eTravel Project

My latest business trips have been a hassle and technology has not helped much. I plan and buy my travel itinerary on Expedia.com. In my last two business trips Expedia failed to alert me of any change happening to my flight. Both flights were canceled and then badly delayed.

I forward my itinerary to Worldmate Live. I have the free edition, that now integrates with LinkedIn and Blackberry. While I did not even board, I was already at my destination according to Worldmate and received a message if I wanted to post my new status on LinkedIn.

When I learned that my flight was canceled, I called the hotel booked on Expedia from my blackberry. The hotel was very gracious, but they said they could not change my reservation and I risked to be registered as a no-show unless I told Expedia to send them a fax with the change. A fax??? By the way, I was not even asking for a refund. The battery of my phone was running out, so I decided to call Expedia from another phone.

After about a 7 minute wait, I was able to talk to Expedia customer service. Customer service was courteous , but far from understanding the situation. They did not get that it was not up to me to change the reservation with the hotel. I call the hotel again and they say that no change was made to my reservation since they needed a fax from Expedia. I called Expedia for the second time. After another long wait, I found somebody more competent on the phone. She puts me on hold while she speaks to the hotel’s front desk manager. Finally, she ensured me that the hotel is holding my reservation in spite of the fact I was not going to show that night.

I arrive at the destination after the flight was postponed two times. I was able to avoid a long wait at the airport by checking the flight status online, but my flight was delayed when I arrived at JFK once again. Anyway, my luggage did not arrive. It arrived at the hotel only the night of the next day.

Also what’s wrong with Delta Wi-Fi on board? Every time I tried to connect it said  “service is temporarily unavailable”. No luck even with Wi-Fi!

This past weekend I went on a trip that I had to cancel for personal reasons last month. I booked a short weekend stay directly from the suppliers’ websites (hotel & transportation) and did not have a problem to reschedule my travel arrangements. What a different experience! No more Expedia.com for some time for me now.