Travelocity, I'm Still Not Happy

Last week I booked a round trip flight from Beijing to Chicago through Travelocity. I was really happy about this deal as it was nearly half as much as the first time I flew back and the flight was going to be about 6 hours shorter. After clicking submit on the final page of Travelocity's reservation system, got a call from the bank that issued the credit card confirming the purchase, then a confirmation from Travelocity with the flight itinerary. Again, I'm super happy at this point. I'd used Travelocity to go to Florida, Toronto, the first time I came to China, and again when I flew back the first time, so I was set and started emailing family members my travel plans. Then, while I'm sleeping, I get this email:

From: memberservices@travelocity.com
To: me
Subject: Authorization Email
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 6:32:48 AM [View Source]

Thank you for booking your travel reservations with Travelocity.com.

For the protection of our valued customers, all reservations are subject to
review by our Revenue Protection Department, which requires the actual credit
cardholder to contact our agents for additional information or verbal
authorization.

Our Revenue Protection Department is pending your reservation until you contact
us at:

Within US: 1-866-488-6333
All Other International Callers: 001-210-253-7294

For your convenience, our agents are available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
When calling, please have your 12 digit Trip ID, shown in the subject line of
this message, for our agents to quickly retrieve your reservation.

Your reservation is subject to cancellation, and Travelocity.com cannot
guarantee the current ticket price will be available at a later date in the
event your reservation is canceled.

Thank you for your prompt attention and we look forward to hearing from you
soon,

Travelocity.com

Two hours later, while still sleeping, this email follows:

From: memberservices@travelocity.com
To: me
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 8:32:23 AM

Thank you for booking your travel reservations with Travelocity.com.

Our Revenue Protection Department previously had either contacted you by phone
or emailed you requesting that you contact us. Unfortunately we have not heard
from you and we have canceled your reservation due to lack of verifiable
information.

Should you have any questions, we invite you to contact us at:

Within US: 1-866-488-6333
All Other International Callers: 001-210-253-7294

Our agents are not able to reinstate a canceled reservation; however, we will be
happy to explain to you the reason( why your transaction was canceled. Please
have your Trip ID Trip ID when calling our agents to retrieve your reservation
more promptly.

Sincerely,

Travelocity.com

Notice the date/time stamp; first email at 6:32am on April 8, second email at 8:32am on April 8. Not much notice and time to respond, especially since business hours, for most businesses, are either 8am to 5pm or 9am to 6pm.

After this, I called and bitched for a bit, then I tweeted about it, then I wrote about it, then I got a reply from @travelocity in Twitter. @travelocity immediately wanted to help. He asked for my Trip ID so he could forward this matter to Travelocity's Executive Offices who promptly (within a few hours) sent me an email that read as follows:

From: "Executive Offices"
To: me,"Frey, Joel" (@travelocity)
Subject: RE: Travelocity reservations
Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009 8:31:43 AM

TRIP ID: numbers

Dear Kworthy,

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices. We have opened Service Incident # xxx, and your file has been assigned to Executive Resolutions Coordinator, Betty Mangum. Ms. Mangum will contact you either by phone or email, no later than the end of the business day on 4/13/2009, with a proposed resolution or request for additional information.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact us at (210)302-1749.

Sincerely,

Sanford Bradshaw
Executive Resolutions Team
Executive Offices
11603 Crosswinds Way, Suite 125
San Antonio, TX 78233
ph. 210-302-1749
fax. 210-247-9489

Well, it is now 10:55pm, on April 13th, in New York City, 9:55pm in Chicago, 8:55pm in Denver, and 7:55pm in Los Angelos, and I still have yet to hear from Travelocity about my travel reservations. Hence this post.

I will give credit where it's due, Joel Frey (@travelocity) really went out of his way to help me out, it's just too bad that Travelocity's Executive Offices don't have the customer service mindset that he has.

Travelocity, after Joel contacted me and offered me a solution, I was willing to let bygones be bygones and give you another chance. However, since you have taken his determination to keep your company in good standing with it's customers, and pissed it all away, I am going to say goodbye.