t*****r
发帖数: 4431 | 1 太长了，我也没看完，感兴趣的读读吧。
If you cancel, you pay. If they cancel, you still pay——The travel industry
’s one-sided cancellation policies are due for cancellation
Change your mind when you’re traveling, and the consequences can be costly.
Most airline tickets are nonrefundable and require a hefty change fee plus
any fare differential. And many hotel rooms are totally nonrefundable and
nonchangeable, so you could lose the entire value of your room. So, why
doesn’t it work the other way around?
After Alaska Airlines recently changed his flight schedule, Art Ellis, a
retired researcher from Sacramento, wants to know.
Ellis and his wife, Marianne, were scheduled to return from Anchorage to
Sacramento at 8:20 p.m., but Alaska shifted the flight to a longer stopover,
arriving at 11:20 p.m. The flight arrived 20 minutes late, and the tired
couple didn’t get to their house until the next day. “It took us all day
and night to get home from our cruise in Alaska,” Ellis says. “I felt like
I was being jerked around.”
If Ellis is getting jerked around, he’s not alone. Airlines, cruise lines
and hotels routinely alter their schedules or delete reservations to
accommodate a large group or to renovate a building. When they do, their one
-sided adhesion contract — an agreement that applies to you but not
necessarily to the company — allows them to get away with it without paying
the customer a dime in damages. Some businesses, notably tour operators,
give themselves permission to keep your money and issue a voucher for a
future vacation.
Travelers say this isn’t fair. After all, when their plans change, even for
events beyond their control, they must pay fees and possibly lose some or
all of the value of their ticket. Ellis, who paid $825 for his tickets,
would have had to fork over another $125 to change each one, plus a fare
differential. Alaska informed Ellis of the change about two months before
the flight, but occasionally travel companies don’t bother telling affected
consumers, even when they have their contact information.
An Alaska Airlines representative said that the airline publishes its flight
schedule 330 days in advance, an industry standard. This is done so that
customers can start to research and plan early. “We want to give them a
pretty good idea of when they might be able to catch a flight back home for
Thanksgiving, for example,” said Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Halley Knigge.
“Because the booking schedule is published far in advance, it really is a
forecast of when and how frequently we’ll be flying 11 months later.”
Alaska, like other airlines, updates its schedule quarterly, and it tries to
keep the final schedule as close to the booking schedule as it can, paying
particular attention to preserving routes with connections.
In Ellis’s case, he’d booked his tickets for June last December, based on
Alaska’s booking schedule. The final schedule was published two months
later. Early-booking customers on Alaska have the option of changing their
itinerary on the same day or the day before or after the flight at no
additional charge, or of requesting a full refund. “We apologize for any
inconvenience Mr. Ellis experienced,” Knigge added.
In the past, the divide between the rights of travelers and travel companies
was known only to insiders, because it rarely became an issue. As a
practical matter, airlines, hotels and cruise lines accommodated their
guests even when they didn’t have to, in the interests of customer service
and because it was the right thing to do.
But today, it’s not difficult to find customers who were dismissed. Their
stories offer creative ways to tip the travel industry’s “no-fault” rules
a little in your favor.
When Haruko Terada and his family were returning recently from Myrtle Beach,
S.C., on Spirit , the airline decided to cancel their Sunday flight, citing
weather conditions. When was the next available flight? In three days, an
airline representative told him.
“I was lucky enough to find out quickly,” says Terada, who works for a
restaurant in Southfield, Mich. “I was one of the first ones to get the
refund, made a quick reservation for a rental car online, and we left the
airport before midnight, when the rental car place closed for the day. We
got back to our home in Michigan around 4 p.m. on Monday.”
Patrick Schmidt, a college professor from St. Paul, Minn., faced a similar
arbitrary cancellation of his rental vehicle in Skopje, Macedonia. The
problem: Although he’d reserved the vehicle through Priceline and Avis, a
company representative in Skopje told him that he couldn’t have the van for
768 euros (about $1,030), because, “as a franchisee, they would lose money
on the rental” with that discounted rate, he says.
Schmidt appealed to Priceline and Avis after the local office canceled his
reservation. I contacted Priceline on his behalf, and through their contacts
at Avis, the local office agreed to honor the original reservation. But his
story offers yet another tip for everyone else: Don’t take a cancellation
lying down. You can often fight it and win.
The takeaway? Sometimes it’s possible to book a flight, or a hotel room,
too far in advance, as Ellis probably did. Then again, you could roll the
dice and book a schedule you know is likely to change, which would allow you
to invoke an airline’s change policy to score a seat on a desirable, but
far more expensive flight — a risky move, to be sure.
None of these strategies should be necessary. The one-sided contracts that
allow travel companies to cancel their flights, rooms and cars with little
or no compensation shouldn’t be legal.
Change your mind when you’re traveling, and the consequences can be costly.
Most airline tickets are nonrefundable and require a hefty change fee plus
any fare differential. And many hotel rooms are totally nonrefundable and
nonchangeable, so you could lose the entire value of your room. So, why
doesn’t it work the other way around?
