SWR: Airlines/HM reservations, etc...
I guess this is a public service announcement of sorts... Hopefully this will save someone from getting $crewed like my friend did...
A friend of mine had booked flights to Germany to attend the wedding of a friend for this past Tuesday...They booked them through Travelocity because they got a better rate and had some coupon. Well, her father passed away on Sunday and the funeral was scheduled for Wednesday. US Air basically refused to help them at all...Her boyfriend literally spent an entire day on the phone fighting with US Air because they wouldn't change their flight at first (since they hadn't booked directly with US Air). When they finally convinced them to change the flight, they wanted to charge them $1400 per ticket!!!!![]()
After HOURS of fighting and talking to everyone's supervisor, they finally got them down to $600 per ticket extra ![]()
Now, her FATHER had just passed away and they even offered to fax US Air the death certificate to prove it. She said that she would never fly US Air again even if they were giving flights away for free because they were treated so coldly. What has happened to customer service? I think it's terrible.
Anyway, the point of this rambling story is that you definitely want to protect yourself when booking your HM. I hear about a lot of girls booking through the travel websites, and I can tell you from experience (because I checked the rates our travel agent got us for everything against travelocity, cheap tickets, hotels.com and the hotel and airline websites) that the rates aren't any better than what you get from a good travel agent, and you apparently have very little recourse if something goes wrong.
Also, I can't urge everyone enough to get trip insurance...I know that we paid $50 in order to get coverage in case of a death, injury or sickness...Luckily, nothing happened, but if something had we still would've been able to take our trip or get our money back without being hosed on 'change fees.'
I actually know someone that slipped on the dance floor at her wedding reception and broke her wrist (it was the end of the reception so no big deal except she got taken out of her reception in an ambulance). If it weren't for her $50 trip insurance, they would've forfeited all the money they paid for their 2 week HM in Costa Rica...Since they had it, they got to go 2 months later when her cast was off...
So, sorry for the long post, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get trip insurance if you haven't already...
A friend of mine had booked flights to Germany to attend the wedding of a friend for this past Tuesday...They booked them through Travelocity because they got a better rate and had some coupon. Well, her father passed away on Sunday and the funeral was scheduled for Wednesday. US Air basically refused to help them at all...Her boyfriend literally spent an entire day on the phone fighting with US Air because they wouldn't change their flight at first (since they hadn't booked directly with US Air). When they finally convinced them to change the flight, they wanted to charge them $1400 per ticket!!!!
Now, her FATHER had just passed away and they even offered to fax US Air the death certificate to prove it. She said that she would never fly US Air again even if they were giving flights away for free because they were treated so coldly. What has happened to customer service? I think it's terrible.
Anyway, the point of this rambling story is that you definitely want to protect yourself when booking your HM. I hear about a lot of girls booking through the travel websites, and I can tell you from experience (because I checked the rates our travel agent got us for everything against travelocity, cheap tickets, hotels.com and the hotel and airline websites) that the rates aren't any better than what you get from a good travel agent, and you apparently have very little recourse if something goes wrong.
Also, I can't urge everyone enough to get trip insurance...I know that we paid $50 in order to get coverage in case of a death, injury or sickness...Luckily, nothing happened, but if something had we still would've been able to take our trip or get our money back without being hosed on 'change fees.'
I actually know someone that slipped on the dance floor at her wedding reception and broke her wrist (it was the end of the reception so no big deal except she got taken out of her reception in an ambulance). If it weren't for her $50 trip insurance, they would've forfeited all the money they paid for their 2 week HM in Costa Rica...Since they had it, they got to go 2 months later when her cast was off...
So, sorry for the long post, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get trip insurance if you haven't already...
