A few weeks ago I booked a ONT-IAH-MSP flight departing 12/23 and returning 12/27 on co.com for $452. Knowing that this wasn't a great fare, but that it wasn't going to get any cheaper, I went ahead and booked it right away.

Today I wanted to confirm my arrival time with a friend so I went to co.com to pull up the res and it wouldn't com up.

I called co's 800 # and the res agent said that my itinerary had been cancelled due to lack of payment. I said that wasnt possible, and asked if could she double check. She called the internet desk and said that the itinerary was merely held and not paid for. I KNOW that I put in my credit card number and reserved seats, et al.

So I went back to the website and did a dummy booking. The flights I was booked on had gone up $1000 and I couldn't see where I could just hold a res for 24 hours without paying anyway. Does this option exist? Do I have any recourse or am I stuck away from my fam this Christmas?

This option definitely exists. Whenever I've put a reservation on a 24-hour hold CO has sent me an e-mail with something like "Cancellation notice" in the subject, meaning that unless you pay the res will be cxld. Check your e-mail from that day to see if you got one of those.

You can reserve a ticket until midnight CST of the following day with a credit card. Even though they won't charge you if you do nothing, you still need to enter a credit card. The screen is similar to actually buying a ticket. That maybe what happened to you.

Have you checked your card to see if CO charged the fare? It sounds like they didn't, but it's still worth a check. Also, whenever you reserve or buy a ticket online, you should get an email notification. Do you have a copy of that anywhere?

As for the fare, if you can't get it for that cost, there is a non-stop NWA flight to MSP for $666. Still a bit more that what you originally had reserved, but much less than the current CO fare.

Good luck!

When you select a flight there are two buttons at the bottom--one to purchase and the other to reserve. When you reserve you still can select seats and put in a credit card number, but you have to return to co.com prior to Midnight (CT) of the following day to complete the purchase. Sorry about that.

Also, I'm not sure how flexible your dates are, but you can also get this non-stop NWA fare on 12/24-12/28 for $496. Again, slightly more than your original fare, but better than CO's.

Hey, thanks for all of the speedy responses!

I went back again and made another dummy booking. I actually don't see where I can hold the reservation. Being a NW elite, I always purchase at CO.com without logging on. When I get to the "Complete Your Purchase" page there are only different payment options and then a button on the bottom that says "purchase." That's where I stopped the dummy booking. Is there another page following that that allows one to hold a ticket?

I know I printed up the confirmation page, now I just have to find it! I've booked on CO.com several times and I've never had this happen.

Whenever I hold a flight without ticketing, it shows up in my reservations until I delete it, even though after 24 hours I cannot access the actual flights. It says something to the effect that: this res is no longer valid because it wasn't ticketed by midnight CST, blah, blah, blah. . .

Even though I can't access it I must manually delete it. IOW, there should be something there if you accidentally held but did not ticket. Also, when you go back through your e-mail (if it wasn't deleted) you should find either a held reservation notice or a confirmation notice.

I have never tried to book without logging on, so this might affect the way a held reservaiton is saved.

I think the choice to ticket or save comes right after you choose your flights, when you click "continue".

Of course, reservations do occasionally get "lost" from the system; if you can find your confirmation they should honor it. Was there a charge on your credit card bill for the ticket? That would also be helpful evidence when you approach CO.

Good luck.


O

WooHoo! A Christmas Miracle has just occured!

I finally had time to call CO today and plead my case again--got the same answer--res x-lled due to lack of payment. I asked to speak with someone higher up. The agent looked at the res--told me the same thing and then said--"wait--no I do see you made a payment, something is wrong." It was a computer glitch and she reinstated the reservation at the original fare (she was also nice enough to waive the telephone booking fee! )--but I had to take different return flights and I've got a long wait in IAH on 27th. At least I'm going home!

Just goes to prove one of the most important rules when dealing with airlines--if you don't like what you hear, hang up and try again, and again, and again...

[QUOTE=the-ca-goat]WooHoo! A Christmas Miracle has just occured!

I finally had time to call CO today and plead my case again--got the same answer--res x-lled due to lack of payment. I asked to speak with someone higher up. The agent looked at the res--told me the same thing and then said--"wait--no I do see you made a payment, something is wrong." It was a computer glitch and she reinstated the reservation at the original fare (she was also nice enough to waive the telephone booking fee! )--but I had to take different return flights and I've got a long wait in IAH on 27th. At least I'm going home!

Just goes to prove one of the most important rules when dealing with airlines--if you don't like what you hear, hang up and try again, and again, and again...[/QUOTE




I work the web desk at CO. I'm happy that you got your issue resolved,more often times than not, we really want to find a lost reservation for you. Remember that when you want to hold a reservation for 24 hrs you must sign in with your onepass # and pin. When you get to the bottom of the page after you choose the flights it will allow you to purchase or reserve for 24 hours. Remember that after the transaction goes through, you will only receive confirmation that your RESERVATION has been CONFIRMED. This does not mean that your ticket is purchased. It doesn't take very long for it to ticket, at that point, the confirmation will then say that your reservation has been purchased and eticketed.

If you have a confirmation #, a web support agent can definately, search the history of that record to see what transpired on the web, sometimes especially during the holidays, the credit card companies become a little nervous about fraud and are concerned about duplicate credit card usage. This will cause your reservation not to ticket until they have confirmed with the passenger that they indeed made the charge. It goes into a hold status don't mistake this for being held for 24 hours. For whatever reason, sometimes the reservation drops, not very often, but it does happen. It is always a good idea to cofirm if the reservation has ticketed. Simply you can do this by looking at your confirmation an hour or so later on the web, you can view it by pulling up the confrimation number and your last name. If it won't come up that means it has not eticketed.

Pannana

co.com has been acting up lately. I had a res on hold until midnight the next day, and when I came back the morning of the next day, it was there. But in the afternoon it was marked as cancelled because it hadn't been paid for by midnight that day (it was about 4pm PST, so well within the window).

The electronic support desk reinstated it without any problem, but the guy there commented that he'd seen a few of these types of problems already that day.

So, watch your reservations...it seems like the CO IT gurus have been tinkering with something again.

The way pages display and the options seem to be changing weekly. For a while you used to be able to click on Seat Selector and view both FC and coach.

BTW, I've never had to cancell a reservation booked on CO.com, they normaly disappear when I click on the expired reservation.

EmailKid

If I reserve a ticket now, does "midnight the following day" mean tonight or tomorrow night?

Continental.com says it will hold my reservation until "midnight CST on Jan 20." That sounds like midnight tonight, but it's still a bit ambiguous.

Anybody know for sure? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere on this board.

If you reserve something today, Jan. 19, CO will hold that reservation until one minute past 11:59pm on Jan. 20. You have from whatever time you reserve it today until mindnight Central time the next day to buy your ticket or the reservation will cancel.

Thanks.

They should really say "11:59pm CST on Jan 20" instead of "midnight on Jan 20."

But then again, they should also stop calling connecting flights "direct."

If you retrieve your reservation that is being held,
it will say "must ticket by Thur, Jan 20, 2005 CST."

The day of the week in there helps a lot.