Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying

Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying


My wife is a senior citizen. My wife's younger sister is dying. My
wife needs to get from New Jersey to Atlanta TODAY.

It's Sunday, so our travel agent is closed.

I tried Travelocity. Here is an account of what happened.


I use Firefox and Windows 2000 SP4. Javascript was enabled.

At 11:00 am 08/12/2007 (Sunday) I checked Travelocity for a direct
flight from Newark (EWR) to Atlanta. I found Continental flight 1155
at 5:45 pm available with four seats including an aisle seat (seniors
need to go to the bathroom frequently). I attempted to book the flight
at 11:10am. The booking proceeded all the way through to charging my
credit card and stopped at a screen that said: "Please Wait... Do not
press Back or Stop..."

At 11:25am (after 15 minutes of waiting) I called the customer service
number. "Paul" (with an Indian subcontinent accent) checked and
determined that the transaction did not go through. He said to start
over in Internet Explorer.

At 11:30am I re-entered the same information and found that there was
only one seat left (not an aisle seat), so I booked it. The price was
now $321, an increase of $24.

I am not a happy traveler. I really don't know whether:

( ) Travelocity charges more if it can't successfully book a seat the
first time.
( ) Travelocity charges more if it's the last seat on the airplane
( ) Travelocity has an incompetent Information Technology department
( ) Travelocity just screwed up
( ) Continental changed prices between 11:10am and 11:30am
( ) None of the above: there was some other cause.

I really don't care. I won't be using Travelocity again. Your mileage
may vary.

Jim Winer
firebird (dash) jmw (at-symbol) comcast (period) net
Please use this address. The return address is munged to avoid spam.

wrote:
My wife is a senior citizen. My wife's younger sister is dying.
My wife needs to get from New Jersey to Atlanta TODAY.
It's Sunday, so our travel agent is closed.
I tried Travelocity. Here is an account of what happened.
At 11:25am (after 15 minutes of waiting) I called...
an increase of $24. I am not a happy traveler.

Frankly, that's a pretty decent fare for day-of-travel, even
with the additional $24. I would not get my panties in a wad
over a day-of-travel computer issue. Travelocity's computers
may have been shut out of or stalled in Continental's reservation
system either by Continental or other high priority users. Thus,
it may have quoted a valid fare, but it could not get confirmation
from Continental.

On Aug 12, 6:00 pm, wrote:
Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying


( ) Continental changed prices between 11:10am and 11:30am

This is almost certainly what happened: the last seat usually costs
more. In any case, travelocity simply charges the airline's price,
plus a small service charge.

I really don't care. I won't be using Travelocity again. Your mileage
may vary.

Your privilege. Personally I find it a useful engine for comparing
air fares.

I am astounded that you got an affordable fare booking on the day of
travel; and astounded that you typed such a long post over 24 dollars.

Jim Winer
firebird (dash) jmw (at-symbol) comcast (period) net
Please use this address. The return address is munged to avoid spam.

How exactly does Travelocity know that someone is dying so they can
charge extra?

"stitcher" wrote:
How exactly does Travelocity know that someone
is dying so they can charge extra?

Either he ket it slip to the CSR he called in India, who then
notified headquarters to up the price; or they got their NSA
buddies to use their warrantless search powers to bug his
house.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:52:44 -0700, wrote:

On Aug 12, 6:00 pm, wrote:
Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying


( ) Continental changed prices between 11:10am and 11:30am

This is almost certainly what happened: the last seat usually costs
more. In any case, travelocity simply charges the airline's price,
plus a small service charge.

I really don't care. I won't be using Travelocity again. Your mileage
may vary.

Your privilege. Personally I find it a useful engine for comparing
air fares.

I am astounded that you got an affordable fare booking on the day of
travel; and astounded that you typed such a long post over 24 dollars.

He does say his name is Winer!


Jim Winer
firebird (dash) jmw (at-symbol) comcast (period) net
Please use this address. The return address is munged to avoid spam.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:52:44 -0700, wrote:

On Aug 12, 6:00 pm, wrote:
Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying


( ) Continental changed prices between 11:10am and 11:30am

This is almost certainly what happened: the last seat usually costs
more. In any case, travelocity simply charges the airline's price,
plus a small service charge.
snip
I am astounded that you got an affordable fare booking on the day of
travel; and astounded that you typed such a long post over 24 dollars.

If you noticed, I stated that I usually use a travel agent. I don't
mind paying for service. What I object to is the 20 minutes wasted
with Travelocity when I should have been comforting my wife.

Unfortunately, life doesn't come with a "redo" button. I consider the
Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Travelocity should spend less time on
modifying the site to discourage abandoned carts, and more time on not
abandoning customers. The CTO (or CIO) of most organizations the size
of Travelocity gets paid 7 figures plus bonuses. For that amount of
money, he is not doing his job if he allows a customer to be abandoned
for any reason.

There doesn't seem to be any way I can get the CTO to do his job
properly, but if I make enough noise, maybe the Board of Directors
will launch an investigation and suggest that he/she take a cut in
his/her obscene salary and bonuses.

Jim Winer
firebird (dash) jmw (at-symbol) comcast (period) net
Please use this address. The return address is munged to avoid spam.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:11:54 -0700, irwell wrote:

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:52:44 -0700, wrote:

On Aug 12, 6:00 pm, wrote:
Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying

He does say his name is Winer!

Hey, nice cheap shot. I bet you're one of those people who make
complaints anonymously.

Jim Winer
firebird (dash) jmw (at-symbol) comcast (period) net
Please use this address. The return address is munged to avoid spam.

wrote:
If you noticed, I stated that I usually use a travel agent. I don't
mind paying for service. What I object to is the 20 minutes
wasted with Travelocity when I should have been comforting
my wife.
Unfortunately, life doesn't come with a "redo" button. I consider
the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Travelocity should spend
less time on modifying the site to discourage abandoned carts,
and more time on not abandoning customers....
~~~~~~~~~~~
It sounds to me like they need is a time-out feature if the site gets
hung while it tries to confirm a reservation. BUT this issue is not
unique to Travelocity. I've purchased goods+services on the net
/a lot/ over the years, and once in a while, there is a glitch or a
mismatch between a quote and what's actually on the shelf.

In '91, I found a great fare to Italy thru an online TA, but they
failed to to issue the tickets. I had to rebook at a higher price.
I sent an e-mail complaint and they refunded the difference. One
time, I found some software which was listed 2x with different
prices. I could not get the site to confirm the lower price and so,
called CS. They said that they had input the wrong price and let
me have the lower "incorrect" price. Last week, I found a price
on Expedia that, after several minutes of churning, reurned a "not
available" message... I kind'a knew it was too good to be true.

I know that you're stressed for your wife right now, but these
thngs can happen anywhere. Its not worth having a tizzy over.

On Aug 13, 12:00 am, wrote:
Travelocity Charges More When People are Dying

My wife is a senior citizen. My wife's younger sister is dying. My
wife needs to get from New Jersey to Atlanta TODAY.

this is an example of a case where one should call the airline to ask
about bereved fares and seating. outfits like travelocity and expedia
are generally only good for searching flights.