Sigh.

[tahnan]

Imagine a game store where you walked in with a game still in plastic wrapping and a receipt and said, "I'm sorry, this isn't actually what I wanted. Can I exchange it?" and they said "Sure, and since what you wanted is the same price, no problem. $100, please."

Now imagine an airline where you call up with an unused ticket and a receipt and say, "I'm sorry, this isn't actually what I wanted. Can I exchange it?" and they said "Sure, and since what you wanted is the same price, no problem. $100, please."

I hate the airlines. I mean I really, really hate the airlines. As a community. Made so much worse by the fact that they're unavoidable for most travel.

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The fact that the flight I took tonight (the first half of the ticket I have to abandon the second half of) was (a) overbooked and (b) delayed by an hour makes me have that much less sympathy for their inability to re-sell the seat.

I kind of wish I were in town on the 5th, which is the day my ticket's for; it would be worth the hassle of security just to show up at the airport and volunteer to be bumped to the next flight (and then take the free ticket offer and walk off before the next flight).

It's also the fact that it's $100. For a $50 ticket. Which is to say: I can either change my current reservation, by paying $100 plus the $50 difference in cost; or I can just throw away the ticket and buy a new one for $100. If I do the latter, of course, then they have no chance of finding a buyer for the seat I'm giving up, because they don't know that I'm giving it up. (Except of course insofar as they can overbook it.)