Originally Posted by
110pgl
I don't know about innocent victim. When you buy from Joe's Airline Ticket shop you should know what you are getting yourself into. Any place that does not give you a ticket price online but instead wants you to call their 800 number or call you... you should know you are part of something iffy. If you buy a ticket from anywhere but the airline itself, you are taking on some risk. The farther you move away from traditional sources, the greater the savings and the greater the risk.
There are tons of stories on FT and elsewhere about passengers being told to call Orbitz/Priceline/etc when there is irregular ops. That is the risk they take vs. paying more and buying from the airline directly.
If you are going to take the risk, at the very least...
1. Use a credit card. (If you don't you just added risk and you know - or should know - it is a dodgy transaction.
2. Call the airline after booking and verify what you bought. If it does not line up with what you have been told, bail on the ticket.
3. If it goes south, don't play the innocent victim card.
I see everything that you are saying, but we are looking at it through the glasses of people who have a little (me) or a lot (many of you all) airline, frequent flying knowledge, average people, may not know that being closer to the airline is better than farther from it.
They see X airline and X price and they do not know about who is responsible for their ticket, the travel agent, the airline, etc.
A little bit off-topic, but a colleague was really angry after having a very negative dealing with the local Audi dealership. When he complained to Audi North America, he was told that the dealership is a franchisee and not actually Audi, to my colleague, it said Audi on the door, thus he was dealing with Audi, he had no idea that it was not actually Audi.
My point, if I were an average passenger and I paid X amount for a ticket, how would I know that airline X is not cool with how the ticket was funded? I knew to ask because I am more clued in than most and probably way less than many of you.