The problem with Priceline’s “Name Your Own Price” feature is that you don’t get to name your own hotel. That’s the point, of course. When Chris used it to book a 3.5 star hotel for his vacation, though, he looked up reviews for the place and saw that other customers’ experiences ranged from “no heat” to “dog poop in the closet” to “bedbugs.” That was not promising. So he tried to cancel, only to learn that Priceline has a strict policy against that. No matter how terrible the hotel you end up with might be. [More]
travel
Other Airlines Apparently Uninterested In Joining Any Of United’s Fare-Hiking Games
By 1.17.13
Every year the airlines seem to go through the same little fare-hiking dance, multiple times and with varying results. This time it’s United Airlines, which is trying to raise prices on domestic routes ranging from $4 to $20 roundtrip. The only fly in its pricing ointment is that it doesn’t look like the other airlines are going to follow suit. [More]
Illness Forces Woman To Cancel Cruise, But She’s Not Ill Enough To Make Travel Insurance Claim
By 12.4.12
UPDATE: TripMate has provided Consumerist with a statement, which has been added to the bottom of the post. [More]
Get Fueled Up Before Turkey Day: National Average Gas Prices Could Hit Record High
By 11.20.12
Gas prices have been slowly falling on average around the country as the summer season ended and the fall ushered in its usual lower prices. This week many areas have been seeing prices drop cent by cent, but that could all change on one of the season’s biggest travel days, Thanksgiving. [More]
Americans Will Be Taking Shorter Holiday Jaunts To Save On Gas This Year
By 11.13.12
For those of us who don’t want to battle the burgeoning crowds at the airports or fork over big wads of cash for the right seat on the right flight this Thanksgiving holiday, there’s always the option of driving. And even though hitting the road isn’t a cost-free option, more Americans will be doing so this year than last year. [More]
Plan Ahead If You Want To Snag Seats Together On The Plane For Holiday Flights
By 11.13.12
Times used to be, you’d show up at the check-in desk with carry-on bags full of liquids, check your heavy suitcases for free and politely ask if you could sit next to your husband/girlfriend/son/best pal Liz. But with window and aisle seats now selling for an extra fee, how’s a family supposed to make sure they can stick together up in the air this Thanksgiving? There are a few things you can do to tip the seating odds in your favor. [More]
Priceline Convinces Kayak To Elope By Paying It $1.8 Billion In Cash & Stock
By 11.9.12
Who knew these two crazy kids would end up together? Travel site Priceline announced it’s going to pay its fellow travel search company Kayak $1.8 billion in both stock and cash. With this kind of speedy relationship, it makes you wonder if anyone bothered with a pre-nup. [More]
Travel Company Closes Suddenly, Stranding Some Customers Mid-Trip
By 10.17.12
Talk about throwing a kink in your plans: A New Jersey travel company that had been operating for 47 years shut down without a warning this month, stranding customers with unfinished travel plans and in some cases, whisking their money away into the unknown. Just two days before the shutdown, the company was asking customers to pay in cash for a discount. Now, many are complaining that the company never paid for hotels, airlines or other accommodations. [More]
Expedia Can Give Me A Refund If I Build A Time Machine
By 10.10.12
Maybe Expedia isn’t the best choice if you want to make a same-day travel booking. Eric was going to get stuck on a layover in Atlanta, so he booked a hotel before arriving. Less than hour later, he missed a connecting flight and would be traveling through a different city. Oh, well, it shouldn’t be all that hard to cancel a hotel reservation that’s only an hour old. Right? He could try to cancel the reservation all he liked, but he’d still have to pay 100% of the booking price. [More]
American Airlines Bends Laws Of Time And Space To Make Travel Experience Even Worse
By 9.18.12
Robin flew on American Airlines from Las Vegas to New York over the weekend, and he had the audacity to expect that airlines operate on something resembling normal-person time. If someone told you, a normal person, that they would make a decision in “a little while,” how long would you assume it would be? How about four hours? That’s how long a “little while” was when airline staff were eciding whether to let Robin’s delayed plane go due to weather. [More]
