Why is booking so difficult?

[YB88]

Apologies in advance as this is a bit of a rant, but maybe also useful knowledge about the various ways that things can go wrong?
It seems to me that if airlines want my business that they should work to make it easy to take my money but not so much as it turns out.

After a lot of searching, I found the flight I wanted, with Lufthansa. Tried to book on their website using windows chrome. Result: "Unfortunately due to technical restrictions no flights can be displayed.
Please try again and if the problem persistes please contact our service center for more information."
Tried this multiple times, no luck.

So I used their app on my android phone. Got all the way to where I could pay for the flight, and got this: "Accessing the page is not possible. Please make sure you are connected to the internet or try again later".
This is also repeatable, just can't book.

So I called them. Fought through the AI to get to a human, got just dead air, finally hung up.
Tried again and this time got a human. Tried to give my frequent flier number with Lufthansa, human said that even with that she has no access to my information. I have to give her everything from scratch over the phone, with periodic pauses while she goes off to consult on something. After 30 minutes of this, it all seemed fine.
When I ended the conversation I found that my credit card company had decided that this might be fraud and had texted asking if this was me? I texted back "yes", at which point it said that I then needed to resubmit the payment request.

No way to do that via "manage my booking" on either the lufthansa website on windows chrome or with their android app. I ended up having to call again because of this (yet another) glitch in their system. As part of this call, btw, I'm told that since I booked online, I could only pay online, not via the booking that now shows up on their app.
This all took another 15 minutes, after which I'm told that I'll eventually find out if the payment went through, but it might take up to 24 hours to find that out.

Wow. This sort of thing makes me want to be just done with travel.

 

[Flyfish1]

Frustrating - you could use Expedia or something similar.

 

[anethum]

Have you tried with a different browser? I wasn't able to make flight selections on a different airline's website using Chrome on a chromebook. When I tried the same thing using Firefox on a PC, I had no problems.

 

[Original Wally]

Have you tried with a different browser? I wasn't able to make flight selections on a different airline's website using Chrome on a chromebook. When I tried the same thing using Firefox on a PC, I had no problems.

I have run into the "different browser" issue.

There is ONE of my bills that does not like Firefox and I need to use Edge.

 

[FlaMariner]

If a company wants my business they have to accept me and my browser (Safari) otherwise I shop elsewhere.

 

[fosterscik]

The major frustration for me is the credit card fraud check. When I go to book a ticket the card blocks the buy and sends the "is this you" text. That always ****-up the purchase because the airline has in the meantime placed a block on that card. I wish there were a simple way to "preapprove" the buy before getting blocked at the actual purchase.
It's happened with many cards and seems to be getting worse.

 

[Luvtoride]

Have you tried using a travel agent/ advisor? . I’m reasonably tech savvy and can usually manage booking websites on my own. When booking trips with International flights. multiple modes/ accommodations and locations we have a travel agent who makes the actual arrangements for us with the flights and places we want to use. She also applies carrier credits ie. Cruise next credits for NCL to get us the best rates possible. It may be old school but it sure saves us time and aggravation without additional cost.

 

[Jimmie]

Similar but different. I have a pet peeve with United when trying to use miles to book travel. United forces people to login before looking into booking air using miles. So I login and do my search and find a desirable flight, booking using miles. For whatever reason, I don't book it right away. Sometimes it's to validate travel times with DW first. When I go back to book the travel (sometimes just a few minutes later), the flight I was interested in now wants significantly more miles to book the same trip. This really gets my blood boiling and I end up just forgetting it. I try again a few weeks later and discover the same flight is now back to the original amount of miles required to buy the trip. I've seen this behavior several times over the last few years when trying to book a flight with United using miles. Being the cynic I can be sometimes, I'm believe United is doing this on purpose, in the hopes I'll agree to use more miles for the trip.

 

[Sojourner]

If a company wants my business they have to accept me and my browser (Safari) otherwise I shop elsewhere.

Have you tried with a different browser? I wasn't able to make flight selections on a different airline's website using Chrome on a chromebook. When I tried the same thing using Firefox on a PC, I had no problems.

While it might be a browser issue, I have often found that glitches like these are due to my ad blocker or some other Chrome/Firefox extension messing with the web page. My first step nowadays when something like this happens is to disable both my ad-blocker and pop-up blocker, then reload the page. Also, some browsers (such as Brave) are configured by default to block lots of stuff, so best to use a different one when this kind of thing happens.

 

[RunningBum]

German Airline Lufthansa Suffers Tech Outage

German flag carrier Lufthansa suffered a major computer outage on Wednesday, the company announced, triggering a global wave of travel disruption as flights are delayed and canceled while the airline rushes to restore its systems.

www.forbesmiddleeast.com

Major IT outage at Lufthansa. IMO they should have put a message up on their website, and a message on their phone when you first called and had to go through the steps. At least you would have known and maybe not bothered yesterday.

