I was in a rush to find a plane ticket to my best friend's wedding in Chicago. I found this travel agency website (cheaptrips.com) that had testimonies of other people claiming that it was the best thing that has ever happened to them. I went to the questions and answers part of their site and they claimed a lot of things including that if you "found" a cheaper ticket within 24 hours and it had the same itinerary, that they would either match the price, or refund your money.
I called the number on the website and talked to a live person to make sure that everything that they claimed was true. This REALLY friendly guy answered all my questions and I became a "LIFETIME" member with Cheaptrips.com/1800cheapseats.com. For $85.00 and bought a ticket from this agency for around $245.00, which I did not find as cheap as I thought it would be since they claimed in their website that I would get tickets 70-85% off or even for FREE (WOW!). But, since it was the cheapest flight I had seen that day and I was pressured for time, I bought it.
Since, I had looked everywhere for a ticket, I got an email the next day from a different company offering me the SAME ITINERARY for $217, obviously a cheaper price. I called CHEAPTRICKS.com... Oops... I MEAN CHEAPTRIPS.com to claim that I had found the same itenerary for a lower price. I was within the 24 hour limmit, It was the exact same Itinerary, and after being put on hold for over 15 minutes several times, I was told to call the sales dept... Then to call the membership dept... Then to call the travel dept... And I did this for over 5 hours and nobody honered the "low price guarantee". Finally, and this is when I laughed-out-loud, I was told that I had to have purshased both tickets to get a refund! I told them that I was stupid enough to become a member of their website, but not stupid enought to purshase two tickets and then get stuck with both. I decided that for a $30 difference I was not going to loose my mind, and was determined to just travel to the wedding with their ticket.
It does not end here PLEASE READ ON FOR THE SEQUEL...
I called the airline, not the website, to find out my itinerary so that I could tell the person that was to pick me up at the airport the time that I was to arrive. And I found out that the Agency had booked me on the wrong dates. The wedding was on a Sunday. I asked to leave on a Friday and return on a Monday. They had me leaving on a Friday and returning on a Saturday (the next day and totally missing the event that I'm traveling for in the first place). I had asked for two days off from work and had told the bride, who was my best friend, that I would be there. I had to cancel everything, because they did not change my flight to the dates that I asked for. I called my bank to put a Stop-payment I'm still doing the transactions to get my money back because this happened today so I don't know if I'll get my money back, but what I am really hurting about is that I missed my best friends wedding. Money is money, but what these people don't know is that they are dealing with real people's lives feelings, and plans.
The end
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