Abandoned/ignored: victims of EXPEDIA's incompetence

"HLE" wrote in message
...
Oceania's cruise from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso was excellent, of course,
but Expedia made the end of our wonderful vacation into something quite
miserable.

Yesterday, we returned from Chile, where the earthquake created chaos in
Concepcion and points north. Though Santiago seemed to be nearly
untouched, the (relatively new) airport was grievously damaged and most
processes moved to outside tents.

Our original flight from Chile to Buenos Aires was canceled (with no
notice from Expedia), and our concierge said the only other flight would
give us 30 minutes if everything worked perfectly. We wrote to Expedia,
confident that we'd get help.

More than a dozen emails went back and forth, of which most from Expedia
were automated attempts to terminate the dialog. We have one that says
something like "we will help but only via email" and another that says
"call us on our 404 number". Finally, after we spent almost $20 calling
Expedia (there was, of course, a long and frustrating wait), they shrugged
us off with "Please call United and they will help you." We discovered
that United has no office in Chile, so we called the U.S. number. Another
$20. No help, as they don't fly out of Santiago and have only one flight
per day into and out of BA. I again asked Expedia for help, but it was
clear that none was forthcoming. We were on our own.

We gave up a day, and visited the LAN office in downtown Santiago, where a
manager took pity on us and shifted us to a flight that gave us eight
hours of waiting, but at least we got out and eventually got home.

I wrote to Expedia to file a complaint, but it appears that they have no
mechanism for such correspondence. The automated response included this
self-inflicted wound: "...there are some instances that (sic) we are
unable to meet our guaranteed excellent customer service..."

Guaranteed? GUARANTEED? Expedia's incompetence cost us a day of vacation,
and added more than ten hours to our transit time to make an uncomfortable
trip into a grim and painful one.

Never again.

Another perfect example of why to use a REAL travel agent.

On 3/12/10 1:37 PM, in article ,
"June" wrote:
[sylly complaint]
Another perfect example of why to use a REAL travel agent.

If your flight is canceled and you're stuck in Bangalore at 3.00 AM U.S.
time your "real" travel agent (i) won't answer the phone (ii) can't do
anything that you can't do yourself much faster. BTW: how much commission do
you think your real agent earns on a flight ticket?

"peter" wrote in message
...
On 3/12/10 1:37 PM, in article ,
"June" wrote:
[sylly complaint]
Another perfect example of why to use a REAL travel agent.

If your flight is canceled and you're stuck in Bangalore at 3.00 AM U.S.
time your "real" travel agent (i) won't answer the phone (ii) can't do
anything that you can't do yourself much faster. BTW: how much commission
do
you think your real agent earns on a flight ticket?



Well, dumb-dumb, point is, if you have a travel agent you use regularly as a
customer of his, chances are much better that you will get help somehow when
you need it than you will from a website.....no matter what the commission
on a flight ticket.

On 3/12/10 11:51 PM, in article ,
"June" wrote:


"peter" wrote in message
...
On 3/12/10 1:37 PM, in article ,
"June" wrote:
[sylly complaint]
Another perfect example of why to use a REAL travel agent.

If your flight is canceled and you're stuck in Bangalore at 3.00 AM U.S.
time your "real" travel agent (i) won't answer the phone (ii) can't do
anything that you can't do yourself much faster. BTW: how much commission
do
you think your real agent earns on a flight ticket?



Well, dumb-dumb, point is, if you have a travel agent you use regularly as a
customer of his, chances are much better that you will get help somehow when
you need it than you will from a website.....no matter what the commission
on a flight ticket.

Well, stupid-stupid, point is, HLE, on the express advice of his travel
agent, that he uses regularly as a customer of her, that he has a long and
satisfying relationship with, booked the plane ticket with somebody else
"to save a bundle" (note that this travel agent wouldn't make much money on
the ticket). He didn't like the itinerary available from the source the
travel agent suggested (i.e the advice was bad), but found what he wanted at
Expedia. So, the "REAL" agent that you want him to go to, didn't want his
business to begin with. Please explain why a travel agent is supposed to
help you when you're stuck in a foreign country, if the travel agent didn't
make any money on your ticket. Please explain how a travel agent is supposed
to help you, if she is 10,000 miles away, while the people that actually
could help you are within your own walking distance. Bought any bridges
lately?

On 3/13/2010 4:48 PM, John Sisker wrote:
?

While the cruise line would have had the very same issues with the
earthquake,

You don't say.

Therefore, just thinking out loud,
did anyone else encounter such a problem, but did have the cruise line
involved for the air on this one? How did the cruise line and/or travel
agent handle this? The comparisons my be very interesting.

As previously discussed, when you book air with the cruise line, you
generally don't have the opportunity to pick the flight that best suits
you; you may not have a direct flight, a flight at an inconvenient time,
a flight where you don't get miles, a flight were the flight attendants
look ugly etc.

