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“It is a blatant ambush of personal credit card information”

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The pop-up ad Kathy Agosta says she saw after finishing a reservation on Travelocity recently looked like a confirmation screen from the online travel agency, and it offered $20 cash back if she signed up for a service. Although she never shared her credit card information with the advertiser, she found a troubling connection.

“As it turns out, merely clicking on the hyperlink to get more information about the offer apparently allows the advertiser to charge a fee on the same credit card just used to purchase the airline tickets from Travelocity’s website,” she told me. “There is no credit card approval step on this pop-up to warn the Travelocity customer that a charge will be placed by this advertiser on the credit card they just used.”

Is this a more sophisticated version of the opt-out scheme, which Travelocity and other online agencies practice? Or perhaps another shady post-transaction marketing scheme, which may be about to become illegal?

Maybe. Maybe not.

First, let’s listen to the rest of Agosta’s story.

Travelocity is either allowing advertisers to intercept their customer’s credit card information, which they assure consumers is secure and safe, or Travelocity is failing to monitor what their advertisers are doing.

Either way, it is a blatant ambush of personal credit card information.

Fortunately my bank called to verify the charge, which I declined, but now my credit card is blocked until the bank reopens [today]. They didn’t get my 20 dollars, but they do now have my attention.

Maybe contacting the BBB in Texas and a few more industry bloggers will get theirs.

Agosta also contacted Travelocity, but hasn’t heard back. So I got in touch with the company. Here’s what it had to say:

I have confirmed that we DO NOT pass credit card data. The link on the Travelocity.com confirmation pages will take a consumer to a landing page in which the consumer would be required to input her credit card information herself.

Furthermore, we do not promote Memberworks’ via pop-up advertising. We understand that other Web sites may use pop ups and the credit card data pass, so Kathy’s experience may arise from some other Web site that she has interacted with.

If you do report on these post-transaction marketing companies, I would greatly appreciate it if you don’t lump Travelocity along with companies
that pass credit card information – doing so would be factually inaccurate.

No problem.

So how do you prevent this? Easy. Go to your browser, download an ad blocking plug-in and disable pop-ups. Problem solved.

As for Agosta’s trouble with Travelocity, I have a feeling there’s more to the story. Stay tuned.

Update (June 7, 2010): Travelocity has asked me to update this story after a rather lively debate in the comments.

We never passed on credit card information. We do not promote Vertrue using pop-ups. And that we were removed from the Rockefeller
report.

(Photo: barsen/Flickr Creative Commons)


“The woman seemed mad that we had made the reservation through Travelocity”

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It’s a common problem with an uncommon resolution. Stephen Andrews accidentally typed his name as “Stehen” when he booked a package tour through Travelocity, and he thought a quick call to the airline might fix the problem. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

“The woman seemed mad that we had made the reservation through Travelocity and was adamant that neither she or anyone else at her call center could change the spelling of my name,” he says. “She said that Travelocity had to fix it.”

Whoa. Why would Hawaiian be mad that anyone booked through a travel agency? (There are many possible answers, but I’ll save that for another post entitled “Travel agents versus airlines: The untold story.”)

Until then, let’s just say the Hawaiian employee should have kept her opinion to herself. How the airline feels about online travel agencies is no concern of their customers.

A solution to his his ticket typo? That concerns anyone reading this site.

Andrews picks up the story:

I called Travelocity and spoke to one of their über-helpful Indians, who said that Hawaiian wouldn’t allow any changes. He did offer to transfer me to the department of cancellations so we could cancel the trip and rebook (with no price guarantee).

I declined.

Remembering your advice that one e-mail is worth 1,000 phone calls, I e-mailed Hawaiian. It has been over 24 hours and not a peep from Hawaiian. I just e-mailed Travelocity, but I expect a canned “pack sand, it’s Hawaiian’s problem” from them.

Any suggestions?

In a situation like this, a quick call to the airline should have fixed the problem. Some carriers have an informal policy that they’ll fix a ticket if it’s off by a letter, but if Hawaiian has such a policy, it doesn’t disclose it. Its name requirements match those of TSA’s new Secure Flight initiative.

Hawaiian would have known that this was an obvious slip of the finger, rather than attempt to transfer the ticket to another passenger.

But let’s stick with the slip of the finger. Certainly, Andrews’ problem underscores the importance of typing your name very carefully.

Andrews emailed some of the executives contacts on the new On Your Side wiki, and that worked.

Hawaiian finally called and told me they would issue a new ticket with my correct name on it. They made sure to let me know that they didn’t have to and that they were going out of my way to do so, but they did it.

The trip to Hawaii was great (we got home last week) and I felt much better not having to worry about some overzealous TSA agent denying me boarding because of an obvious typographical error.

I once had a US Customs and Immigration officer chew me out for putting “US” instead of “USA” as my country of residence on my declaration form, so I know those boneheads are out there.

Thanks again for your great column.

And thanks for reading. I’m glad Hawaiian helped “Stehen” get the right ticket. It should have done that the first time — not because it had to, but because it’s the right thing to do.

(Photo: Simon ds/Flickr Creative Commons)

Rooms for $58 a night at the Ritz Carlton Chicago? No way!

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When Jack Whalen found an unbelievable room rate of $58 a night at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago — and on a holiday weekend, no less — he was thrilled. “This was to have been an anniversary trip, and my wife would love to stay at a high end hotel at a great price,” he says.

But the price, which he found through Travelocity, was unbelievable. Turns out it was a fat finger rate. A Ritz-Carlton employee had misplaced a decimal point, turning $580 rooms into $58 rooms. Oops.

Although Ritz-Carlton tried to make it up to him by offering a discounted, but significantly more expensive rate, Whalen is unhappy.

I decided to take Whalen’s case, and here’s why: From what I can tell, he wasn’t trolling the online discussion groups, waiting for an obvious rate error (in my book, that’s stealing). He found the price by searching Travelocity, fair and square. He also believed the rate to be legitimate, and I’m buying it.

You can get a hotel in Chicago for $58 a night. Just not at the Ritz-Carlton.

Finally, Whalen wasn’t trying to play the media card to get Travelocity or Ritz-Carlton to cave. He just had a question:

I am writing to get your opinion on something. Two weeks ago I was browsing Travelocity and found an outstanding price of $58 a night for a room at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago Memorial Day weekend 2011.

Yesterday I got a call from Travelocity saying the price was an error, and the Ritz was not going to honor it. Travelocity was not willing to do anything to assist me, other than offer the same reservation for $290 a night.

I was surprised that Travelocity was distancing themselves from this and blaming the Ritz, since I booked the trip through Travelocity and was charged by Travelocity. I called the Ritz directly, and was told the price should have been $580 a night, and not $58. The associate was unsympathetic and also only able to offer the room at $290 a night.

Do you think I have any recourse other than to take my business elsewhere? How can I ever feel safe booking a reservation through Travelocity if they go ahead and cancel my reservation? I do understand the price is very low, but a company like the Ritz, which prides themselves on service, is not willing to honor a price that they themselves input, and it seems very unfair that I suffer from their mistake.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I put the question to Ritz-Carlton. I had a conversation with a representative by phone and she later followed up with this explanation:

This was an unintentional human rate loading error by our hotel and Travelocity cancelled the reservation at our request.