After Alaska Airlines recently changed his flight schedule, Art Ellis, a
retired researcher from Sacramento, wants to know.
Ellis and his wife, Marianne, were scheduled to return from Anchorage to
Sacramento at 8:20 p.m., but Alaska shifted the flight to a longer stopover,
arriving at 11:20 p.m. The flight arrived 20 minutes late, and the tired
couple didn’t get to their house until the next day. “It took us all day
and night to get home from our cruise in Alaska,” Ellis says. “I felt like
I was being jerked around.”
If Ellis is getting jerked around, he’s not alone. Airlines, cruise lines
and hotels routinely alter their schedules or delete reservations to
accommodate a large group or to renovate a building. When they do, their one
-sided adhesion contract — an agreement that applies to you but not
necessarily to the company — allows them to get away with it without paying
the customer a dime in damages. Some businesses, notably tour operators,
give themselves permission to keep your money and issue a voucher for a
future vacation.
Travelers say this isn’t fair. After all, when their plans change, even for
events beyond their control, they must pay fees and possibly lose some or
all of the value of their ticket. Ellis, who paid $825 for his tickets,
would have had to fork over another $125 to change each one, plus a fare
differential. Alaska informed Ellis of the change about two months before
the flight, but occasionally travel companies don’t bother telling affected
consumers, even when they have their contact information.
An Alaska Airlines representative said that the airline publishes its flight
schedule 330 days in advance, an industry standard. This is done so that
customers can start to research and plan early. “We want to give them a
pretty good idea of when they might be able to catch a flight back home for
Thanksgiving, for example,” said Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Halley Knigge.
“Because the booking schedule is published far in advance, it really is a
forecast of when and how frequently we’ll be flying 11 months later.”
Alaska, like other airlines, updates its schedule quarterly, and it tries to
keep the final schedule as close to the booking schedule as it can, paying
particular attention to preserving routes with connections.
In Ellis’s case, he’d booked his tickets for June last December, based on
Alaska’s booking schedule. The final schedule was published two months
later. Early-booking customers on Alaska have the option of changing their
itinerary on the same day or the day before or after the flight at no
additional charge, or of requesting a full refund. “We apologize for any
inconvenience Mr. Ellis experienced,” Knigge added.
In the past, the divide between the rights of travelers and travel companies
was known only to insiders, because it rarely became an issue. As a
practical matter, airlines, hotels and cruise lines accommodated their
guests even when they didn’t have to, in the interests of customer service
and because it was the right thing to do.
But today, it’s not difficult to find customers who were dismissed. Their
stories offer creative ways to tip the travel industry’s “no-fault” rules
a little in your favor.
When Haruko Terada and his family were returning recently from Myrtle Beach,
S.C., on Spirit , the airline decided to cancel their Sunday flight, citing
weather conditions. When was the next available flight? In three days, an
airline representative told him.
“I was lucky enough to find out quickly,” says Terada, who works for a
restaurant in Southfield, Mich. “I was one of the first ones to get the
refund, made a quick reservation for a rental car online, and we left the
airport before midnight, when the rental car place closed for the day. We
got back to our home in Michigan around 4 p.m. on Monday.”
Patrick Schmidt, a college professor from St. Paul, Minn., faced a similar
arbitrary cancellation of his rental vehicle in Skopje, Macedonia. The
problem: Although he’d reserved the vehicle through Priceline and Avis, a
company representative in Skopje told him that he couldn’t have the van for
768 euros (about $1,030), because, “as a franchisee, they would lose money
on the rental” with that discounted rate, he says.
Schmidt appealed to Priceline and Avis after the local office canceled his
reservation. I contacted Priceline on his behalf, and through their contacts
at Avis, the local office agreed to honor the original reservation. But his
story offers yet another tip for everyone else: Don’t take a cancellation
lying down. You can often fight it and win.
The takeaway? Sometimes it’s possible to book a flight, or a hotel room,
too far in advance, as Ellis probably did. Then again, you could roll the
dice and book a schedule you know is likely to change, which would allow you
to invoke an airline’s change policy to score a seat on a desirable, but
far more expensive flight — a risky move, to be sure.
None of these strategies should be necessary. The one-sided contracts that
allow travel companies to cancel their flights, rooms and cars with little
or no compensation shouldn’t be legal.
Change your mind when you’re traveling, and the consequences can be costly.
Most airline tickets are nonrefundable and require a hefty change fee plus
any fare differential. And many hotel rooms are totally nonrefundable and
nonchangeable, so you could lose the entire value of your room. So, why
doesn’t it work the other way around?
After Alaska Airlines recently changed his flight schedule, Art Ellis, a
retired researcher from Sacramento, wants to know.
Ellis and his wife, Marianne, were scheduled to return from Anchorage to
Sacramento at 8:20 p.m., but Alaska shifted the flight to a longer stopover,
arriving at 11:20 p.m. The flight arrived 20 minutes late, and the tired
couple didn’t get to their house until the next day. “It took us all day
and night to get home from our cruise in Alaska,” Ellis says. “I felt like
I was being jerked around.”
