Be warned....this is wordy....
Anyway, gents, had a bit of an issue trying to book tickets to go home for the holidays, and I'm wondering if anyone else here has BTDT with any advice to give.
Background:
Purchased tickets to fly home for the holidays last month when I got the verbal ok for my requested leave. Paid maybe a little bit more than I wanted (around $760 for the wife and I), but whatever.
Unfortunately, I found out fairly quickly afterwards, that due to watch standing needs and skeds leave policy, that my requested dates weren't in fact going to work. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice (ie jumping the gun), I waited until the watch schedule came out, and then eventually got my revised leave dates approved at the end of last week. Here is where things got stupid.....
Called up expedia (the folks I had originally booked with), and asked about changing my ticket itenerary. They let me know the airline fees would apply, and that it would also cost the difference in ticket prices. So I had the woman check out the totals, to make a decision. I also asked about just cancelling the itenerary altogether, and repurchasing. She played that one down, and made it sound like we would basically pay the same or more doing that (hindsight being 20/20, this is exactly what we should have done). Anyway, she looked up the prices, and while I was kind of shocked at how much more we would pay, I just kind of took it as the price of doing business this late. There were some "technical difficulties" on her end which involved me sitting on hold for about an hour, and when she got back, surprise, the prices had again gone up. By then I was tired, pissed off, and also tired of having to repeat myself so she could understand me (not a native English speaker to say the least). Got them changed to the tune of $540. So total cost thus far, $1300. Throughout this, the woman had explained that they just check ticket prices online, and then use this for their cost comparison to compute the total.
Meanwhile, wifey had been on the computer, looking at prices for the same flights and same airlines and found that the entire round trip could be purchased for both of us for around $400. Wow, that was pretty hard to hear. If nothing else, they should have not charged us anything more than the airline fees, since the prices had obviously gone DOWN, not up, and certainly not up in the hour or two I was on the phone with the rep.
So, I called expedia back, and tried to complain, and maybe talk to someone who could think clearly and maybe realize the ridiculousness of the situation. This would be to no avail, as their "customer service" dept is clearly set up to do exactly the opposite, leading you to folks who know very little, and aren't even capable of making any decisions.
I was ready to just cut my losses, and call it a day, until the wifey decided she needed to go ahead and work on making reservations for our puppy to fly along with us. After being told it would cost $300 to make that happen (fees for 2 different airlines), I had pretty much had enough. I'm not paying $1500 to fly from CA to OR, when I could buy those tickets today for less than 1/3 of that.
So, at this point, I am realizing that these "service fees" are ludicrous....the only "service" I got involved making things more expensive, more inconvenient, more stressful, and locked me into paying even more money for all the other odds and ends that would be required of our trip. In short, I don't really care what they think they are owed, and I want my money back in full. A customer should have the right to say, hey this isn't working out, I want my money back and I will take my business elsewhere since you are no help at all.
I called USAA today, and talked with them. As a stark contrast to expedia, they are some of the best customer service folks I have ever dealt with, and were more than happy to help. Sounds like my best course of action is working with the disputes department to get it taken care of.
Anyway, my question is what you all think, and if anyone has been here before and worked things out. Am I crazy? Overly entitled? Should I just give up and take it? Do I have any legal recourse I can take? I feel like I am a reasonably intelligent person, and while I am not an expert in traveling, I shouldn't be punished @ $1000 for not being intimately familiar with what I was getting into. Part of it is that I'm a JG, supporting my wife and I, living in socal, and we don't have thousands of $$'s to throw at air travel for the holidays. But the bigger issue is the principle. I can't think of this any other way than having been scammed, and they have provided less than no help in resolving the issue to an acceptable end.
/rant. Thoughts? Mods, if this violates your legal guidelines, feel free to remove, but I figured maybe there are others here who have had this happen, and at least many of us are USAA folks.
Anyway, gents, had a bit of an issue trying to book tickets to go home for the holidays, and I'm wondering if anyone else here has BTDT with any advice to give.
Background:
Purchased tickets to fly home for the holidays last month when I got the verbal ok for my requested leave. Paid maybe a little bit more than I wanted (around $760 for the wife and I), but whatever.
Unfortunately, I found out fairly quickly afterwards, that due to watch standing needs and skeds leave policy, that my requested dates weren't in fact going to work. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice (ie jumping the gun), I waited until the watch schedule came out, and then eventually got my revised leave dates approved at the end of last week. Here is where things got stupid.....
Called up expedia (the folks I had originally booked with), and asked about changing my ticket itenerary. They let me know the airline fees would apply, and that it would also cost the difference in ticket prices. So I had the woman check out the totals, to make a decision. I also asked about just cancelling the itenerary altogether, and repurchasing. She played that one down, and made it sound like we would basically pay the same or more doing that (hindsight being 20/20, this is exactly what we should have done). Anyway, she looked up the prices, and while I was kind of shocked at how much more we would pay, I just kind of took it as the price of doing business this late. There were some "technical difficulties" on her end which involved me sitting on hold for about an hour, and when she got back, surprise, the prices had again gone up. By then I was tired, pissed off, and also tired of having to repeat myself so she could understand me (not a native English speaker to say the least). Got them changed to the tune of $540. So total cost thus far, $1300. Throughout this, the woman had explained that they just check ticket prices online, and then use this for their cost comparison to compute the total.
Meanwhile, wifey had been on the computer, looking at prices for the same flights and same airlines and found that the entire round trip could be purchased for both of us for around $400. Wow, that was pretty hard to hear. If nothing else, they should have not charged us anything more than the airline fees, since the prices had obviously gone DOWN, not up, and certainly not up in the hour or two I was on the phone with the rep.
So, I called expedia back, and tried to complain, and maybe talk to someone who could think clearly and maybe realize the ridiculousness of the situation. This would be to no avail, as their "customer service" dept is clearly set up to do exactly the opposite, leading you to folks who know very little, and aren't even capable of making any decisions.
I was ready to just cut my losses, and call it a day, until the wifey decided she needed to go ahead and work on making reservations for our puppy to fly along with us. After being told it would cost $300 to make that happen (fees for 2 different airlines), I had pretty much had enough. I'm not paying $1500 to fly from CA to OR, when I could buy those tickets today for less than 1/3 of that.
So, at this point, I am realizing that these "service fees" are ludicrous....the only "service" I got involved making things more expensive, more inconvenient, more stressful, and locked me into paying even more money for all the other odds and ends that would be required of our trip. In short, I don't really care what they think they are owed, and I want my money back in full. A customer should have the right to say, hey this isn't working out, I want my money back and I will take my business elsewhere since you are no help at all.
I called USAA today, and talked with them. As a stark contrast to expedia, they are some of the best customer service folks I have ever dealt with, and were more than happy to help. Sounds like my best course of action is working with the disputes department to get it taken care of.
Anyway, my question is what you all think, and if anyone has been here before and worked things out. Am I crazy? Overly entitled? Should I just give up and take it? Do I have any legal recourse I can take? I feel like I am a reasonably intelligent person, and while I am not an expert in traveling, I shouldn't be punished @ $1000 for not being intimately familiar with what I was getting into. Part of it is that I'm a JG, supporting my wife and I, living in socal, and we don't have thousands of $$'s to throw at air travel for the holidays. But the bigger issue is the principle. I can't think of this any other way than having been scammed, and they have provided less than no help in resolving the issue to an acceptable end.
/rant. Thoughts? Mods, if this violates your legal guidelines, feel free to remove, but I figured maybe there are others here who have had this happen, and at least many of us are USAA folks.