I wouldn't give up travel just because one carrier had an issue. It could've happened to any carrier, and any company for that matter.

 

[SnowballCamper]

The Alaska flight I booked earlier this week was remarkably easy. I shop with google and whatever aggregating sites show up, then go to the airline website to book and pay. But yes, if their website was having issues that would be frustrating. Maybe try again later.

 

[brett]

We have booked many airline seats. The only problems we have ever encountered was an out of date browser problem on Air Asia. When we fly to Europe or SE Asia it is not unusual for us to book, while travellings, anywhere from2-5 trips on various domestic or lower cost regional airlines.

And three times, one on Jetstar Australia and twice on Air Asia a message that our AMEX card had not been authorized by AMEX. We subsequently called AMEX and they had no record of it. We have found that our Amex card had declining utility when we travel. Too many places no longer accept it so I card remains at home when we travel.

This week we had an issue with a recently re-issued Visa card. The tap function worked. But the PIN function did not work. Called the issuer and they claimed that for some reason our chip/pin function had been locked? Never heard of this before. Perhaps because it was previously reported as compromised. They are sending our new cards with new pins. Hopefully they will work as it one of our primary FX travel crards.

 

[Golden Mean]

German Airline Lufthansa Suffers Tech Outage

German flag carrier Lufthansa suffered a major computer outage on Wednesday, the company announced, triggering a global wave of travel disruption as flights are delayed and canceled while the airline rushes to restore its systems.

www.forbesmiddleeast.com

Major IT outage at Lufthansa. IMO they should have put a message up on their website, and a message on their phone when you first called and had to go through the steps. At least you would have known and maybe not bothered yesterday.

This is a major pet peeve of my GF. When we both worked for a tech company, there was a status banner, to alert customers, on every page of the site if we were experiencing issues.

Many companies, Amazon AWS for example, have status pages (typically status.companyurl.com) you can check. Many legacy companies (airlines, health care) just let you struggle with the site until you give up.

 

[shortstop14]

It does seem like a constant wrestling match with airline sites. Even when they work properly, there are still annoyances. I don't really understand why I have to re-enter passport information on the airline I use four times a year every time a book a flight. And now they want a photo of the passport every time. And when I purchase the level of flight that allows seat selection, every seat has a cost attached when it's time to select, even the most basic.

I know that consumers selecting based on the cheapest flight is the reason for extracting every additional cost from the displayed price, but it's still annoying.

 

[MichaelB]

Similar but different. I have a pet peeve with United when trying to use miles to book travel. United forces people to login before looking into booking air using miles. So I login and do my search and find a desirable flight, booking using miles. For whatever reason, I don't book it right away. Sometimes it's to validate travel times with DW first. When I go back to book the travel (sometimes just a few minutes later), the flight I was interested in now wants significantly more miles to book the same trip. This really gets my blood boiling and I end up just forgetting it. I try again a few weeks later and discover the same flight is now back to the original amount of miles required to buy the trip. I've seen this behavior several times over the last few years when trying to book a flight with United using miles. Being the cynic I can be sometimes, I'm believe United is doing this on purpose, in the hopes I'll agree to use more miles for the trip.

I just had something similar with AA on an international flight. It quoted a price, I started to book, input the information for DW and me, and when I selected the pay button I got an error message asking me to start again. Great, except the price is 250 higher, per person. I walked away and the next day the price is back down.

After a week of this I called and made the reservation over the phone at the original price. Of course, I called, they were busy, offered a call back in 90 minutes, actually called back 4 1/2 hours later during dinner, but I took the call anyway,

It’s the dynamic pricing algorithm. As soon as they see interest the price automatically rises.

 

[CuriousJoe]

It’s the dynamic pricing algorithm. As soon as they see interest the price automatically rises.

I usually search prices on my downstairs computer, and if I like it, go to the upstairs computer and book it.
Guessing algorithm tracks the IP address. One day it may track my movement walking upstairs

 

[TripleLindy]

I usually search prices on my downstairs computer, and if I like it, go to the upstairs computer and book it.
Guessing algorithm tracks the IP address. One day it may track my movement walking upstairs

You can use a VPN - plenty of free ones are available.

It’s the dynamic pricing algorithm. As soon as they see interest the price automatically rises.

This is why I book my flight during the first session. You have 24 hours to cancel. Of course, if you cancel and rebook, assuming that dynamic pricing is actually occurring, you’ll be hosed.

 

[MichaelB]

I usually search prices on my downstairs computer, and if I like it, go to the upstairs computer and book it.
Guessing algorithm tracks the IP address. One day it may track my movement walking upstairs

You can use a VPN - plenty of free ones are available.


