Plaidophile

So, I'm trying to get some support on an issue with Expedia (where they have arbitrarily imposed constraints on which airports you can use when booking a hotel in a city which doesn't have an airport). To their credit, their email response came pretty quickly, but the answer was vague. So I replied requesting a clarification.

Of course, I don't top-quote email because it's stupid and doesn't provide context and so on. So, you can probably see the humor in this response I got almost immediately...

To: [xxx]
From: Expedia Travel Support <Travel@customercare.expedia.com>
Subject: Re: Vacation questions or comments - Case ID: [REQ:26254245]
In-Reply-To: 93141369-4B8E-4C0E-84B3-128A9953048E@[xxx].com
ConversationID: 21GIA8RLOXFCHDXZ

--------------Boundary-00=_4KS6NJEE2YWS4APD7TH0
Content-Type: Text/Plain;
charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Dear Expedia Customer,

Thank you for contacting Expedia.com.

We have received your reply to our e-mail, but it came back as a blank response. If you require further assistance or have additional inquiries, kindly re-submit your e-mail so that we can attend to your request. Please do not include attachments, as we will not be able to view your message again.

If you have further questions, feel free to reply to this e-mail or contact Expedia customer services at 1-800-397-3342 and reference case ID 26254245. You can also visit the Expedia.com "Customer Support" page (http://www.expedia.com/daily/service/default.asp) for more customer service information.

Thank you for choosing Expedia.com.

Sunday
Expedia.com Customer Support Team

-----Original Message-----
From: [xxx]
Sent: 6/1/2006 7:58:51 AM
To: Expedia Travel Support <Travel@customercare.expedia.com>
Subject: Re: Vacation questions or comments - Case ID: [REQ:26254245]

On Jun 1, 2006, at 12:50 AM, Expedia Travel Support wrote:

> Dear Expedia Customer,
>
> Thank you for contacting us about your interest to book a vacation
> package.
>
> It is possible to change the location of your hotel reservation for
> a vacation package. However, the flights would be defaulted to the
> airport nearest to the hotel. Moreover, the hotel has to be within
> the vicinity of the arrival airport.

So there is no way to have a flight to one city and a hotel stay in another?

Both San Jose and Oakland airport are "in the vicinity" of Santa Cruz. San Jose is just a little bit closer (it's still a two-hour drive though).

Thanks.

>
> If you have further questions regarding this issue, feel free to
> reply to this e-mail or contact Expedia customer services at
> 1-800-397-3342 and reference case ID 26254245. You can also visit
> the Expedia.com “Customer Support” page (http://www.expedia.com/
> daily/service/default.asp) for more customer service information.
>
> Thank you for choosing Expedia.com
>
>
> Reema
> Expedia.com Customer Support Team
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> Sent: 5/31/2006 9:26:58 PM
> To: travel@customercare.expedia.com
> Subject: Vacation questions or comments - Case ID: [REQ:26254245]
>
>
> * TPID: 1
> * Name: [xxx]
> * TUID: Guest
> * E-mail Address: [xxx]
> * Phone Numbers:
>
> +1 (206) [xxxxxxx]
>
> * Itinerary Number:
>
> * Subject: Vacation questions or comments
>
> --------------------------------
> * Comment:
> Is there any way to book flight+hotel+car such that I fly into one
> city and pick up the car there but have the hotel in another city?
> I am traveling with someone else who has already purchased tickets
> and so I need to be able to book a flight to Oakland, but we are
> staying in Santa Cruz. If I try setting Santa Cruz as my
> destination city it only allows me to select flights and rental
> cars through San Jose.
>
> Basically, I'd like to book a flight+car+hotel with flight+car in
> Oakland but hotel in Santa Cruz, CA. Is there any way that I can
> do this?
>
> Thanks.

--------------Boundary-00=_4KS6NJEE2YWS4APD7TH0--

Anyway after clearing that up I got an actual response for my followup question, and got this answer which doesn't really consider what the hell I said in my followup:

In a vacation package reservation the hotel needs to be within the vicinity of the the arrival city for the flight. To customize your reservation to suit your travel needs, you need to book the flight and the hotel separately.

I apologize for any inconvenience that this matter may have caused you.

Neither San Jose nor Oakland are within the vicinity of Santa Cruz! They are not very far apart! Oakland is cheaper to fly into and even if it weren't, I'm traveling with someone else who has already booked his tickets and doesn't want to change them!

It's not just a matter of "inconvenience," either, as Expedia gives a pretty big discount when they're booked together (around $270).

Looks like this is going to be yet another customer service run-around.

This is why I'm so glad that Amazon actually has pretty good customer service policies, and why it pains me when people complain obnoxiously about things which actually make it easier for everyone (for example, making it easiest to initiate a support request from contexts where customer service doesn't need to go through a lot of hoops to find out what you were trying to do).