We were originally scheduled for a trip to Las Vegas in March, 2020. We had booked it back in September 2019. The fares were high due to March Madness so I decided to use some Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the one-way fares out and use Southwest for the return fares.
Due to COVID, we cancelled our plans. Southwest was a breeze as usual. But the outbound flights on Delta, through Chase UR, was a lot more trouble. It was unclear when you had to cancel by, whether you would get a refund or a flight credit, did you have to call the airline, etc. Well, we cancelled and after a bit of back and forth, I got the details on the cancelled flight.
Chase actually had a Delta travel credit in our names for the price of the flights ($336.20 per person). Even though I paid with points, the travel credit was in dollars from the airline and not points from Chase. Initially, it sounded like I had to book the same itinerary but that wasn’t true.
So now, in July, we decide to try Las Vegas again in August and I call Chase to use the travel credit. There are roundtrip flights for slightly more than the one fare I originally booked so life is good. Except the Chase UR rep says I must use the voucher for a one-way flight and that is a Delta rule. This caught me by surprise. He suggested calling Delta, which would have been my next step. I call Delta and the Delta rep tells me “Sure, I can use that voucher for a round trip ticket”. She didn’t understand why Chase could not do the same thing.
I had rented a car through Autoslash, a company I really like. I got a good rate of $118 for 4 days. Unfortunately, our flight times changed and I need to move the pickup time 4 and half hours later and the drop off time 2 hours later. You used to be able to email autoslash and they would take care of minor changes like this. No more. I then called Priceline, who autoslash uses to process the rental. Priceline said you can go ahead and modify but you will pay the difference in price, which was about $60. I then call Thrifty directly and they said they can change the pickup times and there would be no additional charge.
So, third party travel companies are great as long as nothing goes wrong. In both cases above, it was extra work to make a fairly small change. Granted, these are very unusual times but the same principal would be involved if we ever return to normal travel. Booking directly will be more expensive but more flexible. Booking with 3rd party companies will save you money but will also be more trouble if something goes awry.
And when all else fails, a direct call to the airline, hotel, rental car company, etc. might get you the desired results.
Never miss another post
We were on our way to Ireland last year and our flight from Indy was delayed, which required a changed flight in Newark. The later flight was scheduled to arrive in Shannon a few hours late, which wasn’t a problem for us. During the Newark layover, we started talking to a family who was supposed to join a bus tour in Scotland from SNN, but would not make it in time. They spent the next hour or so on the phone with Priceline, who essentially told them, “Tough darts. If you don’t show up you lose your money”. Priceline was (apparently) incredibly unwilling to work with them in any way; no refund, later tour, travel credit, nothing.
I’ve used Priceline a few times in the past and never had any issues but, as you say, there were no changes in plans. I now try to avoid dealing with them.
I’m a little surprised that Priceline would not budge at all. Now, it might be that the tour company issues the rules and Priceline just follows them. They may have been better off contacting the tour company directly. That was the point of my post. When you can’t get any relief from the 3rd party company, try calling the actual company directly and you may be pleasantly surprised.