Elliott spoke with an Expedia spokesman to find out why the company dropped the fee so soon, and whether this hints at a brewing price war among Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

This is not a competitive response to Travelocity's recent announcement. It's a move to strengthen our leadership in the entire industry. We don't feel that we are engaged in a continuing fee battle with other OTAs. On the contrary, we feel like we are setting the market rates – or lack thereof – and it's up to our competitors to react.

[...]

we'd like to point out that Expedia was already charging a smaller fee than our competitors, so the impact to us isn't nearly as significant as it would be to other OTAs. We believe that if we remove this fee, travelers will reward us with their loyalty.

Will Travelocity and Orbitz respond in kind? There's no word yet, maybe because only last week they were busy out-doing each other on sunny sounding "price guarantees" that seem designed more to generate good PR than to protect customers.

"Fee Wars II? Expedia plans to remove book-by-phone charges" [Elliott.org]

The Wall Street Journal notes that eliminating fees is a ploy to change the way that many peoplr use travel sites:

Right now, about 31% of people who spend time shopping with an online travel agency go to the airline's own site to book, according to PhoCusWright, a travel research company. There is some evidence that the online agencies are retaining more of these customers since they began their no-booking-fee promotions, says Jake Fuller, an analyst at Travel Wise Research LLC. He noted that both Expedia and Orbitz said in recent conference calls to discuss earnings that airline booking volume had increased since the promotions started.

I generally use the big travel sites to see which airlines have flights going where I need them to at my desired time, and then I go to the airline's Web site in order to eliminate a layer of customer service reps and often save some money.

Book Any Flight Without Booking Fees [Expedia]
Expedia Eliminates Fees for Booking Flights Online [WSJ]

Lower Prices: Most hotels have a lowest price guarantee and are willing to match third-party sites, even it means undercutting their best published rates. They'd rather get the money from you than pay out a commission.

Better Compensation: If you pay a third-party site, they're the ones you need to ask for a refund. If you pay the hotel directly, they're able to offer a refund by way of apology. "Higher-end hotels will often do whatever it takes to make a guest happy before they check out, including comping nights or the entire stay, if the complaint is egregious enough. You don't want to prevent them from being able to do that for you."

More Flexibility: Booking through a third-party means sacrificing your ability to easily change plans. Your dates are set by contract and that's that. If you book directly with a hotel, they'll usually let you cancel up to 24 hours in advance. They may even let you rejigger your travel plans during your stay without charging a penalty.

Better Rooms: Booking through third-party sites can land you in the rooms that regular patrons don't want. That means the smoking room at the far end of the hall away from the elevator. "My hotel doesn't maliciously put third-party internet guests into our smallest rooms, but when occupancy climbs, we're forced into it. Perhaps you won't receive the best rooms if you book directly, but at least you won't be earmarked during the arrivals process for the less desirable rooms."

Why Third Party Reservation Websites Are For Chumps [The Night Auditor]
(Photo: claytron)

• Kohl's: 80-90% Clearance Sale
• Disney Outlet: Kid's costumes up to 80% off, plus extra 20% off code
• Amazon: Dr. Martens Men's 1914 Cherry Red Size 14 Boots $38

• Tiger Direct: UTStarcom GSM708 Unlocked GSM Phone $20
• Butterfly Photo: Canon Rebel XSi 12MP DSLR & Lens $790 Shipped
• Expedia: Save 30% off Hotels, Cars, Cruises & Other Travel

Elliott says the act of charity "may have lost a little revenue in the short term, but I think it’s earned a customer for life." A LITTLE revenue? What about all the additional revenue they've just lost in checked baggage fees, drink and snack purchases, self-service seatbelt fastening surcharges, pressurized cabin fees, and that collection plate that's passed around after the flight attendant demonstrates how to put on the oxygen mask?

