Priceline - another reason to not fly commercially

Gerhardt

Gerhardt

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Gerhardt
I'll preface this by saying I've used priceline dozens of times with no problems. I guess it's a lot like shooting craps. Eventually you're gonna roll a seven.

Last week I was supposed to be at Atlantis in The Bahamas with my wife and kids celebrating our 29th anniversary. But I've gotten ahead of myself. Let's back up a few days.

We got a hotel in St. Louis so we'd be plenty early for our morning flight. Got to the airport more than 2 hours early, checked in and waited. They announced over the overhead speakers that our flight was delayed due to mechanical issues. Then delayed again. Then cancelled. We were on the phone with both the airline and priceline ASAP. By "on the phone" I mean "holding for the next available representative", which was more than an hour wait for both. The airline didn't have another flight they could fit us on until next week. We asked priceline to get us on the next available flight. We held, were disconnected, held, held more, disconnected, held more...until the day was gone. That evening they finally said they booked us on a 6:15 a.m. flight. I asked for an email confirmation and when it didn't arrive several hours later I called back. "Please hold" was the catch phrase of the day. Eventually a rep came on the line and confirmed that we had a 6:15 a.m. flight, gave me the flight number, etc. and said the email would arrive shortly. We went to bed feeling good.

We got up at 3 a.m. to get to the airport by 4 a.m. The airline didn't have anything on us. We had two hours to get this straightened out so we weren't TOO worried. "Please hold". When the priceline rep finally came on the phone she said we had reservations and the airline should let us on. Even though it was 5 a.m. now there was a long line at the airport check-in. When we got to the front of the line the guy dug deeper into his system, said he could find our reservation, but that priceline just hadn't purchased the tickets. I told this to the priceline rep on the phone. "Please hold".

We watched as our flight left. We spent the day trying to get priceline to get us on a flight, but I was never able to speak to someone who spoke in a dialect I didn't struggle to understand, and they never got us on a flight. Not to worry, the rep promised that within six weeks we should hear back from them on our request for a refund.

So yesterday I stopped by the courthouse to file the paperwork for small claims. I tacked on 2 days wages lost for myself and 2 days for my wife, the cost of Atlantis for 4 days, 2 nights hotel in St. Louis, mileage (250 miles) to/from the airport and the cost of airport food for four people for two days. I doubt I see any of it, but what the hell.
 
Any chance you booked with a credit card that includes travel insurance? Might be able to get some immediate relief out of them.
 
Had a similar story using Orbitz to book, only I was in Manchester UK coming back from Scotland when I got stranded. The airlines couldn't do anything because I booked through a 3rd party, so I would have had to shell out $1,400 to get home (which I didn't have at the time). I kept all my receipts and documented everything, with the intention of going to small claims, but by the time I got back to the States, I was just too drained to fight them. The funny part is that I went on the trip because everything in my life was going wrong at the time and I needed a break... lol The good news is that I met a bunch of Irishmen who bought all my food and drinks while I was stranded, and even got me in to a Manchester United game... free! :) Made the most of my time there, then finally a good seminarian saved the day and I was able to get home. Haven't booked a flight through a 3rd party website since.
 
I've normally had bad luck booking through third party websites. There's zero flexibility once you book, lots of finger pointing, etc. Basically it works fine if you want no changes or anything like that. Something goes wrong, you want to change something, now it gets difficult.

You'll probably lose in small claims court.
 
Not to be harsh, but that is the cost of doing thing on the cheap. Sites like Priceline don't care and the airlines won't care as third party vendors are the bottom of the barrel. The customers flying though them will have zero brand loyalty.

Hotels, airlines and cars...use the "discount" sites to compare deals...but always book direct.
 
