CNN || One airline ticket for the price of two

Llouellynde Orahood's flight from Los Angeles to Dallas has all the makings of a trip from hell, including weather delays, cancellations and almost-missed flights. What could be worse? Having to pay again for the same tickets. Now, neither the airlines nor her online travel agency is willing to help her recover the money she should have never had to spend. Is there any hope for a refund?

Q: I need your help untangling a flight problem that involves Hotwire, US Airways, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines. A few months ago, we were supposed to fly from Los Angeles to Dallas on US Airways and Frontier. Our first outbound flight was a codeshare flight operated by United.

We checked in at the US Airways counter with plenty of time before our flight left. After waiting in line, a representative sent us to the United Airlines check-in area, across the airport. It didn't matter; our flight to Las Vegas was canceled because of severe weather. At that point, a United representative told us our flight had been rescheduled for the next day.

My family and I live three hours away from LAX. We arrived at the airport using a rental car. We had to pay another $130 for a hotel room that night. The next day, when we tried to check in, the system couldn't find our tickets.

Our only option was to buy new tickets, which cost us $235 each. Since then, we've been trying to get our money back from Hotwire and the airlines. But so far, nothing. Can you help?

-- Llouellynde Orahood, Lompoc, California

A: So you bought a round-trip ticket from Los Angeles to Dallas through an online travel agency, but ended up dealing with three different airlines? No wonder your refund is missing in action. I don't think anyone knows where your money is.