When I received news that my Mom's last living sibling; "Uncle Einar" was in the hospital and is battling for his life, I wanted to go see him.  I booked a ticket for my father and I to go down to see him in South Carolina.  I knew the only airline that flew nonstop from NYC was Spirit Airlines. So, as I usually do before I book a trip, I shop around.  I first called Spirit directly.  The reservation Center at Spirit did not have the return flight available to get my Dad and I back home in time for previous engagements.  The reservation agent had told me that I could only fly in their Spirit Plus which is their First Class, but it would cost me $560 instead of $280.  No thank YOU!   Then I logged on to JohnnyJet.com to check out what the web had to offer:  First stop: Spiritair.com because you never know if they have different inventories online than their reservation agents have.  Unfortunately, they had the same info as the agent.  That's not going to work.  I went to Orbitz and they were offering fares for $290 but I had to fly on Delta through either Atlanta or Cincinnati.  I'm not going to travel six hours when I can do it in one in a half.   I checked the annoying sidesteps pop up and that search came up empty as they displayed the same info as Spiritair.com.  

Just when I was about to give up hope, Travelocity (I thought) came through for me.  I was very excited.  I was able to get the flights I wanted and for a decent price $321.50 a piece.  GREAT, I THOUGHT!  Then I logged onto Priceline.com to get a car and I received this email after I had a successful bid for a car:  "Congratulations Johnny Jet, you got your price of $27 per day for your Economy Class rental car.  Based on Budget Rent-a-Car's retail price for your rental, you saved $32.07 or 29%. Your complete rental car itinerary and receipt is shown below. Enjoy your trip!"  It was really going smooth...so I thought.

Then as a good traveler I called Spirit Air to get seat assignments. The agent horrified me when she said "I have NO RECORD of you".  I thought she was mistaken so I hung up and called back to speak to another agent...guess what?  That's right...the same result.  Are you kidding me? I called Travelocity and they put me on hold for 15 minutes.  They told me that Spirit was indeed sold out of the return flight so they were unable to book us the ticket.  Sorry she said!  Sorry!?!  Well, HELLO?  Can't you send me an email or call me to let me know? 

I received this email after completing the booking:

Dear Travelocity Customer:

Thank you for making your travel arrangements through Travelocity.  We've included a copy of your itinerary below for your records. Should you have a need to review these arrangements, please visit the following URL and select your Trip ID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So, to my knowledge everything was all set.  If I didn't call we would've driven all the way out to the airport early in the morning for no reason. 

I literally spent three (3) very aggravating hours on the phone between Travelocity and Spirit.  It wasn't Spirit Air's fault at all, it was Travelocity's.  Spirit Air did not have seats to sell, but Travelocity claimed they did. I do not like to be lied to and that's what Travelocity did.  They not only cost me valuable time, but I spent $79 for a non refundable car rental and I had a lot of disappointed family members.  Get this: one of the agents told me "Spirit Air must've sold out between the time you found the fare to the time you pressed the purchase button".   I said "Oh yeah? Well, then why don't you log on to Travelocity right now (24 hours later) and tell me why you are still offering the same exact itinerary?  The agent didn't believe me so she logged on for herself.  She came back and her tone of voice changed and said "oh".   Oh???  That is just plain and simple: misinformation. 

Think about all of the people Travelocity has possibly done this to?  If, you happen to be one of these unlucky people, please send me the details and I will post it.  Think about the folks that didn't know enough to call ahead of time, and showed up to the airport to go on a round trip to NO WHERE!  Travelocity has caused me a major disservice. All they can say is sorry and tell me lies?  I have called five (5) times to speak to a supervisor,  every time the agents keep telling me they only have one working and is really busy, but will call me back.  Well, it's been almost three (3) weeks and I still haven't had any phone calls or emails returned.  I not only want my money back for the car rental, but I want compensation for my time.  Oh yeah, and by the way I won't be using Travelocity.com again anytime soon.     


UPDATED!
Well, after months of exchanging emails with Travelocity's senior people, they finally made good. Travelocity refunded my $70.00 and sent me an acceptable apology. Don't get me wrong, I still would've rather had everything go as originally planned, but at least they saved face. This whole ordeal taught me a valuable lesson. Don't expect everything is all set just because you pressed the purchase button on the internet and received an email from the company. Make sure you read the fine print and then call the airline, hotel, car rental, or cruise (whatever you’ve booked) to make sure it went through.

Moral of the story:  Always double check with the airline after booking a ticket online.