Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Beware of airline omissions when booking

I'm steaming mad at Travelocity. In September, I will need to go from Barcelona to London. I know the flag carriers serve the route (BA & Iberia), but I wanted to see if any other carriers did. None showed up on Travelocity, so I booked a $325 RT on BA -- with a connection through Madrid on the return.

Yesterday, I noticed someone in the London forum refer to EasyJet. Grrrr.... This Southwest style carrier has a perfectly timed nonstop to Gatwick for under 100 euros. Had I known that earlier, I could have booked a much cheaper ticket on BA (around $125).

Then, just for aggravating fun, I thought I'd see if Southwest pops up on Travelocity. I put in a request for Oakland to Burbank -- a route SW serves frequently. Here's the response:

The itinerary you requested is from Oakland, CA (OAK) to Burbank, CA (BUR).

Your search is restricted to the following airline(s):

The specific itinerary you asked for is not available. Try making your search broader. Here are some common problems...

* You have chosen a city with no airport or limited schedules - try a nearby city with a larger airport.
* You have chosen days when nothing is scheduled - try changing your departure dates or times.
* You have restricted the search to a specific airline - try your request again without choosing an airline.
* You have restricted the search to fewer connections than is available for this itinerary - try increasing the number of connections.

No mention on the possibility that an airline Travelocity doesn't do business with serves this route. I think that's deceptive. It wouldn't fool me in the USA since I know about SW, but it did fool me in Europe.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dhuey:
I'm steaming mad at Travelocity. </font>

How is it Travelocity's fault? Just like WN, EasyJet does not list it's fares on various CRS systems to cut down costs, Travelocity has no control over this.

Beckles, it's Travelocity's fault for misleading its customers. As I posted above, if you ask Travelocity for an OAK-BUR nonstop, it responds "The specific itinerary you asked for is not available". In fact, it is available -- just not through Travelocity.

I could find no disclaimer on Travelocity that some airlines are not in its database. Instead of declaring an itinerary "not available", Travelocity should state "not available on the carriers listed on Travelocity."

Remember how the FAA required the airlines to alert callers to the potential that better fares might be available online? It was deceptive for airlines to tell callers "this is the lowest fare available" when they really meant "lowest fare available over the phone".

Same logic applies here to my gripe with Travelocity.

When you go to the grocery market, do they tell you if you can by an item cheaper at a different one? If you want to complain to anyone, complain to Southwest and Easy Jet for not listing their fares so Travelocity and other websites can search them. Travelocity and Orbitz in fact did used to try and list Southwest fares, but Southwest made them stop doing it.

This is America, and I don't think a company should have to advertise for other companies unless they want to. If you go to Travelocity I don't see how they should have to tell you to go somewhere else just because you may be able to get it cheaper somewhere else.

&lt;i&gt;Remember how the FAA required the airlines to alert callers to the potential that better fares might be available online?&lt;/i&gt;

No, because the FAA never made them do that, the airlines voluntarilly agreed to do that in an agreement with the Department of Transportation. Besides, that's a completely different situation. A more analgous situation would be if an airline told you a cheaper fare was available on a different airline.

I guess we'll have to disagree about whether this is misleading. I don't think the grocery store analogy fits -- I didn't ask United whether the itineray was available; I asked a travel agent.

Also, a couple of factual matters. Southwest sued Orbitz to stop the misleading quotations of its fares. Quite often Orbitz would display SW's highest fares for the itinerary when discounted fares were available at SW's website.

Finally, the airlines did not voluntarily agree to the disclaimer about lower online fares:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 20, 2000
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 207-00

Airlines Must Alert Consumers Of Possibility of Low Internet Fares, DOT Says

Airlines must notify passengers seeking the lowest fare for a flight that the lowest fare may be available only over each carrier’s Internet site, the U.S. Department of Transportation said today.

"In the spirit of President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s ‘putting people first,’ we are reminding airlines of their obligation to give complete and accurate fare information to consumers," U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said. "This continues our effort to improve the flight information available to travelers, following our August meetings with aviation stakeholders and the publication earlier this month of our report on the carriers’ ‘best practices’ for improving customer service -- a priority which ranks second only to safety."

The department, in an order issued today, noted that federal law prohibits sellers of air transportation from deceiving consumers about the price of air transportation. A carrier is violating this statute if a telephone caller requests the lowest fare from an airline reservation agent and the agent (or a tape recording) does not alert the caller of the possibility of a lower Internet fare offered by the carrier, if one exists. Travel agents are required only to quote the lowest fare they are authorized to sell, the department said, since they are not responsible for knowing of fares sold directly by airlines via their Internet sites.

In issuing today’s order, the department dismissed a complaint and a request for rulemaking. The department said the requested rulemaking, which would require that airlines and their appointed travel agents inform telephone customers seeking the lowest fare that this fare can be obtained only on the Internet, was unnecessary since the existing statute already prohibits much of the conduct addressed in the petition. In addition, the department said the complaint does not include enough evidence of specific deceptive practices to warrant enforcement action against any carrier.

Today’s action followed DOT’s notice in July seeking comments on whether the department, in its current effort to revise rules governing computer reservation systems, should consider adopting rules governing the use of the Internet for airline distribution.

The department’s order may be obtained via the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov, docket number OST-97-2061.



[This message has been edited by dhuey (edited 07-11-2003).]