Let’s just call Expedia’s $280 million acquisition of Travelocity, and the reportedly imminent sale of Orbitz, what it is: the latest chapter in an online-travel soap opera.

If you’re an industry insider, this is juicy. But for the average traveler, it’s hard to figure out whether it means anything at all. So what if Expedia bought its former rival? And does it really matter who owns Orbitz?

As a matter of fact, yes.

First, a recap of the latest episode of “As the Online Travel World Turns.” Last week, Expedia and Travelocity announced they were getting married after moving in together in 2013. Travelocity had essentially been operating as an Expedia affiliate, but it was still owned by parent company Sabre. (Told you this was complicated.) Expedia’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said the marriage would allow his company to “continue to innovate and deliver the very best travel experiences to the widest set of travelers, all over the world.”

Meanwhile, Orbitz was reportedly mulling over a sale, although it remained unclear who would buy the online travel agency. Chris Chiames, a spokesman there, said the company doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation about potential transactions and market activity.”

As I said, soap opera.

If you don’t follow the ins and outs of the online travel universe, don’t worry. These deals raise some important questions for the average traveler — chief among them the fate of the beloved Roaming Gnome. Will Travelocity’s mascot get sent to the recycler?

I won’t keep you in suspense. The gnome, and the Travelocity name, will survive, according to Expedia. That may be a good-news/bad-news proposition (no offense to the gnome): By keeping the Travelocity name and site, travelers might believe they’re being diligent shoppers by checking both Expedia and Travelocity when, in fact, they’re price-comparing figures from the same source.

“The average traveler probably won’t realize that when they book a deal on Travelocity now, they are actually booking through Expedia and that lots of the travel deals you see on Expedia and Travelocity will be the same or similar,” says Dennis Schaal, the news editor for Skift, a Web site that covers the online travel industry.

In fact, an important competitor has been eliminated, which means consumers have fewer choices. That could result in worse customer service, say observers such as Schaal. Remember that Travelocity used to offer a guarantee that promised to make things right during travel if something went wrong. Expedia hasn’t matched that guarantee, Schaal says, at least not yet.

But does the drama of the online travel world actually mean anything for your next trip? Maybe, says Edward Hasbrouck, an online travel industry expert and author of “The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World.”

“The business reasons why the sites’ owners are choosing to merge aren’t really relevant to consumers,” he says. “What’s relevant to consumers is the reduction of competition.”

So how does an acquisition like the Expedia-Travelocity deal affect competition? Under its former owners, a site like Travelocity would have access to different inventory and, at times, better deals than its competitors. With Expedia owning it, the two are no longer competing, so you’ll need to add a few more sites to your shopping list to do your due diligence. If another large online travel company such as Priceline snatches up Orbitz, then you’ll have even fewer choices. Over time, that could make finding the right flight, hotel room or cruise more difficult.

We’re not there yet, says David Tossell, a former Travelocity manager who is now the vice president of travel and hospitality at software development company DataArt. “This is not a game-changer,” he says. His advice: Lean on the “meta” search sites that find fares from a variety of sources. Among his favorites are Kayak.com, Trivago, Google Flights and Google Hotels . Metas save you the trouble of having to bookmark dozens of travel sites and searching them one by one.

Even if Expedia gobbled up Travelocity, Orbitz and a few other big travel sites, it wouldn’t necessarily mean the reduction in competition will lead to higher prices. As a matter of fact, thanks to a little industry practice called “price parity,” hotel rates are often within a few dollars of each other — hardly something to get excited about. Online agencies are contractually forbidden from displaying lower prices than hotels do on their site. The biggest discrepancies, insiders say, are on smartphone apps like TripAdvisor’s, where hotel rates are sometimes markedly lower than they are on the hotels’ own sites. Air fares are also competitive between travel sites and the airlines’ Web sites.

For that reason, says Edward Nevraumont, a former vice president at Expedia, the deals “don’t really matter.” Nevraumont, whose specialty at Expedia was competitive analysis, says consumers would have noticed any changes a year ago, when the Expedia-Travelocity affiliate agreement kicked in, and they didn’t.

Consumers appear to have adjusted to the ups and downs of the industry. Nigel Appleby, a retired insurance broker from Vancouver, B.C., says he has already changed how he shops for travel. “I use an online travel agency for research and then I use a brick-and-mortar travel agent for a booking,” he says. Why? His travel agent can beat any price he finds online and doesn’t charge a fee.

Using a real travel agent in 2015? Who would have thought? Oh, the drama!

The post The online-travel soap opera – and what it means to you appeared first on Elliott.

How do you even respond to someone like Harley Feldman? There are no words.

“Never do business with Travelocity,” he writes in our help forums today. You can read the entire painful thread here.

The reason he’s telling everyone to avoid the online agency? His daughter’s boyfriend had purchased a ticket to China as part of his MBA program and needed to make a change.

“On February 17, my daughter was murdered in her home, and he found the body,” he says. “Her boyfriend came to the funeral on February 27 to say goodbye to the love of his life.”

Feldman tried to call Travelocity the evening of the funeral to change the ticket so he could leave two days later.

“Travelocity never answered the phone,” he adds. “In total frustration, because of the need to get him to China for his class, I purchased a ticket for him on United Airlines so he could get there almost in time for his class.”

Feldman tried to resolve this problem on his own. He sent a letter to the CEO of Expedia, Travelocity’s parent company. No answer. He sent emails. No answer.

“I tried to call his office, and I was prevented from doing so. I was finally referred to the corporate office and after four hours, I was called back. They would not issue a refund for the additional ticket, let alone the original one. When I was not satisfied by the agent, I asked to speak to her supervisor – same response – ‘nothing they can do’,” he says.

Our advocates are trying the walk through the steps of a resolution. We’re advising him to stick to email and to consider contacting the airline. We know that strictly speaking, Travelocity is just enforcing the airline’s rules. What we’d like to see is the company advocating for a customer instead of just offering a rules-are-rules response.

I think the overall feeling in the forum is that Feldman and his late daughter’s boyfriend deserve a little compassion.

Now, bear in mind that this is a live case. Lots of details are missing, as they always are from these cases. We know that the original outbound flight was on American and the new flight, which cost $2,300, was on United. We do not have any of the correspondence between Travelocity and Feldman, but we’ve asked for it.

Is there a shortcut to getting Travelocity’s attention? I publish the names of Expedia’s executives on my site. I’ve also asked my contact at Travelocity to alert the company to this case. But maybe we’ve overlooked something.

If you have kids, you know that even the idea of losing your son or daughter is too painful to even contemplate. Feldman has our deepest sympathies, and we will do everything we can to help him. If you think you have an idea for him, please jump into the forums and let him know.

Again, this is a live case. It can change by the minute. I will update this post with any new developments.

Update (8:30 a.m. Sunday): Travelocity has contacted Feldman and agreed to help. A representative says “I hope you will be refunded one flight to be fair.” We’ll have more details soon.

