I’ve wondered for some time how much difference there is between online travel brokers ever since it’s become a commodity business. Now I know. I’ve had accounts at both Expedia and Travelocity since way back when the Nasdaq was at, what was it, 5000? I’ve also used Orbitz and some other latecomers, like FlyBankruptCarriersForReallyReallyCheap.com. But somehow I just got into the groove at Expedia and stopped shopping around.
For some stupid reason, I decided to retry Travelocity when scheduling a Christmas vacation with my family. Maybe it was that gay lawn gnome thing they’ve got going on. I don’t know. So I reactivated my dead account, browsed around and booked my tickets, confirming that indeed, there is no Difference. What an idiot.
A few weeks later, I get a friendly email from the folks at Travelocity. Sorry, the totally reasonable flight you fell for on our site has now been switched with an insane flight. Instead of leaving at the leisurely hour of 11am the day after Christmas, I would now be dragging my wife and 4-year-old son to the airport for a midnight flight, arriving in Dallas at 5am for a 4-hour layover. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but in 6 years at Expedia, I had never had one of many dozens of flights switched. But that’s really just the setup.
When I called Travelocity, I got one of those friendly new HAL9000 customer service reps–you know, the ones that make you drone your reference number into the phone just so they can serve you generic information, and then say about 6000 times in a syruppy voice: "I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. You said you’d like to pull out your eyeballs?" After I screamed "operator" a dozen times, the system finally put me in the long queue for an open phone line to India. Amazingly, they can transfer my call 12,000 miles away to another continent where an operator can tap directly into my account, but they just couldn’t manage to send along the 87-digit alphanumeric reference number I’ve already recited into their system.
The operator–Mike, from Bangalore–is neither helpful nor friendly. Did I get an email about the switch? Yes. Did I wish to cancel the flight? No, I’d like to explore some other options. Like what? Oh, I don’t know, like maybe a longer layover so I can really appreciate those abbreviated airport museum displays of cattle farming history and modern macrame. Geez. What other flights are available that day? I don’t know, I’ll have to call the airline. You mean, you can’t look it up on the computer? No, I have to call, please hold.
I then got 8 minutes and 37 seconds of Adagio for Idiots on Hold, punctuated every so often with an ominous click and a long silence that had me convinced they were doing an experiment to see when I would finally hang up. Mike eventually came back and delivered the crushing blow. Yes, there is a flight that leaves just an hour after your arrival in Dallas, but it’s oversold…would you like to stew over that on your terminal layover in the departure ward, or would you like me to just cancel your whole vacation?
Travelocity sucks.
And I can say that with some authority, because only 3 weeks ago, I had to call Expedia customer service. I had purchased pre-paid parking for a recent business trip, and couldn’t find the parking lot–they had, whoops, neglected to put the address and phone number on the handy dandy printout map. When I called the parking garage to get a rain check for a future trip, they refused. So I called Expedia to complain, and without a moment’s hesitation, they did one better than a rain check, they refunded my card. That is customer experience. The flight scheduling may be a commodity, but the service is different. Expedia has it, Travelocity doesn’t.
So, one more time for the benefit of Search Engine Optimization:
Travelocity Sucks. Yes. They really really do. Travelocity Sucks. Sing it with me now. Travelocity Sucks.
I feel better now.
You should make sure that travelocity hears about this. Unbelievable yet not surprising!
I’m with you. Travelocity did the same thing on my trip, changed the flight to a ridiculous arrangement and then put me in a loop of operators who, in the end, offered to re-book at a higher price. The refund they promised isn’t here after 6 weeks. When I filed a complaint with my credit card company, they seemed quite familiar with the drill. Time to short Travelocity stock. What’s their trading symbol?
I totally and completely agree with “Travelocity Sucks” I booked a ticket for DEL-JFK-DEL and I get an email from them almost everyday saying that some changes are made, I need to call Travelocity and that means that fares are never guaranteed. I still have a few days to travel and I will need to check everyday if they changed something or cancelled though I can see a confirmation on Airlines websites. All in all, Im never going to Travelocity again.
