Yang
I arrived in Porto Alegre after midnight. I needed to return here to meet up with the flights organised by work. My flight was not till the morning and I had planned to get a few hours sleep at the same place I stayed at while working. I tried to contact them earlier though there was no reply to emails.
Turns out they were full. The other options were far away or expensive so I gave up and went back to the airport to waste the night. I failed to get any real sleep at all, and found in the morning that my flight was now a late afternoon flight. I resigned myself to this, checked in and went to acquire some connectivity. Of course the information desk was out of wifi access cards though.
Some time later I was paged to go... somewhere. I tried the check in desk first, and they just told me that the flight was now in the afternoon, and my boarding pass was fine. Unconvinced I tried asking at the information desk (where they do not offer internet) who paged me. The lady kept telling me where the check in desk was and that I need to check my luggage there. I was shoving my boarding pass at here and pointing out that my luggage was already not with me.
Eventually I got pointed to the airline office, where the same scenario repeated. As I was leaving and giving up, someone came in and talked to the lady at the desk, then she suddenly said 'oh yes, your ticket is not valid'. Turns out Qantas like to sell tickets for other airlines flights even if the other airline does not accept Qantas tickets. I eventually managed to buy new tickets on the same plane (just as well, I was to meet someone from that plane and my luggage was on it).
Many hours later I arrive in Buenos Aires. the family friend who was to pick me up had already been to the airport twice with the constant change in flight times. She had nicely organised a taxi for me though she could not be there when I finally arrived (though it took me a while to notice the sign with my name).
The taxi took me to a hotel which was not in fact where I had booked. The hotel were helpful though and pointed me in the right direction. When I did get to the place I book I did not have a booking. This rant is long and will be added as a comment when I have had sleep. I would like credit for not setting anyone on fire.
I returned to the first hotel and they were nice, but full. They rang around for me and found a place that had a room, but quite pricey. Having had about 6 hours sleep in three days and after all of the above, I would have taken anything. Now that I am here I had a bath and decided as a birthday present to myself I will hang around here for the duration of my stay. I deserve it.
Turns out they were full. The other options were far away or expensive so I gave up and went back to the airport to waste the night. I failed to get any real sleep at all, and found in the morning that my flight was now a late afternoon flight. I resigned myself to this, checked in and went to acquire some connectivity. Of course the information desk was out of wifi access cards though.
Some time later I was paged to go... somewhere. I tried the check in desk first, and they just told me that the flight was now in the afternoon, and my boarding pass was fine. Unconvinced I tried asking at the information desk (where they do not offer internet) who paged me. The lady kept telling me where the check in desk was and that I need to check my luggage there. I was shoving my boarding pass at here and pointing out that my luggage was already not with me.
Eventually I got pointed to the airline office, where the same scenario repeated. As I was leaving and giving up, someone came in and talked to the lady at the desk, then she suddenly said 'oh yes, your ticket is not valid'. Turns out Qantas like to sell tickets for other airlines flights even if the other airline does not accept Qantas tickets. I eventually managed to buy new tickets on the same plane (just as well, I was to meet someone from that plane and my luggage was on it).
Many hours later I arrive in Buenos Aires. the family friend who was to pick me up had already been to the airport twice with the constant change in flight times. She had nicely organised a taxi for me though she could not be there when I finally arrived (though it took me a while to notice the sign with my name).
The taxi took me to a hotel which was not in fact where I had booked. The hotel were helpful though and pointed me in the right direction. When I did get to the place I book I did not have a booking. This rant is long and will be added as a comment when I have had sleep. I would like credit for not setting anyone on fire.
I returned to the first hotel and they were nice, but full. They rang around for me and found a place that had a room, but quite pricey. Having had about 6 hours sleep in three days and after all of the above, I would have taken anything. Now that I am here I had a bath and decided as a birthday present to myself I will hang around here for the duration of my stay. I deserve it.
posted by Bruce at 5:26 pm
2 Comments:
So I booked a hostel (individual room though) through web site, and paid 10% deposit though them. The hostel tells me that me booking will be cancelled unless I confirm to them with my three digit credit card security number. The one that is only used for digital transactions and is on the back of the card so that other people cannot get it... and they expect me to email them this. When I say no, they don't understand because 'everyone does', which is just the best excuse ever. We traded several emails and I made it very clear that I would not give them this number, but I would be there for the room that I had paid for.
So when I turn up of course they do not have the room. I found I could get a more expensive one, and probably would have just got on with it until I was told that me deposit was 'lost' and would not count.
Now it is not about getting the money back it is about making them suffer. Anyone have suggestions on how to bring down a Visa hammer on these guys? I am sure the right people in Visa would be quite angry about this.
that's amazingly stupid - the rest makes sense in a roundabout kinda way except for the way they 'lost' your deposit. If they cancelled your booking, you should be refunded the money
oh well
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Matthew and Kim
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