On-line reservation SCAM?
 

On 7/18 I made a reservation for two people from EWR to MSY for a total cost of $462 using the CO web site. The fine print says that unless you purchase the ticket fares are not guaranteed. On 7/19 pulled up my saved itinerary, selected seats and attempted to complete the purchase. I was informed that the fare had gone up $20.

I immediately opened up a new browser session and went into CO web site again and tried to book the exact same itinerary from scratch. The price came up at the original $462 and I purchased it and then cancelled the original one that tried to extort an extra $20 out of me.

Has anyone run across this before? Is this some kind of new evil purchase-one-day-after reservation-tax? (CO has been a leader in sneaky taxes this year).

What with Inhumane 31-inch seat pitch and generally lousy fares from EWR (although $231 to MSY isn’t bad) my patience with CO is running out…

I have had that happen a few times. I don't think it is all CO but COOL plays a big part too. When u price something at CO and then try to price it at COOL it is usually different so I don't know what they plan to do about the whole CO and COOL relationship...it needs LOTS of work. I have learned to just guess and test with COOL and something usually comes up right in the long run.

CO.O.L often prices out differently then phone reservations do. If one wants the lowest fare, one needs to check around.

As for schriste's situation, I think a call to 1-800-We-Care2 would be in order.

As for High fares from EWR, this is simply a supply and demand issue.

It is possible to do a same-day roundtrip between EWR and MSY for just over $300 by pasting together multiple fares. C.O.O.L. will fare this out properly the first time, but if you save the itinerary and try to ticket later, it will re-fare at around $2000. The only solution is to cancel the reservation, start over, and ticket immediately. (I ought to know, as I did all of this last month.)

If it makes you feel any better, NWA.com does exactly the same thing.

Obviously, the fault lies with the underlying Expedia-based software, and not with the airlines.

It's amazing that I routinely pay HALF for a flight VIA EWR than folks flying just that leg.

BDL-MSY $189.
BDL-TPA $144.
BDL-CMH $189.



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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

I have had the same thing happen. Also FYI if you ever need senior citizen discount, COOL does not calculate it properly and overcharges. I had to do it via phone and lost the 1000 mile web booking bonus. I agree, I always check many sources on many different systems before purchasing. Sometimes Sabre prices out differently than Worldspan, etc.

I emailed eSERVICE On-Line about my ticketing situation and received a totally generic form response explaining why fares advertised in newspapers might not be available, etc. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Not much help, in fact rather annoying, but they did respond quickly... I'll give them that.

Through only the few times that I have ever had to deal directly with COOL/e-service online/Expedia personnel, I am left with the impression that it is an organization comprised largely of individuals who really don't themselves travel much, and therefore have no comprehension let alone appreciation of the trials we customers have to endure in order to do business with them.

[This message has been edited by FQTV (edited 07-20-2000).]

As I said earlier, sounds like a call to 1-800-we-care2 is in order

There was a WSJ article about this nonsense not too long ago by Jane Costello! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

The other thing which was really pissing me off recently was that eService Online would bring up a certain fare and routing, let you get all the way through the process, and then when it takes your CC # and checks for seats, it comes back "Sorry, not all flights are available."

I was trying to get OAK/EWR/DTW outbound on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and return Saturday after for $209. It listed about 4 itins with this fare, and every single one of them behaved as stated. Finally, I just called the Elite line, and I was told the fare did exist, and I booked through them. But if I hadn't called, I suppose I would have been bamboozled into the next highest fare in order to make the online transaction "work." This would have been $5xx.

thesilb:

I have also had this problem with CO version of expedia + through expedia itself for other airlines.

I had a similar situation once. Tried buying a ticket on COOL, and go all the way through the process, and then it says something like "The price has changed" and it was $1,300 instead of $300.

It asked if I still wanted the ticket. Um, no. So I started over, picked the same flights and it went through fine.