In acknowledgement of the error and inconvenience, we did extend a generous offer but I cannot comment further on the contents of the letter.

We have provided the name of a senior contact at the hotel who is happy to speak further with Mr. Whalen about the reservation.

Well, let’s go right to that letter then, which Whalen was kind enough to forward to me.

As a result of a rate-loading error, an incorrect rate appeared for the room type you reserved. It was not our intention to offer the room for the rate of $58, which is substantially lower than any other rate offered at our hotel or at any comparable hotel in Chicago.

We regret that we did not catch the error sooner. In recognition of the inconvenience our error has caused you, we wanted to offer another option of 50% off any of our available room categories below the Executive Suite level that you requested. So, if the moderate room is listed for $375, you would receive it at $187.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, I would be happy to confirm your booking at the new rate.

That’s not a bad offer.

I’d take it. Ritz made an honest mistake, and has offered a discounted rate to make up for it. If the tables were turned — if they’d put a decimal point in the wrong place when they charged Whalen’s credit card — I’m sure they’d be quick to fix it. (After all, we’re not talking about an airline, here.)

But fat-finger rates, as regular readers of this site know, are an endless source of controversy. If you think Ritz and Travelocity should have given Whalen the room at $58 a night, please speak up. The comments are open.

(Photo: OZ in OH/Flickr Creative Commons)

Can this trip be saved? No one told her about the flight restrictions for kids

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Note: This is the second installment of “Can this trip be saved?” where you get to vote on whether I mediate a case. The first case was solved last week (see update).

Even though she did her best to ensure her 15-year-old grandson could make the flight from St. Louis to Fort Myers, Fla., things didn’t quite work out for Victoria Horwitz-Denger. He ended up having to pay another $100 to fly down to Florida and bought a brand-new ticket to get home.

Now Horwitz-Denger wants some of her money back — either from her online travel agency, Travelocity, or from her airline.

Why? No one mentioned the restrictions on the ticket for minors.

Should I intervene on her behalf, and ask Travelocity or the air carrier to return her money, or have they done enough?

Here’s why Horwitz-Denger thinks she has a case:

Prior to the flight, I called both Delta and US Airways to find out what kind of ID he would need to travel.

Both told me nothing special, maybe just a school ID. I also asked if he would be allowed to travel by himself and again, they both said that yes he could if he was at least 15.

When we arrived at the St. Louis airport, Delta said we would have to pay an additional $100 since he was a minor. Rather than miss his flight, we did this. Delta has since agreed to refund that money.

When my sister-in-law brought him to the Fort Myers airport for the return flight, US Airways, refused to let him board the plane since he would need to change planes in Charlotte N.C., and there was no adult to meet him there. This information had never been communicated to us either by Travelocity or US Airways.

In order for him to get home, my sister-in-law had to purchase a one-way ticket on Southwest for $332.

Horwitz-Denger sent me the correspondence between her and Travelocity, and there’s no mention of the online agency seeking a refund from US Airways.

Why I’m on the fence. US Airways’ requirements for minors are spelled out on its site but they are confusing, at best. On the one hand, “children 15-17 may travel unaccompanied on nonstop and connecting flights without US Airways assistance.” On the other, “Children 15-17 who require US Airways assistance may travel unaccompanied on nonstop flights only.” Did her grandson require assistance? The only way to find out would have been to contact the airline directly before the flight, which she did.

But there was reason to believe the return trip might be problematic, and indeed, that its initial answer might be incomplete, given Horwitz-Denger’s grandson’s experience on his first flight. Why not contact Travelocity or US Airways before her grandson returned or do a little research online? He stayed in Fort Myers more than a week, which was ample time to fix the problem.

Also, it appears Horwitz-Denger took matters into her own hands when her grandson was denied boarding on his return flight. Why not contact Travelocity and give it a chance to fix things?

The real question is, did she make enough mistakes in dealing with this issue that she should have to eat the cost of an additional plane ticket?

I need your help on this one. I think US Airways, with its fuzzy policy on minors, and Travelocity, which should have given her the correct information automatically, bears some responsibility.

But where does the proverbial buck stop?

Survey says …

The roughly 300 responses were collected between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. EST. I’ll be contacting Travelocity.

(Photo:: h rosen man/Flickr Creative Commons)

And the online travel agency with the most complaints is …

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Expedia. That’s according to a survey of my authoritative email “in” box, which contains seven years of complaint data from travelers. Coming in second? Travelocity, followed by Orbitz.

Alright, my methods may not be completely scientific (after all, my email contains all of my correspondence, not just complaints) but it’s a pretty good indicator.

Let’s start with Expedia.

Notice the steady rise in complaints? Could just be that more people are complaining to me, of course.

Here’s Travelocity.

Notice the trend line, which is almost identical.

And here’s Orbitz.

Again, the curve is almost the same.

Put it all together, and here’s what it looks like. Orbitz is blue, Travelocity is red and Expedia is orange.

So which agency gets the most complaints? The raw numbers (inexact as they are, admittedly) must be weighted, as several of the commenters have pointed out.

A few hours after this post appeared, Expedia contacted me to say it had crunched my numbers based on market share data provided by my good friends at PhoCusWright. How nice of them!

These are the conversations per market share point.

1. Travelocity 26.1
2. Orbitz 20
3. Expedia 16.2

According to Expedia,

You can see that Expedia scores the best not worst. In fact, Travelocity has 61 percent more complaints per percentage of market share than we do. So, based on the volume of email conversations you’ve had by brand, a customer that books with Expedia would be far less likely to bring you a complaint compared to customers that book with the two OTAs.

(Photo: Life art/Flickr Creative Commons)

Paris for 10 euros a night — uh, make that 100 euros

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Question: I recently booked a hotel in Paris through Travelocity for 10 euros a night. Great rate, huh? Afterward, I booked airline tickets separately.

Not long after that, in the course of e-mail conversations with the hotel, they told me this was a mistake and that they could not honor the rate. Instead, they offered to increase my rate to 100 euros a night.

I then contacted Travelocity via phone, told them the problem and they called back and left me a voice mail saying it was a mistake and to go ahead and travel and then when I got back to contact the consumer relations department for a refund. I still have the voice mail. I contacted the hotel via e-mail and I said I would accept the new rate.

Now Travelocity has offered me a $50 voucher for my trouble. A few days later, they upped it to $250. This is pretty much worthless to me as I usually travel using miles and book my hotels using points. Can you help? — Patrick Kerr, St Louis

Answer: You’re right, that’s a great rate for a hotel room. Unbelievably good. And if Travelocity hadn’t left a voice mail promising to refund 90 euros a night, your case wouldn’t stand much of a chance.

Think of it like this: If you see a kitchen appliance on sale for 99 cents at the department store, instead of $99, would you demand the store honor the first price? No. Someone obviously put the wrong tag on the merchandise.

Contacting Travelocity was a good call. Saving the voice mail was even smarter. An email might have worked in this case, too. But the point is, you have a Travelocity representative on tape promising to make good — and it didn’t.

