Priceline - Air Travel

I purchased an airline ticket for my husband to fly on April 21, from Fort Lauderdale to Kingston, Jamaica, to Barbados, and to Saint Vincent for his one week vacation. I went through Priceline, which used low fares. Priceline booked the flight. I called them to find out if there is anything else I needed to do. The person I spoke to told me that, I needed to contact the airline, to make sure that he is booked on the flight, and I did. The day he leaves for his trip, he gets to Jamaica on time, but because Priceline booked his connecting flight too close to his arriving flight, he missed his connecting flight. I called my husband about 2 hours after he was getting to his connecting flight from Jamaica, and he told me that he missed the connecting flight, because his flights were booked too close together.

I called Priceline to complain about the problem, and they told me that we would have to pay to change the ticket, in order for my husband to move on to his next destination, which was Barbados, and that I needed to call the airline for them to do that. I called the airline, and they told me that even if he changed the ticket, there were no flights that he could get on, because they were all booked until 04/26/11, and even if he got on a flight from Jamaica to Barbados, all the flights from there were booked until 04/26/11. I informed both the airline and Priceline, that it was unfair that we bought a ticket for $693.00, and because they messed up, we would have to buy another ticket. After going back and forth on the phone between the airline and Priceline and my husband, and my husband going back and forth on the phone with Priceline, and me from about 2:35PM on 04/21/11, until about after 11PM, because no one wanted to own the mistake.

My husband had to spend the night in the airport in Jamaica, and with me having to call him to find out how things were going, we now have a $1,400.00 phone bill. The next day, 04/22/11, I called Priceline again at about 7AM. This was my 7th time calling the company about the mistake they had made, and that I needed them to fix the problem, or give us back our money, to get my husband on the next flight out of Jamaica, and back to Fort Lauderdale. During all this back and forth, I spoke to several supervisors from Priceline, who told me that they would handle the problem, and for me to give them my number, as well as my husband's number, and that they would call us back, but none of them did, so my husband had to call them to find out what was going on, and what they were going to do about the problem they put him in.

At about 9:15AM, I called Air Jamaica and explained the problem that I'm having, and I explained to the agent what had happened, and I told her that since my husband can't get a flight to go on to his final destination, then for them to get him on the first flight out of Jamaica, back to Florida. She said that all the flights to Florida were booked until the 04/26/11, and that even if he waited till then, there is still no guarantee that he would get on the flight then. She told me to hold on, and she was going to talk to her supervisor. She got back to me, and told me that she got him on the 12:45 flight to Trinidad, and then to Saint Vincent, and that he would get to his final destination at 9:10 PM.

Because Priceline had to contact my husband on his cell phone to try to get him out of Jamaica to his destination, or back to Florida our cell phone bill with Verizon is now $1,400.00. I contacted BBB to try to get Priceline to pay half the bill, seeing as how it was their fault, he missed he flight, and they said "no", because he should have gotten to his flight on time. The phone was disconnected, and now everyday and night, Verizon is calling us, wanting payment.

I purchased a round trip ticket to Cancun through Priceline. When I received my confirmation, it had someone else's name on it as the traveler. I was continuously told that it was my fault, and I must have typed in this other person's name. Customer service was degrading, nasty, and unwilling to help. I was told that I would receive a full refund, until transferred to the supervisor, who denied me that, and refused to help me in any way, again, stating that this is an error of my own. I have never been so poorly treated as a customer.

I booked my trip to Brazil around September 25th, 2011 to depart for Brazil February 16th, 2012. I had no problems when booking. I received confirmation email regarding my trip. I received a phone call around November 23rd, 2011, stating there was a change in my flight and to call them back. I did this and was told the change to my flight was that it was cancelled and the only thing they could offer me was a full refund. I was very upset since the trip I was planning had been in the works for three years. I was insisting that they find me another flight, rebook, reroute, anything else and I did not want to cancel my trip. I was on the phone for over 2 hours, mostly on hold, while they kept checking different options, they told me.