"Troubled airline refunds nonrefundable ticket to unemployed passenger" [Elliott.org]
(Photo: zonaphoto)

Amy points out that "the next cheapest 'New York City' hotels Expedia offers" are all in New Jersey, and all above $58/night.

Check out the full article for more reviews on the cheapest places you can stay in NYC.

"A few details about Expedia's '$58/night in NYC' ad" [NewYorkology]

Expedia thinks it's okay to place a total of $964 on hold on Nicholas' and his girlfriend's credit cards, even though they've already paid for their $3,000 trip in full. When he contacted Expedia to ask them what gives, they told him it would be released within 72 hours. Maybe this is Expedia's way of combatting travel inflation by creating a make-believe rebate-y feeling when you buy an expensive vacation package.

My name is Nicholas. Two days ago my girlfriend and I tried booking a vacation package to Paris through expedia.com.
 
The total cost of the package was approximately $3,000.
 
Expedia gives you the option to split the payment between two cards, so we decided to do that. I entered the card information for my Debit card, she entered the information for her credit card. Both Visa.
 
I wanted to put 80% of the cost on my debit card, the remaining 20% was to be charged to my girlfriends credit card.
 
After we entered all of our payment information, we clicked on the checkout/payment button. The website loaded for a little bit and threw us an error.
 
The error indicated that the payment could not be processed at this time and that we should try again later. 
 
We tried entering our information again, we got the same error.
 
(The error most likely occurred because since I was charging over $2,000 on my debit card, my bank declined the payment since the limit for an online purchase is usually $1,500. You need to call the bank prior to the purchase in order to buy something over $1,500.)
 
Anyways, the next day I check my bank statement online and see that Expedia.com put $464 of my money on hold. My Girlfriend checks her online credit car statement and $500 of her money was put on hold as well.
 
I thought this to be absolutely ridiculous.
 
1. Expedia.com told us that the payment was not processed and to try again later.
2. Neither my girlfriend nor I received emails informing us of these transactions or any other sort of confirmation.
3. When we checked our itinerary on expedia.com, no where did it say that our money was being put on hold.
 
I called expedia costumer service to see what the hell was going on.
 
I was told by a customer service representative that the money was being put on hold and would return to our accounts within 72 hours.
 
I have absolutely no idea what the point of holding about $1000 of our money is since the package itself cost almost $3000.
 
The customer service rep didn't really have a clear explanation as to why our money was on hold, but she did assure us that within 72 hours the money would be back in our accounts.
 
We really wanted to book the trip so we decided to simply charge the entire thing on her credit card.
 
Our trip is now booked, but the $1000 is still on hold.
 
Anyone else have a similar experience?

(Photo: Getty Images)

Expedia flatly refused to post my review. I have followed their rules, but they have repeatedly told me they won't post it because I'm not following the rules. They will not tell me which rule I didn't follow.

I firmly believe Expedia has a policy to not post unflattering reviews of properties they represent.

Due to the nature of the information he provided regarding inaccuracy on the hotel infosite (the information pages with detailed information about each ESR hotel we offer), his review was temporarily declined so that we could verify the information he provided and make necessary changes to infosite. His review was in queue for approval but has been expedited and should be up on the site.

Has anyone else run into trouble getting their negative reviews posted?

Is Expedia censoring negative comments about its resorts? [Elliott]

"August 21, 2007

Last month I booked tickets for me and my wife on Expedia for air travel later this week as follows: Continental First Class (refundable) EWR-DEN/ Frontier Coach (non-refundable) DEN-LAS / Continental First Class (refundable) LAS-EWR for later this week. My wife injured her back so I called your toll-free number to cancel the reservation. The representative with whom I spoke told me that I would have a credit of $3,063.78 on Frontier Airlines, since they were the "validating carrier" (carrier who issued the tickets) and that my refundable first class tickets had become non-refundable...."

