Travelocity Overrun by Gremlins
http://travelocity.ca has always been a bit of a warty, grumpy service. If you visit it using platforms other than the Windows + IE, it grumbles, threatening to lose your reservation, displaying ugly gaffs in its styling or, in rare instances, randomly serving up sessions other than your own.
For the most part, the travelocity.ca's flaws are cosmetic - a bit scary to look at, but you get there in the end.
My most recent adventure on travelocity.ca was a prime example of this.
Last last week, I visited travelocity.ca to book a flight to Calgary.
My dates are a bit flexible, so I choose the flexible dates booking option. A list of airlines is served up, with Harmony Airways coming in at the top of the list at $157+ USD.
USD?? I check the URL. It is exceptionally long, like most Travelocity URLs, but the beginning of it reads http://travel.travelocity.ca/ … so why am I getting results in US dollars. No matter. A teeny little wart. Hardly worth noticing. The Canadian dollar is at its strongest point in years. Tiny error. Best to ignore it and move on.
Anyhow, where were we? Ah yes. $157+ (USD). I click the link. Actually, I click the [select] button, and am returned:
The travel rules indicate that there are no remaining published departure dates/flights for this fare. Please make another selection.
I scratch my head, wondering why I was offered the option if there weren't any flights available. Anyhow, this is just another little tiny wart - practically a freckle, it is so small.
Now the top item on the list of airlines is Harmony, this time coming in at $187 (USD).
I click again and get the same message. At least this time, Harmony disappears from the list.
Next airline in the list is WestJet. Ah, trusty WestJet - good prices, friendly people and all the corny jokes you can handle.
After much clicking to find available dates, I am ready to hand over the money for the trip.
I get to the final screen, check a "Yes, I have read your legal jabberwock" checkbox and click the last button.
A pretty screen comes up, with some helpful info ("Don't close this window! This could take a few minutes.") set over a pretty illustration of a starry night sky. So… calming… Happy sigh. I have successfully negotiated travelocity.ca again.
Unfortunately, don't count your discount airline tickets before they hatch.
The calming blue screen (did I just write calming blue screen? I have been a Mac user too long) goes away and is replaced by the front page of travelocity.ca.
How. Interesting. It reminds me of the time I once saw an elderly gentleman wandering Vancouver's East End with a cancerous-looking warty growth the size of a long cigarillo butt jutting angrily from the top of his left ear.
Where's my confirmation message? Heck. I didn't even get the opportunistic interstitial message urging me to give Travelocity more money for services that I don't need.
Perhaps I missed the messages. Maybe I clicked too many times. Perhaps they are using pop-up windows and Camino blocked them. A quick check of my history confirms that I went straight from the "Keep waiting while we take your money message" to the front page of the site.
*Ding* Ahhh. The ever-so-pleasing sound of new, non-spam email. Perhaps this is my confirmation message. Scanning the top of the new message, I see:
From: memberservices@travelocity.com
Subject: Trip ID 666xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hrm. My trip ID starting with 666 must be a coincidence. The rest of the message reads:
It has come to our attention that you may have been overcharged for your recent ticket purchase. We apologize for this processing error and want you to know that we are working with our airline partner to resolve the matter immediately. We will send you an e-mail notification as soon as the overcharge has been corrected.
Thank you for making your travel plans with Travelocity.com. Please be assured that you will be charged no more than the price quoted at the time your reservation was confirmed on Travelocity.com.
Huh. I didn't notice a price discrepancy. However, bully for travelocity for noticing so rapidly. I misjudged them. I feel the love again.
Just to be sure, I go back to travelocity.ca and check my trips. I see that I do have a new trip booked. The details even seem correct. However, in bold letters at the top of the trip details, is the following message:
We are in the process of issuing your ticket(s). You will receive an
e-mail when your ticket(s) have been issued.
Hrm. Hrm. Well, they have written about the price discrepancy. I am sure that info on the ticket will follow.
The weekend passes. No confirmation message arrives. I check my spam filters. No mail there either. … and there isn't any followup to the earlier message on over-billing. I check my phone messages. Nothing there. I check my cell phone. Nothing there either.
So, come today, I call Travelocity customer service. There is a new voice-driven menu system that is pretty spiffy. It is speedy, recognizes all of the commands I give it and has a chipper voice, but there are a few … errr … warts.