I was transferred again and again and had to start all over with the situation. The customer service was thoughtless, rude, non caring, and very confusing. I repeatedly was told no other options. After this much time I was very frustrated and exhausted, so I did not cancel my flight and decide to call back the next day. I called back the next day after thinking everything through and was ready to continue my request for another flight. I demanded to speak to a supervisor from the first phone person I spoke to and I strongly voiced that I was not willing to have my flight cancelled. I was finally granted a new flight for my trip, on the same dates as my previous flight and will only a few minor changes. I cannot understand how it could go to no other flights available, to we have this option for you. I felt that because I pushed, got mad, demanded and was not willing to accept the full refund they helped me.

So thinking this done and my trip was set, I went about my life. I received another phone call from Priceline around January 2nd 2012. The message again stated there was a change in my flight and to call them back when I could. I called and again was told that my flight had been cancelled to Brazil and the only option was a full refund. I began my conversation to them , telling them I had just been through this a month ago, and would like to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor was extremely rude, told me Priceline was not a travel agent, it was not their job to find me another flight, and again a full refund was all they could offer. I felt sick and sad, and left the conversation crying. The person on the other end had no compassion or care for me as a person. I did not cancel my flight at that time. I waited until I was ready to try again to get this worked out and called back Priceline.

I decided that it was not in my best interest to continue working with this company. I requested my full refund. To my surprise it was not a full refund, they were only refunded me back $1394.60 and keeping the processing fee of $7.00. So they mislead me in saying it was a full refund, in fact it is not. I was upset with this and requested the full refund and after being put on hold for more than the time stated, I was offered a new flight. I could not believe what I was hearing. Again after the stress, phone calls, getting upset and frustrated they offered me a new flight. I denied their request and stuck with the partial refund. I will never go with this company for anything again.

My brother and his wife are going to Brazil around the same time, leaving a bit earlier than I and returning a bit later then but they still have their flights lined up without any cancellations. So why was my flight cancelled through Priceline? I decided to rebook with our local travel agent, the same person whom booked my brother and his wife's flights. The flight was booked and set within less than a hour and I will be flying the same dates, at a lesser cost to me. I am very confused on this situation with Priceline.

Any ideas how this works? The whole experience was terrible and not necessary. If you call and say a change in flight that is not a cancellation. If you say a full refund, it should be all the money to the customer refunded. If you say there is no other options and than come with another option both times. it seems to me there is a scam of some sort going on. Could it be I will be in Brazil during Carnival and if I rebooked I would rebook at a higher cost? This company is not at all professional.

The "confirm your bid" page on their web page did not reflect our total bid. We intended to bid via the amount we listed at 50% the going rate. We entered the total amount for our two tickets. They confirmed an amount of twice that, accepting our bid as the amount for one ticket. We called to explain the discrepancy. There was no statement on the final bid page of our total.

Priceline's website and customer support are liars and thieves. In January 2011, I was checking their website for non stop tickets from Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles, California. The first class tickets were $785 each and couch was $320 each. Directly below was the statement that I could save up to 40% by bidding. And they guaranteed that I would save money or they would match any lower price. So, I bid accordingly what came to $455 per ticket for 2, which I believed was 42% savings on first class tickets. The site came back and stipulated they could only guarantee a connecting flight, for which I agreed. However, when the notice of confirmation came through, the tickets were couch class which came to 42% higher than their quote for non stop tickets.

I called Priceline customer service immediately to complain. I was told the tickets were non cancelable and non refundable. However, they stated they could cancel the tickets for what would come to a 50% fee. This would have been triple of the standard airline cancellation fee (which when I later checked with the airline). They stated that they allow cancellation and do not charge a fee to the agent for those type of tickets. I was not offered any other adjustment by Priceline, in spite of their printed guarantee to save me money.

