Travel Troubles Resolved by Guru

Take a look at this article where Peter Greenberg tries to cite some problems encountered during air travels and how you can avoid them.  Read on:


(CBS)  Ever been hosed by the airlines? Dinged at the car rental counter? Treated unfairly by customer service, or worse, can't even track down the customer service department?

CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg fielded "Early Show" viewers' complaints and explained how you can avoid the problems.

My Flight Left When?

Frequent traveler Mareya booked her Virgin America flight to Orlando through Travelocity. Except when she showed up at the airport, her flight had already departed, an hour earlier. She was forced to pay out-of-pocket for a new one-way ticket and reroute through a different city.

According to Virgin America, that flight had a schedule change that was made a month before the departure date. Standard practice is to contact all passengers directly who booked through Virgin America, either by phone or e-mail, and to alert all third-party online ticket agents, like Travelocity, who then contact their own customers.

When Mareya contacted Virgin America's guest relations department, she was told that Travelocity was, in fact, alerted to the change via e-mail, and no refund could be provided. Travelocity, however, told her they had never received such an e-mail from Virgin America. Unfortunately, she was the one paying the price.

After we contacted them, both Virgin America and Travelocity admitted there was a "highly unusual" breakdown in communications in this case. Both parties have offered their apologies. Travelocity has offered Mareya a refund of $279.40, plus additional expenses of $150, plus a $250 promo code for future booking.

The lesson? Always confirm your flight at least 24 hours prior to departure. All the major airlines have flight status options on their websites, and FlightStats.com enables you to check flights by route, airport and flight number.


more from here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/22/earlyshow/living/travel/main6982069.shtml