I'm boycotting Travelocity and United

While I've always liked the Travelocity site best (over Orbitz & Expedia), and Travelocity's fares are usually lower, I'm not booking with them anymore. Why? Because their customer service is terrible! They seem to have outsourced it to a country where the English is so heavily accented that even I can't understand it. I live and teach in a very multi-cultural area, and can communicate with most everyone. But Travelocity's people are nigh impossible to understand, and they don't seem to understand the problems I call about very well, either. Very frustrating.

And United! They wanted to charge me a $180 change fee on a $175 flight! (3 months in advance!) Virgin just lowered their change fee to $50, and Southwest is still free. Go figure.


Dave

Most of the legacy carriers charge a huge fee for tickets changes. You might as well write off Delta/NWA, Continental, American Airlines and USAir as well if that's going to be your criteria for who you won't fly.

The last time I had to speak with an Orbitz rep she spoke perfect English. This was two years ago so things may have changed or I might have just been lucky.

I agree with you on Travelocity. I had a heck of a time changing flights when Hurricane Gustav threatened my trip to New Orleans. It wasn't just the agents' English comprehension, but also the serpentine nature of their operations which involved at least four phone transfers. ( with "would you please wait 3-5 minutes?" always becoming 10-15 minutes) I actually got transferred back to the same guy after 50 minutes on the phone. Eventually I had to complete the transaction by calling US Air because Travelocity screwed the pooch so badly on the reservations.

But airlines charge fees. Can't help you there. Even with LUV, if you change to a flight that costs more, you still have to make up the fare difference.

hibbert6 said:

And United! They wanted to charge me a $180 change fee on a $175 flight! (3 months in advance!) Virgin just lowered their change fee to $50, and Southwest is still free. Go figure.


Dave

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Keep in mind, it's not that UAL charges a 103% change fee, the fee for an $800 fare would have been the same too (assuming that didn't throw you into a "unrestricted" bucket). Restricted fares are cheap for a reason, you commit to the flight and the airlines know that the money is coming in. With unrestricted fares they can't count on the money coming in until you actually show up for your flight. It's similar thinking that allows you to get a great deal on PL or HW for hotels.

IMHO the Call Center issues you have are completely valid, an overall experience starts with your initial contact. You now have had a bad experience Travelocity and posted it here for the World to see, they don't want that to happen. If enough people speak out, AND it effects their bottom line possibly changes would be made.

While I have no philosophical problem with the concept of a change fee, the amount of them with many airlines has gotten absurd. My last three change fees, within the last couple of weeks, were on BMI, Air Moldova, and NW. One was €40 and the other GBP 30, and the third $50. That level is reasonable. The last one, on NW, was grandfathered in, because the ticket was booked before all the Delta-initiated changes. If it had been a post-Delta ticket on NW, the change fee would have been a rip-off $100.

zazz said:

I agree with you on Travelocity. I had a heck of a time changing flights when Hurricane Gustav threatened my trip to New Orleans. It wasn't just the agents' English comprehension, but also the serpentine nature of their operations which involved at least four phone transfers. ( with "would you please wait 3-5 minutes?" always becoming 10-15 minutes) I actually got transferred back to the same guy after 50 minutes on the phone. Eventually I had to complete the transaction by calling US Air because Travelocity screwed the pooch so badly on the reservations.

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I wonder if Travelocity's issues aren't related to the fact that, historically, it's purpose was merely to provide a public interface with the Sabre system as an overlay, not as a stand-alone travel service. Does anyone remember eAAsySabre? The notion of actually answering phone calls from the public was an after-thought. Like, "WTF. Just 'cuz we let 'em buy tickets, doesn't mean we have to take their calls does it?"

Expedia and Orbitz far surpass its level of customer service and communication. However, I usually book directly with the airlines themselves and avoid middle-men.

Talent312 said:

Does anyone remember eAAsySabre?

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Oh yeah! Nothing like giving the public-at-large direct access to the airline reservations system.