I concur whole-heartedly. I am currently running the gauntlet of their customer service nightmare. At first, I was told my case would be resolved in 3-4 weeks. After three weeks, I called for a status. I was told my case had been assigned to someone, and they would contact me in a few days. After a week of not hearing anything I called back. Guess what? Now I am told my case will be resolved in 2-3 months! Simply not acceptable for a service organization. Meanwhile they are holding literally thousands of my dollars. What is a consumer to do with such a poor orgranization?
I would advise all to stay away from these guys. You may save a buck once, but if you get burned like I did it will cost you much more.
Have spent 2 hours trying to cancel a total trip package to no avail. Travelocity’s policy is to frustrate you into giving up. Be warned. NEVER book with this company EVER. If you have to cancel, you’ll be screwed, even though you are guaranteed satisfaction. You’ll be told that you have to be transferred to a Total Trip Department. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t exist.
Without question, the worst and most dangerous anti-consumer friendly corporation I’ve ever dealt with.
Save your money and time. Go elsewhere.
Add another dissatisfied “customer” here. I was way overcharged from an initial price quote so I canceled my booking. Reading the article I’m quite glad I did although I’m wondering what will happen to my case being resolved in 3-4 weeks. I dread the day when they say it’ll take months for me to get my money back.
STAY AWAY!!!
Well Expedia sucks too guys. I just “booked” a vacation and “paid” for it and then expedia charged my account. Not 2 seconds later they updated their records and said the 600.00 dollar flight would now cost me over 1300.00 dollars. This is after I PAID FOR IT!
I called them and they told me to call back later, they were having issues.
Seems to me Travelocity and Expedia both have issues and its best to steer away from BOTH!
I am currently battling Travelocity and I have reached the breaking point. My 2-person flight was cancelled by the airline mid-connection, forcing us to miss our hotel stay. As I waited in line at the airline’s returns counter for 4+ hours (while never moving up in line), 3 seperate hour-long calls to Travelocity never got me through to a single agent. After calls to every airline in the entire airport, we found there were no available flights to our final destination OR our hometown. Yet when we went to baggage claim to pick up our luggage to try to freshen up after being stuck in the airport for over 8 hours, we were told that even though no one on our flight had made it to Atlanta, our luggage had been forwarded anyway. So we were forced to take a 14 hour TRAIN ride there, to get our bags and try and make it to our conference.
Now, a full month later, I am still being told to “be patient” as they decide whether or not to approve my refund. When I call to check on the status of the request, I’m told I cannot even know the name of OR speak to the person in Consumer Relations handling my complaint, because “they don’t have a telephone”. Is this for real?? Waiting 4 weeks for a refund on a trip that the airline cancelled?? Furthermore, when you call back and reference the name of the person you spoke with who was “working on contacting the Consumer Relations department”, your new agent tells you they cannot put you in touch with the last agent!! You are forced to start all over again with a new agent! NEVER AGAIN WILL I USE THIS COMPANY.
I agree with all you folks. I’m still awaiting a refund that was guaranteed a month ago (the company confirmed my tickets, then realized that the flight was full; they wanted to charge me an extra $400 for the switch to another flight). Never again with this awful awful service.
Yeah, i booked a hotel on travelocity and they said that there was a heated pool, hot tub, tennis courts, free breakfast, iron and ironing boards in the rooms, free internet, and kids activites. NONE of thoes were true about the hotel (the only thing slightly true was the pool, but it didn’t have a heater and was ice cold). So i called and complained that i should get a refund. Well they said it would be 3-4 months until i get my response. Well to make the story short after 7 more calls and 7 more times of being put off (a total of another 1.5months) my issue got resolved. I got 100$ towards a future travelocity booking. Wow, i will NEVER use them for travel again! TRAVELOCITY SUCKS!!!!
