How airlines have betrayed us

I was purchasing two tickets for teens ages 13 and 17. It was a non-stop flight where the passengers got on and off the airline. Delta said a "fee" would be charged for anyone under-age. When reservations were made online with the ages of the passengers provided, the final charge shown did not show a fee. I made reservations at that fee and e-tickets were issued. I called to confirm the arrangement and was told no fee was required. I was also told that an adult must go to the gate with the passengers both when they departed and arrived. On departure, the adult was charged a $100 "underage fee" at departure. When I took the youth for their departure trip, I was also charged a $100 "underage fee". The fee is for the purpose of providing extra services to youth but the crew provided abolutely nothing and the extra fees were almost as much as the original flight charge. It was a total rip-off. Since, I have purposely avoided flying Delta and will never fly on the airline again.

Today my business colleague spoke with a Delta representative to change a flight time (yes, we agreed to the exorbitant change fee), and he clearly requested (and was reassured several times) that the new flight was "nonstop."  Within a few minutes of booking the ticket, a Delta agent called back to "verify" the change and the charge, which now included a "quick stop" in another city enroute to the final destination.   Thank goodness he declined to verify, but it took several calls, well over 30 minutes, many transfers, long hold times and innumerable reiterations of the circumstances to get Delta to agree that a short stop in a city other than the final destination was not a nonstop flight.  Can you imagine?!  Our firm's travel policies will now likely remove Delta Airlines as an approved carrier over this insufferable stupidity.  Actually, Delta expected us to be stupid enough to agree to the farce!

My daughter's boyfriend needed to book his flights for a St Louis to Dallas flight for Thanksgiving.  We were talking on the phone one night and he was on American Airlines website looking at fares.  He saw a flight with the perfect times and told me the price.  It was a great deal so I told him to hurry up and pay for it.  He did so, and printed the receipt.  The next day he called and told me that his credit card had been charged more than what he had agreed to pay, and that when he received his e-ticket it was also at the higher price.  Many, many, many phone calls later, we were still being told that his low fare was not a possible fare option, and that the new price stood.  He took his receipt and e-ticket to the airport and asked for a supervisor to help him.  They finally did so, honoring the original lower fare.  I am absolutely flaberghasted that they will quote a fare, confirm the ticket, give a receipt, and then charge the credit card a different price.  Talk about an illegal practice!

I am a frequent flier on United, and have achieved "Premier Executive" status for the last couple of years.  So I always try to book on United.com, in order to get my choice of seats, upgrades, etc.  Over the last few days, I was trying to book a flight and every time my desired itinerary came up with a price, when I went to purchase the ticket the price would be much higher.  So I gave up and checked Orbitz for cheaper flights.  Low and behold, one of the options that came up on Orbitz was the lower-priced United flight I was trying to book.  I figured, what the hell, let's see what happens if I try to book it through Orbitz.  Guess what?  I got the exact flight I wanted at the lower fare (plus a $7 processing fee) through Orbitz.  I felt really betrayed by United, especially considering I've been such a loyal customer for so many years.

This is another reason why I use Priceline so much. If I call and get a different price than what's quoted, I say no thanks and hang up. These systems are banking that you will take what you're offered in desperation, or be too frustrated to continue to shop around. Don't play their game. If you strike out on all the websites or airline sites, then adjust your travel schedule, go to Priceline, and tell THEM what you are willing to pay. Someone will pick you up. They want to sell that seat.

I recently tried to book a flight from Tampa to Portland on JetBlue's website - I got a message at the end of my reservation saying that the website was currently unavailable for this service and to call customer service.  I called customer service and spoke with someone who looked at the flight I needed from Tampa to Portland, connecting in JFK, for $189, which was the same flight I had tried to book myself.  Upon receiving my e-mail confirmation after hanging up with the customer service rep, I noticed that the flight was from Tampa to JFK and stopped there not continuing on to Maine.  I called back and was told by an extremely rude supervisor that she was "not a party to my original phone call, for all she knew I was lying, I was lucky she didn't charge me the $100 change fee, and if I wanted to get from JFK to Maine, the new fair would be $235.  Even though I was looking at the flight on their website at that very moment listed for $189 from Tampa to Portland bearing the same exact flight numbers she was telling me was $235.  She was actually yelling at me by the end of our conversation - I've written a letter to JetBlue.

Anyone who has ever been told their flight was "oversold" is the victim of a bait and switch.

If any other retail industry did what the airlines do they would be brought up on consumer fraud charges.

