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Travel Forum / Travel Types / Air Travel / October 2007Why Travelocity Sucks: Sorry the lowest Price has changed...
What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. Travelocity, you officially suck. SHAME ON YOU!!!! Why do you want to alienate the people who are using your site? Why do you want to waste our time? Why the bait ans switch? WHY WHY WHY! >What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, >and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. >Travelocity, you officially suck. SHAME ON YOU!!!! Why do you want to >alienate the people who are using your site? Why do you want to waste >our time? Why the bait ans switch? WHY WHY WHY! That happens on all the sites like Travelocity. Frequently, they've just sold the last seat at the lower price. BTW, what's the $300? Is it fees and taxes or an actual fare change?  Signature************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * > BTW, what's the $300? Is it fees and taxes or an actual fare > change? Probably the TSA surcharge. -- >>BTW, what's the $300? Is it fees and taxes or an actual fare >>change? > > Probably the TSA surcharge. Swiss Army kmife surcharge > What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, > and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste > of time. Travelocity, you officially suck. SHAME ON YOU!!!! > Why do you want to alienate the people who are using your site? > Why do you want to waste our time? Why the bait and switch? You are more likely to find the fare you want if you use the "flexible dates of travel" feature which show you on which days (if any) seats at that price can be had. Those low-ball fares are often either: 1. The fare was valid at one point in time, but no seats for that fare code are available for your dates of travel. The fare is still on the books, but the ~3~ seats alloted for it are gone; 2. For a multi-leg or R/T fare, seats are available for the 1st leg only, not for connecting or return segments. Sometimes, only the 1st available fare-code gets quoted. 3. The fare has day-of-week, time-of-day, length-of-stay or blackout date restrictions which your dates of travel violated. > What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, > and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. > Travelocity, you officially suck. SHAME ON YOU!!!! Why do you want to > alienate the people who are using your site? Why do you want to waste > our time? Why the bait ans switch? WHY WHY WHY! Do you think this is the only site this happens on? This happens because the search is not performed with up-to-date real-time data. It has been reported that it happens most frequently on Orbitz. It is called "fare jumping". : What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, : and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. Yes it is frustrating, but travelocity is a global company, not your neighborhood desk, and it is entirely possible that someone could have bought those cheaper seats in the meantime. >: What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, >: and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. > >Yes it is frustrating, but travelocity is a global company, not your >neighborhood desk, and it is entirely possible that someone could have >bought those cheaper seats in the meantime. I've also seen it on routes where I am fairly certain that no one else was buying -- I tend to book flights at 3 or 4 in the morning, and if you use the "flexible dates" feature you can sometimes see searches that were performed recently. If there is no fare on a date, go do the search manually then go back to the flexible dates and notice that the price now appears. I've had cases where there was no other details on a given date until I did a query for that specific date, then attempted to make a purchase and gotten the "lowest price has changed", then seen the lowest price back again a few hours later. Again, attempting to buy shows that it has changed. Personally, I think they're showing prices they know likely won't go through just to keep eyeballs on their site. SignatureYou can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. > Personally, I think they're showing prices they know likely won't go > through just to keep eyeballs on their site. This goes all the way back to EaasySabre. They display published fares received in batch from airlines. Only once you book do they try to confirm availability and then tell you that there are no available seats left. It is a fact of life for mass market systems with large volumes of queries that will never yield a booking. Real travel agents can interrogate available fares on a route on a date before starting booking process. The dumbed down web based travel agencies don't do that since it would cost them way too much to have live inventory queries from many many airlines everytime some user wanted an idea of fares between A and B. And it gets worse when they have those "my dates are flexible" since the web based software will then show you any/all fares published on that route in roughly the same time period even though even the batch updates may show all seats usable for a fare being sold out on the date you want. Once you understand how these systems work, then you understand why they come to you at the last minute with a "sorry that fare isn't available". >Once you understand how these systems work, then you understand why they >come to you at the last minute with a "sorry that fare isn't available". Sure -- What I object to is that once they determine a fare isn't available, they later show that same fare as being available again. SignatureYou can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. >Sure -- What I object to is that once they determine a fare isn't >available, they later show that same fare as being available again. One time I kept searching for a fare. A number of times it would show the lower fare but I could never book it. This occurred over a period of weeks. >>: What the hell, you do a search, you get the price, you click on it, >>: and then it goes up $300. How annoying is this? What a waste of time. