I screwed up my dates and PL came to the rescue!!!

[thesqueegeekid]

(Typo should have read "rescue" in the subject) BUT than again, their 'rescue' was more of a big pain in the a$$...!!!

I wasn't sure where to post this but thought it was interesting for other to read...

A funny thing when I was bidding for Boston recently... by accident I clicked on the wrong dates and bid the week before and got accepted. I called customer service to explain and they were nice enough to give me a chance to correct the problem as one of their famous "one time exceptions". BUT and this is a big BUT ... I had to follow a specific set of rules which inluded:

- have to bid the same zones and may add a zone but can not delete one

- may not increase the star level just keep the same or lower it

- can not decrease the price just increase

- must start bidding withing 48 hours

- must change either the check-in date, check-out date or both

- fill in the required form and send it back to us

If this was not completed as required, they would charge me their $25/night cancelation fee

:) Man, that was incredible and plus, after bidding Boston, I had no idea which zones I had added in my free bids. It turns out, they knew and told me after I sent my confirmation that I had not included all the required zones (I left one out) BUT as a "one time exception" they pardoned me. Oh yeah, I had to lose just the PL processing fee.

I did end up getting the exact same hotel for the same price for dates exactly one week later.

[WillTravel]

That's excellent!

I wonder what they would do about a cancellation fee if you had gotten one of those hotels that are less than $25/night (not likely in Boston, of course).

[thesqueegeekid]

Actually this happened to me .... On my recent trip to Seattle/Vancouver, I got hit by a car in the rental car garage exactly 15 minutes after landing. It was an AVIS driver who did not see me standing there.

So, after being rushed to the hospital, breaking my arm and crushing my foot, I had may records including a police report to show why I did not use my booked hotels rooms or rental car. Priceline said they would refund my money with a $25 cancelation fee per night.... but I had only paid $30 a night for my rooms leaving me with $5 refund. I told them where they could put their fiver.

After a second phone call to a different person, she was kind enough to at least refund the rental car which I could not drive minus the processing fee of course.

Being a sympathetic Canadian, it tool a lot to convince me but I have finally gotten a lawyer to take car of the matter against AVIS .... was told this is basically routine and happens all the time. Just wait for the generous check in the mail in about 6-9 months. The claim will also include the lost PL.

On a happier note, the flight back was over booked and I got a $400 Delta voucher for waiting another day :)

[WillTravel]

Interesting story, squeegee. I'm glad you're back to full-fledged travel.

I wonder how Priceline will respond to that sort of thing now that they are offering the $5/day trip insurance with your Priceline bid. Maybe they'll be more inclined to say - if you didn't get the insurance, you're out of luck?

Great idea to get the lawyer and get compensation. That's exactly the type of thing the legal system is here to fix.

[WillTravel]

TheSqueegeeKid did get help in this case. If you look at Priceline.com's help site, to the best of my knowledge if you make a mistake, you're officially stuck. This rescue is not an official policy.

Here's what the Priceline.com help says:

What if I make a mistake?

Once you finish giving us all the details of your trip on our website, we summarize your offer for you on what we call the "Contract Page". Putting your initials in the box at the end of the summary lets us know that we got everything right. If your offer summary shows a mistake, you can go back and change it before you click "Buy My Hotel Rooms Now." To see an actual example of a Contract Page, click here.

Once hotel rooms are purchased, they cannot be changed or cancelled -- by priceline or by the hotel that accepts your offer. We know this policy is strict, but it's the agreement that keeps this great savings service available and the reason we ask you to carefully review the details of your offer before you click "Buy My Hotel Rooms Now" on our website. Keep in mind that not checking into a hotel on the designated check in date may result in the hotel offering your room to another guest. Refunds are not issued if you fail to check in to your hotel as reserved.

In contrast, here's the corresponding help topic from Priceline.com.hk (Priceline Hong Kong)

Made a mistake

If you made a mistake on an offer that was not accepted, resubmit your request with the correct information. If you made a mistake while submitting your request on an offer that was accepted, please send an e-mail to our Customer Service Department by clicking here. We'll do our best to accommodate you.

Priceline.com.hk also allows rebidding after 24 hours, instead of 72. Alternatively you can raise your bid by HKD$50 (about $6.50 US).

I can't say for sure whether you will do better with Priceline.com.hk and whether they are more helpful in practice. But I just can't help but like them somehow. (Of course, if I have problems getting my Lucky Money, that may change.) And of course you have to be super-careful with amounts when bidding in a foreign currency.

EDIT (by thereuare): the above rules and conditions can change at anytime and if this aspect is important to you of affects your bidding strategy, you should consult each division of Priceline for their up to date rules

[chpcruzr]

I had the exact same thing happen (Priceline requiring me to make another bid, same $$s or higher, same quality car, etc.) on a car rental purchase in which I had included two extra days that I did not need. They said this was a one shot deal and I had to book through priceline using all of the exact same information but with different dates and same or higher price. I could not get it to accept the price that I had previously gotten and kept bidding higher until it got to the point where it was less expensive just to write off the two extra days.

But here's the part that ticked me off, I let Priceline know that I intended to just show up two days later (and use the car for two fewer days) and they said while I could not get a refund (and my card had already been charged) they also could not guarantee a rental car for me unless I got there within 24 hours of my original pickup time. I contacted the car rental company and they too told me they would not hold the car for me, and that if my full-size car wasn't there when I showed up they would not give me any other car (i.e. would not even downgrade me to an economy). Luckily when I showed up they had a bunch of extra cars and I still got my car but in my opinion if I've already paid for it for the week what business is it of theirs if I choose to leave it in the lot for two days.