Priceline.com and United Airlines

[Claudia Brower]

I am so angry! My first experience with Priceline was to buy gas, but before I could use it, they went defunct in that area. My second experience was to purchase airline tickets for my son to fly from Sacramento (CA) to Burbank (CA) on December 23. The flight was cancelled and United wanted to give him tickets to LAX late at night. This would have involved approximately 6-7 hours of driving, so we told them that wouldn't work, they needed to get him to Burbank. They refused. We told them that we could not use the tickets and made arrangements with another airline. Now, United Airline and Priceline both refuse to give us our money back. They cancelled the flight, why do I have to pay?

[smizrahie]

Dear Steven Mizrahie,

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail.

We appreciate your interest in our company.

The following is a preliminary response that Priceline.com sent us.

Priceline is an exciting new service and we are always looking to expand our presence on the Internet and in the marketplace. We have passed your message on to our Marketing and Public Relations Department for their consideration.

Thank you for taking the time to send us your information.

We wish your entire family a safe and happy Holiday Season.

Sincerely,

Jim C.
The priceline.com Customer Service Team

We hope to hear from someone in the PR or Marketing Department shortly, and once we do, we will post the information here.
Happy Holidays
Baddealings.com

[Corinne]

Unfortunately, the airlines have a lot of "fine print" that basically exonerates them from responsibility for anything. The best you can probably do at this point is use the United ticket for another trip (it should be good for a year) and pay the change fee in order to do so. Airlines rules are byzantine and nonsensical, not just United but all of them. As for Priceline, they were a middleman in the transaction and probably bound to United's rules. You could also write to United's customer service department and ask for flight discount coupons totalling the cost of the disputed flight. Airlines don't seem to care about customer service, but you might get what you ask for. Good luck.
Corinne
Travel Consultant
Zenith Travel