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September 27, 2005
airfare wars
I've recently been frustrated with published airfares that don't exist. For example, the other day my fare watcher on Travelocity said I could fly from Raleigh/Durham to Paris, France for $285 plus tax. Wow! That's a great price! But as I worked my way through the different menus to actually look at specific dates, I was prompted by an error message that said: "British Airways does not provide service between Raleigh/Durham, NC and Paris, France on the selected date." So, I tried another date, and another, and another. All the dates I tried were highlighted as "Fare Available" dates. But still no luck.
Since this had been happening often in my searches, I sent a complaint to the Travelocity service center. Their response was:
Please note that although an airline has published a fare for your routes, it may not service them. Our reservation system pulls the fares as they are published by the airline. While airlines are able to publish fares in the market, they may not fly between the cities. We apologize for any confusion caused by this.
Publishing fares for routes they don't service. There's something wrong with this picture. And something down right cruel. Could British Airlines be sued for false advertising?
in the world | By charity | 01:27 PM
Comments
It does seem sleazy doesn't it. I was pretty frustrated with Ryan Air as they advertised flights to Croatia from the UK that just didn't exist. Intially it seems like a problem for the consumer but in the long run I bet it bites the companies as cunsumers like us refuse to look even if the offer is a real one.
Posted by: Andy at September 27, 2005 07:09 PM