Thursday, June 19, 2008

American Airlines: Telephone Ticketing Service Fee

When I need to purchase a plane ticket, I visit my favorite ticket search site: www.kayak.com*

When I recently searched for a ticket via Kayak, I found the cheapest were offered by American Airlines. So I clicked the tickets, which took me away from Kayak to the American Airlines website.

Unfortunately, it didn't take me to the tickets that I wanted to purchase. Therefore, I searched for them at the AA website. I searched by all three criteria that American Airlines offers: Price, Schedule, and Price and Schedule. However, it appeared that the tickets Kayak described weren't available.

As a result, I returned to Kayak, where I noticed a useful link, something along the lines of 'Tickets not found?', so I clicked and was taken to a Kayak page that included:
  • AA's phone number (800-433-7300)
  • instructions for getting the advertised schedule and price.
I prefer to buy everything online. The last thing I want to do is talk to someone on the phone. So far, my only problem was the minor inconvenience of having to call AA when I'd prefer to order online.

However, at the end of my call, the operator quoted a price that was twenty dollars more than the list price. I assumed this was a tax (my mistake), but in fact, it was a hidden fee.

When I received my email confirmation, AA confirmed that I had been charged $20 for ordering my ticket on the phone. This was frustrating to me, because, I didn't want to purchase this service nor did I realize this service came at a cost.
  1. I wish the agent described the $20 fee before charging me (I should have asked).
  2. I wish AA had allowed me to purchase the tickets online easily. It would save AA cost, and be more convenient for me.
* I love Kayak except for their 'Flight Times' filter. This feature should allow me to select the day for which I want to filter time. In other words, if I want to arrive no later than 6 PM on Friday, but I'm also considering Thursday flights, I don't want to filter Thursday flights that arrive after 6 PM on Thursday from my results.

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