The Mexico Saga...continued (resolved???) and what we REALLY think about Travelocity
Oh yeah, the little gnome commercials are SO cute and they make life with Travelocity look cushy and fun and flexible--trips all over the world! It doesn't matter if you miss your flights! Natural disasters?? NO problem with the travel gnome!!
All we have to say to that is it's a bunch of hooey.
After 10-12 phone calls and many hours talking to Travelocity and Sun Country Airlines, we finally got our stupid refund...or we'll get it after 15-30 days. What a nightmare! Jim and I talked to no fewer than 15 different people at Travelocity and not one of them was a native English speaker, so we spent half of the conversations not being able to understand each other. Once we started to make some progress, the Travelocity person would claim that he/she had to speak with someone else and then would come back and retract every positive thing that they had told us. Yesterday, someone told me that if we cancelled our hotel reservation, we would get all but $80 back and then today I was told that we would lose all $320. After I pitched a fit about that and insisted that they call the hotel and see for themselves that it wasn't even open, they agreed that we would get our full refund.
It was the same thing with the airline. Yesterday, Travelocity said the airline had cancelled our ticket, so we would definitely get a full refund. But, unfortunately, they couldn't reach the airline due to long wait periods, so they couldn't confirm. When I got off the phone with Travelocity, I called the airline myself (on hold for 8 minutes) and they said that (insert bitchy voice of your choice here) NO THEY HADN'T CANCELLED OUR RESERVATIONS and that they NEVER give refunds for coach tickets. NEVER EVER EVER....and that it was all Travelocity's fault so we should talk to them.
After 10-12 phone calls and many hours talking to Travelocity and Sun Country Airlines, we finally got our stupid refund...or we'll get it after 15-30 days. What a nightmare! Jim and I talked to no fewer than 15 different people at Travelocity and not one of them was a native English speaker, so we spent half of the conversations not being able to understand each other. Once we started to make some progress, the Travelocity person would claim that he/she had to speak with someone else and then would come back and retract every positive thing that they had told us. Yesterday, someone told me that if we cancelled our hotel reservation, we would get all but $80 back and then today I was told that we would lose all $320. After I pitched a fit about that and insisted that they call the hotel and see for themselves that it wasn't even open, they agreed that we would get our full refund.
It was the same thing with the airline. Yesterday, Travelocity said the airline had cancelled our ticket, so we would definitely get a full refund. But, unfortunately, they couldn't reach the airline due to long wait periods, so they couldn't confirm. When I got off the phone with Travelocity, I called the airline myself (on hold for 8 minutes) and they said that (insert bitchy voice of your choice here) NO THEY HADN'T CANCELLED OUR RESERVATIONS and that they NEVER give refunds for coach tickets. NEVER EVER EVER....and that it was all Travelocity's fault so we should talk to them.
Apparently overnight the airline decided that since the Cancun airport is closed to all flights but those getting people out of the city, they could, they guess, give us our money back. But we had to deal with Travelocity. An hour and a half later, Travelocity also agreed to give us our money back.
Sheesh. A word of advice to all of you who don't want to spend 12 hours in two days trying to get your money back in the wake of a hurricane. Use Travelocity to find the cheap tickets and the good deals and then book it yourself directly with the airline and hotel...or use a travel agent! They know all of the laws and what the airlines can and can't get away with. If we had done it that way, we could have avoided much confusion and may have gotten all of this figured out with time to plan for changing our destination.
As it is, we are very disappointed that we are going to miss the Katie and John wedding extravaganza in Cabo San Lucas, but we're really glad that they are still getting married this weekend, despite Wilma! We'll be celebrating from afar and we plan to spend the money that we get back on a fun trip out to Seattle to visit them and all of our other "out west" friends. It won't be Mexico, but I don't doubt it will be a lot of fun anyway.
Sheesh. A word of advice to all of you who don't want to spend 12 hours in two days trying to get your money back in the wake of a hurricane. Use Travelocity to find the cheap tickets and the good deals and then book it yourself directly with the airline and hotel...or use a travel agent! They know all of the laws and what the airlines can and can't get away with. If we had done it that way, we could have avoided much confusion and may have gotten all of this figured out with time to plan for changing our destination.
As it is, we are very disappointed that we are going to miss the Katie and John wedding extravaganza in Cabo San Lucas, but we're really glad that they are still getting married this weekend, despite Wilma! We'll be celebrating from afar and we plan to spend the money that we get back on a fun trip out to Seattle to visit them and all of our other "out west" friends. It won't be Mexico, but I don't doubt it will be a lot of fun anyway.
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