The post “Most horrible service and support from Travelocity” appeared first on Elliott.

Chris Joseph’s flight doesn’t get booked the right way on Travelocity. Can his ticket be fixed?

Question: I’m hoping that you can help me solve my travel nightmare with Travelocity. As a seasoned traveler, I’m frankly embarrassed to have found myself in this predicament. My husband and I were traveling to South Padre Island, Texas, for the holidays, as we have for the past five years. We fly Delta whenever we can, since that is where most of our miles are, and since we are typically able to get to Silver elite status each year.

I needed to fly out of Boston around Dec. 25 and return around Jan. 1. I went to Travelocity to book a ticket on multiple carriers. My goal was to have as many miles as possible be traveled via Delta. For our return flight, I booked a United flight from Valley International Airport to Houston. From there, it was to be a Delta flight to Detroit and then to Boston. I never would have booked a three-leg return had it not been driven by my “need” for Delta miles. Seat selections were made and confirmation email sent. I was all set! Or so I thought.

Approximately one week later, I received an email that showed that all of the return legs were now United.
I’ve tried to work with Travelocity, Delta and United to get this changed back to the originally booked flights. I’ve been told varying versions of “no” and “yes” by all three companies, but the “yes” responses always point me back to one of the other companies involved.

The original Delta flights are available, but the fare class has changed. United says to have Travelocity obtain a waiver from Delta and then reissue. Delta says it can’t do a waiver and that I need a supervisor at Travelocity who knows how to do its own override or waiver. I won’t bore you with the number of hours I’ve spent on countless calls with all three parties. Please help! — Chris Joseph, Boston

Answer: I admire your loyalty to Delta. Even though the airline recently moved the goalposts again, making it harder to reach one of its coveted “elite” status levels, you’re still in it to win it. That kind of devotion to an airline is becoming increasingly rare.

Your itinerary is a cautionary tale for those of us who believe an airline will operate a flight as scheduled. It isn’t required to. In fact, flight schedules change often, and you usually have only two choices: accept the new schedule or get a full refund.

I checked with Travelocity. To maximize your Delta miles, you made what’s called an “interline” booking on two airlines, starting on United and connecting with Delta. The starting carrier is the airline that owns the reservation, or the “validating” carrier, in airline parlance. That means United can change the ticket to whatever it wants.

And that’s exactly what it did. A week after you made your reservation, United rescheduled you on more United flights. It asked you to either approve the change or request a refund. Since you didn’t respond, you automatically were rescheduled on the new flights.

This is one of those oddities of airline travel that most passengers don’t understand. Airline contracts are written in such a way (and federal law, which governs airlines, supports this) that you’re not guaranteed an exact flight, or even a particular airline. The validating carrier controls your itinerary, and it can do a lot more with your schedule than you might imagine. Let’s just say the flight schedule is more of a suggestion than a promise.

Is that fair? To the airlines, absolutely. If they have the right to change their schedules with little or no consequence, it affords them a lot of flexibility. But for you? Not so much. For your mileage-collecting hobby? Definitely not.

Travelocity can change you back to your original flights if you need to collect your miles, but it will cost you a $200 change fee. I wish I had better news.

The post Thanks to Travelocity, I’ll never make Silver Elite appeared first on Elliott.

With most mergers, consumers lose. But with the latest merger in the online travel industry between Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, competition should be enhanced rather than diminished.

Why? The real competition is not from other travel agents, but from the airlines and hotels.

If they could, hotels and airlines would do away with travel agents. To hotels and airlines, travel agents are an unnecessary middleman in the economic equation. Not only do they gobble up a part of the profits through commissions, but they (gasp!) provide a forum to compare prices across brands.

Without the foil of online and brick-and-mortar travel agencies, airlines and hotels would run amok with little countervailing consumer price comparisons.

Yes. With the emergence of strong price-comparison platforms, consumers and the free market may come out on top.

If we only look at this as a merger within the online travel agency (OTA) world, it appears that competition between Orbitz and Expedia will be eliminated. However, that competition is basically cosmetic. All three of these agencies have become mirror images of each other with small differences. All take information spoon-fed from airlines and hotels and then find ways to bundle it that saves consumers money. Expedia, by virtue of its earlier start and fierce expansion into international markets, managed to become the big dog.

Travelocity was always the poor stepchild of a giant travel IT system that was spun off by American Airlines and that still provides streaming airfare and hotel price information to thousands of travel agents across the world. Its participation as a full fledged OTA agent was always a bit in competition with its real money-making operations.

Orbitz, that was launched by airlines and then sold, never really regained its footing. It was only through brilliant management that it differentiated itself from Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline (really Booking.com). Orbitz has always been my go-to site for car rentals and it ran the best loyalty program of the OTA agents.

Now, these big OTAs — Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz — are under one umbrella. Their biggest competition is from Booking.com.

About this time, airlines and hotels were “regaining control of their inventory.” In the beginning the OTAs would purchase blocks of rooms at deep discounts and then resell them at prices lower than what the hotels were selling the rooms themselves for. The OTAs also tried to do the same thing with airline tickets.

In the end, the big hotel chains began a system that mandated all room rates be the same online whether purchased from OTAs or from the hotel sites themselves. Airlines also created a similar system. Airlines took the restrictions even further. They eliminated most commissions in the hopes that OTAs would abandon the aviation market.

It didn’t go quite that way. OTAs still had the ability to blend hotels and airlines together in creative ways that made consumer prices lower. And, these OTA platforms became the place where consumers could compare prices. (Unfortunately, many travelers would compare prices and then go directly to the airlines to purchase tickets, in effect endangering the only price-comparison platform that they had.)

These changes were reflected in the online travel agency world. Priceline made the biggest change — one that served them very well. They purchased Booking.com, a European hotel booking site.

The story of Booking.com is a bit unusual. Priceline was the big kid on the block back a decade or so ago. Its bidding system made airline tickets affordable for many. However, in its rush to expand the bidding platform to everything from gasoline to groceries, it lost its way. The CEO was sacked, going from hero one year to cast-aside the next, and a new CEO began repairing the brand.

Priceline remained a powerful entity. Its management saw that hotels (and airline bookings in Europe) provided the biggest bang for the dollar. It all but abandoned US airline reservations and focused on hotels, especially the smaller European hotels that had not been aggregated.

Over the years, Booking.com took over the Priceline balance sheet. As of three years ago, according to conversations with Booking.com executives, it was providing something like 80 percent of Priceline’s profits. The term “booking” became synonymous with “online” among the European hotels world. When arriving at a hotel, saying “I booked with Expedia” drew blank stares. But, saying my reservation was with “booking” registered an immediate, “Ah hah.”

Of course, Expedia was not dragging its feet. It has expanded into Europe with its purchase of Venere.com (similar to Booking.com) and across the Asian market as well.

But, for all of the online travel agents, the real competition is not from other travel agents. The real competition comes from airlines and hotel companies which would love to live in a world without competition and price comparisons. Some big companies, specifically Delta Air Lines, have begun to restrict the publication of its airfares from price-comparison online sites like Skyscanner, Hipmunk, TripAdvisor, Cheapflights and others.

Fortunately, big, strong, international platforms that provide the ability to comparison shop like Expedia and Priceline/Booking cannot be ignored or shut out by airline powers-that-be or hotel chains. The consolidation in the OTA world is not reducing competition, but increasing competition when the entire ecosystem is considered. Plus, the ability to comparison shop is priceless.

For that, consumers should be thankful.

The post A merger that’s good for consumers? It’s no April Fool’s joke appeared first on Elliott.

With most mergers, consumers lose.

However, with the latest merger in the online travel industry between Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, competition should be enhanced rather than diminished.

Why? The real competition is not from other travel agents, but from the airlines and hotels.

If they could, hotels and airlines would do away with travel agents. To hotels and airlines, travel agents are an unnecessary middleman in the economic equation. Not only do they gobble up a part of the profits through commissions, but they (gasp!) provide a forum to compare prices across brands.

Without the foil of online and brick-and-mortar travel agencies, airlines and hotels would run amok with little countervailing consumer price comparisons.

Yes. With the emergence of strong price-comparison platforms, consumers and the free market may come out on top.

If we only look at this as a merger within the online travel agency (OTA) world, it appears that competition between Orbitz and Expedia will be eliminated. However, that competition is basically cosmetic. All three of these agencies have become mirror images of each other with small differences. All are spoon-fed information from airlines and hotels and then find ways to bundle it that saves consumers money. Expedia, by virtue of its earlier start and fierce expansion into international markets, managed to become the big dog.

Travelocity was always the poor stepchild of a giant travel IT system that was spun off by American Airlines and that still provides streaming airfare and hotel price information to thousands of travel agents across the world. Its participation as a full fledged OTA agent was always a bit in competition with its real money-making operations.

Orbitz, that was launched by airlines and then sold, never really regained its footing. It was only through brilliant management that it differentiated itself from Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline (really booking.com). Orbitz has always been my go-to site for car rentals and it ran the best loyalty program of the OTA agents.

Now, these big OTAs — Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz — are under one umbrella. Their biggest competition is from booking.com.

About this time, airlines and hotels were “regaining control of their inventory.” In the beginning, the OTAs would purchase blocks of rooms at deep discounts and then resell them at prices lower than what the hotels were selling the rooms themselves. The OTAs also tried to do the same thing with airline tickets.

In the end, the big hotel chains began a system that mandated all room rates be the same online whether purchased from OTAs or from the hotel sites themselves. Airlines also created a similar system and they took the restrictions even further. They eliminated most commissions in the hopes that OTAs would abandon the aviation market.

It didn’t go quite that way. OTAs still had the ability to blend hotels and airlines together in creative ways that made consumer prices lower. And, these OTA platforms became the place where consumers could compare prices. (Unfortunately, many travelers would compare prices and then go directly to the airlines to purchase tickets, in effect endangering the only price-comparison platform that they had.)

These changes were reflected in the online travel agency world. Priceline made the biggest change — one that served them very well. They purchased booking.com, a European hotel booking site.

The story of booking.com is a bit unusual. Priceline was the big kid on the block back a decade or so ago. Its bidding system made airline tickets affordable for many. However, in its rush to expand the bidding platform to everything from gasoline to groceries, it lost its way. The CEO was sacked, going from hero one year to cast-aside the next, and a new CEO began repairing the brand.

Priceline remained a powerful entity. Its management saw that hotels (and airline bookings in Europe) provided the biggest bang for the dollar. It all but abandoned US airline reservations and focused on hotels, especially the smaller European hotels that had not been aggregated.

Over the years, booking.com took over the Priceline balance sheet. As of three years ago, according to conversations with booking.com executives, it was providing something like 80 percent of Priceline’s profits. The term “booking” became synonymous with “online” among the European hotels world. When arriving at a hotel, saying “I booked with Expedia” drew blank stares. But, saying my reservation was with “booking” registered an immediate, “Ah hah.”

Of course, Expedia was not dragging its feet. It has expanded into Europe with its purchase of Venere.com (similar to booking.com) and across the Asian market as well.

But, for all of the online travel agents, the real competition is not from other travel agents. The real competition comes from airlines and hotel companies which would love to live in a world without competition and price comparisons. Some big companies, specifically Delta Air Lines, have begun to restrict the publication of its airfares from price-comparison online sites like Skyscanner, Hipmunk, TripAdvisor, Cheapflights and others.

Fortunately, big, strong, international platforms that provide the ability to comparison shop like Expedia and Priceline/Booking cannot be ignored or shut out by airline powers-that-be or hotel chains. The consolidation in the OTA world is not reducing competition, but increasing it when the entire ecosystem is considered. Plus, the ability to comparison shop is priceless.

For that, consumers should be thankful.

The post Expedia is about to eat two of its competitors, and that’s good for you appeared first on Elliott.

After Richard Simms changes his vacation package on Travelocity, a representative assures him that he can use his credit for a new trip. But the company keeps his money anyway. Can it do that?

Question: I’ve been charged for two itineraries on Travelocity. I’m trying to get a promised refund for one of them. I recently booked an air-inclusive vacation package from Brussels to Malaga, Spain. I paid $1,128 for the first trip.

A few days later, I contacted Travelocity to make a couple of changes. I changed my departure date and added three more nights to the itinerary. A representative confirmed that I could apply the credit from my first trip to the second one. The new trip cost $1,960.

I asked the representative to confirm that I wouldn’t lose the value of my first tour. The agent clearly said, “No, you will be credited the original itinerary costs toward the changed itinerary costs.”

However, now I’ve paid for both itineraries, and Travelocity refuses to answer my appeal. Travelocity says the new itinerary was for a new trip, not a change in itinerary, and I am responsible for both. Can you help? — Richard Simms, Lakeville, Minn.

Answer: If Travelocity said it would refund your first trip, it should have refunded your first trip. Vacation packages can be a little tricky when it comes to refund rules. Each component can have a different set of terms, and they’re not always obvious.

A review of Travelocity’s package terms suggests that at least part of your package might have been refundable. When an agent said you could cancel and reuse your credit, you might have asked for something in writing that said so. Words are meaningless when you don’t have a written record.

I reviewed the written correspondence between you and Travelocity. In it, the company sent you a series of what appeared to be boilerplate responses, denying your refund. No matter how hard you tried to explain the problem, the company simply sent you another “no.”

How frustrating.

You could have escalated this to someone higher up at Travelocity, which is now owned by Expedia. I list the contacts on my site. But I think you’ve suffered enough.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It investigated your claim, and a representative told me that “it appears as though an error was made on our side.”

You’ve received a full refund for your first trip, as originally promised.

The post Charged twice by Travelocity — where’s my refund? appeared first on Elliott.

