MERCHANTS act on their own. They buy a hotel room or travel item at a wholesale (discounted net) pri

Fortunately, most travel companies waived their usual rules, offering those delayed by the storms a refund or a credit. But not all travel companies. Weiss, an editor for a trade magazine based in Cherry Hill, N.J., found an unlikely roadblock to his refund: his online travel agency.
After superstorm Sandy, Weiss had to cancel a business trip to Las Vegas that he'd booked through Expedia. US Airways agreed to waive its change fee and allowed him to reschedule his flight. His hotel, Treasure Island Hotel Casino, did not. It wanted to charge him $200 for being a "no show," according to Expedia.
But when Weiss contacted Treasure Island directly, he heard a different story. The hotel would be happy to cancel his reservation, he was told, but because he'd made the booking through Expedia, a refund would be up to the agency. And Expedia cubs season tickets wouldn't give him his money, citing its published refund policy, he says.
Weiss's cancellation isn't the only refund case I tried to mediate cubs season tickets after the storms. These problems highlight one of the often unmentioned risks of booking cubs season tickets through a travel agent: Even when an airline or hotel is willing to refund a purchase, you may still have to get past an agency's own refund rules.
The Weiss case is interesting cubs season tickets because after he canceled his trip, he received cubs season tickets conflicting information from Expedia and Treasure Island. Expedia says that it advocated with the hotel on his behalf, trying to secure a refund of his first night's stay. But it claimed that the hotel wouldn't allow it.
In an unusual e-mail, a vice president cubs season tickets at Treasure Island disputed Expedia's account. "If Expedia cubs season tickets suggested cubs season tickets that they'd already paid us for your room and kept a cut, you either spoke to someone who does not have the correct information, or deliberately told you something that is not true," he wrote. "Without getting into too many details, that is not — nor ever has been — the way our Expedia billing accounts are set up.
Either way, Treasure Island promised to return Weiss's money. After I contacted Expedia on Weiss's behalf, the agency agreed to refund his hotel charges. A company spokeswoman said that Expedia was the merchant of record cubs season tickets on his hotel booking, meaning that it had charged him, not Treasure Island.
A similar problem befell Jason Singer, who had booked a car rental through Hertz for his 30th high school reunion in Manhasset, N.Y. When Sandy struck, both American Airlines cubs season tickets and La Quinta offered him immediate refunds. cubs season tickets But Hotwire said that its refund policy meant that his car rental fee couldn't be returned. Singer was on the verge of starting a "boycott Hotwire" campaign cubs season tickets when he contacted me.
"A Hertz representative apologized profusely for Hotwire's policies and for the fact that they could do nothing about it," says Singer. "She added that not only would they have refunded me without question if I had made a prepaid reservation through them directly, but that they were receiving multiple calls with the same Hotwire issue."
For one thing, Singer's travel dates fell outside the window for which refunds were being offered. And he'd paid a special deep-discount rate that was subject to strict non-refundability rules. "You can see how standard practice would recommend against a refund in this case," spokesman Garrett cubs season tickets Whittemore told me. "It's nearly impossible to reliably prove that any customer's travel was meaningfully changed cubs season tickets by this natural disaster."
But Hotwire refunded Singer's purchase anyway. Why? It turns out that the Hertz location was closed because of storm damage, so he wouldn't have been able to pick up the car if he'd traveled. Hotwire was the merchant cubs season tickets of record in the transaction.
When you buy through a bricks-and-mortar travel agency and pay by credit card, charges are passed through to the airline, hotel or car rental agency and are governed by its merchant agreement, cubs season tickets which is the contract cubs season tickets between the company and the credit card.
"That means that when our clients see their credit cubs season tickets card statements, they'll see a charge for the specific supplier they're using, rather than for the agency," says Steve Loucks, a spokesman for Travel Leaders, a travel agency consortium in Plymouth, Minn.
In other words, if you want to know who has your money, check your credit card statement. Unfortunately, you can't always know who will charge you until you've been billed. cubs season tickets But roughly 5 percent of travel purchasers can know, because they pay by cash, check or other non-credit-card method, according to Loucks. For them, the company taking the money is the company that will give them the refund.
Singer and Weiss probably would have gotten their refunds cubs season tickets eventually without my involvement. Even if they hadn't asked me to intervene, they could have filed a dispute with their credit card company. With right on their side, they would have won.
