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A Dreadful Travelocity Experience:

We ordered a “Last Minute Package” from Travelocity on Friday, August 21, 2009 at approximately 11:30am. The package included flight + hotel (round-trip airfare from Minneapolis , MN to Chicago , IL and two nights lodging at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue ). We had never taken a “last minute” trip before and were extremely proud of our spontaneity.

We were scheduled on an American Airlines flight leaving Minneapolis at 7:20pm and arriving in Chicago at 8:40pm. We also contracted to stay at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago for 2 nights (Friday and Saturday).

After waiting for more than 2 hours to receive a final confirmation from Travelocity, we called and e-mailed Travelocity to determine the status of our trip. On the phone, the Travelocity representatives were unable to provide us with any answers, but promised to call us back.

Finally, at approximately 2:00pm, Travelocity called to tell us that we no longer had a place to stay. The hotel had been overbooked. We could, however, stay at a different hotel for a higher price than we had agreed upon OR we cancel the trip and pay a cancellation fee. After being transferred among various Travelocity employees and spending an hour on the phone, a supervisor was finally able to “find” a room for us at the Inter Continental Hotel (the hotel we originally attempted to book).

At approximately 3:30pm, we were informed that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. We talked directly to American Airlines who, initially, was willing to re-book us on a Delta flight for later the same evening at no extra cost. Unfortunately, after going through the “re-booking” process we were informed that American Airlines could not re-book us on the Delta flight after all... because we booked our flight through the Travelocity Last Minute Package program. We were told that any changes needed to be made through our travel agent, Travelocity.

We immediately called Travelocity and spent the next 3.5 hours on the phone talking to various Travelocity employees and “supervisors.” We spoke to 11 total Travelocity employees/representatives. Our multiple requests to speak with someone who speaks English as a first language were refused. Based on the accents of the employees and information gathered during the phone call(s), I assume that the Travelocity call center is based in India. One employee even attempted to tell us that our flight was cancelled due to severe weather. This was far from the case, as the skies were clear from Minnesota to Illinois all day long.
At the end of the call (3.5 hours later), we still had not reached a resolution to our problem.

The supervisors we talked to gave us two options: (1) We would cancel our entire trip for a cancelation fee of $182 per person; or (2) We could book a seat on a different flight for a per person additional fee of which they never disclosed. We communicated to Travelocity that this was unacceptable. We entered into a binding contract with Travelocity, therefore Travelocity was responsible for fulfilling their end of the contract.

Once it was clear that Travelocity was not willing to fulfill their end of the contract, we made one last attempt to talk directly to American Airlines. Our saving grace was that we had flown on American Airlines only 4 days prior to this trip and a supervisor was willing to make an exception on book us on a late flight (with Delta).

Our flight with Delta was delayed (of course, of course), but we finally arrived in Chicago at approximately 11:20pm. Unfortunately, the shuttle to our hotel stops running at 11:30pm and had stopped running a little early that particular evening.

We were stuck with a choice of a $45 cab ride (approx.) or the train. We decided to take the train, only to find out that the train was unable to service a major portion of the route due to construction. We had to get off the train at one stop and board a city bus to take us to the next 8 (or so) stops until we could get back on the train. We all was said and done, we made it to our hotel at approximately 2am.

We were abruptly awakened the next morning at 7:30am by a small bang, followed by a loud, room-shaking boom. The small bang, big boom pattern was repeated every 10 seconds. I walked around our floor to find the source of the problem and found that the noise was coming opposite the elevators behind a door labeled “private.” I called the front desk to inquire and we were informed that it was the elevator. The InterContinental is an extremely old hotel with extremely old elevators. I since discovered that the elevator system is also loud and requires certain counter-weights to operate. The room with all the noise shares a common wall with the room the hotel “found” for us after initially attempting to cancel our reservation. To my knowledge, this is the only room in the hotel with a “booming” problem (Room 2506). We had our room moved that afternoon.

Moral of the Story: Booking through Travelocity is extremely risky. You need to carefully calculate and evaluate the risk-reward of using Travelocity. Although it might appear that you are going to save some money booking your trip through Travelocity, please understand that Travelocity is NOT in the business of making sure your trip goes smoothly or providing quality customer service. If anything goes wrong, you will have nowhere to turn and no one to fight for you. The travel vendors (airline, hotel, car rental company, etc.) will be less willing to work with you since you booked through Travelocity and will likely refer you back to Travelocity if problems arise. Travelocity will keep you on the phone for hours without providing a solution to your problems and/or offering a solution ONLY if you are willing to pay an additional fee. Additionally, Travelocity will transfer you to multiple employees (almost none of whom speak English as a first language) who will all ask the same questions and give varying versions of the same answers. Travelocity is focused on high-volume transactions and securing any and all additional “fees” possible. BEWARE.

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