "the check is in the mail". It wasn't until my attorney sent the demand letter that I finally received the refund I was due. A business that operates ethically would have handled this situation differently. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I previously had recommended them to several colleagues and only had glowing things to say about I Fly Business. It's very unfortunate that their handling of my situation resulted in my writing this review. read more
