Abandoned/ignored: victims of EXPEDIA's incompetence

"peter" wrote in message
...
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.

It's national reading month. Maybe you should finally learn how. snicker

In article , June
wrote:

It's national reading month. Maybe you should finally learn how. snicker

Peter is a "know it all type" who has established himself in the
newsgroup as as an even bigger dumb ass than Sisker.

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , June
wrote:

It's national reading month. Maybe you should finally learn how.
snicker

Peter is a "know it all type" who has established himself in the
newsgroup as as an even bigger dumb ass than Sisker.

--
Charles

I'm noticing this Charles. His advice is often way off base, as well. Guess
this is another one for my kill file.

June

On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:35:55 -0800, "John Sisker"
wrote:

Your dilemma is, you just don't believe that the cruise will indeed be on
your side in such a situation... won't offer anything good enough anyway,
will charge you a higher price to boot, and/or won't be as good or as
reliable as just taking pot luck on your own. Since you obviously have no
confidence that a cruise line can do much more than sail their own ships,
well then, perhaps in your case, you do need to stick to your own devices,
since you will not doubt be disappointed in anything else. Of course, if
that goes astray, I doubt any of us will hear about it.

I have never used cruise air, because all but one of my cruises have
left from the west coast or Hawaii, and there's no benefit to cruise air
on those highly traveled routes. And the European cruise was all
frequent flyer miles to reduce expenses.

But I have compared prices, and the cruise line price is almost always
substantially higher, and (judging from what people here say) is likely
to involve unnecessary transfers, poor connections, non-daytime flights,
or all of the above.

If there's no evidence that the cruise lines will treat me well when
they have lots of advance notice, why should I think they will do a good
job in an emergency?

On 3/14/2010 1:42 AM, Charles, Esquire wrote:


Peter is a "know it all type"

If you look like this:

http://tinyurl.com/ybutxwz

you never got an education,
and you indiscriminately believe everything people tell you,
then your feelings of inferiority are entirely appropriate.

BTW: please provide evidence that anyone has ever successfully sued
Expedia because they wouldn't assist a customer whose flight was
canceled but told him to go to the airline counter in front of him.

On 3/14/2010 8:38 AM, Jack Hamilton wrote:
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:35:55 -0800, "John
wrote:

Your dilemma is, you just don't believe that the cruise will indeed be on
your side in such a situation... won't offer anything good enough anyway,
will charge you a higher price to boot, and/or won't be as good or as
reliable as just taking pot luck on your own. Since you obviously have no
confidence that a cruise line can do much more than sail their own ships,
well then, perhaps in your case, you do need to stick to your own devices,
since you will not doubt be disappointed in anything else. Of course, if
that goes astray, I doubt any of us will hear about it.

I have never used cruise air, because all but one of my cruises have
left from the west coast or Hawaii, and there's no benefit to cruise air
on those highly traveled routes. And the European cruise was all
frequent flyer miles to reduce expenses.

But I have compared prices, and the cruise line price is almost always
substantially higher, and (judging from what people here say) is likely
to involve unnecessary transfers, poor connections, non-daytime flights,
or all of the above.

If there's no evidence that the cruise lines will treat me well when
they have lots of advance notice, why should I think they will do a good
job in an emergency?

You shouldn't. Just as Expedia was not legally required to assist HLE in
his discussions with the airline that canceled his flight (of course,
Expedia couldn't do anything even if it wanted to), so it is with the
cruise lines if you buy cruise air. This is how Carnival excludes any
liability:

"Liability and Relation with Airlines.

If, due to any cause beyond our control, we are unable to arrange for
air travel (for example, because of capacity controls placed upon us by
airlines due to the types of fares under which we book), or the air
travel we arrange is unavailable or otherwise fails to materialize, our
liability will be limited to refunding the air add-on amount paid to us.
We assume no liability for any acts or omissions of any airline,
including, without limitation, those involving cancellation of flights,
schedule changes, reroutings, damage to or delay or loss of baggage,
flight delays, equipment failures, accidents, pilot or other staff
shortages, overbooking or computer errors. The liabilities and
obligations of an airline to you, and your rights as an airline
passenger, are subject to any and all terms and conditions of the
airline's ticket and tariffs."

