Flight Fiasco

My mission for today...book flights. Sounds simple, but instead of a few simple computer keystrokes to enter our credit card number, I spent the day honing my powers of persuasion. I started by calling Mike at the travel agency that TOL recommended. He couldn't find a return trip, on December 19th (the beginning of the Christmas holiday), that didn't involve 2 layovers Munich and Frankfurt. So, I started calling the customer service numbers for the major airlines to ask about adoption fares. United told me that they offer 65% off of a full price, round-trip ticket for adoptions as long as the connecting flights to Sofia were booked with a partner airline, Lufthansa. So I logged in to the United Airlines Web site to check out their full price fares which were much better than the ones on Expedia and Orbitz. Once we found the flight times, with only one connection, and prices that we liked, I called United to book. Unfortunately, the adoption fares only apply to the price of a refundable ticket, so it was going to cost more for the adoption fare than the standard price. And the best rates were through Lufthansa on all of the connections, so the agent referred me to customer service at Lufthansa. Well, Lufthansa doesn't offer adoption fares, so it was back to the drawing board.  I really would have liked the free upgrade to "economy plus" we would get with the adoption rate with "up to 5 extra inches of leg room" but I'm too cheap to pay for that kind of comfort and Gracie and I have short legs anyway. (Sorry, Mark. Next time you'll have to book the tickets.) So I started checking the standard rates again.

Amazingly, I found that even though the fares were supposed to be listed according to price, this one return flight halfway down the page on United was a jackpot fare. On the first page of the site it said the cost was $1492.00 plus tax per person, but when you hit "continue"the site flashed a green announcement, "We have found a lower fare. Please note that the fare is now lower for the itinerary that you selected. The updated fare is displayed below. Details."
We could fly out of O'hare through Frankfurt for our departure and return from Sofia via Munich for much less than the cost of every other connection: $3009.00 for 3 full-price tickets. It was three round-trip tickets for the price of two! So we checked the itinerary with Kay at TOL and rushed to booking the tickets.

Sign up for United frequent flyer miles, complete the flight and meal information, agree to the travel insurance terms, put in the credit card information and... "Error. We are experiencing technical difficulties, try back later." After 6 or 7 attempts "later" we still couldn't book the flights, and we were starting to worry about whether those connections would still be available. So, we tried using the desktop computer instead of the laptop. No luck. Finally we decided to call and make phone reservations, $25 per booking, just to be sure that we had seats reserved on this flight. As I was beginning to dial, I noticed a United Technical Support phone number and decided to try one more time to avoid those booking fees.

I guess I hadn't really considered that the advertised price was an error. I thought I was getting a special deal...children fly free with two adults, or something like that. Well, after running out the batteries on three phone handsets, asking to talk to a supervisor, sending a screen shot by email of the advertised fare stating "$3009.00 for 3 passengers," and waiting on hold for 15-20 minutes, the representative discovered that the website had a glitch. If I would have clicked on the details link, it would have shown that the fare for each person with tax was $1504.50 usd and the computer had failed to add in the child's rate. I suggested false advertising, highlighted the website's declaration of a lower price, dismissed her suggestion that we should have clicked on the details link and added up the cost manually, and asserted that when I clicked on the yes button that said, "Accept new price" that United had contracted to honor this advertised price. The supervisor agreed. I'm not sure whether I am terrifically persuasive and convincing (no not stubborn), or if poor Mel had other things to do, but we got the advertised price. Basically, in the middle of the holiday rush on December 19th, Grace will be flying for free on her way to becoming a new US citizen. Mel booked our tickets to reserve our flight and will call us tomorrow with the details on how, with discount coupons, she is going to honor this rate. The whole time I was on the phone, Mark was laying on the couch smiling and shaking his head. He knew, from experience I suppose, that the supervisor didn't have a prayer. I thought I was right, and I wasn't  going to give up until I convinced Mel that I was right, too. Hmmmm...now which side of the family did I learn this from?

By the way, we just checked the United website again, and the price is now $6641.00 for the itinerary that we just booked for $3009.00, and the site is still announcing a reduced fare and miscalculating the cost. I don't think it will be a good day for the I.T. staff at United tomorrow.