I would have assumed that Continental would have issued my tickets since they were the originating carrier and made up the majority of the cost and the travel - and since I live on the East Coast, a Frontier credit doesn't really do me any good. Whenever I have booked travel in the past, the carrier on the first leg has been the carrier who issues the tickets. Furthermore, I was shocked to learn that the refundable portion of my trip had become non-refundable.

I then asked to speak with a supervisor who told me that the determination of which carrier will serve as the validating carrier is "up to the airlines" and that Expedia has nothing to do with it and does not know before the ticket is issued who that carrier will be. She added that in Expedia's rules and regulations it states that when you book through Expedia, the entire itinerary is subject to the most restrictive ticket's restrictions, so since my coach Frontier tickets were non-refundable, so was the whole itinerary - including the expensive first class normally refundable tickets. I have never heard of this policy before from any travel booking service.

When I asked to speak to that supervisor's supervisor, I was hung up on.

I then called your Corporate Headquarters and the receptionist gave me the number of your Corporate Customer Service Department. The first woman I spoke with was defensive and repeatedly said that there was language in the fine print on the web site entitling Expedia to do what it's doing. I asked to speak with her supervisor and was transferred to Martin, who was very friendly and sympathetic. He explained that Expedia chooses the validating carrier based on the carrier's commission structure and that Frontier's commissions to travel agents are higher than Continental's, so that's why Frontier issued the tickets.

So, contrary to what I had been told by three other representatives of your company, not only does your company know who the validating carrier will be but chooses the validating carrier based on its commission structure.

I have the following problems with your policies and actions:

1. It is not clearly stated that the carrier who issues the tickets is up to Expedia and may not be the originating carrier. And that this is entirely in your interest and not the consumer's. And this goes against what most consumers would reasonably expect when booking their tickets.

2. That you turn refundable tickets into non-refundable tickets if those refundable tickets are part of an itinerary with non-refundable tickets. You don't make this policy clear to consumers and it makes no sense. I can only assume it is because you can make more money with this arrangement.

3. That your customer service agents were defensive, unhelpful and repeatedly misinformed me by stating that Expedia has no control over which airline issues the tickets booked through the site.

I would like you to do the following:

1. Either refund my money or give me a credit for the full amount that I can use on Continental Airlines.

2. Make your policies clearer so that other consumers don't go through what I went through. If I knew then what I know now (and still wanted to use your service) I would have booked the Frontier segment separately.

I am very disappointed with the way you treated me and these customer-unfriendly practices. I hope that you will rectify this immediately.

Regards,

Jonathan R. Teller

cc: Ben Popken, Editor - Consumerist.com

From Fortune:

The phenomenon has a name: "insourcing," the term experts are starting to use when foreign multinationals open offices on U.S. soil and hire Americans, at a higher price, to do the very jobs they once lured overseas. In this case the center in Reno is targeted toward companies willing to pay a premium - its workers there cost up to 40 percent more than their counterparts in India - to give their U.S. customers a more culturally fluent, less frustrating 1-800 experience. (No more hearing someone read from a script ten time zones away.)

Tata, which is based in Mumbai, established its Reno roots last year when its business services unit, SerWizSol, bought the call-center business of travel-processing firm TRX; the deal also gave it a call center in Milton, Fla. "We want to be able to say to a client, If there's a piece [of call-center operations] you want to keep in America, we can do that for you," says Ricardo Layun, head of U.S. operations for SerWizSol.

Indian call center lands in Ohio [Fortune] (Thanks, Krystle!)

I arrived in Chicago, rented my car, and drove to the hotel, arriving about 1am. The clerk at the front desk informed me that the machine to make keys for the rooms was broken, but that he could let me into the room and I could get a key in the morning. This raised some suspicions, but it was 1am, I was tired, and had to work the next day, so I said fine..."

The next morning, the day clerk - who I later learned was the manager - said that the machine was still broken, and that I would be able to get a key that night.