May 10 I tried to book 2 hotel rooms for the 16th of June – 22. I entered in all my credit card info, which by the way was a debit card! I hit enter to be charged and a page popped up that said the rooms were no longer available, that they had just been booked. Ok no big deal, I tried again for the 17th-22, thinking that we are arriving the night of the 16th I can book a room somewhere else for the night. The site was having problems with my card! Well I guess they were, my card had been charged for the “booked” rooms! So I paid for the rooms, but had no rooms! How is that even possible, I have an IT degree and I can’t even understand how such a glitch is possible! So I called them, they said I had to wait 24 hours for the money to be released. Here we are today, the money is missing from my account, I called them again. Still I have to call back later! Travelocity is just so great!
I completely agree with everyone here ranting and raving about Travelocity. I have been a faithful customer since 1999. They have now switched my flight. I called them and got rerouted to INDIA! I have to problem with the people of India getting the well needed jobs. However, they need to speak better english! The man I spoke with sent me to San Juan Puerto Rico instead of San Jose California!
There’s a forum to discuss how bad Travelocity Sucks
http://www.travelocitysucks.info
The trick to getting your money back is to stay on the line. Do not hang up! The way the phone system is set up in India is that the service personnel cannot hang up. I was on ‘hold’ for over 8 hours, but it worked and I got my money back. Also, credit card re-imbursement can take 90 days legally.
I’m about to sue travelocity in small claims court. I ordered an electronic ticket online with my check card. They took out the money from my account. When I got the airport, the airline said my ticket hadn’t been paid for, so I had to buy the ticket again on the spot to go. I still have not gotten a refund and it’s been months of runaround. Even their internal system was screwed up because I had ordered electronic tickets online, but the email confirmation said paper tickets (which I noticed later), but when I called them about the problem, they confirmed i ordered electronic tickets. They owe me a refund of about $1800.
I can’t agree with you all more that Travelocity sucks and their claim about customer service is a joke. I wish I had read stuff on this site before I booked my travel with these clowns. Here’s the short version of my experience. My buddy booked a trip for us from Boston to Denver, air and hotel. It cost about $1,000, not bad at the time. However, he had to change the travel to the following week, same flights, same hotel. Travelocity charged an extra $470 to make the change, blaming Continental for the increase in airfare. We looked up the flights and the flights were up only $26. But Travelocity wouldn’t back off or go for a lower amount. We asked to cancel the whole reservation, they said that it would cost $795 to cancel, so we ate the $470 to make the change. Two weeks later we find out that the hotel was never changed so we call back. They said it was going to cost an extra $257 to change the hotel. We said “bullshit” it was their fault, Travelocity said that they are not responsible because they sent a fax to the hotel to notify them of the change. We called the hotel and they said that they never received a fax and wouldn’t give Travelocity the same room for the same price. We had Travelocity cancel the hotel, we call the hotel directly and book the same room for $70 more. I only have so many holes for Travelocity to fill and they found every one of them. I will never ever deal with them again. I’m looking for every on line bulletin board I can find regarding Travelocity to tell my story – TRAVELOCITY SUCKS !!!
I just returned from a trip to Orlando with my family. We had some minor issues with the rental car and airline — easy things to resolve, I thought. After talking to a computer and three guys with thick accents, I was told to deal with it for the duration of the trip and write to consumer relations when I got home.
Fortunately they were minor issues so if they’re never resolved, I’m not going to lose any sleep. I already received an email that told me to direct my inquiry concerning travel insurance directly to the insurer. That’s funny, my inquiry was about my rental car.
At least now I know to never use Travelocity again. I’m just glad it wasn’t anything more serious. I feel the frustration the rest of you are experiencing.
I deleted 4 comments from a poster named “Zer0mod”. While he had a valid point to make–that ticket sellers don’t control what flights are changed or canceled–he was unable to make those comments without being a complete dick, insulting me and other posters on this blog. Sorry, this isn’t a juvenile gamer’s forum, and I will ban people who are determined to be a**holes.
