European trip ?'s

""Király"" wrote in message
news:AAYuf.59031$6K2.54176@edtnps90...
PTRAVEL wrote:
Buying from a consolidator is a good way to save money, particularl if
you
want to fly in business or first class. However, anyone considering
buying
from a consolidator should understand the downside: it may be impossible
to
make a change to your schedule, even with a penalty.

You certainly can get less restrictive tickets directly from the airline,
but only at a much higher price. Tickets bought through agents
are generally LESS restricted than ones bought for a similar price
directly from the airline.

I can't speak for consolidators outside the U.S., but it is definitely not
true for tickets, international or domestic, purchased from U.S.
consolidators.


If there is a problem, your recourse is with the consolidator, not the
airline.

Why is that a problem?

Errors sometimes get made when tickets are issued. If there is an error on
a consolidator ticket (and, again, speaking only about consolidators within
the U.S.), the airline may not correct it and you may have to go back to the
consolidator to get it fixed. This is not a particularly good solution on
the day of departure.



And, of course, you probably won't get frequent flyer miles on a
consolidator ticket.

Less likely, maybe, but I wouldn't go so far to say "probably won't."
But, in any case, it isn't worth paying a higher price just to get FF
miles,
they really aren't worth the extra cost.

I couldn't disagree more. Though there is an art to exploiting FF programs,
I find both the miles and the status extremely valuable. A good portion of
my international leisure travel is completely free, thanks to FF miles.
I've made dozens of free international trips that, even on the lowests fare
bases, were worth tens of thousands of dollars. I also frequently use miles
for upgrading from Y to C, which makes an enormous difference in comfort.
Sorry, but careful selection of a frequent flyer program along with careful
management of the benefits provides a huge number of travel and
comfort-related opportunity.



K.

""Király"" wrote in message
news:rkZuf.60625$6K2.42160@edtnps90...
Mimi wrote:
The last time I flew on a ticket from a consolidator, the departure time
of
the flight was moved back, and nobody told us.

Would you have expected it to be any different had you bought the ticket
from the airline instead?

Absolutely -- all American airlines will contact a ticket holder if there is
a schedule change. More to the point, if there is a schedule change such as
Mimi described and the airline failed to contact the ticket holder, the
airline is responsible and will re-book and/or re-route the passenger at no
additional cost (and, almost certainly, provide compensation of some sort).
If you miss a flight on a consolidator ticket, the airline will do nothing
and the ticket loses all its value.



Fortunately we were at the airport quite early.

That's always a good idea, and I always check for any schedule changes
with
the airline the day before a flight.

That's a very important point -- always check the day before departure to
ensure that the flight is on-time and operating as scheduled.


K.

PTRAVEL wrote:

the flight was moved back, and nobody told us.

Would you have expected it to be any different had you bought the ticket
from the airline instead?

Absolutely -- all American airlines will contact a ticket holder if there is
a schedule change. More to the point, if there is a schedule change such as
Mimi described and the airline failed to contact the ticket holder, the
airline is responsible and will re-book and/or re-route the passenger at no
additional cost (and, almost certainly, provide compensation of some sort).
If you miss a flight on a consolidator ticket, the airline will do nothing
and the ticket loses all its value.

I have had schedule changes on a number of American airlines, purchased through
their websites, which changed, and I was not informed. I think informing the
traveler is not the rule anywhere. You are responsible to check this.


Fortunately we were at the airport quite early.

That's always a good idea, and I always check for any schedule changes
with
the airline the day before a flight.

That's a very important point -- always check the day before departure to
ensure that the flight is on-time and operating as scheduled.


K.



--
Julie
**********
Check out the blog of my 9 week Germany adventure at www.blurty.com/users/jholm
Check out my Travel Pages (non-commercial) at
http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

The Reid wrote:

Following up to David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of
besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy

I'm with you on the principle, but I disagree about 7pm. That's too early.
You should have dinner before going to bed, because getting your stomach on
European time is part of the way to overcome jet lag. It depends to some
extent on where you are, but in most European countries, there's no way to
have dinner and be in bed by 7, because the restaurants aren't even open
yet.

Where in Europe is a restaurant not open by 7? I ask, because we're
early diners, and have never had a problem.

Spain, (Andalucia in particular) I would have thought, although
I've never actually tried to get dinner as rearly as 7 in Spain.
What do you do for the rest of the day?

We're early risers. In Andalucia, it was certainly true that the
restaurants were open late, and we were frequently the only diners, but
we never had a problem.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

"Juliana L Holm" wrote in message
...
PTRAVEL wrote:

the flight was moved back, and nobody told us.

Would you have expected it to be any different had you bought the ticket
from the airline instead?

Absolutely -- all American airlines will contact a ticket holder if there
is
a schedule change. More to the point, if there is a schedule change such
as
Mimi described and the airline failed to contact the ticket holder, the
airline is responsible and will re-book and/or re-route the passenger at
no
additional cost (and, almost certainly, provide compensation of some
sort).
If you miss a flight on a consolidator ticket, the airline will do
nothing
and the ticket loses all its value.