I filed a complaint with my card company. Priceline's answer to that was to cancel the non cancelable tickets, for which they received a full refund from the airline. However, they kept refusing to refund any part of the $911 they collected for these tickets. So, in conclusion, they received $911 for nothing, since they canceled the product and made it unavailable for use while refusing to refund any of the charge. This is criminal!

I purchased a ticket from Detroit to Sao Paulo, Brazil for $1,339.00. When I got to JFK, I was told that there was a problem with my VISA so they would not let me board the plane to Sao Paulo. I then went back to Detroit. Priceline said that they were "very sorry" but could not give me a refund--so, they just kept my money! I will never deal with Priceline again. I need to tell the world--Priceline will seriously burn you if there is the slightest problem beyond your control! This was a lot of money--it really hurt! Priceline kept all my money worth $1,339.00 and refused to give me a refund.

I misread the information online and booked a return flight that was 6 hours early. It was impossible for me to make that flight. I called into customer service and thought that it was a simple mistake and wouldn't have severe consequences.

Wow! I was wrong. The mix breeds that work in customer service speak broken English, and have no sense of reality. They are trained to say, "I'm sorry, Sir. There is nothing we can do to help you. Your situation is unfortunate and we at Priceline state in our contracts we can't change your flight."

I missed my family vacation and was out 1200 dollars, for 2 flights that I could've gotten cheaper by directly dealing with the airline. Thanks for nothing, Priceline.

I booked 2 airplane tickets from LAX to Lihue Kauai, HI on priceline.com. I then purchased my hotel and car rental from another reliable company which asked me to give my flight arrival and departure number, which I copied exactly from priceline.com. We were supposed to arrive at ua510 at LIH airport on 8/25/2011 at 11:58 and depart from lIH on 8/31/2011 at 8:52 pm - I printed this. I printed the airline itinerary the night before the flight and it showed us arriving in Kona Kailua, HI, the big island.

I paid $300 to cancel 2 tickets and had to book 2 more tickets at the last minute. We had to extend our stay 1 more day because there were only first class tickets available to come fly back on, which was triple the cost. I had to extend the rental car and hotel. We didn't get any sleep the night, fighting with priceline.com to fix our flight but still, they refused to do anything to fix the mistake their people made in changing our flight. I will never do business with them again; but I want them to pay for all the extra money out of my pocket and all the inconvenience they put us through (I want a total of $604.17 back).

My wife and I booked airline tickets through Priceline for a trip from LAX to Moncton, NB, then Vancouver, BC, and then back to LAX. We got a receipt and confirmation codes from Priceline via email. We then booked hotels and cars in Moncton, Seattle, and Vancouver to complete our travel plans. Two hours later, Priceline called us to tell us that Delta Airlines would not accept their leg from Vancouver to LAX and that our trip was cancelled. They told us we would not be charged. I asked them to send me an email confirmation. They refused. I suspect they do this to prevent folks from documenting their indignities.

Luckily, we were able to book travel through another website using WestJet for the last leg. We actually saved $80 over Priceline's failed itinerary. It could have been a lot worse if we were forced to stick to our plans and have to purchase a much more expensive airfare. Websites should not advertise prices and products they cannot deliver, especially in the travel industry where a lot more is at stake.

I bid on "name your own price" for a flight on Priceline. American Airlines accepted my bid with a layover and baggage fees. Then, my sister found a much cheaper flight with Southwest Airlines, baggage fees and no layover. I called Priceline because they advertise that they will match any price. Well, the very uncooperative and rude representative say that it has to be for the same airline and same flight number.

When one books a flight on "name your own price," you are willing to fly with any airline that will accept your bid. It is deceiving for Priceline to say that they are giving you the lowest prices available, when other airlines such as Southwest are not included in the bidding. Thereby, the price acceptance is only done by their "partners" which are higher priced!

I am extremely disappointed in Priceline and can promise you that I have no desire to use your services again unless some prior action is taken to correct a Priceline error.

