# I will never use Travelocity again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556 "2020-03-16T00:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/21 "2020-03-17T02:12:29Z")
The only thing I can think to do now is to literally drive to the airport the morning of my flight and try to change the flight in person. I have no other ideas. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/22 "2020-03-17T02:28:15Z")
My wife and I live in Connecticut, but I’ve been working in California since the start of the semester. I now need to fly home to Connecticut, since my university has cancelled all face-to-face classes, and put everything online. I originally had a flight booked with American Airlines to fly home for Spring Break on March 30, and I needed to change the flight to this week. I tried making the change on their website, but apparently the site just can’t cope with the traffic. I could open my account, select my flight, click the “Change Flight” button, and select a new flight, but every time I tried the next step, I got a message saying that their system was having problems and that I should try again in a few minutes. After about 20 repetitions, I figured that the website just wasn’t going to work, so I decided to call The recorded message said that there was a long wait, and offered me the opportunity to plug in my number, with the promise that I would keep my place in line and have my call returned when my turn came. I decided to give it a shot, and put my number in. The recording told me that they would get back to me in “more than two hours.” And they were right. About three hours later I got a call, and the very nice service rep changed my flight for me in about three minutes. It was all very painless. I told her that I hoped people were being nice to her during what must be an incredibly busy and stressful time, and she said that most people were good. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/23 "2020-03-17T03:33:13Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > This is exactly what I’ve been doing for the last few years. I use the aggregator sites to find the best prices and flights, and then go straight to the airline website. The flights have, in my experience, always been available at exactly the same prices as the aggregator sites, with the added advantage that you can contact the airline if you have problems. Pretty much this, too, for my personal travel for the past decade. I was on Travelocity at the very start thereof, migrating from EAAsySabre; then drifted towards Orbitz by the early 00s, but eventually began just direct booking whenever practical and I have not used them for myself after the Expedia takeover. While it lasted I did not have any horror stories but neither had anything other than “meh” to say about what they delivered. It was more a matter of how as the carriers and hoteliers made their systems user-friendlier it became easier for me to skip the middleman. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/24 "2020-03-17T03:33:36Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Has it affected prices at all? It doesn’t seem like it to me. Two weeks ago, prices were falling like mad. There were prices to Europe and Asia that were 30-50% of normal. Of course, lots of those are being cancelled now. But yeah, don’t buy on the aggregators - use them to find prices, but then go straight to the airline (or hotel or car rental or tour company or … to actually buy things). If something goes wrong, middlemen are not helpful. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/25 "2020-03-17T05:10:42Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I did manage to at least get on hold last night around 11. After three hours on hold, they simply hung up. It certainly seems like you’re not alone there. [This Twitter thread](https://twitter.com/travelocity/status/1238221419193958407), on the Travelocity Twitter account, is full of people with similar tales of woe, including quite a number who passed their date of travel without ever getting any sort of response from the company. Plenty of them described multiple efforts to call, and hours on hold before being disconnected. > [@RickJay](#): > > The only thing I can think to do now is to literally drive to the airport the morning of my flight and try to change the flight in person. I have no other ideas. Yeah, I hear you. But if the airline won’t let a person who has booked through Travelocity cancel over the phone, I’m not sure that they’re going to be any more helpful at the airport. In your position, I’d probably give it a go if I weren’t too far from the airport, but it might be a wasted trip. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/26 "2020-03-17T05:42:29Z")
I think the travel sites business model is to make money when 1. people screw up their booking and have to make a change 2. cancellation policies (most airlines let you rebook for a modest fee or otherwise not completely eat your ticket) 3. hi Opal ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/27 "2020-03-17T19:27:54Z")
I managed to get in toucvh with Air Canada. Though their policy is that you must go through the agent, they changed it for me anyway. The lady said they were getting other Travelocity desperation calls. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/28 "2020-03-17T20:50:06Z")
Well, that is very nice that Air Canada stepped up in the middle of a shitty situation. TBH, I am a little surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556/29 "2020-03-17T22:18:56Z")
I’ve found that Air Canada can be pretty good about accommodating passengers with various problems, if you can get through to an actual human being. On a recent business trip, Air Canada cancelled my flight three hours before it was to occur (I found out from AC’s app on my phone, just as I was about to leave for the airport), and its automated system rebooked me for the following day–arriving three hours _after_ my business meeting was scheduled to start. It was an early-morning meeting and could not be rescheduled; I had to get there today or tonight in order to make it the next morning. No amount of tinkering with Air Canada’s website helped, nor did trying to phone them. Thankfully, I was able to speak with a real, live human Air Canada employee at the airport who got me where I needed to go, when I needed to be there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-never-use-travelocity-again/849556.md?page=1)