Originally Posted by
SK AAR
A few observations:
The outbound journey (including a change of airports in Shanghai) seem far too complicated - I would have booked something simpler even if the fare was higher. I would have avoided to transfer in PVG/China (Japan, Korea or HKG are far simpler and fewer delays) and I would certainly have avoided to change from PVG to SHA. The latter is stressful and unneccessary IMO.
It seems that you have already learned a few hard learned but valuable lessons from this ordeal.
1) the remaining legs of the ticket get cancelled once you no-show for a flight
2) always try to avoid booking w/ OTA and book directly with the airlines - if things go south as in your case, OTA are often useless. I'm afraid that you are not going to recover anything from this OTA.
3) next time buy travel insurance
Completely agreed. One thing we were looking at was an earlier arrival time to FOC since our father is older and would prefer not have to meet us (as he insists each time) at the airport at 1am.
But yes definitely it is the case that we will NOT be simply looking for the cheapest, bottom dollar deal we can find. And fortunately we don't have to be doing that all the time anymore.
And yes SHA to PVG was a nightmare. We've also decided to NEVER do any such complciated inter-airport transfer...way too much issue and complications.
Also having a 3rd party handling passport/names between us and the airlines injects another layer for potential errors so we've basically decided to simply book directly with the airline instead of going through a travel agent/agency just like you suggested.
Fortunately I disputed these charges with Chase and we got half of our original purchase price back.
We've decided it would not be worth the time/legal/financial cost to pursue a claim against this OTA after I spoke with several lawyers.
Oh well expensive lesson learned.
I feel justice is not complete but it is what it is and the world is an unfair place. I can see how some believes in karma and justice after this life.....heh