TV producer turned away at airport gate after using third-party travel site for flight to London

A TV and film producer looking to honor his biological mother overseas is sharing a travel warning.

James Axiotis is a longtime producer. He's called the shots for various TV series, including America's Most Wanted, Cold Case Files and Audience Music. But a scheduled trip to London to honor his biological mother, Georgia Korakis, became a night.

At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Axiotis made a sizable donation in Georgia's name.

"The whole point was to honor my mom, take my daughters, their grandmother's names on a chair," Axiotis explained.

At LAX, he was then told his flight tickets had been "sucked back." 

"They somehow took the money back," Axiotis said.

He used a third-party travel site to book the plane tickets. He called Travelocity and Lufthansa and the latter – the actual airline scheduled to fly Axiotis – told the international producer that he wasn't listed as a customer. Instead he was Travelocity's customer.

Axiotis was left to call the third-party travel site and figure out the situation from there. He had purchased the tickets using credit from an earlier booking that he had to cancel through Travelocity.

The family was forced to take the luggage off the plane and ultimately had to take a different flight – and of course, pay for the new flight.

FOX 11 reached out to Travelocity, Chase Bank and Lufthansa, the three companies involved in the disaster transaction.

In a statement via email, Lufthansa said the airline is working to reimburse Axiotis. Chase Bank says it has not heard from Lufthansa.

Travelocity has not returned FOX 11's request for comment.

As of Thursday, Axiotis has yet to receive a refund for the travel snafu, an incident that took place about 15 months ago.