I am a proud early adopter of many new advances in technology, and particularly the internet. Used BBS services on a terminal at home (2400 baud -- ooh, speedy) in 1984. Got an e-mail account (UNIX system -- ooh, techie) in 1988. Joined AOL (just, eew) in 1993. Bought a computer over the internet in 1998, and a whole car in 2001. In each case, I was the usually the first among everyone I knew to do such things.
Another practice I adopted early on was searching for and purchasing airline tickets over the internet. I joined Travelocity eons ago, and for a time, it was unique, and quite useful.
Of late, however, I've become deeply disillusioned with Travelocity. Last year, when I was trying to coordinate the travel schedules of four people flying to New Orleans from four different cities, I was thwarted repeatedly from purchasing my own ticket through the site. After endless screens to pick departure date, arrival date, flights, seats and payment information, Travelocity would refuse to process the order, claiming some sort of internal error. After multiple, fruitless attempts to complete the lengthy transaction, I ended up losing out on a flight I wanted because of it.
As I attempted this week to make arrangements for a simple, one-person trip to Oregon, the same error cropped up. Call and wait on hold to speak to a customer service representative? Uh, no. I switched over to the airline's own site and made the arrangements in a matter of minutes, for less money.
Competition is a vicious thing, Travelocity. Guess what? We made our Florida reservations through the airline, and our Bahamas reservations Orbitz ... or Expedia ... well, whatever it was, it wasn't Travelocity.
Go back to the lawn, gnome.
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1 comment:
when are you going to OR? I'm having the worst time finding flights so I can see if it's worth the hassle. And I always go directly to the airline to actually purchase the tickets. Sometimes I even call. On the phone. I know, the horror.
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