Hawaii Vacation Specialist-Chris

Seat assignments:  Seat assignments cannot always be chosen.  In most cases they can.  Keep in mind if you are booking at the last minute we can’t guarantee you will get a seat you want on the plane.  If many people have already booked and been assigned a seat or already picked their seats well then it becomes a case sometimes of just having to take whats open. Some airlines only pre assign 20%-25% of their seats ahead of time and will not pre assign anymore once that percentage is already assigned.  There is nothing yourself or your agent can do at that point to assign the seat.  It’s airline rules and they can’t do it.  Some airlines are also saying they are charging a fee to change your seat if you call it in.  A lot of airlines will allow us or yourself to change seat assignments online, which will show you a map of available seats to choose from.

Schedule changes: Sometimes when you book a flight later there may be a schedule change.  They are not always bad changes and if they are we try our best to get a better schedule for you, but it’s not always possible.  An airline may change their route, add a stop , cancel some flights and put you on another flight.  We also have no control over that.  If we can change it and get a better flight for you we always will do so, but sometimes it’s not possible especially if they make a last minute change.  Keep in mind, it is not your agent who made that change and the agents have no idea the airlines will be making that change as normally the airlines don’t know themselves until they decide to do the change.  It can be annoying or upseting to the traveler, but if you had booked those same flights on your own your schedule still would have been changed and is no fault of a travel agents.

Hotel requests:  Most of the time the hotels honor our requests, but keep in mind that is just what they are, Requests.  We will always ask for you if you want one king bed or 2 doubles, a higher floor, rooms close to each other, etc.  It is up to the hotel to honor those requests in which they do try their best to do.  Some hotels have guaranteed connecting rooms , however they do charge extra per night to get that.  Sometimes in the range of $40.00 a night to get a guaranteed connecting room.  Again we do put in those kinds of requests to the hotels but it’s on a request basis and can’t always be helped although most often they do honor our requests as much as they can.

Plane problems:  Sometimes there are mechanical problems on an aircraft which may delay your flight.  I had a customer that they were enroute to hawaii and had to turn around for mechanical problems and didnt’ arrive til early the next morning.  Well mechanical problems can’t be helped and in that case is no fault of the agent, and usually of the airline.  Planes are machines and we all know machines don’t always work the way we want them to.  They will make a decision to turn around if it’s closer or delay the flight til the problem is fixed.  Your safety however upset you may be over a delay is first and foremost.  Now the FAA has regulations for certain things, however for mechanical problems they are not regulated to reimburse anything to you for a loss of monies for hotel stay, car rental, etc, because it is out of their control.  They are however regulated to reimburse things that are in their control like overbooking a flight (which is also not the fault of a travel agent).  We are not the ones who overbook the flight, it’s the airlines who do it and in that case they are regulated by the FAA for some kind of compensation.  The compensation is different for different circumstances.  If they get you on another flight soon after well then they have done their duty.  On the FAA website there are the guidelines of what the FAA regulates of the airlines in certain situations.  Even when the FAA does not regulate the airlines to compensate they sometimes will do so.  I have had an airline switch a flight to the next day because of a bad schedule change giving them an extra day at no charge.  I have also had an airline compensate with travel vouchers for mechanical problems which they did not have to do, but did so anyways after a letter I wrote to them.  Remember kill em with kindness.  Do not come at them with aggression and yelling and upset.  If you nicely explain your situation and disappointment without being rude, you are more likely to get a response and some kind of compensation than if you are rude to them.  Trust me it works!

Name Changes:  This is the most recent problem I have been having.  Complete name changes are not allowed on air tickets.  Once it’s booked it has to be canceled and rebooked to have a complete name change done.  Now sometimes the problem is at that time it may only be open in a higher class of service at the time of the change.  It doesnt work like if I cancel I can rebook that same class of service right away.  The ticket is canceled and goes back into circulation which can take hours.  In that time someone else could already book it before we can.  It’s a little more complicated than just cancel and rebook the same ticket right away.  Once it is released back into circulation remember that lower class of service ticket is open to everyone, ourselves, the airline, online agencies as well as other travel agents.

I just wanted to write this blog to make travelers aware that there are some limitations on things travel agents can do and we dont’ have control of everything especially when it comes to airlines.  For some things like seat assignments and schedule changes even the reservationist for the airlines dont have any control over that.  We do try our best to get you what you want, it may not always be completely satisfactory to you, but we do try our best because of course we want you happy.  We are on your side, but there are limitations!  We can’t make hotels waive fees for things like internet or parking,or airlines waive penalties for changes, which I have been asked to do.  That is not fair to ask your agent to plea bargain with the hotel over fees that everyone else is charged for.  I wanted to do this blog to make travelers aware of things and to be a little more educated on how the travel industry works.  Most travelers arent’ aware of many things as well as I wasn’t either until I came into the industry and wish someone would have shared the knowledge with me when I was a travel consumer myself.

I also did not write this blog to pass blame and be a dont’ blame me blame them blog, but there are many things consumers think is logically easy, but they aren’t.  We have rules we also have to follow with airlines/hotels etc. and we can’t just do whatever we want either, no matter how much we would love to just to make it easier, we also have to follow rules and regulations, but whoever said life was easy right?

I hope this helps anyone who had any questions about some of the topics above.  I find myself answering these kinds of questions on a daily basis so I assumed a lot of people don’t know these things and wanted to share with everyone.