[Ipg-smz] Travel booking sites

[Tom Henderson]

A true story to counter the sad one you cite:

May of 2014. Drove to Chicago to take advantage of a cheaper flight from 
ORD-CLN(Cologne) which was a code share United on Lufthansa. Got there 
early, knowing that flight is sometimes overbooked. It was. There were 
two of us.

Could you, um, go to DUS(seldorf)?

Mmmmaybe.....

The face brightens at the ticket counter. We'll upgrade you to business. 
You'll arrive in Cologne about the same time as there's a direct train 
between airports. You get $600 ea. Fine. Business class was fine.

On the way back, we get to Cologne early, same reason.

Umm, would you both take a bump (600 euros ea) and an upgrade for a 
flight that arrives a half hour later? The tickets only cost $700 to 
begin with.

And so, we did round trip business class to Germany essentially free, 
and no, this isn't the norm, but after a while, you can get the feel of 
opportunistic timing.

I have more aggregator/consolidator fare nightmare stories, and have 
been treated like carpet by almost every major airline. Ex: I will no 
longer travel, ever, on American, even if it's free or they pay me. 
United is now close behind.

The pain and suffering is still worse when you don't buy from the 
airlines. I have zero experience with JetBlue, after a colleague's 
horrific experience, and cannot speak to them by first-person experience.

I have had less pain with Delta and Allegiant. Spirit has never failed 
me, but never made me feel less than cattle.

The best flights I've had, without parallel, were on SIngapore Airlines.

Tom


On 7/1/19 1:41 PM, Gabe Goldberg wrote:
> Exchange with a friend, forwarded -- anonymized -- with permission.
>
> Interestingly, it started (at bottom) with my posting a link to an 
> airline compensation SUCCESS story from our own RobP. His Subject was 
> "A small consumer victory: exercising a Chase credit card’s trip-delay 
> coverage".
>
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject:     Re: Fwd: A small consumer victory: exercising a Chase 
> credit card’s trip-delay coverage
> Date:     Mon, 1 Jul 2019 10:32:31 -0700
> From:
> Reply-To:
> To:
>
> Correct, purchased direct from Jetblue, and not a cheap ticket (over 
> $1,000 r/t). I still have the paperwork for that fiasco.. You have 
> permission to forward.
>
> Gabe Goldberg gabe at gabegold.com wrote:
>
>     Long thread on tech journalists list about why buy tix direct from 
> airline ("they'll take care of you") vs. from 
> aggregator/consolidator/whatever who'll screw you. I assume daughter 
> bought from airline so may I forward this note, anonymized, to j-list?
>
> X X wrote:
> >
> >     That's a pretty rare story. Here's my daughter's from Christmas 
> 2016:
> >
> >     Booked Jetblue for 12/22/16 SAN-BUF via JFK. Flight out of SAN 
> delayed 2hrs for no reason given (incoming aircraft from Phoenix 
> arrived on time, there was no weather anywhere near her route). 
> Naturally missed flight at JFK, went to desk, they said "sorry, you 
> arrived at the airport late, can't book you until 12/25". WTF??? It 
> was airline's fault! After much go-around, they got her on a flight 
> 5hrs later than her originally scheduled flight. Doors closed, buckled 
> in her seat when attendant comes up to her says "sorry, you'll have to 
> get off plane, another passenger has this seat". WTF??? They throw her 
> off (in tears, by now). They offer to put her on flight next morning, 
> or on a different flight in an hour to Rochester (90min drive from 
> BUF), so she takes Rochester and we drive to pick her up there. 
> Checked bag arrives next day, since it was routed nobody-knows-where 
> and eventually delivered to Rochester, where they wanted her to come 
> get it. WTF??? She contacts her travel insurance company who tell her 
> "sorry, delay wasn't long enough, had to be 6 hrs - you get nothing". 
> They counted the flight that she got thrown off as the one that 
> determined eligibility, since "she was booked on that flight". WTF???
> >
> >     And airlines complain that passengers are getting more unruly 
> and rude..
> >
> >     Moral of story: try for whatever you can, but don't imagine that 
> you're going to get it without lawyering up (which she didn't want to 
> do). Unless you're traveling in/to/from Europe, in which case lots of 
> protection, fewer hassles.
> >
> Gabe Goldberg gabe at gabegold.com wrote:
>
> https://robpegoraro.com/2019/06/28/a-small-consumer-victory-exercising-a-chase-credit-cards-trip-delay-coverage/ 
>
>
>
-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc