Grievances against Travelocity …

My trip to Rome was pleasant with the exception of one thing – the flights!

As previously recounted, I had misadventures with AirOne/United and I know now to be leery of AirOne. But Travelocity itself is not without fault.

I find it ironic that the Travelocity Guarantee states ” Everything about your booking will be RIGHT, or we’ll work with our partners to make it right, right away.”

R-i-g-h-t! Where do I even begin?

I booked my flight in July. I was to travel Boston – Wash DC – Rome on 9/14 and return Rome -Milan – Boston on 9/21. The return trip actually required an overnight stay in Milan so I was pleased when in mid-August I was notified by Travelocity that the airline had changed the flight and I would be traveling Rome – Milan – Boston on 9/22 without an overnight stay. I cancelled my Milan hotel and continued with my trip preparations.

I had difficulty finding my reservation at the airport on 9/14 making me very concerned about what difficulties I would face on the Italian side trying to return back.

The most disappointing part of my trip however was my experience with Travelocity when on 9/21 I noticed that my Rome – Milan – Boston trip now read as Rome – Milan – Chicago. I had less than 12 hours to catch my flight. Thank goodness I still had credit left on my cell phone. I called Travelocity and when I finally got through to the representative who is apparently in India he read my itinerary as Rome – Milan – Chicago without a flinch in his voice. Obviously, he was not aware that this was not my original flight.

I stated the problem and he had no explanation. The best he could do was to call the airline and ask them why and how the flight had changed. Fine. So after several minutes on hold, he returned to tell me that the office was closed and I should call back later. Irate, I asked, call back later when? It was 10 pm already my time, and I was planning to leave for the airport at 5 am. He put me on hold several more times and after 30+ minutes of this back and forth, all I got was “sorry Ma’am, there’s nothing we can do, you can try asking them at the airport to get you to Boston”.

I couldn’t believe it. I promptly told him how very disappointed I was that at the very least I didn’t receive notification from Travelocity about this change in my travel itinerary, then I hung up on him while he was offering his lame apologies. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if they had called my US cell phone and left a message there. I mean you would expect I would get notified somehow right? But nope, not at all! When I did find my way back to the States WITHOUT the help of Travelocity, there was no voicemail message telling me to contact them. But, there was an email, sent conveniently AFTER I had already tried to figure out what was going on with my trip telling me “there had been a change to my flight and I should call them urgently”. Whatever!

Suffice it to say, this will be the last time I’m booking any flights through Travelocity!