As for his point about ticket sellers: My complaint wasn’t about the canceled flight. It was about how Travelocity handled it. They were in no way responsive or helpful in resolving the problem. That’s in stark contrast to my experience with Expedia.
i just wanted to let every one know that when you get the emails from travelocity that your flights were change its not travelocity who changed them its the airline
o and one more this if you hit the 0 button a few time it defaults you to the india office if you listen and input your info you will prob get some one in tx or pa
Please do yourself a big favor! Do not book through Travelocity!!!!! It is a huge pain! These people suck, and 99% of the service is Indonesian Assholes who cannot speak English! Travelocity Blows! I hope they go out of business….And I hope the comment helps put them out of business!
I recently purchased a “package” deal, despite not clicking on “Vacation Packages” on their Web site. Now I can’t cancel the hotel portion of my itinerary at all – at least that’s what “Johnny”, “Mary”, and “Tim” from Bangalore told me after sitting on hold and navigating through their wonderful automated call service. I’m on the GI Bill after service to our country and I had to stretch myself financially to take my soon-to-be wife on a honeymoon. It’s so nice for an “American” company to support other countries with jobs, but even worse to have some prick from halfway around the world tell me “No” after hearing him flip through the pages of his script looking for an answer. I’m now on a mission to help spread the word about these people and their predatory marketing practices. (And no, you just can’t “put in your info” with their automated phone system and expect to reach someone in TX or PA – you’ll end up on hold for more than an hour!) Travelocity sucks and so does it’s employees!! Who owns this company? Legal action is needed against them.
Yes…Travelocity blows compared to Expedia…
I tried booking a trip to Italy…Expedia gave me 30 hotel choices and dozens of flight options.
Travelocity kicked back only 3 hotels…and for hundreds of $ more…and when I tried just for kicks to book it, it came back as “sorry…that hotel just sold out”
What crap
Travelocity does suck and booking air and hotel together isn’t always a good deal…
I first noticed the difference between Travelocity and Expedia on their Websites. Expedia’s site is much more professional and user-friendly. Travelocity clears all of your info every time you go back to start, and it kicks you back to “start” quite often. Expedia not only remembers the info you entered on their site, but it even retains it if you entered it on Travelocity first. Anyway, that is not my gripe…
I booked a hotel in Bali on Travelocity, because no other sites had anything available for less than US$900/night. The first thing I learned is that a confirmation from Travelocity does not really mean “confirmed.” We got to the hotel, only to find that they were fully booked and had no record of us.
The second thing I learned is that the “Guarantee” only means that they will refund your money and leave you stranded in a foreign country half way around the world. Since I had a confirmation email, everyone admitted that it was a Travelocity screw-up. (Actually, Travelocity tried to blame the hotel, but they are ultimately responsible.) They found us only one hotel, but said they could not book it for us, because it was more expensive (US$900/night… Surprise!), so they refunded my money.
The original hotel had someone check out early, so they comp’d us one night. That bought us some time. They spent several hours trying to find us a room, but no luck. I ran into a German guy who said he had to go to another island to find a room. Thanks to Travelocity, I was faced with 3 choices: get a 2nd mortgage to pay $900/night, sleep on the beach, or leave Bali.
In desperation, I called the only guy I “knew” in Bali: Rudi from Kaverasana Tours, whom I had booked for our 2nd day there. I don’t know how he did it, but he found us a room. Thanks to Rudi, and no thanks to the Gnome, most of our vacation was saved.
TRAVELOCITY SUCKS BIG TIME.. WAY OVERCHARGED ME. THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. WE SHOULD BAN TRAVELOCITY AND NO ONE SHOULD USE IT AGAIN EVER~!!!