As it happened, some family members happened to be visiting Chicago at the same time, so after work I went into town and hung out with them. Because of this, it was pretty late that night before I returned to my hotel. The clerk (the same one from the night before) said that now, not only could I not get a key, but in fact the entire floor on which I was staying was now locked, and he had no way to give me access to my room. He offered instead to let me sleep in a different room, which would of course give me a bed, but not access to my pajamas or toothbrush or anything of the kind.

Initially, because I was tired and because I was really just shocked that this could happen, I agreed. However, after getting to the second room, I started to think about it and got angry. Not knowing what exactly I could do, I contacted the local police. Fairly quickly, an officer arrived. He said that there was nothing criminal, so there wasn't really anything he could do, but he did leave a stern message for the manager, hoping that a call from the police might convince him to come down to the hotel and let me in. That was to no avail, but the officer did tell me that they respond to 2-3 complaints about this hotel every week, and that it's always folks like me who booked the hotel through Expedia, Hotwire, or a similar service. Honestly, he said, he couldn't understand how those services could list hotels of this quality.

I then called Expedia, figuring that since I was technically their customer, not the hotel's, that they might be willing to help. After playing the "let me speak to your supervisor" game, I was put on with a gentleman who initially said that he could only refund the cost of the last night (I was supposed to stay three nights, and this was 5am on the second night, but it was obvious that I would not be staying the third.) After some more arguing, he agreed to refund the entire cost of the hotel.

The third night went well, as I transferred to the Hyatt by the airport.

Fast forward a week and half. I checked my back account, and discovered that Expedia had not refunded anything, so I called them back. It was, believe it or not, like starting over. The woman I spoke with could clearly see the record of my calls from the week before (she quoted from it a few times), but continued to act as though this was all new to Expedia, and insisted that the best they could do would be to refund me the cost of the one night I did not stay in the hotel, and that they could only do that if the hotel confirmed that I did, in fact, check out early. They called the hotel, who said that I did not check out early. However, the hotel apparently said that they would actually have to confirm with the manager, who of course was not there. I then insisted on talking to a supervisor at Expedia, but was informed that it would be at least an hour and that they would call me back.

The one and only point in this entire experience where Expedia has done what they said they would is when they did, in fact, call back, a little over an hour later. At first, I was talking to the same woman, but fairly quickly insisted on actually talking to the supervisor. After a lot of calm talking and a lot of yelling and a whole lot of being put on hold, I was told that the only thing that Expedia was willing to offer me was a $100 refund and a $100 credit for future travel on their site. Now, I need to point out here that what I was asking for - a complete refund of the cost of the hotel - was only $166, and that Expedia has previously agreed to give me the refund in that amount. So after more yelling and more being on hold, I was told that Expedia was going to stick to that offer.

It's also worth pointing out that since I changed jobs over a year ago, I have been traveling once or twice a month, and always booked through Expedia. I have already done 8 trips through them this year, and have never once called to complain about anything. When I tried to point out that not only was I up until now a loyal customer, but that I was also a frequent customer, the response I got - and I only wish I was kidding - was that my complaint was not very important to them. I made one final appeal, telling them that if I accepted this offer, then I would book one final trip on Expedia to use the $100 voucher, and I would make sure that the total cost of the trip was as close to $100 as possible, and that Expedia would forever loose me as a customer. It would essentially cost them $66 to keep me around. They repeated that they were unwilling to do this.

So that's what customers are worth to Expedia. If you have a legitimate complaint about the quality of a hotel that they list - and a complaint backed up by the local police, no less - you will be told that your complaint just isn't important to them. They will throw you a bone to shut you up, but nothing more. By the way, I have attempted to post a review of this hotel on their site three times over the last week, explaining the exact quality of this place, and they have three times refused to post the review, so if you go to the site and search for the Mt. Prospect Hotel in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, you will see that Expedia gives it two stars, but that there are no customer reviews. Given what the police said, I suspect that there have in fact been many customer reviews of this place, but there are none that Expedia is willing to post.

