Originally Posted by
itsme
I take your counterpoint on behalf of Expedia (not Travelocity!) and their potential advantages when booking some exceptional itineraries. But what does one do when something goes wrong, is there some recourse? While there are undoubtedly many stories about unsatisfactory experiences with airline website bookings, I do know to whom to complain when my beef is with the airline, and I have a pretty good sense of how to go about it. But what does one do when they have been screwed by an "intermediary" party, like Travelocity? Is there anyway to gain traction, indeed even to get their attention in the first place?
It was a long, unpleasant "discourse" before the Travelocity supervisor said they would get me ticketed for the flight I was originally scheduled on, leaving 8 hours later. If I had not been able to get them to do the right thing with a great deal of browbeating, what would/should I have done next? How would others have handled it? Does one have any leverage in circumstances like mine when facing off against a Travelocity? (Note, I couldn't look to AmEx for the help I would ordinarily expect from them, because the charges were never made after Travelocity got approval for them.)
Believe me, I empathize with you. Although I've never had to deal with Travelocity for air fare problems before, I've had my share of experiences with their best rate guarantee program with regard to hotels. My only means of success were no different than yours, that being way too much time spent on the phone dealing with call centers where language barriers and the inability to handle conflict resolution are the rule of the day. Try, just try to locate a phone number to Travelocity's Consumer Relations Department in San Antonio. All they ever supply is a fax number. Seemingly every public call must be routed through their call center, which of course is the root of the problem to begin with.