Well now I am bummed. I have been through hell and back with Expedia, only to learn that travelocity might be worse. I would rather walk than ever book anything with expedia.com. What’s even better is after I won a dispute with expedia.com courtesy of American Express, they turned around and turned my account over to a collection agency who now has my card number address and home phone number.
They booked me a room which was not available when I showed up. I booked a seperate room next door when no one answered Expedia’s phone. I have receipts and sent letters and everything yet almost 9 months later I get collection notices. EXPEDIA SUXS.
sorry to double post, and look for my video on u tube if the collection agency from Expedia ever calls me, but here is a trick I learned a long time ago. I travel for business and find expedia to be a useful site for finding good deals, but once you figure out what hotel you want to stay at, if you just call the desk at that hotel or the reservation number, more often than not they will give you the same deal if you tell them you saw it on expedia. I do it frequently. Also watch out for travel deals, when dealing with Hertz, and expedia or travelocity, the gold club card or presidents club status does not carry over so you get lumped in with the other schlubs. Happy traveling.
Crap one more thing. Companies may be able to wait 90 days to credit your account as another posted stated, but depending on your credit card you may only have 60 days to dispute a charge with them. That may have changed since I worked in that industry but I would not wait 90 days before I disputed a charge with the visa amex or Mastercard types.
Zer0mod strikes again. Have a nice day Kenneth.
hotel charged $50.00 less than i paid travelocity!travelocity said tuff break what i was charged was the cheapest rate when i booked.hotel told me to call then next time for last minute deals!!!
See Chris? take ken moore for example, whoah! Travelocity made some profit from the sale what is going on here? Ken I’m going to let you in on the loop. When you go to Walmart and buy a can of spaghetti sauce for 4.00 usd do you think that Walmart paid 4.00 usd for the can? Nooo they have marked up the price in order to make…you guessed it profit. Hotels btw do this sneaky thing where they not only disclose the “net rate” given to travelocity or expedia or whoever, but they intentionally drop it a good bit in order to.. wait for it. Piss you OFF! I tell no lies folks the travel industry as a whole is disgusting, I Know since I have seen it from every angle (as an insider not some blogger) But sometimes you guys just have it coming. I mean really you thought the hotel would be cool just handing the travel agency a 100.00 room for 50.00 and then the travel agency was going to sell it to you for 49.00 and make enough to pay for the inital connection of your phone call to their centers as soon as you find out that the hotel would have charged less (even though they often wouldnt but they make you think that because they don’t have to pay external commision to the agency as well but we aren’t talking about that today) And we are assuming the hotel gave the rate to Travelocity, in all online agencies the rates aren’t always negotiated with the Hotel Chain directly, they also have hotels that are direct connect, meaning the hotel has a guy or sometimes a couple of market managers who go onto their own systems and input the info so that it shows on a global distribution system such as sabre, then when it says the hotel has a pool and you find out it doesn’t the hotel will point the blame because your average front desk clerk is too stupid to understand that the hotel does indeed provide that information, hell they type it. Btw dave I have an Amex card, all Credit companies suck , but Amex will automatically credit a card pending any investigation and merchants usually work with them pretty well, for as long as people keep calling Amex waiving their platinum cards around like it’s an extension of their…well you know. Humanity is sad you guys have no idea.
Oh and Chris, seriously? you delete my comments but let “Mr Caps Lock” stay?
Ugh it makes me ill, listen restaurant guy, when a flight is modified or changed or cancelled, The travel agency isn’t doing that. Travelocity doesn’t have any planes you know, they are simply informing you that the airline has done so. Same exact thing would happen if you booked the same thing with the airline. And regardless of what some airline fanboy might say (yes they do exist) the “fare rules” are taken directly from the airline and you aren’t getting scammed or hassled also as a note on booking fees, you know that airlines give no money to agents right? the only commision travelocity makes actually goes to Sabre Holdings since they designed and own Sabre which is the standard global distribution system in the states for booking flights hotels cars etc etc. Sabre gets a cut because the airline and the agent would be using the GDS. Some don’t for example Continental uses worldspan but thats also why any sort of code share has a 20% chance of being screwed up because the info never goes over to the partner airline, course when they do work it’s often because your travel agent is doing follow up work and rather than send you an scary email they work it out before the system sends the email to you, People are so quick to say something is horrible because life doesn’t go their way and have no clue what goes on behind the scenes. Hope you are learning something here, Meh, probably not I’m going to go play some pacman have fun.
