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Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove
I've heard first hand accounts and read hundreds of others about Orbitz screwing people over pretty bad. I'd stay away from them, if possible.
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Half of the customers that Cheaptickets, Orbitz, Travelocity and others have had are pissed off about it and will "never deal with them again." I work for a company that owns two of the names I just mentioned. I've worked in Web Support, Customer Service, Reservations, and currently I'm the guy you call when you have a problem with your vacation package. I'm as first-hand as you will get. Listen up people, what I'm telling you will not be told elsewhere.
The reason half of these customers are pissed off is because they did not read the rules. I deal with so many people a day that put hundreds if not THOUSANDS of dollars into travel arrangements - they only care to get the lowest price possible and don't worry about what happens later. Most of them take for granted that they can change their dates or schedules for free, or even cancel their reservations completely and get a full refund. If they only read the rules, they would have known better before they screwed THEMSELVES over.
The airline industry is a vindictive one, just like most other industries these days. In order to get a fare at a low price (we'll say anything less than $1000 domestically), you have to know that your ticket is
non-refundable and most likely changeable for a fee ($50-100 domestically, $150-300 internationally) plus any applicable fare difference.
If you've come this far, then I'll give you the technical description and expand upon the last paragraph. Every airline ticket you buy is priced using "Fare Basis Codes." These serve two purposes: First, they assign whatever price is on the ticket for that routing, on that schedule, out of that city, etc... Second, they assign that ticket a set of rules dictated by the airline. Each fare basis code is a variable, and you'll probably never see the same one twice. They have blackout dates, active periods, inactive periods, exceptions, travel on Tuesday but not Wednesday, valid only from the US to the Virgin Islands but not back to the US, etc. etc. etc. The point to make here is that given the fare basis code, we are given the rule set, and the rule set says whether or not you can change and how much it costs. How do you keep yourself safe here? Read the rules. There are three kinds of airline tickets you will buy nowadays:
"Fully Refundable" or "Full Coach" Fares - Price $1000 and upwards. These tickets are the holy grail of the "savvy" business traveler. These tickets are fully refundable and fully changeable for no fees. You gain these priviledges because you are laying down a thousand if not thousand
s of dollars to pay for them. They are outside the reach of the common traveler for a reason, the airline has to make money. These tickets do not necessarily put you in the first or business class cabins, but if the seat is open you might get it. Otherwise, your butt is in coach.
"Coach," "Tourist" or "Published" Fares - Price between $100 and $1000, roughly. These are the most common fares in the market because they are actually within reach of the common traveler, they carry some limited flexibility on the back end, and they save the customer money up front. These fares are NON-REFUNDABLE, and are largely changeable for an airline-imposed fee ($50-100 per person domestically, $150-300 per person internationally) plus add collect (or "Fare Difference"). Add collect refers to the difference in price between the original ticket purchased and the new ticket to which it is being changed. For example, if we have a $320 airline ticket that we want to change, and the new ticket is $560, we have $240 in add collect or fare difference.
"Private" or "Non-Published" Fares - Price between $50 and $500, roughly. These fares are negotiated between the airline and the travel agency that makes them available to its customers. The agency is agreeing to sell these tickets at a lower price than the competition, bringing business to the agency, and therefore more business to the airline. Since these fares are discounted, that means the airline is loosing money (but filling seats). In order to compensate, these fares are no doubt non-refundable and largely non-changeable. These are the most restrictive fares in the market. The customer is happy on the front end because they have gotten a ticket cheaper than their friends did, but pissed off at us on the back end because they want to change it and the airline won't allow it.
Do anything you can to read the fare rules or have them made available to you. Problem there is that some big agency websites don't make it so easy to do this. At that point, you should be more concerned with what that agency website's fees and abilities after purchase are. On one website, changing your ticket or requesting a ticket void will cost you $50 per person per request IN ADDITION to those fees imposed by the airline.
Knowing these fees first will ultimately guarantee no surprises in the long run. The agency website does suck for doing this, but they are wholly within their right to do so. If they issued the ticket, the airline doesn't have to touch it at all, in fact they don't want to. The agency website is a middleman and is providing a service to you.