My opinion about customer service is this. Companies are run by human beings, and thus will make mistakes. That's not really a problem. But good companies, companies that are worth spending our money with, are those that when customers come to them with problems, they are willing to make it right. Expedia believes that customer complaints are unimportant.

Rob

What can we say, Expedia?

• Recognize that being expect to pay for a room you're locked out of with all your stuff inside is pretty bad.
• Don't do business with a hotel that police say gets complaints 2-3 times a week from your customers.
• You can't promise a customer something, and then take it away, if you expect him to stick around.

(Photo: Maulleigh)

Brenda from corporate customer care contacted me by phone yesterday. She apologized very genuinely and even engaged in a lengthy conversation about how things might be improved. She offered me a $200 travel credit towards future travel, which I politely declined. She then proceeded to refund $200 off my OTHER existing itinerary (not even the trip that caused all this trouble!).

I was also given a direct phone number to her office, staffed 24/7 in San Francisco, and told to call immediately if everything with my upcoming trip is not 100% perfect. Thanks for your help!

Best Price Guarantees Can Be Tricky
PREVIOUSLY: Expedia Threatens to Discontinue Account For Redeeming Voucher
(Photo: vlauria)

The CSR informed me about the "Best Price Guarantee" where if after booking with Expedia I found a lower price on the exact same itinerary within 24 hours they would refund the difference and give me a $50 travel voucher for future travel. I asked if this could be done at that time with her and she said that I first had to book my Expedia package online and call back to complete the "simple refund process."

Since when is Denver the "Wild West?"

We hate on Travelocity's gnome as Ryan learns that in the Wild West, "simple refund" is just another one of 'em darn oxymorons, after the jump...

Keeping Ryan on hold for almost an hour was likely intentional. Expedia, those clever gnome-hating foxes, probably just waited until Travelocity's fluctuating offers fluctuated Ryan out of his flight. Ryan, also clever as a gnome-hating fox, had taken screenshots of Travelocity's deal. He asked to speak with a supervisor. His insolence earned him another 32 minutes on hold.

When the supervisor arrived, she only offered vouchers worth less than the price guarantee. Ryan protested and was again put on hold. "When she returned my voucher was now $100 and she informed me that my "account with Expedia will be discontinued upon redemption!"

Ryan told them where to stick the offer. He threatened never to do business with them again. Much to our surprise, after keeping him on hold for over two hours and screwing him every which way, that was the threat that got Expedia to back down. They cancelled his itinerary and refunded his money. Two hours later, he found and booked the original deal on Travelocity.

We are not surprised this happened. The terms and conditions render Expedia's "guarantee" worthless.

• Expedia will not accept screenshots or other purported evidence of a lower price.
  
• Expedia reserves the right in its sole discretion to modify or discontinue the Best Price Guarantee or to restrict its availability to any person, at any time, for any or no reason, and without prior notice or liability to you.

We don't need any more 'purported evidence.' We did not think it was possible, but we hate shenanigans like this more than we hate Travelocity's gnome.

Ryan's full email, below.

Hi Consumerist,

I usually just enjoy reading, but after my experience with scamming CSRs at Expedia yesterday I thought I would pass my story along so others can choose their travel sites with caution.

