DEAR JEANNE AND LEONARD: My husband and I purchased a round-trip plane ticket for our daughter's boyfriend, who lives in Europe, so he could join us here for Christmas. Unfortunately, a flight cancellation en route left him stranded in a connecting city for 12 hours. "Francois" had a huge hassle getting booked on another flight, an uncomfortable overnight at the airport and then a painfully early departure the next day. The airline, we've now learned, will be rebating $500 of the ticket price to compensate for the canceled flight. The question is: To whom should the money go? Since we paid for the ticket, we think it belongs to us. But since our daughter's boyfriend put up with the inconvenience that, in his words, "earned the rebate," he thinks it should go to him.
-- J.M.
DEAR J.M.: Has he also asked you to reimburse him for the cocktails he bought on his unexpected layover?
Look, however unpleasant Francois' journey to the New World may have been, he has no claim to a "refund" for a ticket he didn't pay for. You were especially generous to treat him to the airfare, and no doubt you were equally kind to him when he was a guest in your home. It does not speak well for him that in light of all that, he still believes he's entitled to the $500 of your money that the airline is returning.
We assume Francois has other virtues, and we hope he's teachable. But as things stand, when it comes to money manners, this guy doesn't have "un indice."
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: I bought two bottles of good wine plus a decanter online and ordered them to be shipped to my nephew and his wife for Christmas. Unfortunately, the decanter was out of stock, and the entire order got held up. So, by way of apology, the vendor sent my nephew two additional bottles of equally nice wine. I explained what had happened to my nephew; he seemed pleased with the four bottles he'd received; and that was that, as far as I was concerned. But after talking things over with my wife, I'm wondering if I should get my nephew another gift, since he never got the decanter. The cost of the original gift was $125, and the vendor credited my Visa card with the $65 I'd paid for the decanter -- that is, I didn't have to pay for the second two bottles of wine. What should I do?
-- Jake
DEAR JAKE: Stop worrying. Regardless of what you originally intended to give them, you ultimately gave your nephew and his wife four bottles of good wine. Isn't that enough? It certainly seems like a nice gift to us, plus it sounds as if the second two bottles your nephew received -- the ones that were sent as an apology -- were worth roughly what the decanter would have cost. So what if you wound up paying $65 less than you'd originally planned to spend? Even Santa would call this a win/win.
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Family on 02/22/2017