This is why I book my flight during the first session. You have 24 hours to cancel. Of course, if you cancel and rebook, assuming that dynamic pricing is actually occurring, you’ll be hosed.

In this case there was no way to defeat it online. I checked via VPN, I checked using my phone on cell network, I even did nothing for 3 days and tried to buy the tickets during the first login. Every time it quoted the same fare, once I chose it took me to the return trip screen, once I chose it went to the passenger names and info screen, and once I completed that and tried to go to the pay screen it reloaded with an error message and asked me to start again, only this time the car was $250 more expensive.

This is truly misleading, as the initial screen showed a price and read “2 seats left”, which was not the case.

I’m not fond of AA and only use it when there’s no other good option. They remind me of a certain phone company that has a “loose” moral fabric.

 

[Koolau]

Have you tried with a different browser? I wasn't able to make flight selections on a different airline's website using Chrome on a chromebook. When I tried the same thing using Firefox on a PC, I had no problems.

Yeah, as all my browsers were dying (because my ancient Mac was years out of date) I finally could do nothing - except buy a new computer. Might be your computer as well as your browser. Ridiculous, but these things don't last very long any more. Of course my Mac hardware STILL w*rks but simply is a useless pile of chips now.

 

[Aerides]

While it might be a browser issue, I have often found that glitches like these are due to my ad blocker or some other Chrome/Firefox extension messing with the web page. My first step nowadays when something like this happens is to disable both my ad-blocker and pop-up blocker, then reload the page. Also, some browsers (such as Brave) are configured by default to block lots of stuff, so best to use a different one when this kind of thing happens.

This is definitely an issue for me on a lot of sites. I've learned to just disable it and have another go.

Of course, then I see how terrible some sites are and just leave! If I have to close your 17 requests to sign up, to get notifications, or all that other nonsense, before I can even start shopping, forget it! It's the equivalent of getting bombarded with salespeople when you walk into a store.

Leave me alone and I might just actually buy something.

 

[brett]

We book many airline reservations, hotel reservations etc. on line. Never, ever use a TA.

My guess would be that under 5 percent of any on line bookings have been a problem over our past 14 years of retirement. The other 95 percent worked like a charm.

Even when we expected problems in back of beyond locations for accommodations, tours, transport, air carriers we had never heard of, etc. . It all seemed to work.

So...if you have issues booking direct, simply go the indirect route or book with one of their partner airlines that will book the same flight at the same price without the hassle.

No use sweating the small stuff or getting in a lather about it. Figure out how to get around the issue and move forward.

 

[Sorcerer]

I usually search prices on my downstairs computer, and if I like it, go to the upstairs computer and book it.
Guessing algorithm tracks the IP address. One day it may track my movement walking upstairs

Your external IP would be the same on any device throughout your household. That is assigned by your ISP. Your local IPs from device to device would change, 192.168.1.xx.

Its more likely a cookie that's tracking you. Incognito mode with chrome could potentially help with that.

 

[Jimmie]

I usually search prices on my downstairs computer, and if I like it, go to the upstairs computer and book it.
Guessing algorithm tracks the IP address. One day it may track my movement walking upstairs

Ha. Great idea. I started deleting my United cookie off my computer now before logging in to check flights. Who knows what info they store on the cookie that would help them get more $s or miles for a flight from customers.

 

[Amethyst]

Similar but different. I have a pet peeve with United when trying to use miles to book travel. United forces people to login before looking into booking air using miles. So I login and do my search and find a desirable flight, booking using miles. For whatever reason, I don't book it right away. Sometimes it's to validate travel times with DW first. When I go back to book the travel (sometimes just a few minutes later), the flight I was interested in now wants significantly more miles to book the same trip. This really gets my blood boiling and I end up just forgetting it. I try again a few weeks later and discover the same flight is now back to the original amount of miles required to buy the trip. I've seen this behavior several times over the last few years when trying to book a flight with United using miles. Being the cynic I can be sometimes, I'm believe United is doing this on purpose, in the hopes I'll agree to use more miles for the trip.

We ran into the very same issue using Expedia to book flights and hotels. It appears that when bots notice that you are very interested in a certain offer, they up the price the next time you return to it. The only other explanation I can think of is dynamic pricing based on time of day, day of week etc. Edit: I see, looking back, that others have proposed this explanation too.

 

[brett]

Fares can change in a short timeframe. For our late booking Mexico trip last March I shopped three destinations. Our preferred was Zihautanejo. It came up as $600 one way. Far more than we are willing to pay. PVR and Huatulco came up at their usual reasonable fare.

Two or three hours later I went back in to the airline site to double check the Zihautanejo fare-same day, same flight.

This time it was a more reasonable $300 (cad) so we happily booked immediately as it was our first choice.

This has happened to us once or twice on Europe and SE Asia bookings.