Travel Complaints: What not to do

Sometime travel plans do not go the way we want. Sometimes it is our own lack of planning. Other times it is no ones fault. Mother Nature can have a sick sense of humor. Of course, there are the moments where the fault lies with the hotel, the travel agent, the travel site, the airline, the car rental place or another one of the companies you have trusted to help you with your journey. When this happens, can just let it go, or you can try and make things right. If you are going to make things right, there are some steps you need to take to make your case.

First, keep your cool. It might seem like a good idea to verbally eviserate the agent on the phone or scream at the unhelpful person at the counter, but that might not be the best plan. Stay calm. Remember that in some cases the front line customer service is only going by the rules they have been given. Even if they are being totally rude, do your best to stay collected. When you are foaming at the mouth, rememebering names and specifics is not that easy. By keeping the drama and the emotion out of the arguement, you are keeping it civil and you are helping yourself in the long run.

Another tip is to use e-mail or good old fashioned mail for your correspondence. If you write letters, make copies of your letters. If you use one of those "contact us" forms, be sure to keep a record of what you said and when it was sent. This method will give you the time to think and retool what you want to say. It will also give you a paper trail. Now you have exactly what you have sent them and (especially with e-mail) you will have their exact reply an sometimes even a name and department of the person responding. You can track your correspondence, and you now how examples in black and white to back your self up. It is one thing to whine that "someone" told you you could get a refund. It is another to be able to say you have it in print and you can identify the person in question.

One mistake I see made time and time again is that people make complaints and expect lofty things in return. It is one thing if you are mildly disappointed by a flight crew. It is another thing if an airline cancels your flight to to restructuring and then refuses to let you rebook your flight because "we are rebooking flights by date. We will contact you when it is your turn" only to never contact you and then you are stuck with taking a commuter propeller plane for a leg of your flight. I have had both of these happen, and I also witnessed people demand the same compensation for both offenses. Okay, I admit, I did call Southwest Airlines after a Labor Day weekend flight that left a great deal to be desired. However, I did not think it warrented a letter. I also did not make any demands or ask for anything in return for the rude flight crew. I just alerted them to the situation. It was probably an isolated incident, but if it isn't, customers should not be treated like this. Yes it was annoying, but it in the grand scheme of things there was not all that awful. Southwest didn't owe me anything. Now ATA airline did. There error and negligence cost me money, time and a little bit of sanity. At one point, the airline told me that I would not be able to fly on the says I had booked my travel. It was a nightmare. I chose to fight this battle. I didn't make demands, but I plead my case and I won.

The last bit of advice I have is please, please, please read the fine print. If you book ANYTHING online, please read the terms of agreement they make you click those checkboxes for. These things are the rules. Yeah it might not be what you condsider to be fair, but if you want the service for that rate, those are risks you will have to take. Like with sites like Hotwire, if you buy from them, they make it very clear the services are non-refundable. In extreme cases, Hotwire can be nice and extend some goowill and refund your money or assist you in getting rebooked. However, they are under no obligation to do so based on the terms of agreement. Before you take a company to the rails, make sure you know what you agreed to BEFORE you go on the offensive.