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 post Oh no! They lost my ticket refund appeared first on Elliott.

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.

The post The Travel Troubleshooter: Maybe the price guarantee isn’t all-inclusive? appeared first on Elliott.

A trip from San Francisco to Buenos Aires, Argentina is no short hop. Liliana Elena Maculus-Levin found the flights she wanted on Travelocity, departing on Dec. 2, 2015 and returning Jan. 20, 2016.

Jan. 20.

Remember that date.

The trip had four connections, both coming and going. Since one of the layovers was in Santiago, Chile, Maculus-Levin decided to change their travel plans and stay in Santiago for five days before continuing on to Buenos Aires.

She contacted Travelocity to make the change. They were able to accommodate her request at a cost of $1,396, which Maculus-Levin paid.

“Here is when everything starts getting crazy,” she laments. “We were on hold for four hours because the agent, Julia, made some mistakes trying to change our returning flight, even though we did not ask, need, nor wanted her to change.”

Thinking everything was straightened out, Maculus-Levin was quite upset when she received an email with the new itinerary. Julia had mistakenly changed their return flight to Dec. 20, rather than the Jan. 20 date they originally booked.

This time, when Maculus-Levin called Travelocity, she asked for a supervisor, and was subsequently transferred to Katherine in the corporate department.

Katherine stated she would have to listen to the whole recording of the phone call with Julia to determine what exactly had transpired before she could do anything. Maculus-Levin said Katherine treated her badly, “railroading us throughout the conversation.”

The situation was not resolved.

Since then, Maculus-Levin has contacted Travelocity numerous times. She talked to two other supervisors on Aug. 29 and Sept, 4. Both promised her they would get it taken care of, but did not follow through.

Travelocity contacted Maculus-Levin on Sept. 8. She was relieved that they were finally going to get her return flight reinstated to Jan. 20. But that’s not why they were calling her – they wanted to let her know there was a change to the flight and schedule to Santiago. When Maculus-Levin asked about the return flight, they informed her it is on schedule for Dec. 20, 2015.

Maculus-Levin again contacted Travelocity, but can’t get the return ticket corrected. Every call brings with it new frustrations. She speaks with someone different, who doesn’t know anything about her case, and has to explain the whole situation from the beginning.

This seems like an agent’s mistake that should and could be easily corrected. Why it has become such a snafu is a mystery. Maculus-Levin is at her wit’s end.

The post Travelocity says you’re flying on Dec. 20, whether you like it or not appeared first on Elliott.

After Richard Simms changes his vacation package on Travelocity, a representative assures him that he can use his credit for a new trip. But the company keeps his money anyway. Can it do that?

Question: I’ve been charged for two itineraries on Travelocity. I’m trying to get a promised refund for one of them. I recently booked an air-inclusive vacation package from Brussels to Malaga, Spain. I paid $1,128 for the first trip.

A few days later, I contacted Travelocity to make a couple of changes. I changed my departure date and added three more nights to the itinerary. A representative confirmed that I could apply the credit from my first trip to the second one. The new trip cost $1,960.

I asked the representative to confirm that I wouldn’t lose the value of my first tour. The agent clearly said, “No, you will be credited the original itinerary costs toward the changed itinerary costs.”

However, now I’ve paid for both itineraries, and Travelocity refuses to answer my appeal. Travelocity says the new itinerary was for a new trip, not a change in itinerary, and I am responsible for both. Can you help? — Richard Simms, Lakeville, Minn.

Answer: If Travelocity said it would refund your first trip, it should have refunded your first trip. Vacation packages can be a little tricky when it comes to refund rules. Each component can have a different set of terms, and they’re not always obvious.

A review of Travelocity’s package terms suggests that at least part of your package might have been refundable. When an agent said you could cancel and reuse your credit, you might have asked for something in writing that said so. Words are meaningless when you don’t have a written record.

I reviewed the written correspondence between you and Travelocity. In it, the company sent you a series of what appeared to be boilerplate responses, denying your refund. No matter how hard you tried to explain the problem, the company simply sent you another “no.” How frustrating.

You could have escalated this to someone higher up at Travelocity, which is now owned by Expedia. I list the contacts on my site. But I think you’ve suffered enough.

I contacted Travelocity on your behalf. It investigated your claim, and a representative told me that “it appears as though an error was made on our side.”

You’ve received a full refund for your first trip, as originally promised.

This story was first published on March 23, 2015.

The post Travelocity charged me twice — can I get a refund? appeared first on Elliott.

Should companies make all of their customers stand in the same line when they get refunds? I ask because Patricia Lewis wants to know after she had to cancel her Alitalia flight from Portland to Palermo, Sicily.

She should have been given an immediate refund based on her circumstances. Instead, the very same travel agency and airline that worked as a team to quickly and efficiently remove $2,679 from her bank account now appears to be standing between her and a speedy refund.

I know what you’re thinking. This is wrong. But wait until you hear the details.

In January, Lewis and her husband booked tickets to fly to Italy in March.

“On Feb. 9, my husband unexpectedly and suddenly died,” she says.

Lewis immediately canceled her tickets and asked for a refund from Travelocity, the company through which she booked the flights.

“They required a death certificate, which I sent on Feb. 18,” she says. “I requested confirmation of receipt, which I did not get. I asked again via email on Feb. 26 for confirmation that they had received it, with no answer.”

As time passed, she became increasingly worried about her refund.

“I called on March 5. It was 4 ½-hour phone call,” she says. “They promised to reply in 48 hours. On March 8, I called back and spoke with a Travelocity manager, who promised to look into it, but said the matter was out of their hands and up to Alitalia, who had charged my Visa.”

Lewis asked Travelocity to send the promise in writing. It didn’t.

So almost a month after her husband passed away, with no sign she would get her money back, she disputed the charges on her credit card. She also emailed Expedia’s executives (Expedia owns Travelocity).

“This evening, I got an email from Travelocity’s Executive Resolution team promising assistance within 96 hours,” she says. “This is the first time anyone there has offered to refund my money.I understand that refunds are customary in the case of death of a first-degree relative, and I have provided ample documentation of this case several times over.”

And you guessed it: The 96 hours came and went with no refund.

I know why. Alitalia and Travelocity might have refunded her money, but it’s all tied up in the two- to three-billing cycle “Twilight Zone” described in the Transportation Department’s Fly Rights brochure:

Payment by credit card provides certain protections under federal credit laws. 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; however, the credit may take a month or two to appear on your statement.

That’s just the way the system works. Now, I’m not saying any of these companies did or did not refund Lewis’ money. But I am saying they could have done better.

• You forced a widow to wait 4 ½ hours on the phone? What kind of company does that?
• You made the same grieving wife several promises that you couldn’t keep? Come on!
• Worse, you made Lewis wait in the same line as business travelers with refundable tickets and people with frivolous upgrade refunds? Because that’s sure what it looks like.

“I want a complete refund of my ticket and my husband’s ticket,” she says. That seems like a reasonable request.

