--Andrew McGarrell, posted to Travel-l
There's been some talk here about travel reservations on the Web and last-minute Internet specials. This past weekend I took such a trip from Kansas City to Memphis. The airfare, hotel, and car rental were only listed on the Web, and I thought I'd say something mainly about making these arrangements and how they worked out.
In the past year or two, I've had very little time without a trip planned, even if there were a few months between trips. It was getting hard to spend a month and a half without a trip planned :-) As airline Internet specials started entering my consciousness, I thought it might be good to try one once we got into spring. (It will be apparent that this was a spontaneous trip that I planned for a while.) I was especially interested in going on Northwest and being sure to qualify for a free trip in the future before my frequent flyer miles start to expire. NW offers specials to their hubs, and I was interested in going to Memphis. Last Wednesday I checked their Web page and saw that they were offering a $99 roundtrip fare for the weekend, going Saturday, returning Monday or Tuesday. This was not the ideal weekend (and my library wound up being very short- staffed on Monday), but it would be a while before I thought I could get another chance, either because I couldn't go or my research showed NW would be unlikely to offer a special during such events as the Memphis in May festival. NW's site also shows whether frequent flyer award trips are available for a flight; if they aren't offering award seats next month, they probably won't offer these specials either. >From Kansas City it's sometimes possible to fly longer distances for this fare, because of competition from cut- rate airlines, but this is less than half the best fare available to Memphis with advanced booking, presumably because of NW's monopoly on non-stop flights. I called NW to reserve the trip, from Saturday evening to Monday so I could feel reasonably comfortable leaving my cat alone.
NW's site also listed a $49 rate at the Radisson Inn Memphis Airport. I called Radisson to ask for it, following the usual rules for getting specials and using their marketing term "Hot Deals." The man said "Oh, you mean the $93 rate?"; "No, the $49 rate I saw on the Web." "Sorry, the lowest rate I'm showing is $69." I ended that call, called some chains more modest than Radisson and couldn't get a rate as low as $49, so I thought I would see if I could get that rate by booking it over the Web. I have enough cyber-skepticism to want to hear a person, rather than a computer, confirm a reservation. But then on the phone I'd just be talking to a person at a computer probably far from Memphis, so I was ready to go for it on the Web, with some trepidation sending my credit card number over a secure server. I got a confirmation, and later called to be sure it had gotten through.
An airport location would be as good as any if I had a car; I went to Expedia to look at car rental rates. They listed a number of special rates; I was interested in Alamo's $14.99 daily rate, which would also give me frequent flyer credit. I called Alamo and they quoted a $30+ rate. I said "I'm seeing a $14.99 rate on my computer." He said "Well, it's not on my computer," and hung up. I've heard that's typical of Alamo's customer service (just what I've heard, and I know I could have misconstrued what happened on the phone: we could have been accidentally disconnected). In spite of this, I was still interested in Alamo's combination of rate and frequent flyer credit, so I proceeded to book it online through Expedia. As I clicked the final confirmation, it hung for some time, then gave me an error message inviting me to try again in five minutes or call a toll-free phone number. For this first time, I decided to try again, and I got an error message without the phone number. After a few more tries, it was pointless to continue.. I looked through many parts of Expedia's site for the phone number and could not find it; Expedia is a service of Microsoft, known to be stingy in offering toll-free phone support. There was an area where I could transmit a description of the problem and wait for an e-mail reply. For all I know I would have gotten a fast response, but in the past I've had trouble getting e-mail replies from people (companies) I've approached about doing business with them; I've had much better luck with people on this list who don't have a vested interest in helping me. I started the reservation process again and got the error message with the phone number. I called the number, listened to the touch- tone menu, and chose "Help with using Expedia." That gave me a recording saying how to get to the Help section of the site I'd already been through, then ended the call. I called again, chose "Question about a reservation" (something like that: I think the wording was less obvious than "Problems making a reservation") and got a person. He worked through the problem, said it was something about miscommunication between different airline reservation systems, and confirmed the reservation and rate, assuring me that my credit card had not been charged multiple times. I later called Alamo to confirm they had it.
On Saturday I got to the airport early and thought it would be a near-empty flight; it wound up being 3/4 full. At Memphis I took the van to Alamo; they were out of cars and gave me a letter saying National would honor the rate. The Alamo van took me to National car rental; there was a wait there, but I got a car and frequent flyer credit. I'd read about the problems people have with the unfamiliar features of new rental cars, and tried to watch for them. In particular I noted the "ABS" light on the dashboard, meaning I'd need to be prepared for the different feel of anti-lock brakes. I needed to show my contract to the woman at the gate as I left the lot; I'm glad she kept a straight face as I struggled to find out how to open the window: the control was not on the door, but on the central console to the right of the driver. Then to the Radisson, a nice enough place, and I was going to be busy enough that I wouldn't be bothered by having a taxiway right outside my window.
About the trip itself, I responded well to Memphis, and I'm ready to make a regular thing of going there. I spent time on Beale Street, home of the blues, torn down and rebuilt in Hollywood/Disney style. There was a good feeling in the Sun Studios, the one small room where they say rock & roll began. I went to the Peabody Hotel and gathered with the crowd to see the ducks march (really run) from the elevator to the pond in the lobby. At the Pyramid, the sports arena built to play on the Egyptian name of Memphis, there was an exhibit on the Titanic, a transportation-related topic. It included items salvaged from the wreckage and told the story of the tragedy. I noted in particular that the passengers were not predominantly the upper-class people one usually hears about, but immigrants traveling in third class who could not be in contact with the others because of U.S. immigration laws.
I've heard that there's a place there called Graceland, but that's not something I wanted to see. Toward the end of my stay I picked up a tabloid guidebook called "Kreature Comforts: Lowlife Guide to Memphis," which gives me a great agenda for my next trip there, with the good places to hear music and go to "funky little restaurants which serve tasty grease." It also says, if you picked Memphis to vacation with, "you're either incredibly hip or incredibly sick." I look forward to my next trip there.
When I returned my rental car, the agent tried to check me in on a handheld unit in the parking lot, but the computers were down; she later faxed my statement, and the cost of the two-day car rental with tax was $32, none of the surprise extra charges I've had in the past. The Internet travel specials offer great opportunities for those who are ready to make these short trips on short notice. I'll just have to restrain myself from going on these trips too often: as much a bargain as these trips can be, they're still more expensive than staying home.