Bah Humbug

[annuin]

So Travelocity called us this morning, or at least their automated system left a message on our answering machine, to tell us that Delta had changed our flight to Vegas. Instead of a direct flight that would leave late Saturday morning and put us in Vegas around 2pm, we now leave several hours later, have a 90 minute stop in Atlanta, and arrive in Vegas around 7pm.

Good thing we didn't book any show tickets for that Saturday night.

Either way, this is a real pain in the ass. Not so much that the flight is later and arrives later, but that we have to go via bloody Atlanta. The only good thing about that detour is that I can scratch off Georgia as a "state I've been to" on that silly travel meme. And the only reason I want to be in Atlanta is to visit PreZ's cousin, not to sit at the sodding airport.

The part that's really annoying is that when we booked the flight, it was only 1/4 full, and we could even specify which exact seats we wanted, down to the row and seat number (the pregnant person would like an aisle seat near the bathroom please!). And then we get shunted off to a different non-direct flight, presumably because those jerk-offs at Delta have managed to put higher-fare paying people in those seats.

PreZ meanwhile is planning on calling either Travelocity or Delta to bitch at them. Here's hoping it'll have some effect.

Comments

[lady-kverem.livejournal.com]

I work in the tourisim/travel industry. All I can say is those 3 party websites are a real bitch to do anything. Sad enough... majority of the times, you can get the same rates for things like hotel rooms, directly through the hotel (I know with Cendant owned hotels anyway). Other than that.. change and cancellation fees almost always exist, and they're not always very pretty either.

Next time you're looking for a hotel room... gimme a shout.. I can search for you, and give you some prices. :D

I just hate seeing 3rd party websites rip off customers. Trust me, I've seen it happen alot. Half the time they don't even book what the guest really wants.

Cheers & Hugs.

Melissa

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

We booked our hotel directly. Most of the travel sites we looked at like Travelocity/Expedia/Orbitz etc. don't offer rooms in most of the major hotels on the Strip, including the Luxor. The one site that did, didn't offer the airfare+hotel any cheaper than if we booked the hotel directly and got the airfare from Travelocity.

And when we booked directly at the Luxor, we could choose whether we wanted a pyramid or tower room (pyramid of course ;)) and they gave us $10 or 10% per day off, free entry passes for a day in their spa (worth about $20/25 each) and some discounts for their nipple parade late night revue show and I think even Blue Man Group or something.

I completely forgot to just look at Delta's site to see if we could get the fare directly from them. At least I don't think I looked, and if I did, I don't think they had anything in the same price range (we paid $229/ea RT, so not bad).

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

Try to look as pregnant as possible when you fly, maybe they'll give you a pity upgrade or something. ;)

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

It's mid-May, I'll be about 7 months at that stage ;) That shouldn't be a problem.

Though I'd more expect them to hassle you about flying when pregnant rather than a pity upgrade. Hence I'll be travelling with a print-out of their guidelines, just in case ;)

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't realize you'd be so far along. I have a friend who flew to the Netherlands from Virginia when 6 months along and got a pity upgrade to business class!

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed!