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Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 12:09 am
I spent three hours trying to get the Union Plus travel center website to work. Three hours! I got thrown out of the process at every step. I got almost to the end of the process once, though. I got as far as entering my card number and clicking the last (I think) button before it threw me out and said that I had done something bad and it couldn't finish -- it accused me of using the "back" button. I did, many times, during the early parts of the process when I kept getting thrown out. But the notice to not use th back button came later in the process, and I didn't use it then. Because I entered my card number and I clicked that last button I'm afraid I bought tickets. I can't figure out how to find out. There's no contact number. Or maybe there is. I'll look again in the morning (well, technically, it's morning now).

Meanwhile, I decided to try Orbitz, and I had a similar experience, except a little less so. Now I'm afraid to finish the process for fear of buying two sets of tickets.

One of the things common to both sites is bait-and-switch. They kept listing these low prices but when I tried to select them they would invariably not be available and now the lowest price available was somewhat more.

Am I stupid? Should I be using a travel agent?

It's also, apparently, difficult to avoid flights that leave California at 7:30 in the morning (requiring us to leave the house, um, well, add two hours for check in, right? and allow two hours for travel if we get the airporter, so that's at least four hours, so at 3:30 in the morning) or arrive back in California at 10:30 p.m. or even midnight. I did find more reasonable tickets. But it took a lot of effort.


Meanwhile my all-important calendar book is in Oakland.
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Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 09:43 am (UTC)
Am I stupid? Should I be using a travel agent?

No, you aren't stupid and you don't need a travel agent. It's odd that you've had problems, they must just be crap sites. We (if you include my daughter and her husband) have booked flights all over the US and Europe online without any difficulty. We usually go to www.travelocity.co.uk, but there's a www.travelocity.com for the US. Don't know whether this is any better than the ones you've been using.

If you're buying e-tickets, there should be a confimatory email, which is in fact your ticket. If you haven't had that, you probably didn't complete the transaction, but if you're not sure whether you bought or not, it's best to check with a human being.
Thursday, July 13th, 2006 01:14 am (UTC)
Many web interfaces suck, and if you have a slow web-connection, that makes things worse. And the whole "Don't press the Back button" is really irritating. I am leery of bait-and-switch, but happily I haven't encountered it too often.

You might be able to check by looking at recent transactions on your credit card. I don't know if you can call up the credit card company and ask about recent authorizations, in case the travel website got authorization but didn't actually enter a transaction (I don't know if that can actually happen, but it seems like a possibility).
Thursday, July 13th, 2006 02:13 am (UTC)
Orbitz should send you a confirmation email within a few hours if you have bought tickets.

You aren't stupid.

P.
Sunday, July 16th, 2006 09:09 pm (UTC)
It looks like I will be able to make it to Amsterdam during the time you are there. Also my daughter wants to come too.

The plan is for me to fly out on 16th and stay until 21st. I haven't booked flights and hotel yet but plan to do so tomorrow. I hope we can organise a rendezvous at some point.