In a situation like this, a quick call to the airline should have fixed the problem. Some carriers h

I t s a common problem with an uncommon resolution. Stephen Andrews accidentally typed his name as Stehen when he booked a package tour through Travelocity, and he thought a quick call to the airline might fix the problem. Unfortunately, it wasn t.
The woman seemed mad that we had made the reservation through Travelocity and was adamant that neither she or anyone else at her call center could change the spelling of my name, he says. She said that Travelocity had to fix it.
Whoa. Why would Hawaiian be mad that anyone booked through a travel agency? (There are many possible answers, but I ll save that for another post entitled Travel agents versus airlines: The untold story. )
I called Travelocity and spoke to one of their über-helpful Indians, who said that Hawaiian wouldn t allow any changes. fire baltimore hotel john smith He did offer to transfer me to the department of cancellations so we could cancel the trip and rebook (with no price guarantee).
Remembering your advice that one e-mail is worth 1,000 phone calls, I e-mailed Hawaiian. It has been over 24 hours and not a peep from Hawaiian. I just e-mailed Travelocity, but I expect a canned pack sand, it s Hawaiian s problem from them.
In a situation like this, a quick call to the airline should have fixed the problem. Some carriers have an informal policy that they ll fix a ticket if it s off by a letter, but if Hawaiian has such a policy, it doesn t disclose it. Its name requirements match those of TSA s new Secure Flight initiative.
Hawaiian finally called and told me they would issue a new ticket with my correct name on it. They made sure to let me know that they didn t have to and that they were going out of my way to do so, but they did it.
Just goes to show you that the arrogance and contempt fire baltimore hotel john smith which the airline industry shows its customers (except at times when they run crying like diapered babies to government, to the media, etc., to shed tears over how badly done to they are by landing fees, fuel costs, unions, volcanoes, et al), is not confined to the largest carriers but has been successfully ingrained into the smaller firms thanks to the lessons taught by ATA and IATA.
See your typo A solution to his his ticket typo? Happens happens to the best of us. This whole issue is too stupid for words. Someone needs to challenge both the government and the airlines on the legality of this issue. There are plenty of ways to harass travelers without improving security without resorting to this method.
This doesn t make sense to me because once, while making reservations for 4 members of my faminly on Hawaiian Airlines, my virtual credit card program on my computer changed all the names to my own. I didn t notice until after I hit that buy button. I immediately called Hawaiian Airlines. the customer service rep that I talked to laughed, noted that it was obvious that I couldn t use all four tickets on the same flight by myself, and changed the names for me, no problem. Maybe because I am a frequent flyer with HA? Maybe I just, by chance, I got a more human customer service rep?
Wow! I thought Hawaiian was one of the better ones! That is a shame and as other readers have commented, its time the arrogant airline fools get off their high horse. We are all human and we all make mistakes, especially the airlines. Its no wonder that folks get pretty fire baltimore hotel john smith upset at airline personnel and when I read stories like this one I do not feel sorry for airline workers who get chewed out by irate customers. What goes around comes around!!
fire baltimore hotel john smith I agree with everything that the previous posters said, but I also believe that it isn t just a problem with Hawaiian Airlines and Travelocity. Probably the best approach, all things being equal (especially price) is to book with the travel company (Delta, United, Continental, Globus, CIE, Trafalgar, etc.) because when you do this, the travel company has fewer places to hide. If you book with an intermediary like Orbitz, Travelocity, fire baltimore hotel john smith Expedia, etc. be ready for the finger pointing game if your plans change. Count on the travel company to refer you back to the intermediary if you have a problem, regardless of the severity of the problem. I had a problem fire baltimore hotel john smith last year when I had to cancel a trip seven hours before the trip was to start because of a sudden family illness. Even then, when I called the airline, they referred me back to my travel agent. In addition to this, you have to be sure of the actions that you have to take with your travel insurance company to ensure that nothing you do interferes with the fine print . You can often save a lot of money by booking your airline travel, fire baltimore hotel john smith hotels, and cruises or land tours separately, but be cognizant of the fact that you ll have to file a mountain of paperwork if you have to cancell within the penalty period.
One hates to stereotype, but perhaps you received a US based agent. My experience has been that employees in different countries have different perspectives on interpreting rules. Americans have a much more spirit of the law mentality whereas in other countries, its much more legalistic.