Why do airlines and online agencies do this to customers? I mean, if there’s a way to delete the money from your credit card account in just seconds, why not return it as quickly? And why force someone like Lewis to go through all that — sending a death certificate, spending hours on the phone, writing to executives — over a refund that everyone agrees she’s entitled to?

I just don’t get it.

There’s only one explanation I can think of: Travelocity and Alitalia do this because they can. I believe if we were presented with a reasonable alternative to dealing with these customer-hostile companies, many people would. But with competition nearly squeezed out of the system, where are you going to go to book your airline tickets? Or to fly to Europe?

I’ll wait here while you try to come up with answer.

But here’s a serious question: Should grieving widows have to wait in the same line as everyone else? Or should they have access to a special, expedited refund process? There’s no money in it for companies like Travelocity or Alitalia. Only goodwill.

Update: After our advocacy team intervened, Lewis received word from Expedia, Travelocity’s parent company, that she has received a full refund of the airfare.

The post After her husband dies, how long should a refund take? appeared first on Elliott.

It takes Joanna Pierce hours to fix a duplicate reservation with Travelocity, but she’s still left with a $75 fee. Who should have to pay it?

Question: Earlier this year, I booked a roundtrip flight on American Airlines from Minneapolis to Shannon, Ireland, for May on Travelocity.com.

The next day, Travelocity sent me a message that American Airlines had increased the price. I accepted the increase, wanting to keep the schedule I had.

All was well until I received my credit card bill, on which I discovered that Travelocity had charged me for both the original reservation, which they had modified the next day, as well as the final one.

I spent the better part of a working day on the phone with Travelocity’s customer service department, talking to several people, including a supervisor. I was put on hold for lengthy periods. Finally, the supervisor informed me that they would refund the amount of the first reservation minus $75, which the airline required for a “cancelled” trip. I called American and was informed that the error was with Travelocity. I want my $75 back. Can you help?
— Joanna Pierce, Aitkin, Minn.

Answer: Once you book your airline ticket, the price shouldn’t go up or down. A deal’s a deal, as they say.

Something appears to have gone terribly wrong between you, your online travel agency, and the airline. It is a great mystery. If you scroll down to the end of this story, you’ll see that even Travelocity agrees. No one knows what happened.

But here’s one thing we can all agree on: You didn’t make two reservations and shouldn’t have to eat the $75 cancellation fee.

It’s not clear what the cancellation fee is for or who charged it. Does it cost an airline $75 to cancel a ticket? Did the airline or travel agent somehow incur $75 in expenses by refunding one of your erroneously booked tickets? I don’t think so. It’s a junk fee. Travel companies charges these fees because they can and because you have no choice but to pay. American insists it wouldn’t have charged you the fee, yet you had a bill.

You could have appealed this to a Travelocity executive (Travelocity is owned by Expedia, and I list the contacts on my advocacy site. You can also contact one of American’s executives.

Travelocity was wrong to make you spend hours resolving this double-booking. Common sense should tell them that this was a mistake. Neither American or Travelocity did anything to deserve the money. They did no work and provided no service. The fee is morally wrong.

My advocacy team contacted Travelocity on your behalf. The company acknowledged that this was a duplicate booking “that sort of confused things a bit.”

“While we don’t know for sure the root cause yet, we are going to refund the customer her $75,” a representative said.

The post “Duplicate” reservation leaves her with a $75 cancellation fee appeared first on Elliott.

James Nutter’s trip was canceled because of a flight change. Why can’t he get a refund for the rental car?

Question: I booked a trip with Travelocity last November. The trip was canceled due to a flight change.

Travelocity canceled the rental car portion of the trip and said once American Airlines refunded the money to them, they would credit my card.

American sent me confirmation of the refund on 12/3/15. After the holidays, I started to inquire about the status of my refund and was told my trip number was invalid (it is on all of my emails and was not an issue in November when I called).

I have talked to more than 10 reps and used the customer care email (with attachments) but cannot get anywhere but transferred to another rep who cannot help.

I am past the 60-day limit to dispute the credit card charge.

I’m sending you several attachments:

• Attach 1: This is the original email from Travelocity, it confirms the trip i.d. number
• Attach 2 & 3: Refund confirmations from American Airlines (1 for each traveler)
• Attach 4 & 5: After several phone calls to Travelocity, I tried emails to customer care, attaching my emails proving the trip number was valid. Each response implies I did not book through Travelocity.
• Attach 6: After several more phone calls, I tried the customer care email again and was told I needed to call (which starts the circle all over again as they say they can’t help until I come up with a valid trip i.d.)

Any advice on next steps?–James Nutter, Independence, Ohio

Answer: American and Travelocity canceled your trip. It would be nice if they returned your money as quickly as they took it in the first place.

American refunded your money to Travelocity because their conditions of carriage state that:

In addition, if the ticket to be refunded is no longer valid for transportation, an administrative service charge will be assessed upon refund of the ticket. This service charge will be collected by deducting the applicable service charge from the amount which otherwise would be refunded. Tickets will be refunded only to the person named on the ticket as passenger, except that:

1.Tickets purchased with a credit card will be refunded only as a credit to the credit card account,

2.Tickets issued against a prepaid ticket advice will be refunded only to the purchaser, and

3.Tickets issued against a government transportation request will be refunded only to the government agency which issued the transportation request

Under #2 above, American’s purchaser was Travelocity. American refunded your money to Travelocity.

Travelocity should have promptly refunded the money to you, and they should not have sent you on a runaround with their customer service personnel.

Your next step would be to appeal to an executive at Travelocity, but our advocates took over at this point and approached our contacts at Travelocity.

Travelocity refunded your money, as they should have done without our prodding.

The post A runaround from Travelocity on a refund appeared first on Elliott.

Are you ready for our next unsolved mystery? This one comes from Terri Fitzgerald, who wrote to us recently about a Travelocity trip that went awry.

Fitzgerald used Travelocity to book a “trip of a lifetime” on Icelandair to see the Northern Lights. She purchased travel insurance through the online agency.

“I had a medical emergency requiring hospitalization for four nights and a month out of work,” she says. “I called and canceled.”

Travelocity refunded everything but a 50-percent penalty from Icelandair. A Travelocity representative encouraged her to submit her medical documentation, saying she might be able to receive a full refund. She did as Travelocity advised.

“Well, months later, we’re going back and forth,” she says.

Interestingly, when we asked for her paper trail, she only sent us her side of the conversation. It’s possible that she unsuccessfully tried to attach some emails to our correspondence. Then again, she may have neglected to do so.

What was in them? We don’t know.

Fitzgerald needs the other 50 percent ($700) in order to afford a new trip. But she says Travelocity has dragged its feet on her claim. She’s heard from neither the agency nor the airline since February.

Here’s the thing: Icelandair handles refunds on a case-by-case basis. Each situation is dependent on the rules and restrictions of the ticket originally purchased, according to the carrier. The 50 percent refund may have been the airline’s best offer. It’s hard to know.