I purchased tickets, which clearly say First Class flights from New Orleans to Bali, Indonesia via LA and Taiwan. Yet when I chose seats, it would only give me economy seats. I emailed your customer service department before confirming. I received a response that said to pick a seat then call the airlines to make first class selection. I did that and Delta told me that I had not purchases first class tickets even though my paperwork said I did and your customer service agent, Angela, verified it. Delta told me I needed to call you guys and have it corrected as the ticket purchase was thru your site. I spent 56 minutes and 3 transfers on the phone with you "customer service and supervisors" and was finally told that for your mistake, the only thing they could do was cancel to cancel my tickets with a full refund. But why would I do that and take a chance on not being able to travel on my selected dates?

I have since found online that several people feel that you count on them not wanting to cancel for fear of not being able to get a flight on their travel dates. I even offered to email or fax my paperwork and email response from Priceline, to your customer service so that they could see what I was looking at. I was told, "no, you are absolutely correct, we see that it was offered as first class flight, however you were given economy."

I choose your site because I was offered a specific fare and seating at a specific price. You sold me something different. In this country, that is called bait and switch and it is illegal. I chose to keep my reservation rather than take a chance on losing my travel dates. I am very disappointed that Priceline sunk to this level. All you had to do was to honor what you sold.

Unfortunately, as a frequent international and domestic traveler, it is my responsibility, to my friends and family who travel, to make sure that they are aware of this incident. I was even more alarmed when I began checking the Internet to find that this is not an isolated case.

What is even more important, I kept my cool, never used foul language, agreed to repeated transfers and holds, and did it all with ease and grace hoping that you all would do the right thing. You should have upgraded the seats at the cost you sold them to me. You still didn't. As a manager and business owner myself, when I or someone on my team makes an error or makes a grave customer service mistake, I want to know about it and then take proper measures to correct and thereby deflect a marketing nightmare. I am hoping that as managers, you all feel the same way. Here's your chance.

Due to a family emergency, we booked a same day round trip ticket from Atlanta, GA to Lafayette, LA. We paid via Discover Card with no problems. I checked in at the airport, received our boarding passes and waited to board. We were ON THE PLANE when an airline representative came then pulled us off the plane and told us that our agent (Priceline) had canceled the entire itinerary. When I FINALLY got a hold of a Priceline employee, we were told that it was canceled due to expected fraud, but we could rebook using another credit card. When we had Discover contact Priceline, they were told that it was because we did not supply the last 4 digits after the zip code! Who knows that?

I purchased a ticket through Priceline's name your own price offer from Denver to NYC departing on 07/21 and returning on 07/24, in addition, I purchased travel insurance. What they provided me with is a flight that left Denver at 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived at LaGuardia airport at 11:35pm. Call me crazy, but frankly arriving on a plane at 11:35pm at LaGuardia, one of the busiest airports in the world, you won't get off the plane before midnight, it's hardly the same day. I called to complain to Priceline regarding this, and they simply told me tough luck as long as the plane is supposed to land before midnight it's the same day - even after they book something that take 7 hours to get there.

Well, as luck would have it, I developed a severe sinus infection the day prior and I couldn't go. I figured it wouldn't be an issue because I had insurance anyway. I already lost the deposit on the hotel which I completely understand. After regaining my health, I contact Priceline, who was completely unhelpful and referred me to their vendor Berkeley who informed me that since I didn't go to the doctor they would not offer any type of claim. I explained that I get sinus infections regularly and take Augmentin for the issue and had some on hand. She then told me she couldn't help me. I can't imagine using Priceline ever again. Prior to this I had booked a trip to Kansas City with Priceline and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Kansas City. They had no parking, had me park in the loading zone versus the garage and I had to move rooms because the first room had roaches which the hotel referred as "water bugs." Priceline is just not worth the trouble, it has become a horrible service. In all honesty I have booked dozens of trips through them and I have had excellent service but after my last two experiences, I'm done.