Do I really need to quote the Travelocity “Guarantee” that promises, “Everything about your booking will be right, or we’ll work with our partners to make it right, right away.” No, I don’t. You can read the whole warranty here if you’re interested.

Never mind guarantees. If a company promises you something — as in, a refund of your rate — it should deliver.

I have mixed feelings about your problem. On the one hand, Travelocity shouldn’t have offered to pay the difference between the real rate and something that was obviously a decimal point error. On the other hand, because it did, I think it should be held to its promise — not allowed to backtrack and offer you a voucher.

I would advise you to review each price carefully before booking. But a 10-euro a night hotel room in Paris at the time you were buying it, when hotel rates were at their lowest levels in decades, almost could have been correct.

This is all so confusing.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It took another look at your case and found “obvious breakdowns in communication,” for which it apologized. You’ve received a full refund, as promised.

(Photo: steven wel/Flickr Creative Commons)

Wrong name on plane ticket means son won’t be home for Christmas — what now?

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Mariana Damon thought she had booked a ticket for her son to fly home for Christmas when she called Travelocity.

Not quite. For some reason, the reservation was in her name. Repeated attempts to convince Travelocity to fix the ticket have been unsuccessful. I’ve tried to help, too, and I’ll get to the results in just a moment.

Damon’s case raises several important issues, the most obvious of which is: Who is responsible for getting the name on a ticket right? Should passengers read a confirmation email, and verify the accuracy of a name and other details?

What if they never get the confirmation? And what, exactly, is a service guarantee worth when you’re booking a ticket online?

Damon says she called Travelocity on Nov. 2 to buy a ticket for her son to fly from Philadelphia to Nebraska. It was important to have her son home for the holidays, because her husband had recently passed away.

The gentlemen I spoke to had heavily-accented English. In addition, after the transaction was made, he was unable to send me a confirmation email stating that something was wrong with the computers that evening.

On the evening of November 18, I learned that he had mistakenly booked me as the passenger instead of the person buying the ticket. I was told that there was no way the name could be changed and that it was all my fault.

I pointed out that there was no way I would book myself a flight from Philadelphia since I live in Nebraska and that, in addition, I had spent almost $700 for a ticket that the Travelocity representative was now telling me was completely useless.

Well, not completely useless. After some more back-and-forth — all by phone — Damon was told she might be able to get a name change on her ticket. But when she tried to make the change, she says she was told the airline was “too busy” to help her.

I suggested she send a brief, polite email to Travelocity, but it replied with a form letter saying that name changes are “not permitted” by her airline.

I contacted Travelocity on her behalf. Maybe the online travel agency had audio recordings of her order, or other electronic records, that might shed some light on her case.

Here’s how it responded to her:

After a review of our records, we show that the reservation was made on November 2, 2010 by phone with one of our agents and an automated email was sent to [your email] after the ticketing was complete. We were not advised of any errors with the reservation until 2 weeks later on November 18. Since we were not contacted immediately to advise of any errors with your reservation, this complicates our ability to assist with your request.

The rules of the ticket indicate that it is a non-refundable, therefore, in the event of cancellation it will maintain a credit for future travel with American Airlines for 1 year from the purchase date. Any changes to the itinerary will be subject to a penalty of $150.00, and any difference in fare will be due.

Additionally, changes must be made with the assistance of an agent, and there is a Travelocity service fee of $30.00 for any changes that we process. As a courtesy, we will waive our $30.00 change fee, however the change fees from American Airlines cannot be waived.

We have been advised that it may be possible to change the name on the reservation, however there are additional fees associated with this special process. The airline penalty of $150.00 and any difference in fare will apply, along with an additional name change fee of $100.00. A new reservation will need to be made on American Airlines with the correct name, and we will need to contact American to complete the request. If you do not wish to change the itinerary or attempt a name correction, then the reservation must be cancelled prior to the scheduled flight departure time in order to maintain any value on the ticket.

Should you have any questions or concerns with this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for choosing Travelocity.

Big help,” she says. “I’m back to square one.”

I’m troubled by some of the inconsistencies between Travelocity and Damon. For example, she says a representative couldn’t send a confirmation, yet the company insists that it did. Travelocity also initially said the name couldn’t be changed, but now it apparently can be. I’m really not sure who to believe.

The big question is: Now what? What do you think?

A poll of 855 readers today came to the following conclusion: A majority (63 percent) thought she should appeal to Travelocity, asking it to review the recording of her transaction. Almost 18 percent said she should dispute the charge on her card. Another 9 percent said she should sue Travelocity, while 7 percent said pay the change fee. Nearly 3 percent thought she should buy a new ticket.

(Photo: brian jm atis/Flickr Creative Commons)

Why is Travelocity “unable” to refund my ticket?

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Question: I’m writing to you because of a really difficult situation that I have with Travelocity.

My girlfriend and I had a set of multi-destination tickets that we booked through the site. We called Travelocity to ask if we could change one of our flights from Chicago to Washington. An agent told me it would cost another $300. She was nice but her English was not all that great. I got a confirmation email, but without any numbers.

Instead of charging me $300, Travelocity billed me another $4,000. They re-issued all the flights again, including the transatlantic flight.

I’ve been on the phone with their agents for the past month or more, trying to get this fixed. Eventually, they told me that if I cancel the remaining flights I would get a refund, which I agreed to. The refund was to appear on my credit card in one to two billing cycles. I re-arranged my travel plans and bought the tickets I needed elsewhere.

However, I then received an e-mail that said Travelocity is “unable to refund” the money. I called to see what was happening, and several agents and supervisors said that the refund is no longer possible but that I can get credit for future purchases, provided that flights take place within a year. Do you have any advice? — Marko Grdesic, Madison, Wis.

Answer: Next time, don’t change your flights. Oh, who am I kidding? Plans change, and Travelocity should have been able to handle this request without sucking another $4,000 from your bank account.

Your story is a cautionary tale about offshore phone agents and the needless complexity of airline reservation systems. It helps to look at this from the perspective of an online travel agency and an airline.

A big online travel agency wants to save money, so it hires inexpensive agents for whom English isn’t a first language. It figures the cost savings will be more than the added expense of reservations that get screwed up because of language issues.

An airline, on the other hand, wants a sure thing. It wants cheeks in seats, or, more precisely, it wants the money from those tickets. Once you commit to a fare, it’s in the carrier’s best interest to make it difficult to change. So it hits you with fees for making changes and it almost certainly gave Travelocity a hard time when it tried to make a single tweak to your multi-itinerary trip.

These two forces are conspiring to create your $4,000 headache.

How could you have prevented this? First, you should have stayed off the phone as much as possible. Some flight changes can be made online — it’s not clear if yours was one of them — but I would have tried that before phoning Travelocity. When you were connected with an agent who you couldn’t understand, you could have asked for another representative or simply ended the call (politely) and called back until you got through to someone who could speak your language.

As for the refund, the phone is the least efficient way to inquire about that. Put your request in writing. Send an email. Your case will get a tracking number and Travelocity will be able to refer to it whenever you inquire about the money.

I asked Travelocity to have another look at your case. It promised to investigate, but five months later, you still hadn’t received your money. So I asked the company again, and this time, it issued a full refund.