First, there isn't any option for "Talk to a person right now". Second, when I ask for a mailed summary of my itinerary, the system goes away for about 15 seconds and then comes back with "I'm sorry! The mail could not be sent."
Scratching my head, I choose the "Read my itinerary to me" option. The system begins merrily reciting my itinerary, but then hangs before telling me when I land and dumps me back to the menu I was just at.
I wait in somewhat peevish silence while the system attempts to elicit a response from me: "I didn't understand that last command. Please try again." After a few attempts, the script sends me to a queue where I can wait for a real person.
When I do get to a person, they are nearly as chipper as the phone system. After I explain my problem, they put me on hold for a minute or so, and then return to tell me that my reservation has been transferred to WestJet.
At this point, I am too surprised to say much of anything. I mumble, "Transferred?" She says, "Yes. Transferred." and then offers to route me through to WestJet, providing me with the WestJet trip ID number. Oddly, she also gives me the direct number for WestJet, "Just in case
the transfer fails."
She then transfers me, but only after an exceedingly friendly send off. Ah. Friendly, all-singing, all-dancing warts.
After about five minutes of quiet white noise punctuated by bursts of static, I hang up on which ever line she transferred my call to.
*Ding!* Mail arrives, and I see an emailed copy of my receipt has arrived. Great! The phone system was wrong about not being able to send the email. Oddly, parts of the message are quoted and one of the URLs is incomplete, only containing a path, but not a hostname.
After all of this, I went to the customer service page on travelocity.ca (with the amazing URL of http://www.travelocity.ca/custsvc/0,,TCYCA,00.html) to report all of the troubles I encountered. I dutifully fill out the form and click submit. Nothing happens. I click again. I wait a few minutes, after which a small notice appears:
Message must be under 1000 characters.
GAAAAAAA! The final straw. My mind goes round and round, like a hamster on a wheel. After some seconds of spinning, I wonder if Travelocity ran out of hiring budget after finding the 10 people who understand how airline pricing schemes work? This seems a plausible explanation for how every other system they have can be broken.
Update
I submitted a comment using the Travelocity customer service form that references this blog post. I wonder what will come of it. Hopefully, Travelocity will find the feedback useful - most customers receiving this level of service don't bother documenting the experience…
Update 2 (August 7)
Travelocity writes:
Dear Zak Greant
Thank you for writing Travelocity.ca. We have forwarded your email to
the correct department for review we will contact you within 4 business
days.Travelocity.ca Customer Care
Update 3 (August 11)
Still no word from Travelocity.ca
Update 4 (August 18)
Still no word from Travelocity.ca
Tags: flight, Legal, Media, MIT, PEAR, travel, Uncategorized, Windows, Zak GreantRelated posts
Posted on Monday, August 7th, 2006 at 14:55
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August 24th, 2006 at 17:15
EXPEDIA is even worse. They ruined my trip and they tried to steal money from my credit card for an airline ticket they failde to deliver. Later I found that Big travel agencies like EXPEDIA have a lot of complaints. EXPEDIA is listed in the top ripoff link at the bad business bureau ( http://www.ripoffreport.com ) and has two "dedicated" websites due to poor customer support and lies: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com and http://www.shameonexpedia.com
Kind regards
August 20th, 2007 at 12:41
Looks like you were able to get to "view my trips" page. After two weeks, I am still unable to get to the page so I can see my next trip. Emails and emails and emails to the "help" desk, and phone calls and phone calls, all to no avail… they keep telling me they are "working on the problem" and "We like to reassure you that our technical team is on their job, resolving this issue. Our team is trying their best. As soon as the matter is sorted out you will receive your confirmation email. Your patience and cooperation are appreciated. Looking forward to assist you. Regards, Harry T Travelocity Customer Service http://www.travelocity.com/"
March 30th, 2008 at 2:46
Hi Zak,
Just had exactly the same experience with the .ca site - to the point that my 1hr+ 'conversation' with their customer (dis)service supervisor resulting in not one but 2 x $200 discount vouchers landing in my inbox.
The whole site seems very phishy, I'm being redirected all over the place (e.g. go.travelpn.com!).
Spooked to the point of canceling the transaction with them and canceling the credit card I used to make the transaction.
Any thoughts?