I was planning a weekend trip to Fort Collins Colorado and needed to fly in to Denver and stay in Fort Collins. I found identical packages on both Expedia.com and Travelocity.com (exact same flights and same room). Expedia's price was $580.60 while Travelocity came in at $458.60. I already had an account with Expedia so I called to inquire if they matched prices. The CSR informed me about the "Best Price Guarantee" where if after booking with Expedia I found a lower price on the exact same itinerary within 24 hours they would refund the difference and give me a $50 travel voucher for future travel. I asked if this could be done at that time with her and she said that I first had to book my Expedia package online and call back to complete the "simple refund process." I booked my package, called back and was connected with CSR "Lenny" who told me that he would help me "invoke" the Best Price Guarantee. I was put on hold for about 5 minutes while he "prepared for the transaction." He returned, told me that he was now on the Travelocity website and would now find my exact itinerary and be back to conclude the transaction. This time I was placed on hold for 22 minutes, during which I was able to pull up my exact itinerary on Travelocity, at the lower price, two separate times. Lenny comes back to tell me that unfortunately he would not be able to offer the Best Price Guarantee because he could not find the same hotel I booked with Expedia on Travelocity, he could only locate the exact flights. I explained that the hotel was in a different city and he would have to do and advanced search. The search must have been pretty damn advanced as I was on hold for another 26 minutes. The first words out of his mouth were "I am sorry I am not familiar with your Wild Wild West and cannot locate this hotel."! I was pretty upset at this point but needing to get my money back prevailed. I explained how to book the package step by step with him and again found all the proper flights and room on my end. Lenny claimed that the Travelocity site had an error and put me on hold again, another 21 minutes! He returned and said that he was now able to find everything except the same outbound flight, which meant he could not offer me the Best Price Guarantee. I went through the same steps on Travelocity, now for the fifth time, and found out that indeed the flight I had booked with Expedia was not longer available.

I asked to talk to a supervisor, which led to a hold time of 32 minutes. After the first hint of scam from Lenny, I printed the lower priced identical itinerary and captured screen shots from Travelocity. When the supervisor Joanna finally came on the line I explained that I could fax, e-mail, or snail mail the proof of a lower price to her. She then put me on hold to talk to her manager, 13 minutes later all she could offer me was a $70 travel voucher, just more than half the amount of cash refund I should be receiving. I explained to Joanna that I followed all the steps properly and asked what I should have done differently. On hold again for 8 minutes, when she returned my voucher was now $100 and she informed me that my "account with Expedia will be discontinued upon redemption!" This made me furious and I explained that I would not be making any more travel plans with Expedia after this experience making the voucher useless to me. I asked to speak to her supervisor, was put on hold for another 4 minutes, and offered a complete refund and cancellation without fees which I gladly accepted. The great part is that two hours later when my seat was available on the plane again, I booked the exact same itinerary on Travelocity for $448.60, $10 less than it had been before!

Are Expedia's CSRs trained to lie to customers? I know for a fact that any one with basic internet skills would be able to navigate Travelocity with ease. I believe they are trained to draw the call out as long as they can in the hopes that something changes thus negating the ability to invoke the Best Price Guarantee. From the time I picked up the phone to the time the flight ended up filling up was almost 2 hours, not including my half hour wait to talk to Lenny's supervisor Joanna. If nothing else, his "wild wild west" comment told me that he was not concerned with helping me solve my problem or saving me money which really pissed me off. I will never do business with the scammers at Expedia.com again and would advise others to think twice when shopping for travel.

Thanks!

— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER

It's standard boiler plate for corporate laptop theft predicated by gross incompetence. Hotels.com hired Ernst & Young to audit their books. Ernst & Young auditor, for whatever incredible reason, left the building with an unencrypted laptop containing the credit card numbers of every known Hotels.com customer. The laptop was then (surprise!) stolen.

As usual for this type of story, there was a huge delay between the date the laptop theft occurred (early February) and when customers were notified (last week of May).

I think we are rapidly drawing close to the point when it would simply be easier to hand your credit card number to a Russian hacker directly, as opposed to waiting for a company to accidentally give it to them. At least then you're cutting out the middle man.

Hotels.com Customer Data Stolen [Yahoo! News]

Everyone knows that the charges you accrue when you change a booking are simply another barely justifiable jolly rogering from the airline industry. They're easily waived; they never are. But Grant thought he had found a loophole when the Expedia CSR told him he could simply cancel the tickets and then buy new ones for the correct dates, avoiding the cancellation charge.

