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Bad Changes
Cheap Charlie · May 5, 1999

Change isn't always good. Changes to your travel plans or to a computer reservations system can add a layer of challenges to your trip. Here are a smattering of thoughts regarding cheap travel and why it seems to be getting more difficult, and a follow-up to my previous column about automobile reservations.

RENTAL RESERVATIONS: This week I went back to making my reservations for an automobile to pick up in LA and drop off in Oakland. If you remember, my original rate queries were for pick up in LAX and drop off in San Francisco. I also extended the length of rental from five days to seven.

As you may have guessed the complexities multiplied. Previously, the best rate came from Dollar Rent a Car, which was charging about $23 a day. Dollar still charged the same daily rate, but now the days were 7 rather than 5. Even at $23 a day, the total came to more than $170 plus taxes and other fees but, it didn't end there -- the $23-a-day Dollar promotion had expired, so the price jumped to $228 plus taxes and fees.

Alamo didn't have a rental location at Oakland, so they turned out to be out of the picture. The other rates previously quoted from Avis and other rental car companies turned out to be weekly rates.

In the final analysis, Avis turned out to be the bargain with a rate of $159 plus tax etc. They were about 10 percent less than Hertz and would have been 30 percent less than the new Dollar quote.

The moral of the story: Keep track of when promotional rates expire and whether they are capacity controlled. And realize that the company that presents a bargain for one set of circumstances may not be such a bargain when travel plans change.

COMPUTER GLITCHES: Scanning the newspapers during the week revealed some situations that would turn a bargain hunter's blood cold. The first was a report in the Wall Street Journal that the advertised Continental bargain fares to Europe were never loaded in the computer systems because of a "clerical error."

With phones ringing off the hook for the bargains, fliers learned that the fare was not available. Naturally, most thought the fares were sold out or that their travel plans didn't fit into the restrictions these bargains carry.

Unfortunately, passengers who bought their tickets and missed the advertised bargains will never know that in many cases the bargain seats were there but the computer couldn't find them. I have not seen a follow-up article outlining Continental's efforts to find passengers who were robbed of their bargains.

The moral of this story: even when you find bargains they are hard to get.

Another Wall Street Journal article was headlined, "Airlines Aim to Reroute Ticket Buyers to the Web." Of course, the airline spokespersons recited the litany that the Web is the most efficient distribution channel. Unfortunately, there were no quotes from passengers having to use these Web-based reservations systems. For bargain hunters, the efficiency that the airline gains the passenger loses.

Finding the lowest fare for a particular day on most Internet reservation systems means repeated reloading of flight information for different flights. Though airlines like to save money, bargain hunters should take advantage of Web-based bargains when they suit their needs and otherwise I recommend that you make sure to call the airline's telephone reservation system.

Find the lowest price, then go back to the Web and make your reservation to garner the frequent flier benefits the airlines are lavishing on customers who use the Web to book flights.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at cheapch@aol.com or access his Web site.