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Priceline - Wrong Airport!

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Thomas of Tickfaw LA (7/26/03):
On May 20th, 2003 I used Priceline.com to acquire a cheap airline ticket to attend a close friend's wedding. I requested any combination of flights from New Orleans to Knoxville, TN, and I was delighted to get a round-trip ticket for less than $150. Today's date is July 26, one week before I leave for...NASHVILLE!!!

Big deal? If I had money for rental transportation to get me 4.5 hours East it wouldn't be so bad, but being a biology graduate student doesn't pay that well. I had friends who were planning to pick me up in Knoxville and bring me to Gatlinburg, but it's all moot now that the destination has changed. I discovered this when I tried to print my intinerary. Navigation through the website listed Knoxville as the destination, but when the American Airline info displays, the city says Nashville.

Hoping to resolve this matter with priceline.com, I promptly called every number listed on the website--only one--and after 30 minutes of looping through automated messages, I decided to give up. When will this company shut down? How can a multi-million dollar industry get away with such misleading practices? Am I just lazy? Am I stupid? Perhaps I am one or both, but I don't usually make the same mistake twice, and I'll never use priceline.com again.

Damage Resulting: I lose $150 and my friend's wedding!

Peter of Cheektowaga NY (6/1/03):
I put in a request for $150 (x2) tickets for Buffalo to NYC. I checked the box for 4 different airports that I would not mind flying into. Next Thing I knew, my tickets were already purchased. I did not even get a chance to compare between the 4 airports. I understood the fact that it was name your price, but if they ask you for more than one airport, than you should be able to chose from the prices listed by those airports. I called the 800 number and spoke to "Carly" who told me there is nothing I could do.

I could have flown Jet Blue for cheaper and more convient. I would have been able to pick my airport and the time i was flying. Now my girlfriend and I are stuck taking off of work one day because Priceline gave us a window of 6am and 10pm that we had to accept a flight from.

Kip of Naples, FL (4/22/03):
I went in to the site and asked for Fort Myers FL to Pensecola FL. Offered 100.00. They came back and said they couldn't do it for that amount but found a carrier for $227. I said all right and purchased the ticket. When I got my itinerary, it had me leaving from Sarasota Florida (100 miles from my home, when I had asked for the Fort Myers airport 10 minutes from my home) and had me going to Birmingham Alabama! A totally different state.

Upon calling, I got the usual "there is nothing we can do, it is the policy to no refund. You should have scrolled down to see the airports that we were offering." Who would think that they would change your request from one state to another? We are disputing the charge on the credit card, but it appears that priceline.com never loses.

The only way they will change or cancel, is to charge me 100.00! I now have spent $227 for a ticket I cant use, I don't know anyone in Birmingham Alabama!

Addie of Lyons GA (2/10/03):
I purchased what I thought was an airline ticket from Houston, Tx to MELBOURNE, Fl for my nephew, John Spivey, on Oct.3l for $$348.95 and when I noticed that the arrival destination was Orlando, Fl, I immediately called and they told me they would look into it. They have and told me I could not do anything about it. Orlando was NOT the desired arrival city. The ticket was not used and Capital One is billing me because they have tried unsuccessfully to get the charge off. I cannot afford to pay for something that could not be used. My nephew is disabled and could not fly to a point and ride for miles by car.

Joshua of Denver (11/6/02):
On 11/6 I attempted to puchase tickets on Priceline.com to Redmond, OR for my girlfriend. I saved prints of each screen encountered, so do have backup evident. One screen says '...will be able to tell you if you got tickets to Redmond within 15 minutes. Next screen required I agree to add an additional return airport to the request, and it listed PDX (Portland and RDM Redmond. It also listed that there were two connections, and I presumed that's why both were listed. Clicking on either of the two gave a popup message that states the two airports are options for the return flight, but that I am not choosing a specific airport.

This was rather misleading. When the reservation was eventually locked in by Priceline, it was RT from Denver to Portland, which is four hours from Redmond! I called Priceline, I called United, I called my bankcard (debit) company. Priceline and airlines would not help me, so stuck with tickets that are totally inconvenient and hiked up service charges!

This resulted in a $313 ticket that is totally inconvenient and to the wrong city. Now my girlfriend (who's pregnant) will have to find someone to pick her up and deliver her to Redmond. I was just laid off, so every single penny is critical and I can't afford to be out this kind of money.

Mary of Carson City, NV (1/5/01): My roommate and I went to Priceline.com to get tickets for a short trip to Eugene, Ore. We chose Reno as our departure city and Eugene as our arrival city. We also chose the option that stated we would not accept changes to the days or the arrival city. The next screen asks you to choose the departure airport as well as the arrival airport. Included on that screen was the Portland airport. Noticing this oddity, we made sure we chose the Eugene Airport as our arrival choice.

The bid was accepted and we printed out the confirmation. It was at that point we noticed the arrival city had been changed to Portland. We immediately called the customer service dept. and after the typical there's nothing we can do response we spoke to a customer service supervisor. We were told that we could resubmit the bid for the correct airport, but if it was not accepted we would still have to pay and additional $5.95 processing fee as well as a $75.00 charge. After much debate as to the problem with this policy, we agreed to the new bid. It was not accepted so now we are paying $110.00 for a mistake that was not ours. During the entire process, we maintained and still do that we did not make the mistake.

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