Of course, the second he called back, Expedia tried to charge him the $200 anyway on a pair of new tickets that should have, for all intents and purposes, been unaffiliated with the last pair. More over, when he quoted the last CSR, he was told he'd been "misinformed."

Gavin's email is after the jump:

I know times are tough for the airline industry at the moment but the service I received, or lack thereof, from Expedia was appalling.

I have been looking forward to a summer trip with the wife for quite some time now. I thought I would look at the "discount" websites of Expedia, Kayak, Travelzoo etc.

They all seemed to have about the same price, Expedia had an edge over the rest saving me an extra $40, money is money right. So I book the tickets, $660 all included return flight from San Francisco to Denver. I send the flight details to friends in Denver and they call me back to let me know that I'll need to fly home a day later...long story but it needed to be done.

I call Expedia to change the date the same day I booked the tickets. "No problem sir, I can change that with a fee of $100 per ticket."

Have you fallen of your fucking rocker was my first thought but I politely responded that it was highway robbery and I would like to cancel the ticket and get a refund. "That will be a $30 charge to cancel per ticket, or you can cancel the flight and get a credit for the airline to get another flight within the year." She told me there would be no charge to me and I would only have to pay extra if there was a difference in price for the new flight.

All I was thinking was great, I can get the credit, call the airline directly and get the flight through them with hopefully no change in price since I was calling immediately. I cancel, call the airline, "that will be a $100 per ticket charge to change the flight sir."

I let them know I double checked with Expedia and they informed me the only difference I would have to pay is if there is a change in flight price...there was none!

Right, back to Expedia to complain. "Oh, you were misinformed. You have to pay a $100 per ticket regardless." Fine, I decide to bend over, let them give it to me, $60 worth and walk away with a slightly bruised ego and my money back, less sixty bucks. It can also take up to thirty days to get my card credited the amount - absurd!

I let them know I will never use them again...they didn't sound too concerned. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. I found a flight directly through another airline for $560...a $40 saving even with the $60 cancellation fee. I called my bank just to make sure 30 days was a reasonable time to wait for a refund. In doing so, I found they charged me a $10 convenience fee, well thank you so much, I had no idea convenience was so painful. I withdrew the charge and will dispute it since they did not inform me it would be included as part of the cancellation process.

The moral of the story, looking for a good deal may get you to the wrong place for what seems to be the right price. Having to bend for the wrong price isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it still hurts......the ego!

Isn't it great when people who are paid to be representatives of a company can just wave aside previous assertions when they find fulfilling promised obligations inconvenient?

There's a breed of hidden first-class seats, known as Q-ups, Y-ups or Z-fares, available at a discount. When surfing your favorite travel site, search by fare type. Look for fare codes prefaced by "Q" or "Y" or "Z." A recent Delta fare was labeled "QUPBV." Quoth the Wall Street Journal:

"At FareCompare, for example, bargain hunters can click "Trip Search," then enter the desired route and "business/first class." Using Expedia, select "Additional Options" and then check the box to search for seats in business class or first class. Both sites search for the lowest fare in the chosen seating cabin.

Expedia's Q-up fares can be seen by clicking on "Rules and Restrictions."

Now if we could only find to find the coupon codes for those special mile high club seats.

"How to Buy a Cheap Seat in First Class" [WSJ via Consumer World]

"It just makes sense," commented Ferdinand Q. Bub, a customer service analyst over at Price Waterhouse Cooper. "Many customers would complain about negative experiences calling customer service lines. Either a soulless robot or a Sikh in Bombay adopting a Southern drawl and referring to himself as "Tex" would pick up the phone. The "human" factor was missing. But what's more "human" than calling up Overstock to complain about a fudged order, only to discover the rep who's answered your call is your long-dead grandmother, or the kid brother who died in that car crash, or the wife who died in chemo? And what's more: they appreciate your concerns!"