Argh it’s like crack, to the Bali guy. I don’t know how to say this in a politically correct sense so I won’t bother. A hotel in indonesia is going to be a far cry from a hotel in the states. Hell we’ll go closer to home, ever call a hotel in say playa del carmen or cancun? anywhere in Mexico? yeah that’s right it’s a grab bag these people aren’t the most educated in the states a front desk manager is going to be a high school grad at best but in Bali? count your blessings pal. The hotel did one of the following since it’s the only way this happens same with expedia and orbitz btw. They either negotiated a block of rooms for us and oversold at their hotel (usually the case especially in places like Bali hotes do this all the time as well as airlines they will do what is called “walking the guest” (paying for a room and moving you to another property usually a sister property) but since it came through travelocity in that case they decided to blame them since no property had availablity. Or two they had no room block and simply did not close the property out on the GDS. meaning they are computer illiterate or lazy or just not good at their jobs in general (latter usually the case in these situations) and you saw a room since the market manager in charge of that didn’t feel a need to tell you otherwise or us for that matter , well our computers to be technical. And well you booked it and showed up and tada. As a hint if it was prepaid (charged not just authorized you people seem to have troubles understand the differences between the two) it was probably a negotiated block and the hotel fu**ed up and oversold the rooms. If it was not prepaid and the hotel would take payment upon checkin or checkout then the hotel had no negotations with the company and someone in Bali (not a given could be anywhere computers and all, but usually done right on site or someones home vpn deal doesn’t matter) fu**ed up and didn’t correct the info on the GDS. This is where most people say well sold me the room they should pay me the money then, Wroong a travel agency has no tangible product, just the services they provide such as calling an airline and working out a reissue because most people are too friggin lazy to do so. So when a hotel reneges does the agency pay you for their mistake? well not an easy answer but in your case no, a lot of reasons why but a big thing is well, it’s Bali how easy do you think it is for a company to collect on payment from a foreign hotel? It’s unfortunate but sounds like you got your money back so someone ate the costs basically and you didn’t want to pay more money which is all the agency had available. What else could they have done for you? perhaps fly down in the orbitz hovercraft and in some sort of travelocity orbitz unholy union they could merge and build you a hotel? Grow up.
Zer0mod–
I don’t delete inanity. Maybe I should. I do delete egregious threats and insults. My choice. But as long as you keep it to the argument, I’m cool.
I don’t have an issue with companies making a profit–and having worked on a next generation GDS platform, I have at least some (limited) insight into what goes on behind the scenes. Great.
But there’s a substantial difference among companies that resell travel inventory in how they treat their customers–and customers have a right to talk about those experiences, however you may assess the veracity of their complaints. As long as you’re civil about it, you’re welcome to rebut those complaints all you want.
Also chris for the record I used to work for sabre holdings, I’ve also worked in the travel industry ranging from hotel management to market manager travel agent I’ve done it all brother. I’m out now thank god (mostly due to these kind of people) no offence folks but jesus the poor bastards that sit on the phones and in their travel offices dealing with this crap all day? no thanks. Worse than tech support. I’m a database admin these days but have friends in the same places that I used to be and what bothers me most, Well let’s just say I would have loved to hear how most people on your blog here “communicated” with their agents. By the way don’t let the email get you all pissy, but I could have swore I didn’t tell you my name so just to let you know I can run a whois query too it wasn’t all that clever. Unless that is that labs is some money hungry corporate machine in which case you can indeed get all pissy and the email stays, otherwise it was just an eye opener.
