First came the double charge, then came the double talk

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 11/10/02

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Virgin Atlantic Airways charged Idania G. Tablada twice for the same ticket, and she says the airline has done the same thing to many other passengers.

Tablada's debit card was hit with the first $719 charge on Aug. 23 and the second on Sept. 18. The unexpected charge virtually drained her account, and caused her to incur $193 in returned check fees. She didn't notice the second charge immediately because she was traveling overseas.

Virgin Atlantic gave her the runaround for more than a month before finally crediting her account for the second charge, but not the returned-check fees. During her efforts to get the charge reversed, Tablada said she was told that approximately 170 other people had been double-charged.

Tablada, who lives in Roslindale, said an official at her local bank, Citizens Bank, told her double charges are common. A spokeswoman for Citizens told me double charges occur occasionally, not frequently.

Regina Lingis, vice president of finance for Virgin, blamed the double-billing on a "computer glitch" at the airline's bank, Citibank. Lingis declined to provide further information, but said double charges were not a recurring problem.

Maria Mendler, a spokeswoman for Citibank, said the "double-debit problem" was not caused by the bank and that all customer errors have been corrected. "You should talk with Virgin about the nature of the problem," Mendler said.

The double-talk from both institutions didn't convince Tablada that the cause of the double charges had been identified and corrected. She wonders if there are more passengers out there who have been double-charged and didn't notice it.

"I'm wondering if it's something deliberate," she said. "How do they get away with charging you twice for the same ticket?"

Low-volume air traffic

The three airports serving eastern Massachusetts all reported gains in passenger traffic in September, but they were gains only because the aftermath of the terrorist attacks last year had already decreased traffic so much.

Manchester Airport remained on track to show growth for the year. Passenger traffic was up 29 percent in September and nearly 3 percent for the first nine months of the year.

Logan rebounded in September with a 34 percent increase in passenger traffic, but was still way off from Septembers in 2000 and 1999. For the first nine months of this year, traffic was off 13.4 percent compared with last year.

At T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., passenger traffic was up 26.37 percent in September. As at Logan, however, the September traffic was lower than it was during Septembers in 2000 and 1999. For the first nine months of this year, Green was off 4.45 percent compared with last year.

Flower bulb seizure

Frances Gillespie of Lexington is still fuming about bureaucratic bungling at the US Department of Agriculture.

Her husband flew to Amsterdam on business recently and bought $20 in daffodil and tulip bulbs to bring home. Frances had checked the Department of Agriculture's Web site (www.aphis.usda.gov/travel) for any import restrictions on daffodil and tulip bulbs and discovered there were none.

According to a section of the Web site titled "Travelers' tips on bringing food, plant, and animal products into the United States," flower bulbs like the ones her husband purchased were on the "general list of approved products."

But when he arrived at Boston's Logan Airport, US Customs inspectors seized the bulbs. It turns out another section of the USDA site, identified on the home page only as a travel alert, warns that bulbs coming into the United States must be stamped with a special new sticker. Gillespie's bulbs carried a sticker, but not the new one.

Sue Challis, a spokewoman for the USDA, acknowledged the agency's Web site is confusing and offers conflicting messages. But she said it would be difficult to change the travelers' tips section just to correct the one tiny section on flower bulbs.

Challis said the new stickers are needed to assure US officials that imported products have been inspected properly by the foreign government for pests. She said the vendor who sold Gillespie's husband the bulbs should have been aware of the requirement and affixed the correct stamp.

Gillespie is incredulous that the Agriculture Department is shifting blame.

"Why would anyone think to look at another portion of the USDA Web site when the part you read says it's OK to bring flower bulbs in," she asks. "It's very typical of the government to point the finger at everyone else when they are directly to blame. My guess is that folks at Customs will be growing very nice gardens in the spring."

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.