Then again, Travelocity may have been correct. Maybe there’s a full refund waiting for Fitzgerald. These things just take time.

But here’s what happened next. Our advocacy team contacted Travelocity. No response. Then we followed up with Fitzgerald. No response.

I’m an optimist, so my first instinct is that Icelandair sent the money back to Travelocity and that they all lived happily ever after. Yeah, that’s what probably happened.

Or did it?

What if Travelocity lost all her claim information and she just gave up? What if Icelandair — or maybe Travelocity — simply kept her money? After months of waiting, I might also feel like ignoring the emails from a consumer advocate. That’s OK.

But the question before us now is: What actually happened?

As we do with cases like this, I put that question to you.

The post What happened to my “trip of a lifetime” with Travelocity? Who knows? appeared first on Elliott.

When Borga Dorter’s $472 airfare on Etihad is canceled because of an error, the refund never shows up on his credit card. A chargeback complicates things. Can our advocates help?

Question: I’m having issues with Expedia sending a chargeback to their collection agency. The chargeback in question is 100 percent legitimate and the dispute has been resolved in my favor.

Last June, I purchased a one-way ticket in business class from South Africa to India on Travelocity for $472. A little more than a week later, I received an email from Travelocity saying there was an error in the booking and that I can either cancel for full refund or travel in economy class.

I called Travelocity and canceled the ticket, which they did over the phone. They told me to expect a refund. About four weeks later (when there was still no refund from Etihad), I called Chase to initiate a chargeback.

Etihad issued a refund of to my credit card. Shortly thereafter, I got an email from Chase saying the dispute was resolved.

In October, I received an email from Expedia saying that “the tickets have not been paid for.” The tickets were for someone else, flying to another destination, and ticketed through Expedia, not Travelocity. I thought it might be a phishing attempt. When I contacted Expedia, a representative told me to file a police report for the charge.

Now Expedia has sent a collection agency after me. I have no idea what is going on and why I’m being asked to pay for a ticket that’s already been refunded (as per Travelocity’s own email).

I checked again by calling Etihad and they say my ticket is definitely canceled and refunded.
I can’t reach anyone at Expedia who is willing to help. Can you help me? — Borga Dorter, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Answer: There’s something fishy about this case, starting with that $472 airfare from South Africa to India. You probably don’t need me to tell you that $472 is a ridiculously inexpensive fare — probably too good to be true.

There’s no evidence in your paper trail that you intentionally booked an erroneous fare that you found on one of those bottom-feeding loyalty program blogs, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, the fact that you accepted the refund without complaining is in your favor. An entitled fare-thief would have pressed the matter. I believe your motives were on the up-and-up.

But that’s not the end of the fishiness. You booked your tickets on Travelocity, and then Expedia pursued you for someone else’s tickets? Huh? (Expedia owns Travelocity, but still, you made your reservation on a different site. Should have raised a red flag somewhere. I can’t believe it didn’t.)

The paper trail then shows something even more remarkable. It appears Expedia doubled down on your case, insisting that you made these charges. Despite your protests, it referred your case to a collection agency — a lowdown dirty thing for a company to do.

We don’t care; pay up!

This is such a brazen case of corporate intransigence, I am almost speechless. Appealing to one of our Expedia executive contacts may have helped, but given all the times you pushed back, I’m not so sure it would have done you any good.

Expedia just wanted its money. Facts be damned.

But facts matter, and the fact is, you didn’t book these tickets — indeed, didn’t even use Expedia. If you could see me now, I would be palming my face.

I just. Can’t. Believe. It.

Our fearless advocacy team found the nearest phone booth when they heard your case and swooped in to the rescue. They contacted Expedia on your behalf, which acknowledged that the charge was indeed a mistake. Expedia called off the collection agency, which it should have done months ago.

By way of apology, Expedia also offered a $100 discount on a future stay at any Travelocity Rate Pre-Paid property. Your nightmare is over.

The post I have no idea what is going on and why I’m being asked to pay for a ticket that’s already been refunded appeared first on Elliott.

When Kenneth Black’s flight on China Southern Airlines, booked through Travelocity, has a too-short connection time, he finds himself unable to travel. Yet neither the airline nor Travelocity is willing to help him get his money back. Can our advocates straighten out this fiasco?

Question: I am on active duty in the U.S. Army, currently stationed in South Korea. Yesterday I was supposed to fly from Incheon, South Korea, to Bangkok via Zhengzhou, China, on China Southern Airlines for the beginning of a military leave. I booked the trip a month ago through Travelocity and received a confirmation of my itinerary telling me “everything was good to go.”

But when I arrived at the airport, I found out that this wasn’t so.

As I was getting ready to check in, I was told to step off to the side to speak to the manager on duty, who informed me that my connection time (70 minutes) was too short, and she would not check me in due to airline policy. I asked her what I needed to do, but she responded with a blank look and a “you figure it out” attitude. I was told to call Travelocity and work it out with them.

I called Travelocity three separate times over the course of two hours, and one of their agents called the airline each time. The only option I was given was to book a later flight, but I was told that I would then be charged an additional $550 to $600 for an issue I had not created.

Initially I agreed to buy a new ticket, but that brought even more problems, so I finally canceled my whole trip at the last minute.

I’m not sure who to point to the finger at. I believe the airline shouldn’t have issued the ticket, and Travelocity shouldn’t have let me book it. I’ve issued a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Attorney General of Texas.

I’m now screwed out of leave for a trip I didn’t take, not to mention that I’m stuck here for the holidays. Can you help me get a full refund for my ticket from Travelocity or China Southern Airlines? — Kenneth Black, Incheon, South Korea

Answer: Ouch! How annoying that after serving your country overseas (for which all of us thank you), you didn’t get to take your scheduled leave because of bad customer service.

Unfortunately, you’re correct that the airline shouldn’t have issued the ticket, and Travelocity shouldn’t have let you book it. Each airport has its own rules about minimum connection times (MCTs in air travel parlance), and the Zhengzhou has a longer MCT requirement than other airports. It requires an MCT of 120 minutes, and your connection time was 70 minutes.

But neither the airline nor Travelocity handled your situation correctly. No one should rise to the rank of airline manager without understanding that giving passengers blank looks and “you figure it out” attitudes at check-in is not an appropriate way to resolve customer service problems. And Travelocity first should have booked you a ticket with the correct MCT, and when it didn’t, its agents should have helped you get a new ticket at Travelocity’s expense rather than telling you that it would charge you for the cost of resolving its own booking error.

When both the airline and Travelocity refused to help you, you first posted in our forum, where our forum advocates suggested that you write polite letters to executives of China Southern Airlines and Travelocity explaining your situation. (Executive contacts for Travelocity (owned by Expedia) are available on our website; contact information for China Southern Airlines is pending as of this writing.)

When this course of action did not result in any responses from either company, our advocates reached out to both the airline and Travelocity.