I purchased an airline ticket on priceline.com. I used their "name your own offer deal" and got a pretty good price on a round trip ticket to Florida from Washington, DC.

The night before the trip, I logged onto my account with priceline.com to print my tickets and check my itinerary. When I checked under the my trips tab, my flight was the only one listed and I clicked on the link thinking it would direct me to another link to print out my tickets but instead, every single time and still this day if I click on that link it shows. "I'm sorry your flight was unable to be booked. Airline availability and pricing change all the time."

So at this point it was late at night and I knew it would be too late to contact them at their offices. I woke up the next morning only to find out that my flight really was confirmed and everything was okay despite what my account was saying at priceline.com. The airline said they could not do anything since I purchased the tickets through priceline.com and must contact them for a flight change or refund.

After trying to explain my story for the third time to someone (because every single time I kept getting hung up on), I asked to speak to a supervisor which they then directed me to their customer relations department. Apparently, this is the highest level you can speak to somebody. So I spoke to them and they told me the ticket I purchased could neither be refunded nor changed. I understand these terms were in the agreement in which I signed, but if I as a customer am logging into my account and I see the only flight listed there and it says my flight could not be booked, what else as a consumer am I supposed to think? I mean I did buy my tickets through them.

So after countless arguments and trying to speak to somebody, there still was no resolution and priceline.com basically ate $200 worth of cash that I saved up. They said there was no exception or override to help me even if they wanted to. This doesn't make any sense to me how a company that has advertisements everywhere and offers the best deals supposedly cant refund my money or be willing to change my flight due to something they screwed up on.

One of the worst customer services I've ever had to deal with, period. I suggest everyone be careful when buying tickets through priceline.com and double check everything they do or they will take your cash easily.

Oh and priceline.com is starting to seem more like a scam to me because they do not have a corporate or headquarters number. Their corporate number is their customer service number. How ridiculous is that? So the customer relations department in whom i was speaking to (which is supposedly the highest level you can speak to someone) is probably just another associate sitting at the desk. Great job priceline.com.

Priceline allowed me to book my first family flight thinking that we were all going to be able to sit together as a family (since my husband and my children have never flown) by having the seat selection. They did not inform me that they assigned my 11-year-old son to sit by himself all the way back because that was the only seat available.

They did not keep their seat availability up to date, nor did they inform me that they booked him away from us. When I called I just got an "Oh, well" and nothing to try to fix it or make it right. They actually told me, after I informed them I had already spoke with the airline and knew there were no seats close to us now, to go on their seat selection and pick a seat again! They have absolutely the worst customer service. I will never use them again.

Damage: The itinerary is a worse-case scenario and one I would never have dreamed was even possible, much less agreed to.

Using the prescribed Priceline approach to purchase a ticket from Oakland, CA to Seattle WA, I was sold a ticket routing me through Salt Lake City, UT with a 2hr 45 minute layover. Salt Lake City is actually further from Seattle than is Oakland. This itinerary was so absurd I literally could not believe that it wasn't a mistake. I immediately contacted the airlline the ticket was booked on and cancelled, my credit card company and filed a notice of dispute, and Priceline to request cancellation of the transaction.

My father is out $350.00 and is going to rebook a flight elsewhere. The business ramifications of this incident can not be measured as of yet.

We booked a flight to Beijing China for June 3rd. This was done on March 5. When the news about SARS hit we called and they said wait till closer as things may change. We called today May 25, and the response was no refund and a very nasty "have a nice flight". This was despite JAL (the airline) informing us that we could cancel with no penalties as Beijing is still on the WHO list. JAL said that Priceline should refund the ticket. Out booked flights have been cancelled both directions from Tokyo and we are being told we would have to spend at least one night each way in Tokyo and thst the flights still might not leave!