Ok, since we are sharing. I booked through aa.com for 2 roundtrip tickets direct. Got to the airport at 545am for my 8am return flight. Plane was there, everyone was in their seats and buckled early and the plane was about 75% full. Captain comes on and says one of the flight instruments wasnt working and maintenance was flying one in, but it would be a min of 4 hour delay. Everyone off the plane please. So a long line forms behind one lady with a computer. Next direct flight is 4.5 hours out, or a flight with a layover that would get me in 30 minutes later than the noon direct. I call AA and wait on hold. Get out of line once a lady answers. Tell her the situation and she says no problem. 20 minute wait and she says she cannot do anything because the flight is still registered as late, and not mechanical issues. She sounded sincere but unhelpful. I go to the Admirals club. The person in front of me got the last noon direct flight, I heard the lady giving out direct flight seats the whole time I was in line. I get to the counter and she says it is now full. I got one of the last layover flights seats. My flights were packed to the gills with the overflow of the cancelled flight. And was late starting at both airports. Found out later, that my original flight took off at 1130 and the noon direct flight was on time. Had I done anything else I would have been home at least an hour sooner. I literally screwed myself with each decision. Its a long flight, AUS to ORD, and with no real plane available to me, I gotta go commercial.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
You'll probably lose in small claims court.
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Exactly. There is so much fine print on those websites, all of which I'm sure covers them for things like this. That's mostly why I just decided to suck up my loss and move on with my life.
 
My wife and I have learned our lesson to never use any of the 3rd Party websites. Even if you don't want to change anything they will sometimes cancel your flights or reservations with little or no notice.

Like the time we made reservations a month in advance to go to a college graduation. Called a week prior to verify with Priceline and the Hotel. Priceline said yes you have a reservation Hotel said no you don't and we are booked solid. Went round and round with Priceline and they found us a room nearly 2 hours away! Never again.:mad:
 
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Shawn said:
Hotels, airlines and cars...use the "discount" sites to compare deals...but always book direct.
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Why even bother looking on these sites to compare when you will book direct? II you check Orbitz and the flight is $300 and booking direct it's $500, are you going to book direct? No, you are going to be enticed to book thru the 3rd party. So why bother looking. :)

Personally, I have used Orbitz 2 or 3 times, and I actually had to make a change to a flight once, and it all worked out. I'm sure that I paid a change fee but it wasn't too much hassle.

As for 3rd party sites... there is scam site (justfly.com) that advertises cheaper fares but when you start going through it, they charge for seat (window or aisle... not even a specific seat) and they charge for the right to cancel within 24 hours without cancelation charge (this is free on ALL airlines flying in/out of US).
 
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orange said:
eWhy even bother looking on these sites to compare when you will book direct? II you check Orbitz and the flight is $300 and booking direct it's $500, are you going to book direct? No, you are going to be enticed to book thru the 3rd party. So why bother looking. :)

Personally, I have used Orbitz 2 or 3 times, and I actually had to make a change to a flight once, and it all worked out. I'm sure that I paid a change fee but it wasn't too much hassle.

As for 3rd party sites... there is scam site (justfly.com) that advertises cheaper fares but when you start going through it, they charge for seat (window or aisle... not even a specific seat) and they charge for the right to cancel within 24 hours without cancelation charge (this is free on ALL airlines flying in/out of US).
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Because the third parties often aren't any cheaper. I use them all the time for comparisons and then book direct.
 
sorry about your bad experience. I've always gotten sweet discounts for hotels on priceline and never had anything randomly canceled on me. I don't book too many flights on priceline but the one's I did book all went smooth. I'm of the opinion that you're just booking thru priceline.....once booked, you just have a plane ticket on an airline. if they are delayed, yadda yadda, that's not pricelines fault, although I'm sure their customer service sucks all of a sudden when you have an issue. flight delays, no matter how u purchased ur ticket, suck bad.
 
orange said:
Why even bother looking on these sites to compare when you will book direct?
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Because sites like Kayak and such are a great way to compare prices easily for cars, hotels and airfare without having to go to each and every company website individually for a price...then you head over to the carrier web site to book.

More times than not the fares are the same price direct but you have way less restrictions than third party sites. Even if it is a bit more, I will almost never use third party sites to book, too many problems like above.
 