Can this trip be saved? Wrong middle name on my airline ticket

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Having the wrong name on your airline ticket is no longer a minor inconvenience, now that the TSA has begun enforcing its name-matching requirements for airline tickets. And that could be a show-stopper for Jesse Demastrie and his wife, who are scheduled to fly from Washington to Las Vegas for the holidays.

The problem? Demastrie’s father, who booked the flights through Travelocity, got his wife’s name wrong.

“He inadvertently used my wife’s old middle name,” he says. “She actually dropped her middle name and now uses her maiden name as her middle name. So the ticket she was issued has her correct first and last name but her old middle name.”

Passengers must now provide their full names as they appear on a government-issued ID, their date of birth and their gender when they book a flight.

Demastrie is concerned his wife won’t be allowed on the plane.

I have called United Airlines and Travelocity numerous times and no one will confirm with me that we will have no issues travelling because of this issue.

Do you have any advice for dealing with this? It feels as though the people on the phone are telling me it “should be OK” partly to just get me off the phone.

I am just worried that we will get to the airport and they won’t let my wife travel. I would rather know now and cancel her ticket/book her another one now, rather than have to pay top dollar for a new ticket that day.

I agree with Travelocity and United that Demastrie’s wife should be OK. But I base that on a few things. First, I’ve mediated dozens — if not hundreds — of wrong-name cases, and have only come across a few where an intransigent ticket agent refused to allow a passenger to board.

If Demastrie is allowed to print a boarding pass, then the Secure Flight process is already complete, and there’s no need to argue with an agent when you go through security at the airport. You can read the details at the TSA’s Secure Flight section of its website.

TSA even addresses Demastrie’s situation — to a point.

What if a passenger’s boarding pass and ID do not match exactly?

At the security checkpoint, TSA strives to ensure your identification and boarding pass are authentic and validate you are who you say you are. Small differences in the name on the boarding pass and ID, like middle initials, should not impact your travel. It is not uncommon for the information printed on boarding passes to differ slightly from the information on IDs, depending on the boarding pass printing practices of individual airlines.

Demastrie is already planning to bring a copy of their marriage certificate to show his wife’s maiden name, as well as her passport, which also has her maiden name. But he wants to know if there’s anything else he can do.

I always recommend trying to get any assurances that an airline will make a notation in your reservation in writing, not by phone. He could have contacted Travelocity and United to get something by email.

But Demastrie wants a sure thing, so he’s also purchased a fully-refundable ticket for his wife — just in case.

None of this ought to be necessary. There should be a simple way to change the name on an airline ticket without having to jump through all of these hoops. But there never will be, as long as air carriers make inordinate amounts of money from change fees.

I’m unhappy that neither Travelocity nor United could just edit his wife’s name. Given the government’s requirement that names on tickets and IDs match, it’s the least they could do. But I’m also reasonably confident that the couple will fly to Las Vegas without incident.

So what do you think? Should I mediate this case, or are the Demastries good to go?

Survey says … he’s good to go.

(Photo: jp ellgen/Flickr Creative Commons)

Oh no! They lost my ticket refund

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Question: I recently lost a paper airline ticket to Spain that I booked through Travelocity. I was told to fill out a lost ticket refund application through Iberia Airlines, which I did. Both Travelocity and Iberia assured me that I would receive a refund for the second ticket I had to buy, minus a $100 fee.

Since my return, I have contacted Iberia numerous times to get the status of my refund, but they said they were not able to help me directly. I asked Travelocity to contact Iberia, which they did. I also provided Travelocity with background information and sent them the original paper tickets (which were subsequently found).

Travelocity contacted Iberia to request a refund on my behalf, but I have not heard anything since then. It’s been four months. I requested that Travelocity follow up, but they told me to contact Iberia directly. When I contact Iberia directly, they tell me they will only speak to my travel agent. What should I do? — Karen Smith, Stamford, Conn.

Answer: Did you say you had a paper ticket? I thought those were obsolete. Travelocity and Iberia should have issued an electronic ticket. (In fairness, this case was brought to my attention a few months ago, but still — paper tickets were supposed to go the way of the dodo in 2008.)

Of course, you should have paid closer attention to the envelope you received from Travelocity. If you had, then you would have noticed that you had a paper ticket and taken care not to lose it.

Lost ticket applications, like refunds, can take months or even years, so I’m not surprised by the lengthy wait. Adding to the frustration is the fact that Iberia referred you to your online travel agent, and Travelocity only referred you back to the airline. They should have both been falling all over themselves to help you.

I mean, they’re more than happy to take your money instantly when you want to buy an airline ticket. Is it unreasonable to expect them to show just half the enthusiasm when you deserve a refund?

Sadly, that’s not how it works.

If a refund takes more than two to three billing cycles and the company that owes you the money isn’t responding, you may want to ask your credit card company to get involved. A bank with a competent dispute department can help you reverse the charges and secure a fast refund, if you can show a company is holding on to your money.

I note that most of your contacts with the airline and online travel agency appear to be by phone. This is not an efficient way of tracking the progress of a refund. A brief, polite email will do the trick.

I sent one to Travelocity, and you had a full refund within a few weeks.

(Photo: marc p moz/Flickr Creative Commons)

The Travel Troubleshooter: Maybe the price guarantee isn’t all-inclusive?

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Question: I am writing to complain about poor service I received in connection with Travelocity’s price guarantee. We recently returned from an 11-night trip to Cancun, Mexico. Our package, which included airfare and accommodations at the Valentin Imperial Maya all-inclusive resort, cost $4,615.

About a week before we left, I found the exact same package on Travelocity for $1,170 less. I filled out a form on its site and followed up several times by email. I sent screenshots as proof. Each time they responded they claimed to have not received the proof. Finally, I posted the proof to a website to be sure they could see it.

Last night, I called Travelocity and was told they would get back to me in a few hours by phone. They did not. I have always been happy with Travelocity’s service — until now. Why is this such a problem? Travelocity has a guarantee. Is it asking too much for them to honor it? — Steven Estrella, Fort Washington, Pa.

Answer: You qualified for Travelocity’s price guarantee, which promises a $50 coupon and up to $500 back if you find a “qualifying” lower rate up until the day before you check in. Travelocity should have processed your claim — or at least responded to it — promptly.

Here’s a link to the full guarantee.

It appears that the proof Travelocity needed never arrived. You say you sent the files several times, but Travelocity’s representatives say they never saw them. Rather than simply resending the files, you might have considered reducing the size of the files. Often, email spam filters block large images.

Still, it’s unlikely that the files sent through the form, email and finally posted to a website, were all rejected by the system. Instead, it’s far likelier this was an electronic hiccup on Travelocity’s side.

I’m given the impression from dealing with many price guarantee complaints (not just Travelocity’s) that these types of requests aren’t assigned a high priority. As with any travel business, a lot of effort is expended on quickly processing your purchases. It takes only a few seconds to remove the money from your credit card account, but weeks, months and even years to return it.

What incentive — other than making a customer happy — does an online travel agency have to expeditiously refund the money under a price guarantee? I can’t think of one.

You took all the right steps by sending your request through the site, then by email and finally posting the evidence of the bargain online. I have a few contacts at Travelocity on my site that might have been useful.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. A representative emailed you and offered the maximum $500 refund, plus a $50 voucher toward future travel.

‘Am I in some kind of bureaucratic travel hell?’

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Question: Last year, I booked a flight from Washington to Bozeman, Montana on US Airways, through Travelocity. About a month later, US Airways changed my flight schedule, leaving too little time for my connection in Denver.

Travelocity worked with the airline to make the change so that I could take a later flight to alleviate this problem and there was to be no charge. But when my credit card statement arrived there was an additional charge of $1,534 for this same flight.

I have contacted Travelocity numerous times through calling and e-mails and I am still being told it is US Airways holding it up. I have contacted US Airways and am getting nowhere. I have contacted my credit card company and was told that if I said I did not authorize the charge my flight would be canceled.

Am I in some sort of bureaucratic travel hell? What can I do to get this refund? — Peggy Kite, Charlottesville, Va.

Answer: You shouldn’t have been charged extra to fix your flight. Instead, Travelocity should have worked with US Airways to ensure you were taken care of.

According to US Airways’ contract of carriage — that’s the legal agreement between you and the airline — you’re entitled to a new ticket to your destination “without additional charge.” If the airline can’t get you to your destination, “US Airways may attempt to rebook the customer on the next available flight of another airline with which US Airways has an agreement allowing the acceptance of each other’s tickets,” according to the contract.

Travelocity’s “guarantee” makes similar assurances. It promises to look out for you “all trip long,” adding, “Everything about your booking will be right, or we’ll work with our partners to make it right, right away.”

It’s unclear why your credit card was charged an extra $1,534. It appears your first ticket was canceled and a second one was booked at a higher rate, without your consent. That’s highly unusual.

I would have written Travelocity immediately to alert them of the overcharge, and if I didn’t hear back, I would have gotten in touch with US Airways. By the way, I’m not sure your new tickets would have been canceled if you’d questioned your credit card charges with your bank. Formal credit card disputes take a long time to work their way through the system. You probably would have used the ticket long before US Airways had a chance to cancel it.

I suggested you contact Travelocity for help, in writing. You did, but despite appealing to the highest level at the online agency, it couldn’t make the refund go any faster.

I asked US Airways to have a look at your case. It refunded the charge for your second ticket.

Hey Travelocity, where the $#*!@ is my money?

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Tenaya Newkirk wants her money back from Travelocity. But instead of offering her a quick refund, it’s giving her excuses.

Here’s the backstory: In December, she booked a flight from Denver to Fort Lauderdale on United Airlines. Then United canceled the flight and she asked for refund.

“United agreed to issue a refund through Travelocity,” she explains. “Travelocity also agreed to this, and sent me an email to that effect. Travelocity verbally promised a six- to eight-week timeline for the refund.”

But nine weeks later, no money. She started making calls.

That’s when Travelocity decided to change its story.

Now they say that it was United’s responsibility the whole time. United continues to say that it is Travelocity’s responsibility to refund the money as it was Travelocity who originally received it.

Numerous phone calls to both places have netted no results, and I am concerned that they will continue to blame each other while I lose over $700.

I find that problematic. From my perspective as a consumer advocate, Travelocity took her money and it should return it just as quickly — no excuses.

I contacted Travelocity on Newkirk’s behalf. It didn’t respond. (In fact, Travelocity hasn’t responded to any of my inquiries since Dec. 22 of last year. Hello? Anyone home?)

Several weeks after my inquiry, a Travelocity representative contacted her. It’s difficult to say if the online travel agency was responding to her original inquiry or mine; at any rate, the news wasn’t good.

“They say that they have processed the refund and that I might expect it within 45 days,” she told me. “They have had this money now for 11 weeks, and I think that six more weeks is unreasonable.”

I agree.

According to the government, an airline ticket should be refunded promptly if you paid by credit card.

When a refund is due, the airline must forward a credit to your card company within seven business days after receiving a complete refund application. If you paid by credit card for a refundable fare and you have trouble getting a refund that you are due, report this in writing to your credit card company.

Problem is, the seven-day rule only applies to a refundable fare. Technically, Newkirk’s fare wasn’t refundable.

As far as refunds on other tickets, they usually take between two to three credit card billing cycles, which makes Newkirk’s wait time considerably longer than normal.

But it could be much worse. I’ve dealt with cases that have taken a yeareven two.

There’s really no excuse for Newkirk’s hold-up. As I’ve said before, these delays are not only self-serving, allowing the company to keep your money a little longer to pad its balance sheet, but they also send a clear message to customers that your money doesn’t matter unless they’re on the receiving end.

Refunds should be made as quickly as the money is taken from your account. Have they left that gnome in charge of customer service?

Update: The Fly Rights publication I referenced has been updated to reflect that all airline tickets should be refunded within a week, not just refundable fares. Newkirk should dispute this charge on her credit card.

Update (6/22): After this post appeared, Travelocity contacted Newkirk and offered her a voucher. Today, she received a full refund.

(Photo: Ian Ker shaw/Flickr Creative Commons)

The Travel Troubleshooter: Am I stuck with this $378 phone bill?

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Question: I’ve been haggling with Travelocity for almost three months about a flight, and I need your help. I recently booked flights from Newark, N.J., to Madrid, Spain via Continental Airlines and on to my final destination of Barcelona, Spain, via Iberia.

The outbound trip was completed without issue, although I had to claim my baggage in Madrid, go through customs, and go back through the ticketing counter to get my second boarding pass.

Unfortunately, the return trip through Brussels was less successful. The itinerary that Travelocity sold me left me just one hour to make my connecting flight in Brussels to the U.S., but I had to claim a bag, go through customs, and then back to the ticketing counter again to get my boarding pass for the U.S.-bound flight.

When I arrived at the empty Continental ticket counter approximately 35 minutes before my flight, I managed to track down a Continental customer service agent, who refused to check me in because it was too late. She also told me the next flight was the following morning.

When I tried to dial the number provided by Travelocity for assistance outside of the U.S., the number would not connect. I tried multiple phones in the airport. Without other options, I collect called my fiancee in the U.S. and had her call the domestic Travelocity telephone number and after more than 30 minutes of international telephone calls, I was booked on the flight for the following morning.

My problem with this scenario is that I incurred a telephone bill of $378 in order to correct this situation caused by Travelocity selling me an itinerary that was physically impossible to achieve. Travelocity won’t refund my phone bill. Any ideas? — Jeffrey Grim, Boston

Answer: Travelocity shouldn’t have allowed you to reserve the itinerary that you did.

If your flights were connected on the same itinerary (which they appear to be) then the system should stop you from reserving a flight that doesn’t meet the minimum connect time rules. Something appears to have gone wrong, because you obviously didn’t have enough time to transfer to your overseas flight in Brussels.

Travelocity also should have provided you with a number that worked from Brussels. I think you did your best to contact the online travel agency through normal channels before resorting to an expensive collect call. And yes, calling Travelocity was the best option, since this was an immediate concern. Had it been something less urgent, I would recommend sending an email.