My boss, who traveled quite often, would book first class seats on her flights for multiple phantom guests. At the time (15 years ago) you could reserve first class without paying a dime until you showed up. Surprise, they never checked into the flight, and she got her first class upgrade with no problem.

davidvel said:

Oh yeah! Nothing like giving the public-at-large direct access to the airline reservations system.

My boss, who traveled quite often, would book first class seats on her flights for multiple phantom guests. At the time (15 years ago) you could reserve first class without paying a dime until you showed up. Surprise, they never checked into the flight, and she got her first class upgrade with no problem.

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When I was in college, many airlines offered student fares at half of regular fare, standby basis. Of course, many students would then simply make a bunch of dummy reservations for the flight they wanted to be on to help assure they would get on the flight.

I also recently have to pay $175 each to change 3 united tickets that I booked in march. I understand but not happy about the $150 change fee since it is mentioned in the ticket fare rule. what upset me is that united charges $25 each in addition to the change fee because an agent has to change the tickets. I feel that the $150 fee should cover it.

lily28 said:

I also recently have to pay $175 each to change 3 united tickets that I booked in march. I understand but not happy about the $150 change fee since it is mentioned in the ticket fare rule. what upset me is that united charges $25 each in addition to the change fee because an agent has to change the tickets. I feel that the $150 fee should cover it.

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Airlines are getting good at not only charging fee's but also charging fee's on top of fee's. It's really out of hand IMHO. USAir charges an extra $5 for the baggage fee if you pay it at the airport. Rather than advertising it as the extra fee it is, they advertise it as a SAVINGS of $5 if you pay online.

Ryan Air is doing away with counter agents and will begin requiring that passengers take their luggage to security and to the gate. At the gate they'll have to take their luggage down to the plane and set if off to the side to be loaded on the plane. I'm sure in a few more months, Ryan Air will be having passengers load their own bags into the cargo hold as well. This from the airline that says it will introduce one pay toilet on it's planes and replace the others with 6 new seats.

Flying is getting to be such a hassle that I'm contemplating driving to all our vacations within the continental United States. Sure I'd have to take an extra day on each end plus book a hotel room but, I'd be saving the cost of airfare, the cost of taking my luggage with me, the cost of anything I might want to eat or drink on the plane, any booking fee's they might come up with and the cost of renting a car. In exchange I'd have to pay gas and for a hotel room for two nights. It's looking like a better deal all the time.

Here is some info produced by NWA passengers upset about the new fees imposed by Delta after they took over:

www.saveworldperks.com/media/pdf/nwawouldilie.pdf

lily28 said:

I also recently have to pay $175 each to change 3 united tickets that I booked in march. I understand but not happy about the $150 change fee since it is mentioned in the ticket fare rule. .

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This is what ticked me off about Travelocity. Their site only says that change fees "up to $180 may apply". But it says that for all the airlines. When I called to see what it would cost to make the change, the Travelocity agent merely read to me the above statement. It took 2 or 3 repetitions to get him to understand that I needed to know EXACTLY what my change fee would be. By that time I was at work and had to get off the phone.

The next day I had the same thing happen - this girl read the statement to me 3 times! Finally I got to a supervisor, who told me that, yes, the fee would be $180 per ticket.

I rebooked at $175, rather than pay $180 to change the itinerary. Duh. But I didn't cancel the old ones either - I'll be damned if I'll give United the pleasure of selling my seats twice! This way, chances are several passengers will get some room to spread out.:whoopie:

Dave

hibbert6 said:

I rebooked at $175, rather than pay $180 to change the itinerary. Duh. But I didn't cancel the old ones either - I'll be damned if I'll give United the pleasure of selling my seats twice! This way, chances are several passengers will get some room to spread out.:whoopie:

Dave

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I doubt you'll be able to pull off two reservations under the same name with the same airline...

Won't matter - I'm on a different airline & different itinerary.

Dave