China Southern Airlines never responded to our contacts either, but Travelocity issued you a full refund, including $25 that was originally withheld from the refund as a “flight change fee,” as well as a $100 single-use coupon for a future hotel booking through Travelocity as a one-time courtesy “in recognition of your service to our country.”

The post Help! My connection time was too short and I wasn’t allowed to fly! appeared first on Elliott.

Maureen Kiely thinks she shouldn’t have to pay for new airline tickets on Aer Lingus. She wants our help getting that fee waived. But she doesn’t have any documentation to support her case. And without a paper trail, our advocates can’t help her.

Kiely’s situation shows yet again why documentation is so important in resolving a customer service dispute. Documented support for a claim is the most valuable tool a customer has against a business that will otherwise deny a compensation request and get away with it. It’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to win against a deep-pocketed business in a “he said, she said” case.

Kiely had purchased two tickets through Travelocity for $2,600 to fly to Ireland on Aer Lingus when she learned of a death in her family. She had paid $1,605 for the tickets with her Wells Fargo account and had a balance due of about $1,000. She contacted Travelocity to request that the flight dates be changed. Travelocity’s agent informed Kiely that there would be a $150 charge per ticket to change the dates, and quoted her a price of $2,660 for two new tickets.

Kiely asked if this new price included the cost of the tickets she had previously bought. When the agent confirmed that it did, Kiely responded that she would call Travelocity back. Later that day, she called Travelocity and spoke to a second agent to request that the tickets be rebooked at the agreed-upon price of $2,660. Both calls to Travelocity were recorded.

According to Kiely, the second agent did not notify her that the charge was for a completely new booking. But the next day, she was shocked to discover that Travelocity had charged her $4,000, to cover not only the price of the previous tickets but for two entirely new ones.

Kiely then called Travelocity to ask for a refund of the $2,660 she had been charged for the new tickets. She spent 90 minutes on the phone speaking to a supervisor, who agreed that the price was wrong and that she would request a copy of the recording of the call. She also promised to follow up with Kiely.

But nobody at Travelocity contacted Kiely to follow up on her case. Kiely made several attempts to contact Travelocity, but each time, either the call was dropped or Travelocity’s personnel could not find or were unwilling to look for recordings of her calls establishing the $2,660 purchase price Kiely had agreed to. She also called Aer Lingus to request its assistance, but whenever she asked to speak to a supervisor, her call was dropped while she was on hold.

Unfortunately for Kiely, she had not documented any of her calls to Travelocity when she authorized charges to purchase her air tickets. Had she done so, she could have spent less time on the telephone asking its agents to help her.

That documentation would also have provided support for her position that she had agreed only to a total charge of $2,660 that included her prior payment. Without it, Travelocity could claim that she had authorized the $4,000 charge — as it did. With no written proof for Kiely’s position, a manager for Travelocity turned down her request for a refund of the extra $2,660.

Kiely finally initiated a stop payment request with Wells Fargo. But without documentation from Travelocity supporting Kiely’s request, Wells Fargo ultimately declined to stop payment on the charge.

When Kiely returned from her trip, she asked a local television advocate for help. He sent several messages to Travelocity requesting assistance for Kiely, but when nobody at Travelocity responded to those messages, Kiely then turned to our advocates for assistance in getting the fee refunded.

She told us that an Aer Lingus representative had told her that the airline would offer her a bereavement fare, but again, she had no documentation to prove that anyone at Aer Lingus had made her this promise.

So there’s nothing we can do for Kiely. We are writing about her case to remind our readers of the importance of supporting documentation when trying to resolve a customer service issue – because it’s the best, and often the only, proof against a business’s position that it shouldn’t have to do anything for a customer. Without it, Kiely can’t get a refund or a bereavement fare.

The post No documentation — no $2,600 refund appeared first on Elliott.

Caleb Short makes a reservation through Travelocity for a three-night stay at the Solstice Hotel in Erie, Pa. When he checks in, he finds the property in the midst of renovation work that makes him feel that it’s an unfit place to stay. Hotel management promises him a refund, then reneges. Travelocity refuses to help. Can we?

Question: I recently checked in the Solstice Hotel in Erie, Pa., and found it was under complete renovation.

After getting upstairs to my room, I called Travelocity because I felt the hotel was not fit to stay in. There was drywall dust coating everything and boards with nails lying in hallways.

After much back and forth, Travelocity told me the front desk couldn’t do anything because no manager was there and to call back the next day. The following day I called the front desk myself and spoke with the manager, who told me I needed to email their corporate office since their official policy was no refunds. — Caleb Short, Brownstown, Mich.

Answer: No one likes unpleasant surprises, especially when checking in for the night at a hotel. You did the right things — immediately contacting Travelocity and then talking to the hotel manager the next day. Based on what the manager said, you wrote a polite email to the hotel’s corporate office, which is also located there in Erie:

Hi,
I am currently staying at your hotel. My roommate and I are both having breathing issues. It was not disclosed online that your hotel is under complete renovation. I am willing to pay for the first night. I would simply like the next two canceled and be allowed to find a new hotel.

That seemed to work. Here is the reply that came about two hours later from Kirsten Olowinski, who has the title of General Manager of the Solstice by Chase Hotel Group:

Caleb,
I just spoke with our manager, she believes that the conditions are unfit given the lobbies (sic) condition. You may go ahead and leave today. We will contact the travel site you booked through to issue a refund and we will issue one to their card as well for two of the three nights.
Thank you,

So, you would think the problem was solved. Based on that email, you checked out of the Solstice and stayed elsewhere the other two nights. Of course, if it had been that easy, we wouldn’t be writing about this case.

One week later you received the following email from Travelocity:

We apologize for the delayed response. We have contacted the Hotel Manager/Devin, he advised us that they will not authorize any refund to be processed as the type of reservation booked is Non-refundable. He further checked the issue and verified that no complaint was raised regarding this concern. And as this is the Hotel’s policy, we are bound to the regulations set forth by the property.

You replied to the Travelocity representative, referring to your email from Kirsten Olowinski. But that didn’t help. The Travelocity representative apparently ignored the general manager’s refund approval and also ignored hotel manager Devin’s incorrect claim that no complaint had been raised. Instead, she replied with the same note as before, with no further explanation.

If the hotel manager says the policy is no refunds, Travelocity stops there. Too bad for the consumer.

Regular readers of this site probably aren’t too surprised at Travelocity’s response. Online travel agencies (OTAs) are notorious for leaving consumers hanging when there is a problem with a supplier.

Travelocity’s response is what you should expect if you read the company’s terms and conditions:

Supplier Rules And Restrictions
You agree to abide by the terms and conditions of purchase imposed by any supplier with whom you elect to deal, including, but not limited to, payment of all amounts when due and compliance with the supplier’s rules and restrictions regarding availability and use of fares, products, or services. … You agree to pay any cancellation or change fees that you incur. In limited cases, some hotels do not permit changes to or cancellations of reservations after they are made, as indicated in the rules and restrictions for the hotel reservation. You agree to abide by the Terms of Use imposed with respect to your prepaid hotel reservations.