It s probably technically legal for a travel company to keep the money but its certainly unethical on all accounts for them to keep ALL of the money. If the travel cubs season tickets provider is willing to offer a refund, then the travel company has made what the law refers to as a windfall. I d be content, cubs season tickets not happy, but content for the travel company to keep its share of the proceeds.
For example, if you book a room for $100, and the travel provider paid $80, the travel provider would have made a $20 profit. The travel provider could keep $20 as it would have received the benefit of the bargain.
But for the travel company to keep the full $100.00 is simply unethical under any and all circumstances. And that s why I would never, ever, book anything except directly with the travel provider or with a travel agency that is NOT acting as a reseller, consolidator, or whatever.
An Agent is usually not free to price or change rules. An agent simply acts like (or on behalf of) the principal. So they charge the same as the principal, and if the pricipal allows cancellations and refunds then you will get it.
MERCHANTS act on their own. They buy a hotel room or travel item at a wholesale (discounted net) price and then they reprice it at their convenience. They become the merchant on record cubs season tickets and all you get is a VOUCHER that you are the one who will be the guest staying at the hotel. The hotel does not charge you since they charged the merchant. The merchant is free to make his own cancellation and refund rules since your money is with the merchant and not with the hotel.
cubs season tickets The main problem is consumers do not know between cubs season tickets a sale made under an AGENCY VS. MERCHANT agreement. They think they are always dealing with the hotel as the principal. This can easily be solved if the FTC, or States requires a disclosure for anyone selling a travel product to DISCLOSE the whether he is representing the source as an agent and therefore the source has the the power to determine rates and the rules, or he is acting as a merchant and is himself determining cubs season tickets the rates and rules.
Why do people use these web sites like Hotwire when they are so well known to cause problems like this? I always book directly with the hotel and car rental company. I want to know exactly who I am dealing cubs season tickets with and exactly what the pricing and policies are and exactly who is obligated to fix it when something goes wrong.
In January, 2011, I had a flight on US Airways and hotel rental car booked through Hotwire. A huge snowstorm struck the Philadelphia area and I was not able to get to Florida. US Airways refunded, not credited, my non-refundable fare. When I contacted cubs season tickets Hotwire to notify them I would be cancelling my hotel car, they offered, to my amazement, a complete refund.
You ask exactly that are you (the vendor) selling me a room under an agency agreement (where the hotel sets ALL the rates and rules as the principal) and you are only an agent and will follow ALL the hotel booking and cancellation policies -OR- are you selling me a room as a MERCHANT cubs season tickets and you determine the rates and rules and require me to deal with you directly for any cancellation and changes.
cubs season tickets Usually most PREPAID reservations are likely MERCHANT agreements. Usually any rate sold lower by a vendor than the hotel for the same room means the vendor has become a MERCHANT and has set its own rate (and rules).
For AIRLINE TICKETS, I have never heard of a travel agency or consolidator SET ITS OWN RULES. The ticket rules are set by the airlines, period. In fact, the airlines have the sole determination whether your ticket cubs season tickets can and will be refunded and whether fees will be waived. An agency or consolidator can always charge you a service fee (separate and above what you will pay the airline) or it can eat some of your loss. But airline accounting is mostly always one way in favor of the airline, itself since they hold your money already.
Unlike hotel rooms, there is no such thing (as far as I know) as an Airline Ticket Merchant. A consolidator is nothing but a specialized travel agency that has a BULK or NET fare agreement with the airline. Allow me to explain this further.
The typical fare of an airline is called a PUBLISHED Fare. It is called published because the airline cubs season tickets publishes the fare for everyone (who has access) to see. All appointed (and ARC registered in the USA) travel agencies can sell a Published Fare. However, they do not necessarily earn a commission. To earn a commission, the agency must have a commission cubs season tickets contract with the airline. The agency is free to charge a separate service fee but it must be clear that this additional fee is NOT PART OF THE FARE. When you buy a Published fare ticket you will see a complete breakdown of the fare construction at the end of your eticket receipt.
cubs season tickets Another kind of fare out there is called a BULK Fare. A bulk fare is a NON-published fare. Bulk fares are privately negotiated between the agency (also called a consolidator) and the airline. Bulk fares are sold by the airline of a NET price basis to the consolidator and the consolidator (to make money) adds a markup that becomes part of the fare. In other words, cubs season tickets instead of making a percentage commis