My son graduated Air Force technical training February 1 and on this date was given orders to return to Puerto Rico to work with the local recruiter prior to going to his new duty station. He needed to report to the recruiter on Monday, February 4. I made several bids with Priceline and received a message indicating that I had submitted too many bids for the same passenger travelling on the same date. I then tried using my son's email address (still the same passenger and travel date). It was now approximately 6.30 pm local time, I checked the status of my request and was unable to find anything, so then proceeded to call American Airlines and made a reservation with them for my son to travel Saturday morning, February 2.
When my credit card bill showed up I saw there was a charge for the American Airlines ticket plus a charge of $648.35 from Priceline. I immediately notified the credit card company and began emailing Priceline - it's really difficult to get to talk to real people. The responses to my emails made me feel as if they have standard replies - for this situation use Reply Number One, then Number Two, and so on. I never felt that anyone was really reading my emails.
The credit card company apologetically notified me that there was nothing they could do for me but the representative I spoke to told me they had dozens of disputes against Priceline, and that she personally would never use them.
I was able to get a copy of the itinerary from Priceline so I contacted the airline that Priceline had made the reservation with - Continental Airlines. The ticket agent was very helpful, was able to pull up the record which indicated a "No Show" and then offered to do the necessary paperwork to enable me to use the ticket at a later date (obviously charging me the fee to change to ticket). This was fine with me as my children return to Puerto Rico whenever they can.
As the Continental agent got deeper into the computer system, he received a message indicating that all the records belonged to Priceline and that he should contact them. He did this and was informed by the Priceline representative that under certain circumstances Priceline will allow passengers to change their tickets and that I should contact Priceline.
I continued with the emails to Priceline and finally reported them to the Better Business Bureau. They remain unwavering in their decision not to let me change the ticket.
What I don't understand is if Continental are willing to change the ticket, and I pay necessary fees, Priceline will be losing nothing - the way it has turned out is that they have lost me as a customer, together with my family and friends. I inform every one I know that makes travel arrangements to be really careful when dealing with Priceline, because they really don't give a damn. I was not surprised to see that the value of their stock fell dramatically - this company must realize that it's a good policy to treat your customers well so that they will be repeat customers.
Sonya
Aguadilla, Othe
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