Jessica Pegula reveals costly travel mishap after being 'roasted' by customer service

Wednesday, 08 October 2025 at 21:52

byJordan Reynolds

Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys are part of a new podcast that is already gaining traction, and the 2024 US Open runner-up told a hilarious story on the latest episode.

Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk are the other members of The Player's Box Podcast. The American quartet is close friends, and their bond is apparent in every minute of the episodes.

In a previous edition, Pegula told the awkward story of a cleaning lady in Beijing walking in while she was taking a shower. The language barrier meant the 31-year-old could not communicate that she wanted her to leave.

Once again, Pegula had the most interesting traveling story in the latest episode. Thankfully, it did not occur when she was showering or in a similarly awkward situation, but she had to fork out more cash than initially expected.

Pegula suffered a brutal semifinal loss to Linda Noskova in the 2025 China Open semifinal. She had three match points on her serve before the Czech stunningly rallied and prevailed in a deciding set tiebreak.

After that setback, the former world No. 3 could have used a simple train journey from Beijing to Wuhan. Instead, Pegula faced an unexpected delay that left her feeling like customer service was mocking her.

Pegula revealed that she accidentally booked a longer train that would have been one hour and 36 minutes longer than planned. However, the language barrier with the staff at the train station desk meant she could not do it free of charge.

"So I had to rebook that one to the shorter one, which is only four hours. So, it was kind of a whole thing because I had to do it the morning of, kind of panicking. Actually, I didn’t tell you guys this part, but it was really funny. I’m on WhatsApp customer service, and they’re trying to change it for me."

"And of course, I didn’t get a full refund, so I had to pay an extra $140 to change it, which was just lovely. They said if I wanted no extra charge, I had to go to the desk at the train station, which we all know wasn’t going to happen because nobody speaks English. It would have been a disaster."

The American was then left stunned by a message she received about the $140 charge. Pegula thought she was talking to artificial intelligence, but the comment indicated that it was probably a real person.

"She messages me back, and I said, 'Just got the email. Thank you.' And they said, 'Thank you for your support. We thought the price difference was very high. Now that’s the power of financial freedom!' with an exclamation point. And I was like, 'Did I just get roasted? What?'"

"I just responded, 'Got to do what you got to do, lol,' I thought I was talking to like a robot or something. I didn’t even know it was real. So I think I kind of got low-key roasted by Travel Guy China customer chat."

Although the delay was irritating, the moment of levity might have been nice for Pegula after that tough loss to Noskova. Coco Gauff had no issues traveling for the Wuhan Open, and she was positive about her serving performance in Beijing.