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > I've also seen it on routes where I am fairly certain that no one else > was buying -- I tend to book flights at 3 or 4 in the morning, Not that I disagree with some of the other stuff you are saying, but when it is 3 or 4 in the morning where you are, it is NOT 3 or 4 in the morning in most other places. >Not that I disagree with some of the other stuff you are saying, but >when it is 3 or 4 in the morning where you are, it is NOT 3 or 4 in the >morning in most other places. True. However, it is statistically likely that when I am searching for a flight between a couple smaller cities that are relatively close, there aren't a whole ton of Aussies searching that route. Well that, plus I described how I identified that no one else was searching that same route through Travelocity at that moment. SignatureYou can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. > In message <RZmdnVUcMdfOF7zanZ2dnUVZ_rfin...@comcast.com> mrtravel > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > -- > You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. Travelocity is no better than any other travel site, really. I just saw an article by a guy who was a travel agent and fired for no apparent reason. So he's getting revenge by posting everything he has learned on the inside for the general public to see. It's amazing what he's telling, how to get cheaper everything! There are so many tricks to the travel biz and he's doing this on purpose. But there is no way he can be shut up. See it at: www.columbinetravel.biz and see what you think too. I'll use his tips from now on to get cheaper everything. You people are all too accepting!! Give me a break, are you seriously telling me that it isn't technically feasible to show the actual price of the fare when, with one more click of the button, I get the ACTUAL frigging price 2 seconds later? As that guy on TV says, GIVE ME A BREAK! This is a simple BAIT and SWITCH! My original post stands, why annoy us like that? And you are right, it isn't only travelocity, but I am going to single them out anyway. Why? Because I used to think they were industry leaders and now I think they are a bunch of chumps for wasting all of our time like this. Get real, show us the actual price. If you can show us a second later with one click of a mouse button, then you can show us NOW UP FRONT. STOP WASTING OUR TIME! You suck Travelocity, you suck. > are you seriously telling me that it isn't technically feasible to show > the actual price of the fare Well, Yes, I think we are. Between any 2 airports (more if one is doing a multi-city search), there are multiple airlines and a variety of possible connections. Imagine the time it would take if sites like Travelocity (but, insert Orbitz, Expedia, etc.) had to go to each possible airline's website and insert the paramters of your search in order to arrive at possible itineraries and prices and then display them in some matrix for you to look at. Thus, to speed things up to the user, these sites build a large database a few times during the day and use that for conducting searches. (Refernce my use of "real-time" in my prior post.) > with one more click of the button, I get the ACTUAL frigging price 2 > seconds later? Yes, this can now happen quickly as you have identified a specific flight on a specific day that can then be input into an airline's database to get a real-time quote. If the fare still exists, fine--otherwise this is when you get the message that the fare no longer exists. > This is a simple BAIT and SWITCH! Well, you are right. These sites are not upfront with the user on how the seach is actually performed. >I used to think they were industry leaders The industry leader is Orbitz. >>are you seriously telling me that it isn't technically feasible to show >>the actual price of the fare [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > real-time quote. If the fare still exists, fine--otherwise this is when you > get the message that the fare no longer exists. The common complaint is that they do not then use the information to alter their data but continue to display information which they now know to be wrong. >> This is a simple BAIT and SWITCH! > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > The industry leader is Orbitz. > are you seriously telling me that it isn't technically feasible to show > the actual price of the fare Well, Yes, I think we are. Between any 2 airports (more if one is doing a multi-city search), there are multiple airlines and a variety of possible connections. Imagine the time it would take if sites like Travelocity (but, insert Orbitz, Expedia, etc.) had to go to each possible airline's website and insert the parameters of