But I think you could have prevented this from happening, too. Did you take a moment to read your itinerary after you booked your tickets? If you had, you might have noticed the short connection times, and could have asked Travelocity to fix it. One hour is barely enough time to change planes domestically, so this is a challenge that could have been identified and addressed long before your trip.

You had a second chance to fix this when you experienced a tight connection on your inbound flight. You might have wondered if the connection problem would happen on your return flight, reviewed your itinerary and contact Travelocity.

It’s unusual for an online travel agency to refund a phone bill, but in this case, I think it should consider doing so, at a minimum. I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It apologized and agreed to refund your phone bill.

On travel sites, the pre-checked box checks out

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The pre-checked box, a clever technique that travel companies use to extract a few dollars more from customers booking their trips online, may be checking out.

Last month, the Minnesota Department of Commerce alleged that National Union Fire Insurance and Travel Guard Group had violated state law by automatically enrolling consumers in travel insurance without their express consent when they booked on Travelocity.com.

Unless they specifically opted out of the insurance, customers were buying policies that cost $25 to $45 per traveler, according to the state. The companies have agreed to issue nearly $2.5 million in refunds and pay a $250,000 civil penalty.

And in January, the Transportation Department’s new full-fare advertising regulations for airfares went into effect. They include a rule that prohibits so-called opt-out provisions in ads, further closing a loophole that had cost consumers millions and generated thousands of complaints.

No surprise, then, that online agencies are slowly backing away from the practice.

“Opt-outs are no longer being presented to consumers via our member companies to the extent that they were offered before,” says Joseph Rubin, president of the Interactive Travel Services Association, which represents the major online travel agencies, including Travelocity.

To get a sense of what was wrong with opt-out, let’s rewind to a 2010 column of mine on this subject. In it, I spoke with customers who booked airline tickets online only to discover that a box indicating that they also wanted to buy optional travel insurance had been pre-checked. I interviewed Terri Widder, a retiree from Carol Stream, Ill., who bought American Airlines tickets through a site operated by Travelocity. She nearly ended up with precisely the same insurance that Minnesota took action against: a Travel Guard policy.

At the time, a Travel Guard spokesman said that opting out instead of in was well on its way to becoming a “standard” in travel. He told me that the complaint rate on the company’s policies had been less than one-tenth of 1 percent.

A Travelocity representative also said that most of its customers — more than eight in 10 — uncheck the box before they click the “buy” button. If they had buyer’s regret, the site allowed for a refund within one credit card billing cycle.

Travelocity declined to comment on the Minnesota ruling, because it was not party to the settlement. (The online agency made its decision about opt-out marketing in consultation with the travel insurance companies, but the insurers approved the way in which their products were sold, according to Travelocity.) But the agency defended its opt-out practices.

“Travelocity believes that our 16-year track record of providing great values for consumers and being their advocate speaks for itself,” says Joel Frey, a company spokesman. “We viewed pre-checking travel insurance as a service to our customers, and we rarely received any complaints about it. We went out of our way to ensure that the manner in which we did that was not deceptive to our customers.”

Although Travelocity no longer asks its customers to opt out of purchases, Frey says that the practice benefitted travelers because it allowed them to “give greater consideration to the need for travel insurance, something we believe they tend to undervalue until they need it.”

But Minnesota’s actions, plus the recent federal ruling, probably mean that other states will consider similar actions against the opt-out box, says John Cook, president of QuoteWright.com, a travel insurance site.

“Tour operators, travel agents, motor coach operators and cruise lines that use the same marketing method for travel insurance could put the insurance company at risk for a deceptive practice,” he says. “My gut reaction is that we’ll see more enforcement actions from other states and involving other companies.”

It could spread to other industries, too. When’s the last time you tried to sign up for a “free” offer online, only to find that the radio button signing you up for the company’s newsletter had been pressed, too? Pre-checking is done almost everywhere, though not to the same level as in online travel.

I agree with Travelocity that more people should consider insurance when they travel, but making them opt out isn’t right. I’m also certain that making customers uncheck the box was profitable to companies selling travel online and that at some level money, and not the welfare of their customers, was a driving motivator.

Travel companies are constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries, and if they can figure out a way to nudge you into making an online purchase while not breaking the law, they’ll try. I can’t see what’s behind the firewalls of the usual suspects — the discount airlines and tour operators whose business models depend on deception — but I wouldn’t put anything past them.

The only way to ensure that opt-out is properly euthanized is to hammer away at it whenever you see it. If you find yourself paying for something you don’t want, it’s not enough to get your money back. Send an e-mail to the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission or your state insurance commissioner. Tell them what happened.

Opt-out marketing is a deceptive practice, according to the federal government. It’s up to us to keep up the pressure until it goes away.


Travelocity promised me a refund — did it do enough?

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Thank goodness for the new 24-hour rule. That’s what Joan Weiner thought when she booked an airline ticket from Philadelphia to Vienna through Travelocity, only to find a cheaper fare a few hours later.

She made a new reservation through American Express, only to discover that her original ticket hadn’t been canceled. Now she had two tickets.

“The cancellation — or what I thought was the cancellation — was made within the 24 hour rule,” she says. “I had the Amex website open and did not complete the reservation until I made the call to cancel. Their records show that I called Travelocity at 8:12 p.m. and made the reservation at 8:18 p.m. on the Amex site that apparently Travelocity also handles.”

As a refresher, the 24-hour rule allows you to hold a reservation without payment, or cancel a booking without penalty, for 24 hours after the reservation is made, as long as you make the reservation one week or more prior to a flight’s departure date.

Here’s where things get interesting.

A Travelocity’s supervisor confirmed I had called [to cancel] but not that the reservation had been canceled.

He tried to be helpful, contacted US Airways, and said they would cancel and refund one of the flights.

However, they would charge $50 and would use the higher fare and refund the lower one, minus the $50. So the cost would be $1,090 instead of $847.

That’s not ideal, but at least she’s not paying for a second ticket. But then things got worse.

Last evening, I spent 2 1/2 hours with Travelocity and with a supervisor. US Airways indicated that it would not refund the first ticket and would only cancel and rebook with a $290 penalty within the year.

Obviously, that is the “usual” airline policy — with no help from Travelocity.

Uh-oh. That’s not an ideal resolution, and it seems someone dropped the ball on this cancellation. Now US Airways wants to keep Weiner’s money.

I contacted Travelocity on her behalf, but did not hear back from the company. I contacted it again, and someone from the online agency’s executive office finally responded with a different resolution.

Here’s what it’s offering:

We have spoken to US Airways who advised they have a policy regarding duplicate bookings. US Airways will allow a refund on the most recent booking (American Express Travel) to be processed minus a $50 processing fee.

As previously advised, Travelocity will process the refund request through US Airways refund department directly and also take care of the $50 processing fee as a courtesy.

Regrettably, Travelocity will not be able to refund any difference in the cost of the two tickets (i.e. Travelocity booking versus American Express-Travel booking).

Wiener wants to know if she should take this offer or keep fighting for the better fare.

In reviewing my notes on this case, it appears Travelocity was called within 24 hours of the cancellation, but that for some reason, the cancellation wasn’t made with US Airways.

