During the first week of March, we at the office made a booking for a return ticket at Etihad Airways for the Managing Director of the company.

We received a quote for the return ticket, stating that the total cost would be just over R5000.00. I proceeded to do the payment with the business credit card.

Two days later, our Managing Director was contacted by the Fraud Department at the bank. They informed her that a payment of over R12000.00 had gone through to Etihad Airways.

I immediately contacted the Airline again, and confirmed the total cost of the ticket with them (again I was told that it was only supposed to be just a bit more than R5000.00).

However, the consultant could not resolve the query over how it had happened, then, that a double payment had apparently been taken.

Over the next week or two, my colleague and I have been incessantly trying to contact Etihad airways. However, no-one has been of any assistance to us.

On the last occasion, I was given an e-mail address to which I could send an enquiry, and was assured that the matter would be looked into. The consultant even acknowledged receipt of my e-mail before he forwarded it to the relevant authorities.

In the meantime I have re-sent the e-mail numerous times, each time the message turned out to be "undeliverable".

I am really at my wits' end at the moment.

Liezl Zwart:

My relative had similar experience as yours. She too was charged twice on her credit card, when she was trying to book a ticket online on Etihad. Each time she got a message that the card payment didn't go through, so she quit trying after she received this message again the second time, thinking that the bookings had not gone through. Later she was appalled to learn from her bank that the payment for the ticket had been made twice. Now she is running behind Etihad to get her money back. Strange!