We are planning a trip to France and Scotland this summer with my sister and her family. We booked flights in February from France to Scotland through British Airways. We then had an unexpected change in our work schedules, necessitating a change in the flight date.

Unfortunately, my sister and I got our wires crossed. She had received a call directly from the airline in Spain, where she lives, but there was no indication that the change by my sister had been done while I was on the phone here, making the same change at the same time. She was charged about 200 Euros, and I was charged $331.

We called British Airways when I discovered what had happened, and they requested I send a fax to their refunds department in New York, which I did immediately. They contacted us almost two weeks later to say this had to be sent on to France. We have now sent several letters to the U.S. refunds office as well as the address they gave us in France, and we even tried sending a letter to the main office in England, but we are still waiting to hear from them. Is there anything you can do?

Janice Sinclair, Minneapolis

How odd. A careful reservations agent should have caught this, but more important, there should have been safeguards in the system to stop this kind of double change from being authorized.

Technically, British Airways was correct to bill you twice. You each called the airline and wanted to make a change to a ticket.

But that doesn't mean it was right to keep your money. As soon as you brought this to the airline's attention, it should have credited you.

In my experience, British Airways is among the slowest (if not the slowest) of the major airlines when it comes to refunds. I'm not surprised to hear that you've endured a long wait.

Is there a way to prod the airline into a faster refund? I list a few names on my website that, if contacted, might motivate British Airways to move a little faster (www.elliott.org/help/british-airways/) but I make no guarantees.

How about a credit card dispute? That might have just complicated things, particularly because you and your sister agreed to the change fees. This kind of dispute wouldn't be as cut-and-dried as a conventional double-billing.

I contacted British Airways on your behalf, and it credited you $331.