Blair's Blog Continued:

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Discount Travel?

May 30, 2008

Don't Take Your Reservations for Granted

Check With the Airlines as Soon as You've Booked 

On Monday this week - May 26 - I was supposed to leave for four days at the Coeur d'Alene Resort and Hotel on the Northern Idaho Golf Trail. The idea was to play that course and Circling Raven and, of course, photograph both courses. It didn't happen.

The reservations had been made on April 9, eight weeks before departure, through Cheaptickets.com. On Sunday morning, 24 hours before departure, I logged onto AA.com to check in. Imagine my surprise when I found that three of the six flights had not been booked. AA maintained that Cheaptickets had not ticked the three flights and so they cancelled them. Cheaptickets had no answers at all, other than that they had now cancelled the entire trip and would be pleased to rebook it... at a vastly increased rate, of course. Needless to say, my much anticipated trip went out the window. 

Cheaptickets did offer a $100 travel certificate as compensation, then changed their minds and reduced the offer to a $50 travel certificate. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. The object of my message is to suggest that if you're going to use a discount travel provider, make sure you check with the airlines concerned that your reservations have indeed been made and that you are good to go. Don't leave it till the last minute.

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