Buzzzzzing

Buzzzing, like an angry--frustrated--bee. Nothing writing related, but I needed to vent.

We have spent months putting together a Hawaii vacation to see our son, who lives in the Philippines. I've studied flights and hotels up one side and down the other. Not easy because we also wanted to stop in and see our daughter and granddaughter in California as well. Finally, we decided on the flights, ran it through Yapta (you do know yapta.com, don't you? Very very handy for tracking flight prices), and watched the ticket prices inexorably move upward. We're closing in on the six-month market for a Christmas ticket, and I started getting antsy, watching various flights fill up. The price came down a hundred dollars on Wednesday (for American Airlines, that's a good day to look for tickets), so I finally bit the bullet and paid a totally exorbitant price for fear we wouldn't go anywhere if we didn't.

Today, the price plummeted to a tune of $600 total. Did anyone hear my screams? So Yapta claims they'll help me get a refund for the difference. What they gave me was a phone number to an automated line that gives me nothing but a computer asking me to choose my form of torture. I tried every single menu item, I was that frustrated. No place for getting refund vouchers.

So I tried their website. The best they offer is that I can cancel my tickets and ask for a refund. Even I know my tickets are non-refundable. All I want is the refund I'm entitled for the price difference. Yapta said it would cost $100 a piece to change the price. That's still a $400 savings. It would have paid one leg of the journey if I hadn't already booked that, too. So I poked around some more, and came up with a new place that claims it will cost $150 to change the ticket, and they won't guarantee we'll get a refund for a temporary price difference. Bummer!!!! And the only phone number it gives is the blasted automated one. So I called the automated one and got a real phone number, only there's no one there. Probably hiding until the price goes back up.

It occurs to me that booking an airplane flight has now become a game of chance. I think state governments ought to be charging them a gambling tax. I'll send that suggestion to my attorney general, as soon as I find a working telephone number.