Category Archives: travel

Travelocity; A Cautionary Note

If you have ever had the occasion to book a rather complicated itinerary, you might find that it is better to handle it over the phone rather than on-line. Travelocity travel services has operators standing by 24-7, albeit in India. Travelocity hawks their San Antonio call center, but users of Travelocity know better. Their first line of calls are fielded in India. You might find the experience a bit stressful, but the operators will spend hours if necessary scheduling your travel.

Here is the cautionary note. Make sure you read your itinerary confirmation thoroughly and completely before 11:59PM central time the day you make the reservations. If there is a problem and you find Travelocity made a mistake, that error becomes your error if you do not correct it by the end of that day. If this problem does arise, you may just find that it takes more than three hours and hundreds of dollars to get a resolution. You will be required to make more than 5 calls and your calls will be dropped by the call center employees. By the casual observer, it might be assumed that it is the call center employees first line of defense in complicated situations. When confused, just hang up. They don’t say, I’m sorry, I can’t help you, they just hang up.

Last checked, WNS, a company that outsources business processes, handles call center duties for Travelocity, a privately held division of Sabre Holdings Corporation. Working with WNS has purportedly reduced operational costs for Travelocity by 40% annually. But at what cost to the consumer. At what point will we demand better?

Posted in Customer Service, Transportation Discounts, travel, travelling.

The Infrequent Traveler

Is it right that managing a big chunk of time – off – requires a Herculean effort in planning, preparation, notification, organization and contingencies? No matter how organized you are, you need to plan for not being around. So this trip was no different. But it was. It was going to last for more than two weeks. A feat not experienced in more than 35 years.
The nervous stomach was just beginning to wane after the planning, packing, repacking, and the struggle with security at the airport. Which is always tense. It would be different if you travelled all the time. You get accustomed to tense situations when they occur regularly. But this is not a regular situation. We aren’t commuting to work, we are flying in an iron tube designed for falling from the sky. Add to his the desire some extremists have to see this tube driven into very large buildings and all that causes and we have a pretty abnormal circumstance.
But off we go, rallied into our quarters like cows to their milking machines. Why do we do this to ourselves. Are we not in charge of our own lives? Do we not control our own destiny? Why does man put such constraints on other men? Why do we not provide ourselves with the same freedoms as say an eagle. Why don’t we deserve the same majesty and freedom? Oh, I know you’ll say because we can’t fly. We weren’t designed to soar freely from place to place. We were created for other great things. So we suffer these indignations so that we might achieve things more important.
Posted in fly, flying, time off, travel, travelling.