your search in order to arrive at possible itineraries and prices and then display them in some matrix for you to look at. Thus, to speed things up to the user, these sites build a large database a few times during the day and use that for conducting searches. (Reference my use of "real-time" in my prior post.) > with one more click of the button, I get the ACTUAL frigging price 2 > seconds later? Yes, this can now happen quickly as you have identified a specific flight on a specific day that can then be input into an airline's database to get a real-time quote. If the fare still exists, fine--otherwise this is when you get the message that the fare no longer exists. > This is a simple BAIT and SWITCH! Well, you are right. These sites are not upfront with the user on how the search is actually performed. >I used to think they were industry leaders The industry leader is Orbitz. > Well, Yes, I think we are. Between any 2 airports (more if one is doing a > multi-city search), there are multiple airlines and a variety of possible [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > database a few times during the day and use that for conducting searches. > (Reference my use of "real-time" in my prior post.) Sorry, I don't buy it. I can imagine exactly what would be required from a techincal and design perspective. I work in this area and I can tell you that what I am suggesting is not only feasible, it isn't even taxing from a hardware, software, throughput, etc. perspective. Moreover, I have a fairly extensive background in business and I can say, with at least some certainty, that the reason these sites don't show you the complete fare upfront has more to do with studies that have likely shown customers simply book the 'adjusted' fare rather than spend all day clicking back and forth on their browsers. My guess is that they have developed revenue models that support their current setup. I'm saying that it is a short-sited strategy--after using Travelocity, I now go to the lowest quoted airline and book directly with them. Anyhow, I'll get off my gripe-box for now.... I've put it out there... Regards all. > Sorry, I don't buy it. I can imagine exactly what would be required > from a techincal and design perspective. You can "imagine" it, but that doesn't make it true. To quote from here (http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-tr-internet7aug07,1,6658401.column?coll=la- headlines-technology), "Current technology doesn't allow checking every possible airfare combination and holding every one of those fares while the customer decides whether to purchase the ticket." > You people are all too accepting!! Give me a break, are you > seriously telling me that it isn't technically feasible to show the > actual price of the fare when, with one more click of the button, > I get the ACTUAL frigging price 2 seconds later? As another poster said, you're asking them to interface with each airline's system and attempt to book every possible flight combination for available fares, as opposed to published tariffs. I suppose that is technically possible, but then you'd be here to whine about how slow the website is. IMHO, its better to use such sites (Expedia, Orbitz, etc) to get a list of which airlines fly a particular route an which have lower fares, as a starting point. I prefer to book directly with the airlines themselves, since there's no middle-man in case of changes and your also get perks like extra FF miles. =R= >Travelocity is no better than any other travel site, really. It's great to research options, but only once in my life have I not been able to get the same or better fares directly from the airline. This might not hold true for more complex itineraries, but I'm near a reasonably well connected airport and primarily fly to major cities. SignatureYou can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. >>In message <RZmdnVUcMdfOF7zanZ2dnUVZ_rfin...@comcast.com> mrtravel >> [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >>Well that, plus I described how I identified that no one else was >>searching that same route through Travelocity at that moment. >>You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > what you think too. I'll use his tips from now on to get cheaper > everything. Right. $25 for lots of promises & no examples. > In message <RZmdnVUcMdfOF7zanZ2dnUVZ_rfin...@comcast.com> mrtravel > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > -- > You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word. Travelocity is no better than any other travel site, really. I just saw an article by a guy who was a travel agent and fired for no apparent reason. So he's getting revenge by posting everything he has learned on the inside for the general public to see. It's amazing what he's telling, how to get cheaper everything! There are so many tricks to the travel biz and he's doing this on purpose. But there is no way he can be shut up. See it at: www.columbinetravel.biz and see what you think too. I'll use his tips from now on to get cheaper everything. snip > Travelocity is no better than any other travel site, really. I just > saw an article by a guy who was a travel agent and fired for no [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > what you think too. I'll use his tips from now on to get cheaper > everything. Ah yes the magic send me $25 and I will tell you how to rule the world scam. |
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