A guest attending a destination wedding in Cabo contacted me to book her room. She said “Sheila, I got a hook up on my flight so I will take care of that myself. Can you price me hotel? “. I did and booked her room for four nights, as she requested. She booked her own air through one of the main discount travel sites for airfare, which ended up being a big mistake.
As the wedding approached, I asked her for her flight information, so that I could arrange her transfers. She didn’t send it for several days, so I contacted her again. She said “Sorry I am fighting with the airlines because they changed my flight and as of now we have a ten hour layover! I’ll call tomorrow and let you know confirmed travel details. Thank you!”. What she really meant was that she was fighting with the discount travel site.
At this point, unfortunately, I can’t do anything for her, because I didn’t book her flights. If I had, I would definitely not have booked them through this discount travel site, but gone directly to the airlines or a trusted supplier. I also would have monitored her flights for any changes and not have let the airline change her flights to such a long layover.
When she finally did send me her flight schedule, it still had that long layover. So, even though she spent hours on the phone with them, this discount travel site didn’t change her flights. Poor thing! I really wish I could have helped her.
But, the story doesn’t end yet…
While making her transfer arrangements, I noticed that her return flight is a day earlier than her hotel reservations. I called her to inquire and she didn’t even realize it. She checked her original tickets and, sure enough, they were for the correct day. She said the discount travel site had made many changes to her itinerary. She said she’d used a friend’s discount and was really regretting it.
I let her know, although there was a cancellation fee, she should take one night off her hotel reservation. She wanted to try to change her flights again and would let me know. Yesterday, I received the following email “After attempting to contact customer service with no avail, please just cancel that last day for me. I’m sad but I have learned my lesson.”.
It’s really better to let your travel professional handle everything for you, even if you think you’ll be getting a discount on your flights; hotel, excursions, etc. They really have your best interest in mind and can make sure that everything works together. And, they can monitor your flights to make sure you don’t get any nasty surprises, like this poor lady.
I’m Sheila Cannon and I help career focused couples, who have no time to plan, have the honeymoon, destination wedding or romantic vacation of a lifetime custom designed for them without them having to lift a finger. If that’s you, click here to get started putting me to work for you!
