Rant? Oh I think so!

Let this be a warning to you: NEVER BOOK A FLIGHT THROUGH TRAVELOCITY.COM!!! And here's why:

Last night I booked a trip to Boston and was quite happy with my reservation. I had great flight times, got to pick a window seat on every flight, and paid a pretty decent fare of $304. Today I got an email from them saying my flight couldn't be ticketed because they "needed extra information from me" (they didn't tell me why in the email) and they asked that I call their customer service department ASAP. So I immediately called to see what's up and waited on hold for about 40 minutes. Elevator music for long periods of time makes for some very unhappy people by the time they finally answer your call. I was a prime example, ready to put a hit out on every classical and jazz artist on the face of the earth by this point. I figured they had some trouble figuring out what to do since I used a check-card instead of a regular credit card this time, or some other mindless reason that would freak the call-center peons out.

Finally, a woman with a thick Spanish accent answers the phone and I could hardly make out what she was saying. I immediately remembered seeing a separate number to call if you spoke Spanish and wondered why she hadn't been assigned to that call center instead. But I cohersed her into speaking slowly for me, and proceeded to ask what the problem was. It turned out they didn't need any additional information from me, but rather they wanted to tell me that for some odd reason my ticket price had gone up to $440. I don't think so!!! I explained to her that they've already charged my account (yes, I checked this first thing in the morning to confirm that my reservation had gone through without a hitch) and that they can't go changing rates on people who've already paid. I also mentioned the term "false advertising" but I don't think the woman understood what I was saying. Completely irate and unwilling to deal with her any longer, I demanded to speak to a manager. She tells me that it was a very long wait to speak to a supervisor. Longer than I waited on hold to begin with? Shit - this was ridiculous! I mentioned that I'm guessing there was such a long wait for a supervisor because many individuals like myself have realized that their business practices are shit and didn't want to deal with the rude call center employees. Again, I don't think she understood a word I said.

While waiting on hold, I started checking other travel websites looking for other flights with a more reasonable price. Lo and behold I find one on the SAME EXACT FLIGHTS as my original reservation with travelocity.com and for a price of $308. Not bad... So I booked it and hung up after about 5 minutes of holding for a manager who probably would not have answered for another hour because I'm sure he was warned that he was going to get an earful when he took the call. Lucky for him I hung up.

I read the terms for this other online air ticketing company thoroughly to make sure they don't have any glitches like "We don't guarentee the rate we quote you until we actually ticket your trip, which we probably won't do because we want to raise the rates by $106 after you book" and luckily I didn't find one. They seem pretty straight forward, unlike this shady travelocity.com.

So chalk this up as another lesson learned in who NOT to do business with. Ever.

[/end rant]