My sister and her husband had made a reservation for a OneWorld Round the World reservation with British Airways/Qantas/JAL/Cathay Pacific/American Airlines The BA reservation agent have made a typo error on the husband name and the tickets are issued. BA apologied for the error and put a NOTATION to the reservation. They traveled RTW from January 2010 to April 2010 from Switzerland to India, Vietnam, HongKong, Australia, Japan, Honolulu fire baltimore hotel john smith HI, Phoenix AZ, London and Switzerland without a glitch or hassle. It was a wonderful trip.
It is a standard practice in the airline industry that an error in the name has to be changed fire baltimore hotel john smith by the agent/agency holding the original booking. That has been the rule ever since I started in travel and tourism 26 years ago. Whoever makes the original fire baltimore hotel john smith booking holds the rights to it for purposes of receiving commission which is how every agency and vendor makes money in travel. For example, if I make a booking on Hawaiian and another agency calls to make a change, that is not allowed. The airline/vendor honors the original booking firm. Therefore, I support Hawaiian s original decision on this matter. They were honoring Travelocity fire baltimore hotel john smith and their booking.
Agent: Yes, Mr. Andrews. I can take care of that for you right away. Let me pull up that screen. (one-minute pause). There you are. To confirm, fire baltimore hotel john smith the name on your reservation reads S-T-E-P-H-E-N A-N-D-R-E-W-S. Is that correct?
Can anyone tell me WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT THIS? Why is it such a hassle to do anything? He wasn t changing his reservations just a misspelled name. This is, bar none, one of the most ridiculous rules the airlines have come up with. It s ludicrous in the extreme. Changing a name takes less than a minute. Certainly less time than it takes the airline to deal with it when a customer starts stirring it up, like Stephen did. They spent far more time trying fire baltimore hotel john smith to dodge the issue than to just be nice about it and CHANGE THE @#$%%#$ NAME! When are they going to realize this rule costs them time and money, to say nothing of goodwill?
When you call an airline, let s say Hawaiian, it would be expected that the representative would be in close proximity to the airlines headquarters or one of its operating fire baltimore hotel john smith bases. The idea that they could walk out their door and be a plane within a reasonable amount of time. This idea means that they feel like they are part of the Hawaiian Team and get pride in the airline s day to day activities. The folks in the customer base are their neighbors. fire baltimore hotel john smith It would make no difference if the individual agent is brown, yellow, purple, or green, it s their proximity to the airline s customer base.
When a call is outsourced (perhaps to India), the employee likely feels much less of a connection to the day to day operations of the airline. They likely have never even seen a Hawaiian plane. The callers are strangers and they don t necessarily feel that same need to ensure satisfaction. fire baltimore hotel john smith To them, Hawaiian is probably just the same as United or American or Delta or They may even be answer calls for all four. They just follow rules and answer the phones. Without that familiarity with the individual fire baltimore hotel john smith airline by being in relative proximity to the operations, the attitude changes. It s not an issue of racism, but an issue of proximity.
@Brian: I didn t get racism out of the comment. I can t think of *anyone* that hasn t called a company operating in the United States and found themselves speaking to an overseas call center. I also can t think of anyone who hasn t experienced frustration with the scripted responses given by these operatives. The comment, to me, was two-word fire baltimore hotel john smith shorthand for my previous two sentences. I read it, smiled as I shared the OP s sense of frustration, and moved on reading the article. Chill.
Its not a racial issue or even a proximity issue, its really a cultural issue. I live in Silicon Valley and I represent several high tech companies. My clients routinely outsource tech work to India, Egypt, and several Eastern European countries. fire baltimore hotel john smith Ultimately, what we have discovered is that different cultures have different norms. Its not a matter of one being right or wrong, but when dealing with people from different cultures, you have to have an appreciation of cultural norms.
What s so sad is that there is a distinct dearth of airlines that service the Hawaiian islands. And to have one of the premier airlines on the islands behave like this is untenable! I mean, if *THEY* are behaving like a bunch of poopy heads, you don t really have too many alternatives! I can only hope that this was a fluke and not the norm.
You are part of the problem fire baltimore hotel john smith because you don t want to spend more money for your travel expenditures. fire baltimore hotel john smith If you want to speak with an actual employee of the travel provider that is located in the USA instead of an employee of a third-party fire baltimore hotel john smith contractor that is located in India, Philippines, etc. then expect to pay more for your travel.
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