Sometimes I wonder how the airport industry survives, what with the travel industry being so dadgum (that is NOT the word I’d like to use) difficult to deal with. At the moment I’m disgusted with the rental car business, and one of the We’ll-Do-It-All-for-You-Online travel consortiums.
I had played it their way. I got quotes and decided that the rental car deal I needed couldn’t be worked out at a price that made it logical. So I made other plans. Then this morning that same travel group sent me an email saying that they could do it for less—a lot less—than they had quoted. I decided to take them up on it. I have now spent an hour on it and can’t get the rate they sent me. I found the “help” line, called it, and got a lady in Guatemala. Told her politely (I swear) three times that I couldn’t understand her. She finally slowed down enough for me to decipher. Then she gave me a rate that was almost 60% more than the one they wrote to me about. I hung up—politely, but less so than when I first started.
The airlines are no better. Neither are the hotels. Earlier this week I was so frustrated trying to find the locations of a hotel chain that I just decided to go elsewhere with my business.
The travel industry brags that you can buy conveniently online. Most of the time you can, but Lord help you when it fails.
I really wonder—how many people now travel only when they can’t possibly avoid it? I know many who fit that category. Do you? In the next two weeks I will speak in Georgia, Ohio and Indiana. People ask, “Won’t that wear you out?” No, but preparing for it will.
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