For years, travelers have been able to review, book, and rate most aspects of their trips on TripAdvisor – everything but their flight. That’s about to change, now that the company has opened the floodgates of praise and ridicule by allowing passengers to rate their carrier of choice. [More]
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Amazon Gets Out Of The Hotel Booking Business After Only 6 Months
By 10.14.15
Amazon Destinations, we barely knew you. The dedicated hotel booking site from the e-commerce giant closed its doors this week, just six months after opening them. [More]
American Airlines Fined $20K For Failing To Adequately Compensate Bumped Passengers
By 9.17.15
If you get bumped from a flight because the airline overbooked the plane, you usually get some sort of compensation — money or vouchers for future flights — in exchange for having to change your travel plans. But federal regulators say American Airlines screwed up when it bumped nearly a dozen passengers from a Miami-to-London flight and failed to tell them why or offer them anything for their troubles. [More]
Amazon Launches Hotel Booking Business With Local Getaways In Mind
By 4.21.15
For those looking to escape the daily grind but perhaps still stick close to home, Amazon is launching a new hotel booking service called Destinations, which seeks to pair locals up with a getaway nearby at select hotels. [More]
United Blames Ridiculously Cheap First-Class Fares On Software Glitch, Won’t Honor Those Tickets
By 2.12.15
Yesterday, a travel blogger figured out that by changing United Airlines’ online booking page to Denmark, travelers could take advantage of what appeared to be a crazy conversion rate to buy super cheap tickets between London and Newark. But what do they say when something seems too good to be true? Yup. It probably is: United now says it won’t be honoring those fares, blaming a third-party software provider. [More]
Surprise! Fees And Taxes Are More Than The Cost Of The Hotel Room!
By 6.26.09
Over at Elliott.org a reader has sent in a screenshot from a recent attempt to book a discounted hotel room in Venice. The price was supposed to be $375 a night marked down from $537. It seemed like a good deal until he saw the taxes and fees…
Persistence Convinces Continental To Abandon Impossible Itinerary
By 6.21.09
Continental thought 82 minutes was plenty of time for Chris to catch a flight connecting in Newark from Washington to Delhi. It might be, but Continental’s own data show that the Washington flight arrives late 96% of the time by 103 minutes on average. Chris wanted to switch to an earlier flight so he could make the once-daily plane to Delhi, but Continental wouldn’t let him switch unless he paid a $250 change fee. Unsatisfied with the answer, Chris hung up and kept calling back until he got the answer he wanted.
Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia Suspend Airline Booking Fees
By 4.28.09
If you’ve been avoiding the big travel websites because of their booking fees, you might want to reconsider. Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia have all stopped charging airline booking fees until May 31.
Booking Reward Travel On Continental Airlines Will Give You High Blood Pressure
By 3.25.08
Reader Mike has lots of frequent flier miles that he’d like to cash in with Continental Airlines. As he found out, this is extremely difficult. Here’s an email he sent to the CEO of Continental, Larry Kellner:
American Airlines Refuses To Accept American Airlines Credit Card
By 1.13.08
American Airlines told Justin that they could not accept his American Airlines credit card due to a bug in their spiffy new booking system. Justin wanted to charge a trip to Disney World on the card, which unlike standard credit cards, is supposed to work exclusively for purchasing tickets with American Airlines.
By 11.26.07
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Orbitz Worldwide, Travelocity and Priceline.com users can now book flights on JetBlue. [BusinessWeek]
Airline Rebooks, You Pay
By 12.12.06
Two weeks before our departure, American contacted me and said it needed to rebook me because of a scheduling change. My new itinerary had me flying on SN Brussels Airlines instead of Swiss. I asked if I needed new paper tickets and was told “no.”
Even Physicists Are Not Smart Enough to Avoid Getting Screwed By Orbitz
By 12.4.06
We’re not saying the rest of you are dumb, but when physicists from CalTech can’t manage to make travel arrangements without getting stuck with hundreds of dollars in “change fees,” there might be a problem with the website. And by problem we might mean “scam.” And by scam, we might mean, “policies designed to increase fees by being deliberately confusing and overly restrictive.” In this case, Sean, a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, was trying to book a new ticket with money from a credit on a previously canceled ticket, which is much harder than identifying the unified field theory.
Travelodge Santa Cruz Found Mad Skanky
By 8.23.06
Reader Adam L’s most unsavory experience at a Santa Cruz Travelodge this week included:
Orbitz Customer Cancels Reservation For Spite
By 8.22.06
Even with Orbitz’s notoriously inept customer service – behind that facade of campy commercials and flash games, there’s…more facade – this is a new one. Reader Missdona booked a room at the Bellagio hotel last week. Yesterday, the price dropped $20. She tried to lock in the lower rate but was unable to online and the phone people consistently put her on long hold only to disconnect her or refused to help. She decides to cancel and book with the hotel direct. A phone rep tells her that cancelling will cost $25.
Expedia Throws Its Voice
By 3.22.06
Here’s an interesting phenomenon, Dave writes in about his experience buying a flight through Expeida.