Any travel agency or airline that participates with ARC (which is all of them except a very few) have the ability to
void an airline ticket within 24 hours of its purchase or issuance. This is a service that is of no fee to the agency or airline. I void around 20-30 tickets a day for no fees - completely free to the customer - just because Jimbob's name was spelled wrong by mistake or Reki's name is really Remiliki on her passport and she wanted the morning flight that day. Stupid shit, that's why it's there. When customers get their confirmation email and don't read it until a few days later and catch their own mistakes, they've put themselves outside of the void period. Fees come into play, and changing a name on a ticket is largely illegal after 9/11.
On that subject - name changes or "Ticket Transferrance" is largely not possible and illegal nowadays. You can thank our terrorist friends and the uppity nature of the Federal Aviation Adminitration (FAA) for that one. The mandate went into place about the same time as the Patriot Act. I get calls from customers all the time saying that Jimbob can't afford to go so they want to take Imogene instead. It's just not possible people. This is all I can do for a name change: If someone's name is mispelled by one letter, a call to the airline can be made, and an agent can tell you it should not be a problem. Ultimately, the decision is made by TSA (airport security) as to whether or not you board in that situation. If the name is mispelled to the point where it's just WRONG (i. e. more than two-three letters gone/out of place), a new ticket may have to be purchased, but we can try to play on the airline's sympathies. Fees come back into play there.
Let's say the airline changes your schedule. Simply put, this is called a "schedule change." Airlines will do these millions of times a year for any number of a million reasons. Usually, the reasoning shapes up to be logistics and cost of operation. For example, if a flight is not selling very well, they may change it's schedule to fly only on Monday, Wednesday of Friday instead of seven days a week. All it takes it for your flight to be on Thursday and you're being inconvenienced. The only reason I'm not saying you're screwed there is because you are protected by something called "Rule 240." I'm not going to get much further into Rule 240 than this: It says that the airline must reaccomodate you, or refund you. This circumvents the non-refundable bullshit that the airline rules on your ticket. Rule 240 generally applies only to delays that are absolutely the airline's fault, such as mechanical delays. They do not apply to what the airlines call "force majeure" events: weather, strikes, "acts of God," or other occurrences that the airlines say they cannot control.
Read
Rule 240: Don't Leave Home Without It!
What happens if the airline goes on strike? What happens if the hurricane causes my flight to be cancelled and my vacation ruined? What if I'm stuck at the airport? What if I missed my flight? The short answer: The airline will have a contingency plan in place. Calm down, call them, and your options will be made available to you. The long answer: You can panic and scream and rant and rave, but the airline will only be able to do so much for you. You are their customer and they want to retain you as a customer. If you can approach any situation with that demeanor but keep it calm, cool and collected, you will be reaccommodated with little to no effort. If you go up to the ticket counter cussing and swearing, your ass will be thrown out of the terminal (possibly even airport jail) and you will be blacklisted. You will never fly in United States airspace again, and the FBI will open a file on you. All it takes is an airline employee to nod at an airport security guard.
TO SUMMARIZE:
1) Read the rules. Read the rules. Read the rules. Read the rules. Read the rules.
2) Talk to the big-ass website before you book, ask them what their fees for changes or voids are.
3) Don't expect to be able to change your flight for free. Firm up your plans BEFOREHAND, that way you won't have to change.
4) Call the airline 24 hours before your flight and make sure the flight times and flight numbers that you have are correct. This will make you aware of any last-minute schedule changes, if any.
5) The airline will help you as long as you don't make an ass of yourself. Be firm but keep the hostility canned.
Buying an airline ticket and flying on it is not a hard thing to do. As long as you're organized in your research and purchase, you'll save yourself problems.
I've tried to leave some of my personal opinions and grievances out of this essay - if I failed to do so in any way, I apologize. The monetary figures used are based primarily on tickets of a domestic nature rather than international, unless noted. What you read above is what I've learned in my experience and is as close to accurate as I am aware.