These reasons and the high airfares are why I'm driving home for Christmas this year. I can drive in almost the same amount of time pay 1/2 the money and take whatever I want to eat and drink with me (not to mention being able to wrap my gifts before I get to my destination).  Am I worried about whether and traffic? What's the difference between sitting in my car in traffic, or having to stay overnight in a hotel on the road and waiting at an airport for 10 hours because there is a storm over an airport 1000 miles away?

It's all a case of buyer beware, and if the airline (any of them) is not behaving to your expectations, you need to take them to task for it.  What I don't understand is why the frequent flyer free flight "costs" are holding steady while the pay prices fluctuate wildly.  Just 25K miles for a trip to Alaska and back?  Sign me up!

I have never been a victim of bait and switch, but on three occasions over the last two years my family and I have had flights cancelled, or connections changed, and made impossible, within two weeks of travel.  The airline is willing to refund your money in these instances, however, you are left to book with another airline on short notice, and these costs can be triple or more what you origionally paid.  Seems like the airline should take some responsibility for these actions also.  The "rules" are ALWAYS in favor of the airline, and NEVER the consumer.

I worked 6 years at a hotel reservation site and have dealt with this issue.  They usually post a limited number of rooms or seats at the discounted prices which only the hotel or airline themselves know the availability of.  So they may do alot of advertising when maybe only 10 seats on a plane at that price are available.  But your travel agent doesn't know that and just quotes the fare when 100 other travel agents are on the phone at the same time looking at the last seat on their screens.  One of them books it and the other 99 are out of luck.  I used to book the room while i was selling the room to that guest to prevent the room at that price from selling out while I was on the phone.  Most of the airlines' travel systems let their own employees do that but probably don't let travel agents book the room without a credit card.  The reservation wasn't technically confirmed until the credit card was in there but the room was held in inventory until i got off the phone with them.  The hotels didn't like it because I was holding their room. but it kept me from being embarrassed on the phone.

I used to use americavacations.com to book trips to Vegas. Go to the site, set my dates and check out the hotels etc. Pick what I wanted then call the 800 number and tell the agent hat I had pulled up. They would pull it up, we would verify and confirm. Paid with my credit card and got a Confirmation number to use at the airport. Simple and clean.

Now that they are US Air and that comes up on the web site, it still lists the deals as before except the price you see up front is not the price you get when you want to pay. Now you need to read  a line by line version of your itinerary where it has the ,plus this, plus that, and plus tax, etc. I have been just clicking it off and forgetting about it.

This is a classic case of where US Air has taken a time tested and proven success to a level of absolute frustration with these add-ons. US Air, just post the total price up front and let the customer work his/her way back as to what they want or don't want.

For the past few years, both me and Vegas are the losers here.

See a few Delta complaints here, no surprise. My sister passed suddenly and i had to get from Fla. to Scranton, Pa the next day. Called and Delta was the only one who could arrange the flights. They have a "bereavement"? price they quoted me  and i was at the airport at 4am for a 5am take-off. The price was not the price I was told and the counter person told me to take it or leave it (seriously). I was not rude, arguementive  As if I had a choice.

A week later a lady I worked with had the same situation I did and flew the same route I did ,but at $268, NOT THE $535 I PAID.  Never flew Delta again

Weird.  Delta flights all seem about the same to me, but it's usually the other ones that cause me problems, United especially.  Honestly, I can't tell the difference.  Traveling pretty much sucks unless you drive.

I had a problem last week with Airtran when trying to purchase tickets.  See the full post here: 

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Here is the flight I tried booking on AirTran’s website this morning. As you can see on the first page it said it was having difficulties with the payment processing system and to call 1-800-AIRTRAN. I called and was on hold for about 20 minutes before someone answered the phone at which time they wanted to not only charge me the higher fares (for what their computer said because they couldn’t access the web specials) but also charge me an agent fee for booking over the phone.

I prefer Expedia to Travelocity but more than once when I've clicked through to purchase a ticket, the message is "sorry, that fare is no longer available.  Your new fare is (insert noticeably higher price here)."  So I exit and start over.  Lo and behold, the low fare I couldn't get is back on again and I go through the whole cycle.  Online systems these days are smart enough and big enough to be real time.  The practice of "sorry, that fare is no longer available" is intentional at worst and sloppy at best.

On US AIrways website I found a $79 fare to Pittsburgh.  When I went to book it, it had changed to $139.  I understand, sometimes the $79 fares are limited and it may have sold out.  I booked the $139 flight.  WIthin hours, and for days afterward, the $79 fare was offered.

