By Kerwin De Matas
Vacation time is right around the corner. You have been planning for a while now along with your family, of three kids and your wife, for this much awaited vacation. The destination you want to travel to is outside of your country requiring airborne travel. So you start calling the airlines for price quotes to have an idea of how much airfare would be for you and your family, and to finally book a hotel that would coordinate with your flight plans. Not the reverse please! Reason being, is that most hotel rates are more or less stable, on the other hand, airfare fluctuate according to the market atmosphere and availability. Therefore, it is important to get the airfare out of the way first.
But what is this? The airlines are telling you that apart from the already expensive fares, there would also be extra charges to have your plane tickets issued with them by telephone or at their booking offices. But you were advised that Internet bookings on an airline Internet site do not incur extra charges. Very well, after intense shopping around, you discovered that booking with certain renowned online travel agencies might also be a good choice. After all, they are known to offer spectacular deals including discounts that just seem too good to be true. After thoughtful consideration, you decided to go for the online travel agency option. You walk away afterwards with a smile on your face feeling satisfied that this time consuming chore has been completed!
Life is great…
The day to take off for this long awaited vacation has finally arrived. Everyone is excited, the luggage is grouped to the front of the house, and it seems as if the taxi is taking an eternity to get to your address. Soon after what seemed like hours, (but were actually minutes!) the taxi is out front pumping his horn. Now your flight is at 09:00am, and you are leaving your home at 07:00am. Conversation, on the way to the airport, is at an all time high with everyone talking 30miles to the minute!
Okay, the taxi driver made good time, and you are there at the airport in around thirty five minutes, you finally locate your check in desk only to find that there is a line awaiting you. The line is not too long so no problem, everyone is still in a good mood, and the line is moving along nicely.
In no time you and your family are second in line to be checked in, when at that moment 08:00am, an announcement is made that the check-in is closed and that the boarding of the aircraft is going to proceed in a few minutes.
For a moment, you are lost for words. You let the check-in agent know that you got in at the airport early, and that there is still an hour to go before the flight takes off, so what’s up?
The agent then patiently explains that since your flight was an international flight, in theory passengers were required to check-in three hours before the flight took off, because in practice there are only two hours to actually do check-in, in which afterwards the desk is closed one hour before take off. In that one hour before take off, the list with all the passengers that were checked-in will have to be registered with the international police before boarding the aircraft. After the international police give the authorization needed, the pilots will eventually receive the go ahead for take off.
In other words, that one hour before take off is where all the paper work takes place making it impossible to check anyone else in for the flight.
So there you have it, the reality eventually hitting home that you and your family missed the flight!
Now remember you already paid the reservation for your hotel, and if you don’t travel today, that would be one day lost off of your stay at the hotel, as well as the money you paid for that day.
Maybe the hotel will refund you that day, maybe not; it all depends on the contract you accepted when you paid the reservation.
Now you have never traveled before, what should you do, you ask the agent what does this mean, were you going to lose your tickets? Can they be refunded? What are your alternatives?
The agent told you to hold on a second whilst they revise your fare regulations.
Whoa, hold up! Fare regulations? What are fare regulations?!
Every airline ticket is governed by fare regulations that define the penalty for changes; minimum and maximum stay; routing options; refund status; last date of travel etc.
Now wait, there is still a possibility. In your country, the airline that you bought your ticket with also leaves from another airport close by, so the agent says he will check to see if it is possible to leave from there.
Bad news…according to the fare regulations governing your ticket, no re-routings are allowed, and even though there are other airlines leaving the airport where you are at, unfortunately endorsements can only be done in an emergency i.e. storms, aircraft mechanical problems, possible delays etc. What bad luck you think, the happy mood that you and your family were in an hour ago has long dissipated. The agent then gives you an alternative of changing your flight to the next day.
Oh you can do that? You ask.
Your hopes are beginning to rise again, because now you were thinking that maybe you lost your tickets or something.
Fine, your tickets can be changed, but for a fee.
Now you are getting a headache; for a fee, so how much is this fee.
Well, according to your fare regulations, each person will have to pay a penalty of 250 USD for changes. Also since the tickets were unused, a re-calculation will have to be done to determine exactly how much the difference in fare would be according to the availability for the new date of travel. Oh, and your tickets were also booked by an external travel agency from the airline, therefore that would mean a charge of 50 USD.
So, if you have to re-schedule your flight, you will have to pay 250USD plus a fare difference not guaranteed until re-issued of 135 USD plus local taxes of 25 USD, plus this external charge of 50 USD, which all comes down to a total per passenger of = 460USD.
You are now looking at this agent as if he was a specimen from another planet, and you go nuts!
But wait, it does not stop there, because there is a clause in your fare regulation that says that if the reservation is not cancelled or changed before the time or date of travel, the ticket would be invalid. Therefore the agent will have to call his customer service department to ask for authorization to re validate your tickets.
That did it for you, because now you just want to be taken out of the airport on a stretcher, falling into a deep sleep to afterwards wake up from this nightmare.
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Now this is just one of the scenes that could take place in any airport, in any part of the world, with any airline. When a ticket is bought directly with any renowned airline, the reservation agents would always go over the fare regulations with you before the ticket is bought, just so that horrible experiences like the one above could be avoided.
If you must buy your ticket from a travel agency, then you should insist that they give you a rundown of your fare regulations. Most of them will not do that if not asked, because in the moment they would only want to close the sale as soon as possible securing their commissions. If anything has to go wrong, then they will wash their hands off the matter and send you directly to the airline to look for a solution!
Of course there are the online agencies. If that option is chosen, then get your binoculars out to go through the fine print on the computer screen please!
Remember, traveling is fun, and should be enjoyed to the maximum, but in these challenging economic times, diligence should also be taken to protect your pocket by educating your self on these policies, because if not, you are liable to lose a lot of money. So until then, take care, bless.