Nowhere on the terms and conditions page does it say "We are entitled to change your itenerary for any reason without compensation or effort to put you on an different flight." Priceline likes to emphasize that after you purchase tickets you have the same rights as other passengers. Not so. If US Airways changed a patron's itenerary, I gurantee they would make an effort to get the passenger on a plane that would allow them to reach their connections or compensate them for their loss. I did quite a bit of travelling during the past year and plan to do more next year - thanks Priceline for encouraging me to use your competitors! I look forward to the day that the BBB revokes your membership.

I purchased tickets online at priceline.com. After buying the tickets I wanted to change the name of the person travelling because she couldn't make it. This customer service representative called Alicia starts laughing at me by telling me she can not change the name of the travelling party and that it is company policy. I have deeply regreted using their service and for the customer representative to laugh at me has made me deeply troubled. I am going to lose no more than $173.45 but I really feel cheated.

In Novenber of 2002 I was checking out the prices of a vacation for my family and I to go to Orlando, FL and I checked at Priceline.com. I never had any idea that a vacation that was never taken would cost us $2,700. They now have all my money and we got nothing. After I click that little button they accepted the bid but they could not change it. So it took them until after the scheduled flight to decide to debit my American Express so we could not even use the vacation if we wanted to.

My family, which has had no income since July 15, will have to cut back even more with this mistake. When planning this trip I even figured in the amoount I would need to get from the airport to my hotel so I could leave as much money as possible for food for my four children!

Approximately one month ago, I went to Priceline to try and get airline tickets to Reno, Nevada. I am going there to bowl in a tournament in June. I offered what I thought to be a ridiculous price for airline tickets and it was accepted. I continued to scroll thru screen after screen, not paying much attention to what I was seeing on my monitor.

Before I knew it, I was committed to purchasing three tickets, $900 plus. When I realized what I had done I immediately tried to cancel. Priceline said that I couldn't and so did United Airlines. I realize that I made a "boner" of a mistake, but why punish me by taking money out of my wallet? That punishes other members of my family as well and they did nothing to be punished for. Forbid me from ever using priceline in the future or from ever flying United Airlines. To make matters worse, they have changed my flight schedule so that now I can't even make it in time to bowl, so I am paying $900 for something I can't even use. At this point, if they would just give me a flight schedule which would allow me to keep my committment I would be happy. I can't believe that in this great country of ours we can't correct this mistake.

I bid for two tickets and my information was 'lost' for three bids. I have the email from priceline customer service saying that they were experiencing technical problems and that they apologize but they can offer me my first bid and I accepted. In the meantime I wanted to confirm that my credit card would not be charged with the three original bids and for this purpose I was engaged in several emails with priceline customer service.

Finally they came back and said that they could not find my acceptance and asked me to bid again, this time changing a criteria of travel. I had to compromise on the dates and bid again. I believe that Priceline just kept hiking up the price till my bid was satisfactory and kept "losing" my information. Now they will not give me the dates I want to travel, or the accepted offer that they had offered (I have their email confirming their acceptance).

I purchased tickets specifying departure and arrival times. Priceline.com found a carrier but the return flight was later (next day) than my specification. I was given no chance to cancel or change before I was changed over $1,000.00 for the flight.

I was shopping for airline tickets and went to Priceline.com. I thought they would find the best available price and notify me. Of course, I gave them my credit card information. I wanted round trip tickets from New Orleans to Nashville, departing December 27 and returning on December 29. I submitted a bid for $125 and they emailed me and responded that there was virtually no chance of finding the tickets for that price.

I put in $150.00. I never heard back from them. I later received my December credit card statement and saw the charge. By that time, and not having heard from them, I had purchased 2 round trip, non-stop tickets for a flight for $112.00 from the airline, Southwest. I then got on Priceline and discovered that they had purchased tickets for me. get this, it was a red eye flight out of Baton Rouge, with a layover . . . for $150.00 per ticket. SOME DEAL! Well, I tried everywhere on Priceline .com to contact them. They have no contact info. They say thier policy is no refunds. I had to send my complaint and cancellation request to the tech. problems email address they have.