Shawn said:
Because sites like Kayak and such are a great way to compare prices easily for cars, hotels and airfare without having to go to each and every company website individually for a price...then you head over to the carrier web site to book.

More times than not the fares are the same price direct but you have way less restrictions than third party sites. Even if it is a bit more, I will almost never use third party sites to book, too many problems like above.
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I've found what you said to be true. In my case, Orbitz refused to help, even though the situation was their fault. It was one of the most unethical interactions I've ever had with a business. This was ten years ago, so maybe they've changed things since - but never again. Now I comparison shop on Kayak and then book direct. So far, I've found the prices to be mostly the same.
 
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Learn how to use ITA Matrix or ExpertFlyer, then buy the ticket through the airline. Over the last 5 years of using those websites to help book I've never found a cheaper fare on a "3rd party" website.
 
Ryanb said:
:yeahthat:
Book through the airline and be done. Too many of those offshoot third party sites are a bait and switch.
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This.

Got burned by Expedia, now I book directly with the airline and don't see any of these problems.
 
orange said:
eWhy even bother looking on these sites to compare when you will book direct? II you check Orbitz and the flight is $300 and booking direct it's $500, are you going to book direct? No, you are going to be enticed to book thru the 3rd party. So why bother looking. :)
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I've never seen that much of a difference, except rarely when the 3rd party site was combining flight legs from different airlines to make it work, which is just inviting disaster if *anything* goes wrong on a flight schedule. Hotels.com is the one 3rd party site I will use, though I do sometimes find a cheaper room going direct to the hotel website (many hotel sites now guarantee the lowest price).
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Hotels.com is the one 3rd party site I will use, though I do sometimes find a cheaper room going direct to the hotel website (many hotel sites now guarantee the lowest price).
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You gotta watch out though...if you are a points whore like me...with properties like Marriott you do not get any points when booking through third party sites. Also third party sites make it dang near impossible to change or cancel your reservation should something pop up where when booking direct, most let you cancel right up to the day on or before your arrival.
 
The airline's apps now let you do much of the rebooking yourself. Always give that a try while you're waiting in line, or on hold, when your original flight is delayed or cancelled.
 
Shawn said:
You gotta watch out though...if you are a points whore like me...with properties like Marriott you do not get any points when booking through third party sites. Also third party sites make it dang near impossible to change or cancel your reservation should something pop up where when booking direct, most let you cancel right up to the day on or before your arrival.
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With Hotels.com, I've never had an issue with cancellations within the stated policy on the reservation (though I rarely need to cancel). Hotels.com also has a stone-simple rewards program - 1 night "free" after 10 nights, with a value based on the average $ of those 10 nights, so it is basically 10% off on average. You can book something that costs more for the "free" night and just need to pay the difference. Most of the time I've been able to get hotel-chain points and Hotel.com points, but there have been a few cases where they wouldn't do it.
 
In the olden days (like, 5 years ago), you could actually save money by using third party booking sites. That was back when they worked for the hotel's and airlines.

Now? The tail wags the dog. The online booking companies now own the market, and have gotten greedier with each passing year, with a 15% commission now the minimal norm. We can get to the top of the Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels website by simply paying them more commission.

As a result of this paradigm shift, you now can ALWAYS score a better price by calling the hotel directly. Just find your best price on-line, call the hotel, and offer them 10% BELOW that price.

Unless they are morons, they will jump at your offer, since they will net at LEAST 5% more profit.

There. Don't say I never gave y'all nuthin'...
 
Jay Honeck said:
In the olden days (like, 5 years ago), you could actually save money by using third party booking sites. That was back when they worked for the hotel's and airlines.

Now? The tail wags the dog. The online booking companies now own the market, and have gotten greedier with each passing year, with a 15% commission now the minimal norm. We can get to the top of the Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels website by simply paying them more commission.

As a result of this paradigm shift, you now can ALWAYS score a better price by calling the hotel directly. Just find your best price on-line, call the hotel, and offer them 10% BELOW that price.

Unless they are morons, they will jump at your offer, since they will net at LEAST 5% more profit.

