Comments on: No ticket, but they remembered the bill

By: The Roommate

The Roommate — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:16:32 +0000

I happen to be the roommate in question, so I thought I would fill in a couple of the details Mr. Elliot had to leave out. And I should say how thankful I was for my friend for contacting him, and for him helping me out!
1. The reason I used Travelocity was because it was by far the cheapest because most American airlines didn’t have any kind of direct connection. I wasn’t aware that I had to receive paper tickets until I was all the way through the booking or I might have considered other options. Even the military discounted flights were hundreds of dollars more expensive.
2. I actually started contacting T-city and Delta weeks before my trip and I got the run around constantly. And I was paying for it on my Bahraini cell phone. They would leave me on hold for 30 min at a time! (Oh, and the mail was through an APO, no customs involved.)
3. Delta wouldn’t let me file the lost ticket app because a. they would have charged me a fee ($150), and b. they would only have refunded their half of the fare.
4. The flight they booked me on ended up having a horrible layover, so I missed my connecting flight, and the because I still had e-tickets in the system and paper tickets in hand, the maneuvering they had to do to get me on a new flight actually deleted my return flight, which I didn’t know until I showed up at the airport! Fortunately, they got me on a plane back to Bahrain somehow.
5. When I heard about the collection letter, I immediately contacted my bank who said they would have no grounds for collection since they didn’t contest when the bank stopped payment. However, I was getting ready to deploy, and didn’t have much time for a legal battle, even if I would have won.
The whole thing was a crazy mess, and when I got the e-mail from Mr. Elliott saying they were going to back off, it was a huge relief!

By: Douglas Muth

Douglas Muth — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:23:56 +0000

To echo Jake’s post, I too thought that most merchant agreements prohibit merchants from trying to collect on successful chargebacks.

If the person who got the collection notice wants to make things just a little more painful for Travelocity, they could forward that letter to their credit card company.

By: Joel Wechsler

Joel Wechsler — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:16:06 +0000

This last is not entirely accurate. Two separate e-tickets could have been issued, one validated on Gulf Air, and the other on Delta. The possible drawback is that the total fare might have been higher than a through fare combining both carriers.

By: David Z

David Z — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:40:36 +0000

I don’t understand why Travelocity did not issue two e-tickets, one for Gulf Air and one for Delta. Usually when one buys multi-carrier itineraries, one receives all e-tickets, with PNRs (aka confirmation codes) for each airline that comprise the itinerary.

Beth, it was mentioned above that Gulf Air and Delta don’t have a “ticketing agreement” which would’ve otherwise allowed e-tickets to be issued. Even if the travel agency issued it, the airline/s likely won’t recognize it.

By: Chicky

Chicky — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:36:21 +0000

@Carver, I’m with you and Patricia. I may look at an online site to get a general idea of what the hotel or car rental rates are, but when I book, I usually do it through the company’s own site — because, as you said, Carver, it makes finger pointing very difficult. Also, the companies often offer better rates through their web sites than anything you can get through an online travel agency.

If I were booking a complicated itinerary to Asia or something, I’d probably go with a local, human travel agent. But for a straightforward booking, I choose the company web sites.

By: Carver

Carver — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:01:30 +0000

@patricia

I’m with you.I don’t understand why anyone uses these companies is beyond me. I always book directly with the travel provider because it makes finger pointing very difficult

By: Ames

Ames — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:46:36 +0000

Why are our service people being left to find their own flights and deal with messes like this? Isn’t it enough that they are in harm’s way so the rest of us don’t have to be? Travelocity, the aitlines and the collection agency should all be ashamed of themselves. Isn’t there any way for active duty personnel to get their tickets without fallling prey to silly hassles like paper tickets being delivered to a foreign country?

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:34:01 +0000

I thought all companies had agreements with the credit card issuers barring them from pursuing payment if the credit card company rules against them in a dispute?

By: Lisa S

Lisa S — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:22:57 +0000

It is because of all the problems I hear about Travelocity and the poor customer service I have received when trying to book tickets that I do not use this company. I prefer to book tickets directly with the airline. It is worth the extra money to avoid this hassle.

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:43:03 +0000

I don’t understand why Travelocity did not issue two e-tickets, one for Gulf Air and one for Delta. Usually when one buys multi-carrier itineraries, one receives all e-tickets, with PNRs (aka confirmation codes) for each airline that comprise the itinerary.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:08:09 +0000

I hear story after story about these online “travel agencies.” What I don’t understand is why anyone uses them at all? They certainly don’t provide the customer service like a real travel agent would. Anyone who ever tries to get service is on hold or on the phone for hours. If you are stuck en route with a missed connection or whatever mishap, wouldn’t you rather be dealing directly with the airline right there in the airport? I have seen passengers who used Travelocity or Expedia for example who couldn’t get help with anything at the airport because they didn’t book directly, and then called the “agent” only to be told to ask the airline to fix the problem.

Is the savings really that great to justify the hassle? In the case above, it was just airfare and not bundled with hotel, so what exactly was the savings that made it worth using a third party? And if you do book hotel, is it really worth paying for all nights of a hotel stay up front? I can’t tell you how many times I have arrived at a hotel to find that it wasn’t as advertised or that I was going to be walked to another property. Since I reserve the total number of days but only pay the first night, I can just leave without losing money. If I use Travelocity, I’ve paid for the whole thing up front and am stuck. What exactly is the advantage here? Please enlighten me.

By: John F

John F — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:29:18 +0000

It amazes me that Travelocity just assumes that an enlisted service member just happens to have a spare $1800 kicking around.