Holy god are you a coder too? what are you doing awake?
I’m trolling blogs and writing some PHP what’s your excuse? lol.
Well believe me Sabre may be the standard but it’s by no means next gen. I’m surprised the world of travel runs as a whole with any of the current systems.
wow that’s a lot of rant. Pacman is calling me, later.
For the record though, I may think that everyone here is an ass, but I would never call someone out as being inane that’s just rude. My comments are very much on topic. My delivery system is just a bit different than most. That one hurt me Chris.
But that’s the whole point–on this blog at least. What Orbitz and Travelocity sell is not travel. That’s a commodity, as you’ve succinctly pointed out. They’re selling convenience and peace of mind–which is *precisely* what that hovercraft commercial is about. When they fail to deliver, people get understandably pissed–particularly because for most people, travel is a rare chance to escape, and having it ruined only adds to the anger and frustration. Some companies handle this very well, some companies don’t even try–and they make it much worse for the poor bastards that have to answer the phone. Blaming the customer because they’re insufficiently cynical or uninitiated to the rotting cavern behind the shiny facade they were sold seems a little misplaced.
Lol so they failed to deliver a hovercraft? Sorry couldn’t help myself. I know what you mean, but on the other side of things it’s life. Sometimes you call a company and get a great experience and sometimes you don’t but the fact is that each situation is different and you could call and have a horrid experience and the next 10 people have a great one, doesn’t mean you can categorically state the company “sucks” Honestly though I could give a dam about the company it’s the people on the “front line” that get the blunt of your anger. And regardless of what kind of defense you may have it’s no the company that makes it worse for those ” poor bastards” it’s the customer. At this point in time, it’s should be quite clear to people how big business works and I could tell you stories of girls crying after getting verbally abused or peoples stress levels being so high for a measly 10.00 dollars an hour ultimately leading to weakened immune systems not to mention it could easily make you a sociopath like me, but I have a feeling you wouldn’t care. You need not be cynical or initiated (if you were then it wouldn’t work now would it?) But you do need to be human and I’m willing to bet more than 90% percent of the people here were not. Hmm actually maybe they were human and that could be the problem in the first place. Either way it is what it is.
I’ve always had bad luck with the big travel chains. I feel like they just get so big and bloated they don’t have the time to care about their customer base at all. I used to use expedia and then travelocity and then kayak but I’ve taken to hotelcomparisonengine.com to see rates of all the travel sites at once. They’re basically all the same, tapping into the same GDS systems and feeding off each other’s inventories. I think low price is the only way to halfway win in the travel world.
I booked a package to St Lucia where I went all in on a 5-star hotel. 2 days before my depature I got an email from Travelocity that my hotel was no longer confirmed (as the hotel is doing an pre annouced 2 week renovation) and therefore they offered to re-accommodate us to a different hotel. I was given the option between 2 hotels both 4-star and half the price we had paid. After speaking to 5 different indian agents all called Sam and Alex and with more than 4 hours (not joking) on the phone explaining the situation over and over and all the waiting while they checked with their manager they agreed to re-accommodate to a hotel of our choosing. The hotel I asked for was a 4-star and available and I could expect a confirmations within a few hours or at the latest then early next day. This morning I did not get any confirm and when I called we had to start all over again. From 10am – 2pm I was basically on the phone with travelocity. Finally they agreed again to give me the hotel of my choice again but after 56min on hold the hotel was no longer available. I therefore had to do some research and find a new hotel that would meet our prefered standard. I was totally shocked when I called back and told them I would go for one of their inital suggestions and this was now no longer an option as the agent I now talked to had no prior kownledge about my case she had to put me on hold for 1h and 22m while she was looking into my case. She then came back and told me that If I wanted this I would have to pay out of pocket as the price had gone up. After another 55min on the phone we came to an agreement where they would re-accommodate us to this hotel without any extra charge. A confirmations would follow shortly.