There. Don't say I never gave y'all nuthin'...
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I found the same thing when I used a fuel card back when I had a Citation, the FBO's would match or beat the fuel card's price if I used my credit card vs the fuel card. One told me it took 60+ days to get paid, plus the discount they gave the fuel card company. :)
 
I booked a pair of tickets from Seattle to Hangzhou, China a few weeks ago on United's web site. I didn't even look at the discount sites as UA had dropped the fare to "giveaway" territory. How does $532 each for a round trip through SFO sound? And the SFO-HGH-SFO legs are in a 787. I don't even look at the discounters anymore. They are typically within a dollar of UA's web site, and then they tack a small service charge on top of the fare. I'll look up stuff on them, but seldom buy anything through them anymore.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
You'll probably lose in small claims court.
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I showed up half an hour early. I was surprised by all the people, including the lawyers, who were in shirts and shorts. I left work early so I was the only one in slacks and button down. Signs everywhere saying no cell phones. The bailiff started everything repeating that no cell phones were allowed. And he still had to take one girl's phone away because she was using it.

Priceline was a no-show, which irritated the judge. I never even got to tell my side of the story. He called the case, I went forward, he asked once again if anyone was there for Priceline...then gave me a judgement for $4,886. They have only 9 more days to file an appeal, then it's cast in stone and I can begin collection proceedings.
 
Gerhardt said:
I showed up half an hour early. I was surprised by all the people, including the lawyers, who were in shirts and shorts. I left work early so I was the only one in slacks and button down. Signs everywhere saying no cell phones. The bailiff started everything repeating that no cell phones were allowed. And he still had to take one girl's phone away because she was using it.

Priceline was a no-show, which irritated the judge. I never even got to tell my side of the story. He called the case, I went forward, he asked once again if anyone was there for Priceline...then gave me a judgement for $4,886. They have only 9 more days to file an appeal, then it's cast in stone and I can begin collection proceedings.
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That's pretty impressive! Glad to hear that you won. Now I wonder how difficult it will be to collect your money, or if they'll just write the whole thing off.
 
Gerhardt said:
I showed up half an hour early. I was surprised by all the people, including the lawyers, who were in shirts and shorts. I left work early so I was the only one in slacks and button down. Signs everywhere saying no cell phones. The bailiff started everything repeating that no cell phones were allowed. And he still had to take one girl's phone away because she was using it.

Priceline was a no-show, which irritated the judge. I never even got to tell my side of the story. He called the case, I went forward, he asked once again if anyone was there for Priceline...then gave me a judgement for $4,886. They have only 9 more days to file an appeal, then it's cast in stone and I can begin collection proceedings.
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I hate to tell you (though you may already know), but getting the judgment is the easy part. Collection can be, well, much less fun.
 
Gerhardt said:
I showed up half an hour early. I was surprised by all the people, including the lawyers, who were in shirts and shorts. I left work early so I was the only one in slacks and button down. Signs everywhere saying no cell phones. The bailiff started everything repeating that no cell phones were allowed. And he still had to take one girl's phone away because she was using it.

Priceline was a no-show, which irritated the judge. I never even got to tell my side of the story. He called the case, I went forward, he asked once again if anyone was there for Priceline...then gave me a judgement for $4,886. They have only 9 more days to file an appeal, then it's cast in stone and I can begin collection proceedings.
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$4,886? Let me guess, the cut-off for small claims is $5K? :) Congrats, hope you're able to collect.

I'll skip my personal story but just say that I haven't used them since 1997, and I'm surprised they're still around. I did hear recently that they did just drop the "name your own price" gimmick.
 
Back when I used to fly quite a bit, you just phoned up the airlines and they quoted a price to fly from a to b. When I tell that to my students they think I am talking out of my behind.

I hate all these third party gimmicky sleazeball websites. I don't use them. About the only time I need to fly anywhere the gal upstairs in the office makes all the flight arrangements. The wife and kids use Amtrak quite a bit, it si reasonable to get a room which includes free meals and no BS airport security theater either.
 
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