The airline is well within its rights to keep all of Weiner’s money. But should Travelocity cover the price difference between fare number one and fare number two?

If it were me, I’d probably take the new ticket and the refund and consider myself lucky. I could have been on the hook for two tickets, after all. Also, this would be a lesson to me to always cancel a booking online instead of by phone. (I see some back-and-forth between Travelocity in which it suggested it had either not recorded or deleted the phone records between it and Weiner.)

The 24-hour cancellation rule is relatively new, so glitches like this are to be expected. Weiner’s flight leaves in a few weeks. What do you think she should do?

Who’s responsible for this codeshare confusion?

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In a world of airline code-sharing and outsourced call centers, who takes ultimate responsibility when something goes wrong with your flight?

For Robert and Roberta Blazek, that’s no academic question. And it has taken more than a year to find the answer. The Blazeks, from Viera, Fla., were visiting Poland in August 2011 when an electronic error voided their airline reservations, forcing them to spend $5,873 for a new pair of tickets to fly home.

Their repeated attempts to secure a refund from Travelocity, Lufthansa and United Airlines lift a veil on the often confusing agreements found in modern-day air travel and on the often strained relationship between online agencies and air carriers.

They also show how customers can be left with nowhere to turn when they run into trouble while they travel.

In July 2011, Robert Blazek, a retired engineer, paid $2,984 for two round-trip tickets on Continental Airlines from Orlando to Krakow, Poland, through Travelocity.com. Although the tickets were purchased from Continental, the flights were operated by Lufthansa, a practice referred to as code-sharing.

“The first leg of the journey went as planned,” he says. “But when we checked in for our flight at Lufthansa in Krakow, we were told we did not have valid tickets. The supervisor told us we needed to call and resolve the matter and would not allow us to board the plane.”

Blazek tried to phone Travelocity but says he had trouble making an overseas call from his cellphone. “Since we did not want to remain in Krakow and the plane would be leaving shortly, we did the only thing that was left in order to return to the United States and not remain in Krakow overnight,” he recalls. “We purchased new tickets.”

You’d think a quick call to Travelocity would yield a speedy refund. But that didn’t happen.

No one knows exactly what became of Blazek’s money, but nine months later when he contacted me for help, he had gotten absolutely nowhere. Maybe the glitch happened on Continental’s side. At the time, the airline was in the throes of a messy merger with United Airlines. Lufthansa and Travelocity may have also been to blame for the crossed wires.

One thing was clear: No one would own up to the problem and refund Blazek’s $5,873.

Even as recently as last week, the companies were blaming each other. A Lufthansa representative said the couple didn’t have a valid return ticket and pointed out that the actual ticket belonged to Continental, not Lufthansa, and that it was sold through Travelocity. “Please understand,” she added, “our passengers are of the utmost priority to Lufthansa, and we always
try to make matters right.”

To that end, she said, Lufthansa had apologized and credited the Blazeks with 4,000 frequent-flier miles.

Travelocity said it contacted Continental and then United but had no luck securing a refund. “The airline advised us that Lufthansa canceled the return flights on January 29, 2011,” a Travelocity representative said in an e-mail to Blazek. “Continental Airlines will not provide additional compensation. We understand that this is a very frustrating matter and we have done all we can to try and get the carriers to offer you some kind of reimbursement.”

Travelocity offered Blazek a $100 voucher, which could be redeemed for a future trip through the online agency.

What should have happened? Someone needed to take responsibility for the mess, starting with the online travel agency that sold the ticket. At least that’s what a spokesman for a large bricks-and-mortar agency told me when I asked him about the situation. Simply put, said Steve Loucks of the Minneapolis-based travel agency Travel Leaders, the agent should “own” the problem until it’s fixed to everyone’s satisfaction.

“Since our travel agents’ businesses are built on repeat customers, typically in local communities, it’s in their best interests to work in their client’s best interests as true advocates on their behalf,” he told me. “Treat them poorly, and they’ll never come back and let others know. But give them what they want, and they’ll keep coming back and offer referrals.”

He added, “If they right a bad situation, they have customers for life.”
But even if the buck stopped with Travelocity, there’s still plenty of blame to go around. One of the airlines should have owned up to the lost-reservation problem, preferably the carrier that owned the ticket: United. And the code-share partner could have done more than offer a few miles to fix the problem. But passing the buck is becoming far too easy in an age of electronic transactions, in which the airline you’re ticketed on isn’t necessarily the airline you’re flying on.

Airline code-sharing is, without a question, beneficial to airlines like United and Lufthansa. Not only are they allowed to legally share passengers and other resources, but they are given the government’s blessing to stop competing on certain routes: a “win-win,” as they say in corporate America.

The Transportation Department has taken recent steps to solve some of the problems related to code-sharing. A rule that took effect in April requires carriers to apply the same baggage allowances and fees to all segments of a trip. It’s a good start.

Yet a whole list of problems, from disclosure of joint flights to refunds, still plagues those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves on a code-share flight.

I asked Travelocity and United to take another look at the Blazeks’ tickets. Scott Quigley, Travelocity’s vice president of sales and customer care, pointed out that his company handles “millions” of travel reservations without incident every month.

“When issues arise, our strong supplier relationships usually allow us to resolve them quickly, conveniently and to the satisfaction of our mutual customers,” he said.

To that end, Travelocity has several departments dedicated to fixing reservations problems. “However, there are still cases where things go wrong for our customers,” he added.

This happened to be one of those cases. Quigley said that Travelocity took a closer look at the Blazeks’ problem and determined that “we could and should have escalated it more quickly with our airline partner.” Travelocity reimbursed the Blazeks in full for their remaining expenses and apologized.

How about United? I inquired about the Blazeks’ tickets. After conducting a “further” review, an airline representative said, “we believe we erred in not refunding the full amount that the Blazeks paid to get home.” United processed a full refund.

I know what you’re thinking: Wait, the Blazeks have been refunded twice, right? Yes, it appears that they have been.

I wonder whether it will take another year to figure out who should get refunded for that error. Stay tuned.

A Travelocity typo triggers ethics crisis

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oceanThe total price for a three-night Bahamas cruise package came to $2,058 on Travelocity. But that was before John Zimmerman applied a $1,000 rebate offered for a mid-level cabin through the online agency.

Then the rate was too good to be true – literally.

Shortly after booking the cruise, Travelocity unexpectedly reduced the $1,000 rebate offer to $100 and then eliminated it entirely. Appeals to the company were met with silence, so Zimmerman asked me to help.

”No $9 first class airfare to Europe situation”

Zimmerman insists he did everything by the book. “The rebate offer appeared throughout the booking process in pop-up windows,” he remembers.

He wanted to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. The cabin class and the ship, RCCL’s Majesty of the Seas, passed the litmus test.

“We cleared browser cookies, opened an incognito window to ensure the offer was for this particular cruise, and took copious screen shots during the booking process,” he remembers. “The total price, with the rebate applied, was still more than twice the price of a regular cabin, but I felt this would be an opportunity to splurge.”

In other words, “This wasn’t a $9 first class airfare to Europe situation.”

Zimmerman showed me the screen shots, and after reviewing them, I agreed to contact Travelocity.

I can already hear some of you crying foul. But bear in mind, asking a company to review a transaction doesn’t guarantee anything.

I thought Zimmerman had a few things going in his favor:

Watertight documentation. It’s unusual for a customer to take screen shots of a transaction all the way through, but that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t seem to be trying to hold Travelocity’s feet to the fire if this turned out to be a mistake, but to ensure that this deal was legit.

Not too good to be true. Even after factoring in the rebate, he was still paying $1,058 for a three-day cruise for two people. That’s not a “fat-finger” rate, from all outward appearances.

The right motives. Travelocity offered the rebate in a pop-up window. He didn’t find it on a blog or website dedicated to pricing errors. Had Zimmerman learned about this “deal” online and attempted to take advantage of a rebate he knew was a mistake, then I would have politely declined his case.

Then I heard back from Travelocity. A representative told me there’d been a “typo” in the terms and conditions on the promotion.

“The $1,000 credit should have read $100,” said the representative. “We recognize this as our error, however, and will give him the full $1,000.”

Is that right?

I have mixed feelings about this resolution.

On one hand, I’m happy for Zimmerman. He got an excellent deal on his Caribbean cruise, subsidized by Travelocity. On the other hand … well, it was subsidized by Travelocity. Maybe it caved because I contacted it on Zimmerman’s behalf. I wouldn’t have done that if it had responded to his emails asking about the status of his rebate.

If you venture off this site to some of the darker crevices of the blogosphere where people intentionally book mistake fares — yes, I still call it stealing — you’ll find my critics who say the “consumer advocacy” I do is really nothing more than a form of high-tech extortion. When I contact a company on behalf of a consumer, there’s an implied threat that if I don’t get what I want, I’ll write a story.

These critics apparently don’t read my blog, where I write about my many advocacy failures and often side with the companies that say “no.”

But after reading this case, I can see how the haters would think I’m just running a racket. Travelocity might have just ignored Zimmerman and correctly charged him $2,058 for his Majesty of the Seas sailing trip if I hadn’t gotten involved.

A part of me wonders if I should have.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The 6 best online travel agencies of 2013

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D Arts/Shutterstock

D Arts/Shutterstock

In this year’s best online travel agency category, it was yet another close vote. Travelocity and Kayak were tied until almost the last minute. But then Travelocity pulled ahead with just seconds left in the voting — almost a photo finish.

Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline round out the list, followed by Hotwire.

I didn’t distinguish between so-called “opaque” sites like Priceline and Hotwire and the “full-service” agencies. The list is a useful guide for anyone considering making a travel purchase online.

Here are the top online travel agencies of 2013 according to the readers of this site.

1. Travelocity
2. Kayak
3. Expedia
4. Orbitz
5. Priceline
6. Hotwire

Congratulations to all the winners.

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other Elliott’s List, *protected email*.

Will the Travelocity-Expedia deal be good for travelers?

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B747/Shutterstock

B747/Shutterstock

Depending on whom you talk to, Travelocity’s unexpected announcement last month that it has reached a strategic marketing agreement with longtime rival Expedia will either create a dominant new Internet travel agency, give consumers access to more hotel choices or raise prices.

All three things could happen, actually, but the conjecture surrounding the announcement reminded me of the fallout from the last big online travel deal. After Priceline’s $1.8 billion purchase of travel-search site Kayak.com in 2012, I received an e-mail from someone who identified himself as a reader named Ben Tester.

As part of that purchase, Priceline promised to run Kayak independently, which is important because Kayak purports to display unbiased prices from hundreds of online sources. But Tester charged that since the acquisition, Kayak had quietly started to list hotel results from another Priceline-owned site without including fees and taxes, making its prices look lower “and misleading consumers.”

I asked Priceline about the inconsistent rates. A representative acknowledged that the results were displaying differently but said that this was an error that had probably existed before the company bought Kayak.

“It was a matter of how Kayak’s system was interpreting and displaying the data feed, which has been fixed,” Priceline spokesman Brian Ek told me.

I asked Tester what he thought of the explanation and promised to write a story about it, but he didn’t respond to my message. His silence made me wonder whether he may have been someone working at another online travel agency and using a nom de plume.

Do consumers even care about any of this? Well, they should.

What’s happening behind the curtain in the online travel world matters. Expedia and Travelocity are the No. 1 and No. 3 online travel agencies, respectively. Priceline also owns Booking.com, a dominant hotel Web site. And of course, Google is eyeing the online travel world through a string of acquisitions such as ITA Software, Frommer’s and Zagat. Soon, we may all be buying our travel from the same place.

The agreement between Travelocity and Expedia, which isn’t expected to be implemented until next year, will see Expedia “powering” Travelocity’s technology and customer-service functions, according to Travelocity chief executive Carl Sparks.

Travelers will benefit in several ways. Travelocity will receive a needed upgrade that will allow travelers to book multi-destination packages. They’ll also have access to more hotel inventory and additional payment options.

It’s a good deal for Travelocity, too, because the agency will be able to outsource all but some promotional, branding and management functions to its competitor while still competing with it, says Sparks. “We get a better cost structure and can put that saved money into marketing promotions,” he says. “At the same time, we will be vigorously competing with Expedia.”

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and strategist for Hudson Crossing, called the transaction a “virtual merger” but said that travelers shouldn’t notice much of a difference in the way they book their trips online. “The Travelocity-Expedia partnership should have minimal impact on consumer choice when it comes to researching and booking trips online,” he says.

That’s because online agencies such as Orbitz, Priceline and Bookit will continue to compete with Travelocity-Expedia in the online travel space. So even if Travelocity becomes a storefront for Expedia (which it says it won’t), competition will remain alive and well, at least for now.

Ask travelers what they think is going to happen, and the answer is more blunt. “It’s bound to raise prices,” says William Voss, a retired pharmacist from Oak Park, Ill.

Past experience — and logic — suggest that he may be right, too. In previous travel industry mergers, consolidation allowed the new company to start charging higher prices for products. Scroll back to any major travel industry merger or acquisition, and it’s hard to find even a single example of fares or rates falling post-transaction. But it also makes sense. If Expedia is now providing the inventory for a longtime rival, no matter how you frame it, Expedia gets more leverage. Why wouldn’t it take advantage of that by raising some of its rates?

No one knows what will happen until it actually happens. But you don’t have to wait to adjust your online booking strategy. Just a few years ago, searching the three major online travel agencies plus one of the “opaque” sites such as Priceline or Hotwire was enough to let you zero in on the best fare or rate. No longer. These little-understood, behind-the-scenes deals mean that you could be querying the same site multiple times.

Bottom line? If you’re looking for a low price, you’ll have to cast a wider net. Sites such as Mobissimo and Hipmunk can help you compare airfares, for example. Niche companies such as Room77.com, Stayful.com and Tablethotels.com offer an alternate way to plan and book a hotel room.

We’re nowhere near the red-alert territory we’ve crossed into with airline mergers, in which the federal government needs to step in to ensure that competition is kept alive. But this might be a good time for everyone to start paying attention.

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