I called Customer Service to ask.  While I was on hold, the fare was $79.  When I spoke with Customer Service I was told the fare was $139!  I checked. They were right! It had gone up.  I hung up and the fare was back to $79.  Unbelievable!  It's hard to believe it isn't being deliberately manipulated.

The kicker is that $139 really isn't a bad fare for the flightl  I wasn't unhappy with the fare.  But buying a ticket on their website is like dealing with carnival workers.  

Using US Airways website I booked a flight to Pittsburgh.  The fare was listed at $79.  I tried to book and the fare had changed to $129.  Now, that's not a bad fare either so I figured the $79 fares were sold out and booked.

The fare almost immediately went back to $79 and stayed there for days.  I called Customer Service, because I was certain this was some kind of computer error.  While on hold for a representative, I could see the fare was $79.  While speaking to the customer service rep, I was informed that the fare was $139.  I checked, and to my surprise, it was !  As soon as I hung up, the fare went back to $79.

It's hard to believe they aren't manipulating this manually.  Buying a ticket is like dealing with a street con.   And I wasn't really upset to pay $139.  I was just upset with the procedure.

Early this year, I was looking at flights from Philadelphia to Tampa, FL.  I found what looked like a great fare, and when I went to booking the price magically went up by 300.00 per person, which was 900.00 for myself and two daughters.  I ended up renting a car, with no surprises.  Let's face it, if they can get even 40% of the population to fall for it, they are making huge profit.  What next?

I tried to book a round trip from Charlotte to Denver on Travelocity and whenever I went to confim the booking it was telling me that the price had increased.  I checked the airline's website and got the flight for over $200 less then what Travelocity was quoting.  After that experience I started checking directly with the airlines or hotels and now I go stictly to their sites for booking instead of sites like Travelocity because I either get better pricing or the same pricing.  All Travelocity is good for is to show me what is availble on all airlines or hotels, then I just book direct.

Recently here in Canada I found myself trapped in a corner. My Mosaik Mastercard credit card had this great Airmiles deal with WestJet Airlines. We had been saving for years to take the family to DisneyWorld. With a family of four kids, the Airmiles deal was the only way we felt we could do it.

Through the grapevine we discovered that the deal was being terminated and that Mosaik was replacing it with another Airmiles deal that was much less advantageous. Fortunately we discovered this early enough to make plans. I was very disappointed that Mosaik hadn't informed me clearly of this situation in the mail when my credit card bill came. They always inform me of how many Airmiles I've earned in big letters!

So we made arrangements, racked up our Airmiles as quickly as possible and booked the flights in July. I wasn't expecting it to be free - there are always taxes and surcharges. However, the bill came in at well over $1000 for the tickets. When questioned, they told me it was for Fuel Surcharges imposed by the Airline.

Now it's six weeks before departure and the Airline has declared "No Fuel Surcharges" on their flights. It's all over their website. But when I asked for a refund for a flight on which there will now be no fuel surcharges, I'm told that WestJet is not refunding any 'Fuel Surcharges' for Airmiles flights.

Is there any way I can get them to refund me?

My father and mother were visiting my family in New Mexico and my father died very unexpectedly.  We contacted Northwest airline concerning a refund for the unused portion of his round trip ticket.  We were told that my mother was not entitled to a refund, and would in fact be charged more for the conversion of the ticket to a one-way fare, since he would not be using the return ticket.  This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard - HE DIED!!!!

They're dumb really , they should have used the ''glass half full'' theory and said they were offering a 15 dollar discount on tickets without a checked bag and a 10 dollar surcharge for a second bag. They can then just fiddle the ticket prices in the background and no one would have cared.

Obviously the airlines don't think alot about their public image and ways to turn a buck while keeping their passengers at least indifferent towards them.

i won't fly delta for these reasons all of americas airlines suck maybe they should take lessons from iceland air. this industry needs regulations to protect innocent people. what a country.

We booked flights to Germany on NWA, using partner frequent flier miles, 11 months before the flight.  Then, three months before, NWA cancelled the flight, not telling us or the airline partner.  If we hadn't happened to check the reservation we wouldn't have known until we got to the airport - far to late to get another flight.  We were able to rebook on Air France, but at a cost of 30,000 more frequent flyer miles.

This was disgusting, incompetent service, and now NWA is part of the world's largest airline.

These guys are going the way of GM, Ford, and Chrysler - mistreating their customers all the way down.

We bailed the airlines out, now we are still paying.  But as usual, the higher income, the less you pay.  Middle class continues to be stepped on.  How much of our tax dollars were used to bail out the airlines after 911?  This is the thank you, more charges to those who can least afford it