John Curtner’s two-month trip to the Middle East last fall with his wife started as an exciting journey through Israel, Jordan and Egypt. They rented cars from Hertz to help get around.
"We did our traveling to Jordan and to Egypt. And then we came back and we picked up a second car for a month scheduled from the 1st of October to the 31st of October, and then on the 31st of October, we were scheduled to go home,” Curtner told NBC 5’s Kristi Nelson.
On October 7, 2023, everything changed.
Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza.
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As fears escalated in the region, the couple was desperate to get back home to Texas.
“In Google Flights, you can actually put in for your destination the word 'anywhere," Curtner said. “And so we were looking for a flight to anywhere out of the country. We'd get to what looked like a flight, we'd get all the way to the end to book it, and it would say, this flight has been canceled."
"We got to a point where we just said, hey, you know what? We have to stop for today and pray on it and go back at it the next morning. So the next morning, my wife got on the computer and started up and immediately got a flight," Curtner continued.
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They headed to the international airport in Tel Aviv-- hearing reports of rockets fired at the airport, as well as in the northern area where they'd been staying.
They made it back to DFW Airport a few days later.
After settling back in, the Curtners realized they'd been charged for a full month for the car rental, even though they'd been forced to return it early.
"I think in one month's time I made, 10 or 12 calls to Hertz just to try to keep getting someplace and kept getting bumped around and then had another 15 email exchanges between them, and, and nothing was happening. Then we got a bill."
That was followed by a collections letter, and then a cancellation of their gold membership status. That’s when Curtner contacted NBC 5 Responds for help. The consumer investigations team was able to get a refund for Curtner of $685.54.
In an emailed statement, a Hertz media relations spokesperson told us:
“Given the circumstances of the situation we closed the claim.”