Since Travelocity is part of Expedia, you could have escalated the matter with a polite email to the Expedia contacts on our website. Instead, you contacted us.

One thing you should have done was use your mobile phone to take pictures of the conditions at the Solstice and include those with your complaint. It might have helped. We see consumers getting better and faster resolutions to their issues when they provide good photographic evidence.

Our advocate contacted both Olowinski at Solstice by Chase Hotel Group and Travelocity but got no response from either. We don’t know why Solstice went silent. I’m just speculating, but perhaps the company felt Travelocity had its back so it could ignore the problem.

You didn’t give up, taking the next step and disputing the charge with your credit card company. That worked. Here’s what you wrote to our advocate: “I actually finally got a refund within a few hours of my bank finally making some phone calls on my behalf. Both Travelocity and the Solstice Hotel emailed me a short time later telling me how hard they had been working to come to a resolution, which I found rather amusing given the runaround I had received.”

Your problem is solved, but it should not have taken the intervention of your bank to get the hotel or Travelocity to do the right thing. This case is a reminder that when you book through an OTA, you should be aware that you might not get much help if there is a problem with a supplier.

At a minimum, read the terms and conditions of both the OTA and the supplier and then think twice about paying in advance for reservations at a hotel with a nonrefundable rate.

The post My hotel was under a complete renovation — I want a refund appeared first on Elliott.

Many travel sites claim you can sometimes save money by booking two one-way airline tickets instead of a round-trip ticket. But is there a downside to this practice?

Sharon Sanborn recently discovered that the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Sanborn’s case points to the fact that if you decide to try this “travel hack,” it is a bit of a gamble and you may end up losing.

“I purchased a ticket for my granddaughter on Delta with a return on United a week later,” she told our advocates. “Delta canceled the outbound flight entirely and my granddaughter could not get to Colorado Springs. So I want United to give me a refund.”

When an airline cancels your flight, it is perfectly reasonable to expect a refund for that flight. But there were multiple complications with Sanborn’s ticket, which ultimately prevented her from receiving reimbursement for that return segment.

First, she purchased her granddaughter’s ticket through Travelocity. In doing so, she immediately added a layer of difficulty to any issues that were encountered with the reservation. Booking directly with the airlines will always make any problems you may encounter with your ticket easier to rectify.

Next, she purchased an itinerary that Travelocity created by combining two one-way tickets on two different airlines.

The way Travelocity confirmed Sanborn’s reservation could give an infrequent traveler the impression of having purchased a single, contiguous ticket — if one part were to be canceled by the airline, the entire ticket could be refunded.

However, at the bottom of the reservation, Travelocity spells out the terms of the ticket and clarifies: “We have combined two one-way tickets to get the best deal. If you need to make changes or cancel, you’ll need to do it twice — once for each one way ticket.”

What it doesn’t explicitly spell out is that this means that if the traveler needs to cancel this nonrefundable ticket, two cancellation fees will be accessed. And if the airline cancels one of the flights, there is no policy or protection by which the traveler can ask for a refund of the other unrelated flight.

If this ticket were purchased as a round-trip flight on the same airline, Sanborn would have qualified for a full refund of the cost of the ticket. Because she didn’t, she only received a refund of the canceled Delta ticket. She was then stuck with the nonrefundable return flight, which had a hefty cancellation fee.

The cancellation fee essentially made that one-way ticket worthless, and Sanborn lost several hundred dollars.

In the end, our advocates couldn’t help Sanborn recoup her losses because of the way she purchased this ticket through Travelocity.

There are savings that can be had by booking two one-way tickets, but before doing so, you should weigh the cost and benefits against the potential loss that could result. Because it is a gamble that you may not win.

The post Why you shouldn’t purchase two one-way tickets to save money appeared first on Elliott.

When George Cole books a trip to Hawaii and then cancels, he is offered a travel credit to be used within one year. Then he tries to book his new vacation. Why is Travelocity insisting that he must negotiate with a Japanese affiliate of Expedia?

Question: In March 2016, we made reservations to go to Hawaii. Soon after we made the reservation, we canceled because of illness. We were told we would have a credit minus “fees.” Travelocity stated that we had until March 2017 to use the credit.

I contacted them in January 2017 to book our new trip. They said they could not help me because I didn’t make the reservation on Travelocity USA. I used the regular Travelocity site, and I have no idea why they came up with this idea. I argued back to no avail and ended up, over time, frustrated.

After hours on the phone, a supervisor told my wife that we had the credit, and we could make reservations. But when we tried, we could not. While we tried to get this sorted out, the time ran out to use our credit. It is not our fault that they kept putting us off. Can you help us? George Cole, Burien, Wash.

Answer: Travelocity should have let you use the credits without delaying or hassling you.

Although your case was complicated, you had an abundance of proof that you had booked your vacation directly with Travelocity. There were zero references to any Japanese website on your confirmation, so it was a mystery why the company continued to refer you to an uninvolved entity.

I read through the many pages of back and forth communication that you had with Travelocity and I certainly understood your frustration. Each representative that you “spoke” to seemed to give you a different message.

The first representative that you reached explained, “You have reached Travelocity U.S. We only cater to reservations that are booked through travelocity.com. We are unable to assist you with your reservation.”

Despite the fact that the copy of your original itinerary clearly showed that you had used the Travelocity.com website, the myth that you had not persisted each time you tried to book your new vacation. And the company continued to deny your credit.

It seemed that the tide began to turn in your case when you reached out to Travelocity on Facebook in April. In that public forum you were told something completely different.

That representative wrote, “We are sorry to keep you waiting and thank you for standing by with us patiently. As checked, you have an airline credit with Alaska Airlines with a total amount of $1,805.01.”

Except that you didn’t.

When you tried to use this credit you were told that none existed because it expired one month prior — one year from the date that you had booked the original trip.

In exasperation, you contacted us and asked for help. I reached out to Travelocity on your behalf and after an initial investigation, our contact told me that you had booked your trip with a Japanese affiliate. I pointed out that your original itinerary showed that no other site but Travelocity had been used for your reservation.

Our contact at Travelocity then went back to his research team, and they finally discovered what had happened with your reservation.

“One of our agents inadvertently gave an incorrect “use by” date that was too far in the future,” he told us. “We felt that this could very well have exacerbated the already confusing situation.

He went on to explain that the reason that you had been repeatedly referred to the Japanese website, was the length of time since the original booking. Apparently, your itinerary number had been reassigned to a new reservation — in Japan.

Mystery solved.

And, ultimately, Travelocity made the decision that because of all the confusion related to this reservation, they would grant you a refund of the credit that you were seeking.

You let us know that you are pleased with this resolution, and you are finally heading to Hawaii. Happy travels!

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