But ignorant and/or naive souls like charles and commission-eager sisker
believe that, if you buy insurance from the cruise line, they will help
you to get to the front of the line as "a service". Unfortunately, the
24-Hour Worldwide Emergency Assistance Service is outsourced by Carnival
to On Call International. Another middleman. On Call International
provides "travel assistance" for thousands of companies. If you call
them in case of an earthquake you will have to wait in line. You would
be wasting time. You will be home faster if you go to the airline directly.

The original issue was: if your flight is canceled in case of an
earthquake, is the travel agent required to book a new flight for you?
The answer is: no, your contract is with the airline. Will a small
agency such as sisker, a "real agent" in june's terminology, as a
service, book a new flight for you? Maybe, if you can reach him in the
middle of the night from Valparaiso and he's not busy with his other
part-time jobs (trailer salesman and photographer). Are you willing to
take the risk that he screws up? Of course not. Do you need an agent to
rebook? No you don't, as HLE figured out after his rage. Agents are no
longer relevant in air travel.

June wrote:

"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.


Or even better, buy tickets directly from the airline. Using TAs real or
otherwise mean you miss out on all sorts of features that airlines offer
with online booking - like been able to rebook your flight from anywhere
in the world, reserve a seat online, reserve a meal or assistance...

In article , peter
wrote:

BTW: please provide evidence that anyone has ever successfully sued
Expedia because they wouldn't assist a customer whose flight was
canceled but told him to go to the airline counter in front of him.

No one said anything about suing them dumb ass. HLE wanted to get
support and service from Expedia. HLE is simply making it known that
Expedia failed in HLE's opinion to live up to it's promise of support.

Despite your idiotic claim that Expedia has no responsibility there is
'The Expedia Promise" right on their web site:

"The Expedia Promise"

"We¹re committed to helping you create and enjoy the best trip
possible, from the moment you come to Expedia until you return home at
the end of your trip. We¹ll support you every step of the way‹so you
can shop, book, and go with confidence. It¹s our promise to you."

--
Charles

On 3/14/2010 3:24 PM, Charles wrote:


"We¹re committed to helping you create and enjoy the best trip
possible, from the moment you come to Expedia until you return home at
the end of your trip. We¹ll support you every step of the way‹so you
can shop, book, and go with confidence. It¹s our promise to you."


And so when HLE, after having shopped, booked and traveled to BA, in the
middle of an earthquake, when flights were canceled in Chile, where
thousands of people were stranded, instead of going directly to the
airline called and mailed Expedia, they told him politely he should get
in touch with the airline because airlines fly planes and travel agents
only sell tickets. It took him many hours to understand this, as he,
like you, appears to be a little Alzheimerish and not very smart, not
really a know-it-all but rather an illiterate, blaming other for his own
fault, but eventually he went to the airline, got a seat, and returned
home in time.

On 3/13/2010 6:53 PM, Stu wrote:

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.

As you paid, per your earlier post, $358 for your insurance for 10 days
for the two of you, you didn't come close to breaking, even unless you
stayed in the Four Seasons.

As a general rule, for the frequent cruiser permanent (multi-trip)
travel insurance is considerably less expensive than individual trip
insurance. $358 is a ridiculous amount the insurance quoted. As a
general rule, insurance bought from a direct writer is cheaper than
insurance bought from an insurance or travel agent. Protection bought
from the cruise line may be beneficial if the line guarantees that you
will board the ship in the case of flight delays. But typically, you
won't get the best connections and you may much pay more for your
flights. As a general rule if you are financially independent buying
travel insurance (or any other limited amount casualty insurance) is a
very bad deal. Paying $ 36 per day for insurance roughly would be about
15% tot 30% of insurance coverage. Given the probabilities, hassles and
limitations that is an extremely irrational bet. But the benefit of this
type of insurance is, of course, that it does transfer wealth from the
poor to the rich.