Megabus Hero Grabs Wheel From Unconscious Driver, Steers Bus To Safety
By 8.29.12
The driver of the Megabus traveling from Philadelphia from Pittsburgh was, witnesses told various local media, “out of it.” She forgot to take her blood pressure medication, became ill, and lost consciousness. Dozing passengers were alerted to her state when two tractor-trailers boxed in the bus. Passengers rushed to the front to help, but one man happened to be in the right place and had the right qualifications. That was a Pittsburgh pastor who has driven a variety of large vehicles, and had just earned his commercial driver’s license. [More]
Tell The FAA What You Think About Using Electronics During Take Off
By 8.29.12
We’ve mentioned this before, but if you’d like to keep playing Fruit Ninja (or whatever people are doing now) while you ascend into the heavens, you’ll probably want to take note of these instructions for letting the FAA know your feelings about electronics use during take off. [More]
Waiting 3 Hours In The Heat For Our Bus, Megabus Only Answers Via Twitter
By 8.14.12
Megabus serves as an alternative to Greyhound or Amtrak travel, but has a distinct disadvantage over its competitors. Passengers have to queue up outside to wait for their buses instead of inside air-conditioned bus stations. Or at least some kind of shelter. Kenneth found himself waiting outside for three hours, fifteen minutes for an absentee Megabus. He tried to call the company to find out what was going on, but no one was picking up the phone. The Twitter representative did pick up the computer, though, so that was something. [More]
Greyhound Has A Strange Understanding Of The Word 'Refundable'
By 8.14.12 — Updated: 9.8.16
Noa bought Greyhound tickets that were sold as refundable. Unfortunately, the bus line was using some other, little-known sense of the word “refundable” that actually means “we will charge you extra for a refund, but not actually grant a refund if this route is discontinued.” It didn’t make a whole lot more sense to Noa, either. [More]
Flight Somehow Booked For The Wrong Day? Call To Fix It Right Now
By 8.13.12
Sean booked a flight on United Airlines, US Airways, but had found the flight through travel übersearch site Kayak. He learned the hard way that there may be an occasional bug in the system: he says that even though he did everything correctly, his flight was booked on the wrong day. He learned the hard way that when this happens, you’d better notice quickly: there’s only a 24-hour window to call about the error before the airline will just keep your money forever. They’re called “non-refundable” tickets for a reason, after all. [More]
After 2 Fatal Megabus Accidents In A Week, Illinois Governor Wishes Feds Cared
By 8.10.12
Megabus is not having a very good week. The company settled a wrongful death lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.1 million to the family of a man hit and killed by a Megabus in a downtown Chicago crosswalk in 2010. The day before the settlement was announced, another Megabus hit and killed another elderly pedestrian in a crosswalk just a few blocks away from where the 2010 accident occurred. Last week, a bus leaving Chicago hit an overpass, killing one passenger and injuring dozens more. Oh, and a Charlotte-bound bus caught fire in Georgia this week, too. The National Transportation Safety Board declined to investigate this week’s incidents, and Governor Pat Quinn isn’t happy about that. [More]
If We Have To Deal With Increased Airline Fees At Least Planes Are Arriving On Time
By 8.9.12
It might seem too good to be true, but it isn’t: The airline industry is in the midst of its best performance in regards to on-time flight arrivals since 1988. Cold comfort for the next time you’re watching the clock tick your life away waiting to take off on a congested runway during the holidays, sure, but a good sign nevertheless. [More]
Part Of Being A Good Travel Agent Is Actually Booking The Tickets For Your Customers
By 8.8.12
If you don’t book tickets for your clients to travel to their intended destination, does that make you a travel agent or just someone with an office plastered with posters of exotic locations? It makes you a thief, claim multiple customers of a travel agency in Oregon, who say the owner took their money but often didn’t follow through on booking tickets. [More]