I have had schedule changes on a number of American airlines, purchased
through
their websites, which changed, and I was not informed. I think informing
the
traveler is not the rule anywhere. You are responsible to check this.

I agree that any responsible traveler will do this. However, all the
airlines have various kinds of contact facilities. The ones that I've used
most often and/or most recently were Continental and United. Both let you
register an email address, SMS number and/or phone number. Continental
would contact me for everything from schedule changes to upgrade
notifications. United routinely emails me a "departure reminder" the day
before travel that includes scheduling and gate information. I also
registered my cellphone email address specifically for schedule changes, and
it works quite well.



Fortunately we were at the airport quite early.

That's always a good idea, and I always check for any schedule changes
with
the airline the day before a flight.

That's a very important point -- always check the day before departure to
ensure that the flight is on-time and operating as scheduled.


K.



--
Julie
**********
Check out the blog of my 9 week Germany adventure at
www.blurty.com/users/jholm
Check out my Travel Pages (non-commercial) at
http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

On 2006-01-03 23:00:01 -0800, (Carole Allen) said:

K.
I research hotels on the net, reading trip advisor and slow trravel
websites, and comparing them to guidebook recommendations, and make a
first night's reservation (but usually none after that). But I do use
a travel agent for airline reservations. I simply have no patience to
scroll around through the online sites comparing schedules and prices.
My agent gets me great fares for a modest fee for the amount of time
it takes me to make a phone call to her. That frees my time to plan
out a general itinerary, read up on local history of the areas I am
planning to see, mark up my guidebook with things that strike my
fancy, all the fun part of planning and anticipating.

On the other hand, I research the net for a low airfare (only for about
5 minutes) Then I call my agent of many years. We talk about a fare;
inevitably she comes up with a cheaper one. Since her commish is nil on
fares, I have her find me a fairly posh hotel for the night of arrival
and the night before departure. That way she gets a decent fee from
the good hotel and doesn't charge me. Beside that I get to wallow in
comfort during jet lag. Incidentally I recommend the Steigenberger
chain in Northern Europe. In many cities they have the old time grand
hotels and the grand resorts in the countryside. A taste of the 19th
century with all the mod cons. Usually costing me 130 euro upward. One
could get much less for more money from Hilton and friends. bill

Carole Allen wrote:

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 12:08:23 -0700, "Ken Blake"
wrote:

I'm with you on the principle, but I disagree about 7pm. That's too
early. You should have dinner before going to bed, because getting
your stomach on European time is part of the way to overcome jet
lag. It depends to some extent on where you are, but in most
European countries, there's no way to have dinner and be in bed by
7, because the restaurants aren't even open yet.

I think 7pm is the absolute earliest if one can't hold up any longer.
I usually stay up to 8 or 9.


For me, it's usually more like 9:30 or 10, since I want a real meal, which
will start at 7:30 or 8


And sometimes rather than a heavier
"dinner" I find a lighter meal at a take-out type place, which has
food available before the later hours many restaurants begin to serve.


That's certainly true. In Italy you can always get a sandwich or two at a
bar, for example. But for me, when I arrive in Italy, I crave Italian food.
I can't wait for the next day. I want a real meal *now*.


In Italy, of course, you can always fill yourself on gelato; in fact I
think it's pretty much imperative to do so!


LOL! I like gelato too, but not so much that it could serve as a substitute
for dinner.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

Following up to David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of
besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy

We're early risers.

siesta?

In Andalucia, it was certainly true that the
restaurants were open late, and we were frequently the only diners, but
we never had a problem.

some people of course would see that as a problem?
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to PTRAVEL

Would you have expected it to be any different had you bought the ticket
from the airline instead?

Absolutely -- all American airlines will contact a ticket holder if there is
a schedule change.

I would expect it in Europe too, I noted Iberia looked for
positive feedback for a 10 minute or so change.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

"PTRAVEL" wrote in message
...

""Király"" wrote in message
news:rkZuf.60625$6K2.42160@edtnps90...
Mimi wrote:
The last time I flew on a ticket from a consolidator, the departure time
of
the flight was moved back, and nobody told us.

Would you have expected it to be any different had you bought the ticket
from the airline instead?

Absolutely -- all American airlines will contact a ticket holder if there
is a schedule change.

So will a decent consolidator and of course its a matter of common sense
to check the details with the airline before departure.


More to the point, if there is a schedule change such as Mimi described
and the airline failed to contact the ticket holder, the airline is
responsible and will re-book and/or re-route the passenger at no
additional cost (and, almost certainly, provide compensation of some
sort). If you miss a flight on a consolidator ticket, the airline will do
nothing and the ticket loses all its value.


However you have a contract with the consolidator and have a claim against
them if such a change occurs and the ticket is no longer usable.
The legal position for the end user is no different.

Keith



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