Las Vegas - June 2013 - Pre-trip stuff
Clearly I've not been posting much but trip reports. Perhaps I'm due for a rant about customers soon. Maybe later, but first I can get started on our most recent trip.
We totally scored on airfare to Vegas, only $694 CDN return for two. It was, as usual, on United, flying via Newark there and back. The only difference for this trip was that we were on an afternoon flight instead of an early morning one. There is something to be said for not having to leave for the airport at 3 in the morning. This time we had a 3 p.m. flight.
For a good month or so prior to leaving I track the on-time performance of our flights. This was not looking good. Our first leg to Newark was leaving late. Every day. Now, we had a nice cushion of time in Newark, so even an hour late was still going to work for us. Then I see flights leaving so late that arrival at Newark is after our connecting flight leaves. Uh-oh, not good. Now, we get our flights through Expedia, so I decide to give them a call and see what they say. They say two things. 1) They can't do anything except on the day of the flight, at which point they will book us on the next flight from Newark to Vegas. I point out that the next flight isn't until the next day. They don't care. 2) They will change our flights for a fee. A fee of $150 to change the ticket plus the difference of cost between our flight and the new ticket. In other words, they want $424 to change the ticket to the next earlier flight from Ottawa to Newark. Um, no thanks. I tell them I will call United directly and they tell me that United will do nothing and hang up on me.
Okay, so I call United. Initially, she tells me the same thing - that they have to charge a fee for changing the tickets. So I ask her to just take a look at the on-time performance of the flights and see what she thinks about our odds of making our connection. She looks at the past couple weeks and is dismayed. She changes our ticket for no charge. Now we are leaving Ottawa at 11 instead of 3 and have and abundance of time in Newark. We don't care, we just don't want to miss our flight. She even asks for my preference of seats. She is amazingly helpful. I do not push my luck asking for an earlier Newark/Vegas leg, as she was not supposed to change the first bit for free. I thank her profusely and she thanks me for being prepared enough when I called to have all the flight numbers and times, therefore making it easier for her to look everything up.
Now we are happy bunnies and can head out with no worries and lots of time for a good, sit down lunch while we wait for our second flight.
We totally scored on airfare to Vegas, only $694 CDN return for two. It was, as usual, on United, flying via Newark there and back. The only difference for this trip was that we were on an afternoon flight instead of an early morning one. There is something to be said for not having to leave for the airport at 3 in the morning. This time we had a 3 p.m. flight.
For a good month or so prior to leaving I track the on-time performance of our flights. This was not looking good. Our first leg to Newark was leaving late. Every day. Now, we had a nice cushion of time in Newark, so even an hour late was still going to work for us. Then I see flights leaving so late that arrival at Newark is after our connecting flight leaves. Uh-oh, not good. Now, we get our flights through Expedia, so I decide to give them a call and see what they say. They say two things. 1) They can't do anything except on the day of the flight, at which point they will book us on the next flight from Newark to Vegas. I point out that the next flight isn't until the next day. They don't care. 2) They will change our flights for a fee. A fee of $150 to change the ticket plus the difference of cost between our flight and the new ticket. In other words, they want $424 to change the ticket to the next earlier flight from Ottawa to Newark. Um, no thanks. I tell them I will call United directly and they tell me that United will do nothing and hang up on me.
Okay, so I call United. Initially, she tells me the same thing - that they have to charge a fee for changing the tickets. So I ask her to just take a look at the on-time performance of the flights and see what she thinks about our odds of making our connection. She looks at the past couple weeks and is dismayed. She changes our ticket for no charge. Now we are leaving Ottawa at 11 instead of 3 and have and abundance of time in Newark. We don't care, we just don't want to miss our flight. She even asks for my preference of seats. She is amazingly helpful. I do not push my luck asking for an earlier Newark/Vegas leg, as she was not supposed to change the first bit for free. I thank her profusely and she thanks me for being prepared enough when I called to have all the flight numbers and times, therefore making it easier for her to look everything up.
Now we are happy bunnies and can head out with no worries and lots of time for a good, sit down lunch while we wait for our second flight.