A: I’m sorry to hear about your 67th birthday trip. That’s what folks in the travel industry call a “trip in vain.” You flew to Dallas, only to have to return home right away.

I’m troubled by the perception that American Airlines didn’t care about getting you to your final destination. American and British Airways are code-share partners, which means they are taking responsibility for each other’s flights. No one from American should have left you with the impression that the airline was “finished” with you when you arrived in London.

A call to your online travel agency, Expedia, or to British Airways might have yielded a different result. As your travel agent, Expedia should have figured out a way to fix your dream vacation; that’s what good travel agents do.

“Trip in vain” policies vary from airline to airline, but, generally, they should offer a refund of the unused portion of your ticket. The money would be sent to your travel agent, which then would return it to you.

I list the executive contacts for American Airlines (elliott.org/company-contacts/american), British Airways (elliott.org/company-contacts/british-airways/) and Expedia (elliott.org/company-contacts/expedia/) on my consumer-advocacy site. I think you could have successfully appealed this delayed refund to one of them.

As best I can tell, your refund followed a confusing path. If British Airways ticketed you, then it had your money. American would have had to ask British Airways for the refund, and then it would have been sent to Expedia. That may account for the delay, but it doesn’t fully explain it.

At my suggestion, you reached out to one of Expedia’s executives. Within a week, you had a full refund for your unused tickets.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, www.elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.