If Ellis is getting jerked around, he’s not alone. Airlines, cruise lines
and hotels routinely alter their schedules or delete reservations to
accommodate a large group or to renovate a building. When they do, their one
-sided adhesion contract — an agreement that applies to you but not
necessarily to the company — allows them to get away with it without paying
the customer a dime in damages. Some businesses, notably tour operators,
give themselves permission to keep your money and issue a voucher for a
future vacation.
Travelers say this isn’t fair. After all, when their plans change, even for
events beyond their control, they must pay fees and possibly lose some or
all of the value of their ticket. Ellis, who paid $825 for his tickets,
would have had to fork over another $125 to change each one, plus a fare
differential. Alaska informed Ellis of the change about two months before
the flight, but occasionally travel companies don’t bother telling affected
consumers, even when they have their contact information.
An Alaska Airlines representative said that the airline publishes its flight
schedule 330 days in advance, an industry standard. This is done so that
customers can start to research and plan early. “We want to give them a
pretty good idea of when they might be able to catch a flight back home for
Thanksgiving, for example,” said Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Halley Knigge.
“Because the booking schedule is published far in advance, it really is a
forecast of when and how frequently we’ll be flying 11 months later.”
Alaska, like other airlines, updates its schedule quarterly, and it tries to
keep the final schedule as close to the booking schedule as it can, paying
particular attention to preserving routes with connections.
In Ellis’s case, he’d booked his tickets for June last December, based on
Alaska’s booking schedule. The final schedule was published two months
later. Early-booking customers on Alaska have the option of changing their
itinerary on the same day or the day before or after the flight at no
additional charge, or of requesting a full refund. “We apologize for any
inconvenience Mr. Ellis experienced,” Knigge added.
In the past, the divide between the rights of travelers and travel companies
was known only to insiders, because it rarely became an issue. As a
practical matter, airlines, hotels and cruise lines accommodated their
guests even when they didn’t have to, in the interests of customer service
and because it was the right thing to do.
But today, it’s not difficult to find customers who were dismissed. Their
stories offer creative ways to tip the travel industry’s “no-fault” rules
a little in your favor.
When Haruko Terada and his family were returning recently from Myrtle Beach,
S.C., on Spirit , the airline decided to cancel their Sunday flight, citing
weather conditions. When was the next available flight? In three days, an
airline representative told him.
“I was lucky enough to find out quickly,” says Terada, who works for a
restaurant in Southfield, Mich. “I was one of the first ones to get the
refund, made a quick reservation for a rental car online, and we left the
airport before midnight, when the rental car place closed for the day. We
got back to our home in Michigan around 4 p.m. on Monday.”
Patrick Schmidt, a college professor from St. Paul, Minn., faced a similar
arbitrary cancellation of his rental vehicle in Skopje, Macedonia. The
problem: Although he’d reserved the vehicle through Priceline and Avis, a
company representative in Skopje told him that he couldn’t have the van for
768 euros (about $1,030), because, “as a franchisee, they would lose money
on the rental” with that discounted rate, he says.
Schmidt appealed to Priceline and Avis after the local office canceled his
reservation. I contacted Priceline on his behalf, and through their contacts
at Avis, the local office agreed to honor the original reservation. But his
story offers yet another tip for everyone else: Don’t take a cancellation
lying down. You can often fight it and win.
The takeaway? Sometimes it’s possible to book a flight, or a hotel room,
too far in advance, as Ellis probably did. Then again, you could roll the
dice and book a schedule you know is likely to change, which would allow you
to invoke an airline’s change policy to score a seat on a desirable, but
far more expensive flight — a risky move, to be sure.
None of these strategies should be necessary. The one-sided contracts that
allow travel companies to cancel their flights, rooms and cars with little
or no compensation shouldn’t be legal. | s*y
发帖数: 18644 | 2 一开始说的就不太对，most airline tickets都有fully refundable的选项，只不过大
家都习惯买
便宜的nonrefundable的票 | p****r
发帖数: 9164 | 3 refundable 都贵很多吧。 很多hotel booking site 也这样。
【在 s*y 的大作中提到】
: 一开始说的就不太对，most airline tickets都有fully refundable的选项，只不过大
: 家都习惯买
: 便宜的nonrefundable的票
| A***a
发帖数: 2211 | 4 //hand...
Mine was 100 dollar cheaper compare to the refundable one.
but I had to change one time,, It spend me 2200 fine+25 "booking fee"... so
expensive!
【在 p****r 的大作中提到】
: refundable 都贵很多吧。 很多hotel booking site 也这样。
| s*y
发帖数: 18644 | 5 每张票都有fare rule，要自己仔细看，有的票可以免费改签一次，有的票改签100刀手
续费，2200 fine听上去太夸张了，我猜是因为本来你想改到的那天票价就很贵，差额
本来就是另算的，不然人人都可以随便买张便宜票改签了。
so
【在 A***a 的大作中提到】
: //hand...
: Mine was 100 dollar cheaper compare to the refundable one.
: but I had to change one time,, It spend me 2200 fine+25 "booking fee"... so
: expensive!
|
|