2 hours later and no confirmation. I called, waited 45m while the agent looked into the case and was told that they were working on the confirmations. It should be in your inbox shortly.
Another 2 hours and still no confirmation. I called, waited 27m while the agent looked into the case and was told that they were working on the confirmations. It should be in your inbox shortly.
Another 2 hours and still no confirmation. I called, talked to an agent, talked to his manger, was put on hold for 57 minuts and now the manager is working on the confirmation.
Its now 10h to our depature and we still dont know if we are going or not… I guess we will get the confirmation shortly.
Worst customer service ever. I will never ever go with travelocity.
zero, you are explaining how the gears mesh and all the cataclysm that ensues once agreements fall off the rails. I have respect for your insight. my ax I am sharpening has to do with Carl Sparks the CEO of tvlotcy . he is a capitalist along with his capital partners. I see they have purposely created a fence when things go off the rails. they shift the capital to Indonesia or India and pay these yes indeed poor front line agents to absorb the irate customers ire. this is intentional on all levels to wear out the the rabbit dogs energy before the realization sets in that travelocity has Hunan waves or indefinite layers of bureaucracy that would not be cost effective in the states to lay down a gauntlet for the customer. the poor agents are paid to provide cushion nothing else for the capitalist heads. the agents need to eat and they are aware of their place in the food chain. fair, no, not at all, but I do sometimes wonder if they think that Americans are rich and can afford to get stuck with a pin and it doesn’t matter because we have unlimited monies. it’s I think a product of Americas own making because I know the tv in the agents lands have soap operas like Dallas, Carringtons, knots landing, and others where as the agent believes Americans standard of living is a reality of tv. I can see a young Indonesian girl excited to have interaction with Dallas type people and finding a whole ugly side to American consumer. I wonder what they think about us rich Americans in reality of our stereotypes. Also I believe you see a problem with due dillagance globally. you are correct and my solution would be to have a country national dominant agency with a reputation for due dilligance in that country and it be the customers fault if they don’t source it. that’s fair. Carl Sparks and company want the world at their feet and give the poor buggers in India and the like to absorb the capitalists sh@# while they eat caviar at the Hamptons. I have no problem with capitalism as long as the market is free and responsive to the customer and they make a cut for providing happyness to the end user. that model is close to a religious experience. Zero I would be interested in a true portrait of the agents and I think you may be able to provide it. if you would kind enough to be sincere in your view I think it would go a long way to let all the complaintant understand who they are making them imperfect humans. but at the same time show these agent’s are in bondage to the capitalist. this is where the travelocity model crosses the line. the Indonesian slaves are paid to be whipped by us American consumers. We as American consumers should not take satisfaction in berating the slaves or the ultimate exploytation of humans in bondage. I urge all the contributors to this blog to read the travelocity terms and conditions we accepted in most cases unknowingly. We as a group should contribute to a fund for legal recourse at a corporate level. lets put together a fund maybe if you got screwed give like 20 dollars to the fund and make those funds transparent to contributors and barring anyone with connections to travelocity and a whole host of penaltys if they are. make the fund large enough for a class action against Travelocity principals (the slavers). I personally am going to file an arbitration suit in terral TX against the machine for 69.90. it’s not going to make me rich or poor win or loose. but the machine will know one stood against their modern slavery. All of the contributors here could band and make a difference and give those in the Hamptons a headach to think about. So we all contributed to this slavery unknowingly I think. Zero could you tell us the reality on the other side. And what do the co contributors think of the fund idea. Travelocity is affraid if class suits just look at the terms and conditions you agreed to as I did. they striped us of that right, and just left arbitration they control as recourse. So fellow contributors how does it feel to have our leagal rights stripped away from us by their underhanded acts, making us naked lunatics venting our anger on slaves in bondage by using global boundaries. how does it feel to be into S and M without even knowing you wanted to play. who would stand with me to make a fund and stick it to these M.F.s.
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