Quote:
Originally Posted by carzygirls
So the latest with Continental is to charge $150 to change your airline after you purchase a ticket. It could be 6 months in advance or 1 day, doesn't matter, $150 to change flight to different day.
In my mind it is simply a means to piss the customer off and charge more money but to them... the reasoning... they booked your air space and that air space could have been sold to somebody else so they are out that money if they switch.
So ok... they may not be able to sell that seat again so they charge $150.
So why then... if you book a round trip ticket and decide not to take the first leg they immediately cancel your return flight??
My scenerio is my GF had round trip from newark to miami and then back... We decided after to take a quick trip to Cabo first instead so I booked all our tickets to Cabo then Miami and was going to use her return ticket to come back from Miami...
WRONG...
Ticket cancelled because first flight was a no show. So they sold her seat to somebody else and kept her money anyway.
So now we are at the airport trying to get her a flight from Miami to Newark and all we were told was to call 1-800-fuckmecontintental to work something out.
Well... on hold for HOURS... not minutes... HOURS. Apparently, instead of just making it right at the gate they now tell all customers to dial the airlines 1-800 number and of course, everybody does, so you can't get through. If you do they tell you they can't do shit.
Took 4 hours of off and on the phone at the airport to finally get a fucking ticket and had to first, get her cancelled ticket by the airline active again and then pay $150 to make the change in flight.
Totall bullshit, it never used to be like that. I'm not even talking about the snacks, pillows, and blankets that were pulled...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carzygirls
If you have a ticket for a plane, do you call ahead and make sure you still have that ticket?
"Excuse me, i'm just making sure my ticket didn't get given to anybody and that the money I spent actually still reserves me on my flight for today?".... end ass fucked customer call
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A ticket booked as a round trip ticket is more often than not cheaper for the individual legs. It's been a real problem to the US airlines, because many times you could book a round trip ticket cheaper than a one way, so seasoned airtravellers did that and never showed up for the first leg or just flew the first part and then never returned. I've done so myself plenty of times, just because it saved me money compared to only buy the single one way which I really only needed.
It is in the terms and services agreement, that you are to call ahead and check the flight is on time and the reservation is still valid around 24 hours before the flight is scheduled. Not that many people do that, but they stick it in there just to be able to dick with you if you haven't and then something happens to your flight. And at winter time and so with many cancelled flights, it prevents people from coming to an already crowded airport only to be delayed for many, many hours.
They also need to charge $150 to change a flight to get rid of all the low lifes trying to change everything, every time. People used to buy/reserve tickets months ahead only to then suddleny "change" them with very short notice to the next available flight today. It caused the airline to have to do lots of changes and it caused troubles with their internal capacity planning. The slimmer they needed to trim their organization, the less they need trouble makers who can't plan and just want to change all the time. So they charge a fee which will prevent any "funny changes" and more or less only those who really need to change will do it. So it's not really a fee based on actual costs, it's more of a prevention fee, to prevent and deter people from wanting all kinds of crazy changes over and over again. Plus you can usually book a full fare ticket, in economy I think they are known as Y class tickets, and at full fare price, they usually include one change for free. But in any kind of discounted or deal ticket, they don't want trouble makers and thus charge a prevention fee, because they know they have something which you want or need.
If you are a no show on the first part of the trip, it is again in the terms and services agreement that they are then within their rights to cancel the whole trip. Because for the most part, it doesn't make sense to keep a spot open for you on a return flight when you didn't travel out in the first place. They need to fill their planes and it doesn't make sense to gamble on someone who's already shown to be a "loser" for them (leaving an empty seat, thus resulting in a loss of revenue) it is much better odds to free up the seat and hope someone will take it as a last minute ticket or something. Then at least they have a chance of selling it.