Indoctrinated by Pavlovian measures to satiate the zombies' unquenchable yearning for human flesh during their shifts, companies like Expedia and Overstock are increasingly becoming reliant on undead CSRs. "As when any new employee is brought on board, there's a training process," he explained, pointing out a bedraggled corpse chained to a wall, holding a phone against his head while a manager urged him to say "Hello, Aunt Alicia!" When the trainee had managed to gurgle out the phrase "Huhhhhhhhhlloooo Aunnnnnnnntttttt Allllllisshhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa," he was promptly rewarded with a bucket of bloody chum. "We also have a competitive employee rewards program," the manager beamed.

Customers aren't so thrilled. "It's kinda creepy," one Kentucky computer technician wrote, "Last week, I watched one of these things bite the face off of my ugliest kid at his birthday party. So naturally, I go to return that mp3 player I got through Overstock for him. And not only won't they accept returns, but I got to listen to some fucking zombie apologize for the inconvenience on top of it!"

But that's not going to sway companies from becoming increasingly reliant on the undead. "There's no more room in hell, so zombies aren't going anywhere. Get used to it," Bub said. "In the meantime, many companies are starting to realize the exciting potential of employing undead workers: low salaries, yet higher intelligence and efficiency than what you could hire a living American for. In the next few years, expect to see zombies ladling out your tacos and selling you stereos at Best Buy. This is the wave of the future."

According to his story, not only was the customer service routed through India, the Indian who answered had his voice artificially processed by some sort of voice modulation system in a vain attempt to sound more natural.

Read his encounter, after the jump.

Dave writes:

"I booked a flight through Expedia (yes, I know, good money after bad, etc.) and, as always happens when you have the unmitigated gall to buy tickets a couple of months in advance, the flights changed.

So I log into Expedia to look for hotels, and I get a prompt telling me that my itinerary has changed and please call 1-800-EXPEDIA for assistance. I call them and the first thing they ask for is the itinerary number.

Is it on the webpage? No.

Is it on the prompt? No.

You have to go past the "please call us" screen and then it's waaaaaaaay down at the bottom. Glad I'm computer-literate. Hate to see if my mother had to do this.

After I ignored the IVR system (my voice is incompatible with every brand of IVR in use today), I got connected to a gentleman named "Bill", who is of course in Hyderabad or Bangalore or some other city that looks almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Omaha. This is a regular occurrence these days and despite being an IT wonk, I'm really not bitter about call-centre outsourcing.

Expedia, though, has the voice modulator from XBox Live on the line, so that it sounds like an Alice-type computer talking. I suppose this is so that any oddities in pronunciation (ever ask one of these folks to pronounce "utility"?) would be subconsciously chalked up to "weird connection" or "computer" and not to "incompletely trained customer-service agent".

It didn't work, by the way. By the end of the call, in which I wished to ascertain what the change was and whether they felt that an hour and twenty-five minutes was sufficient to go through Swiss customs and change planes with a wife four months pregnant, our friend "Bill" (or Upainder or Srinivasa) got flustered and all those precious hours of accent-neutralisation training went straight out the window.

Expedia gets two black marks: having a crappy IVR, and trying to fake people out with the XBox Live voice mangler. They answered right away, though."

Airlines are maneuvering to make comparison shopping harder by allowing surcharges to be advertised seperately from the fare.

This would make it okay for an airline to promote a $10 fare from New York to Chicago in a direct mailer, only to have buried in fine print on its website a $700 "Daddy Needs a New Pair of Blue Suede Shoes" tax.

The gambit attempts to push online services like Expedia and Orbitz into the lockers by making it harder to piece together all the information, as well as give a wet willy to the average consumer weighing options.

Airline lobbyists forget that resistance is futile. Like Borg, online ticketing services will assimilate and adapt to any fare hijinx.

Trans-continental bullet trains, anyone?

A Move to Add Still More Fine Print to Advertised Airfares [New York Times]