Priceline Inflexibility

[chpcruzr]

I booked airfare for a new employee a couple of weeks ago and I didn't realize that he goes by his middle name. On the priceline reservation I used his Middle name as his first name and he noticed the mistake. I called Priceline thinking they could easily just correct the first name but they told me they could not make any changes, not even a simple name spelling correction, to the reservation. They told me that I could resubmit my request using the exact same request information I had initially used and the same or higher bid price and if it was accepted they would cancel my original reservation, but there was no guarantee that it would be accepted, and if it was that I would have the same flight. It seems to me priceline needs to be a little more flexible on things like this if they want to gain widespread acceptance. How hard could it be to just change the name (especially if they can do it if I re-bid)?

In the end I called the airline and while they can't change the reservation info. because it's through priceline they did put a note in their system with the correct name and said that should be sufficient. The moral of the story: Be very careful with spelling and correct full names when booking air reservations, with security hightened they are very tight on the name of the reservation matching the photo ID.

[thesqueegeekid]

:) :) :o I know exactly how you feel!!!

The only positive I can think of is to marvel at the system itself and how within literally seconds of a bid acceptance, our reservation is entered into system Hilton, Marriott, American Airlines or whomever accepts. PL would lose credibility as a supplier if they had to go in to make changes. I also am curious whether Expedia, Hotwire, and the others would be so strict on their 'no refund or changes' policies.

On the other hand, I can think of 30% of my reservations that I would have gone back to change had I been allowed to. I just saw the post today about the Waterfront Radisson in Cinncinati and I would now easily swap my trip from Cleveland to there.

A final note, I remember my first few bids and how careful I was before clicking to the next page ... it is us regulars/veterans that genius our way from bid to bid that make the mistakes. BUT we sure as hell have nowhere else to go but back to PL ...!!!