On 3/13/10 10:48 AM, John Sisker wrote:




While the cruise line would have had the very same issues with the
earthquake, airports and all, one can't help but wonder how they
actually handled the situation, especially for their customers who did
have them arrange the air....


I've used cruise air a few times (QM2 Crossing, Fjords sailing when the
savings with free transfers offset the increased cost) but usually the
inconvenient flights they give you make cruise air a mess, unless you
have enough cruises with that company to get free "air deviations" like
I do with Celebrity. If a cruise line can save $5, they'll give you a
flight with stops all over the place, instead of a non-stop. That just
increases the risk of a problem.

--Tom

On 3/13/2010 5:38 PM, John Sisker wrote:
"peter" wrote in message
...
On 3/13/2010 4:48 PM, John Sisker wrote:
?

While the cruise line would have had the very same issues with the
earthquake,

You don't say.

Therefore, just thinking out loud,
did anyone else encounter such a problem, but did have the cruise line
involved for the air on this one? How did the cruise line and/or travel
agent handle this? The comparisons may be very interesting.

As previously discussed, when you book air with the cruise line, you
generally don't have the opportunity to pick the flight that best
suits you; you may not have a direct flight, a flight at an
inconvenient time, a flight where you don't get miles, a flight were
the flight attendants look ugly etc.


And that is why the cruise lines offer deviations to their standard air
arrangements, so one can indeed take into account all these other
things. Of course, the catch is, at an extra cost of course.

You're missing the point. Neither the cruise line, nor an agent adds any
value. You can book any suitable flight easily online; cruise air
doesn't offer any benefits but may put you on indirect, multiple
stopover flights for a higher price than what you would pay directly. If
your flight is canceled, cruise air doesn't add value either. OP could
have gotten a substitute flight much earlier but he chose to waste his
time calling and mailing Expedia. Agents can't do anything that you
can't do yourself for less money, in less time and with smaller risk of
error.

Well, stupid-stupid, point is, HLE, on the express advice of his travel
agent, that he uses regularly as a customer of her, that he has a long and
satisfying relationship with, booked the plane ticket with somebody else
"to save a bundle" (note that this travel agent wouldn't make much money
on
the ticket). He didn't like the itinerary available from the source the
travel agent suggested (i.e the advice was bad), but found what he wanted
at
Expedia. So, the "REAL" agent that you want him to go to, didn't want his
business to begin with. Please explain why a travel agent is supposed to
help you when you're stuck in a foreign country, if the travel agent
didn't
make any money on your ticket. Please explain how a travel agent is
supposed
to help you, if she is 10,000 miles away, while the people that actually
could help you are within your own walking distance. Bought any bridges
lately?

Exactly what I said. If he had used a real travel agent for the air, there
would've been a person. Listen to George Leppla.....he explains the options
that are often available when you use a real travel agent.

And finally, and I DO mean finally, that "bought any bridges lately" cliche
is about as tired as they get.

" On our last two cruises our TA booked our balcony with Carnival, then
searched for the best deal on air which she found through United (she
perfers using the different airlines as compared to expediar and
others). Having a TA and good travel insurance is alittle more
expensive, but in the long run can save your ass if the **** hits the
fan.
We had her 1-800 number, and her home number. Lucky we did, sitting in
the Miami airport at 9:40PM, we got waylayed and missed our
connection in Chicago because of weather. She looked after everything,
and the insurance paid for all our hotel, and out of pocket expenses.

See Peter?

On 3/13/2010 8:35 PM, June wrote:
Well, stupid-stupid, point is, HLE, on the express advice of his travel
agent, that he uses regularly as a customer of her, that he has a long
and
satisfying relationship with, booked the plane ticket with somebody else
"to save a bundle" (note that this travel agent wouldn't make much
money on
the ticket). He didn't like the itinerary available from the source the
travel agent suggested (i.e the advice was bad), but found what he
wanted at
Expedia. So, the "REAL" agent that you want him to go to, didn't want his
business to begin with. Please explain why a travel agent is supposed to
help you when you're stuck in a foreign country, if the travel agent
didn't
make any money on your ticket. Please explain how a travel agent is
supposed
to help you, if she is 10,000 miles away, while the people that actually
could help you are within your own walking distance. Bought any bridges
lately?

Exactly what I said. If he had used a real travel agent for the air,
there would've been a person. Listen to George Leppla.....he explains
the options that are often available when you use a real travel agent.



Nothing in what George wrote supports you silly claim that HLE should
have used a "real" agent instead of Expedia. Maybe you should read his
post again. Also, calling (or trying to call) Travel Assistance in the
middle of an earth quake, along with 10,000 other stranded travelers,
won't help you one bit to get a plane. "Dumb-dumb" really applies to
yourself. Of course we already knew, since you're one of ray's customers.