I’ve been scolded for giving my play-by-play for changing my AA award ticket on the way back from Tahiti. I have to tread lightly so as to not sound like I am complaining once again. This time I’m really not. This time I’m taking in the latest development in stride.
I received an email from the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa that stated the following:
Dear Mr. Bachuwa,
We would like to thank you for choosing the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa for your stay in French Polynesia, and look forward to welcoming you to Bora Bora.
We are reaching out to you today so as to inform you that the resort is currently experiencing an air conditioning issue. We expect this problem to prevail for a couple of weeks.
Please be assured that we are putting our best efforts in ensuring that you enjoy a beautiful stay in Bora Bora nonetheless. Besides this air conditioning issue, we guarantee that the resort is fully operational, and that all overwater villas are well-ventilated.
Considering this unexpected situation we would therefore like you to consider some alternate options:
1- Should you wish to confirm your stay at the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa, we would be happy to credit back your IHG points.
2- Should you wish to cancel your stay, we guarantee that no cancelation fees will apply.
We hope that the above proposals meet your expectations, and would be grateful if you could get back to us with your preferred option in order to modify your reservation.
Again, we apologize sincerely and remain convinced that your stay with us will be memorable.
A million things come to mind:
How bad could it be with no AC when you’re in a bungalow?
Must be bad if they are willing to credit all the points back.
How crazy is it that they would refund all the points even if I went?
Obviously, I’m not going to let an issue like AC mess up my plans.
With the short notice, who has the luxury of saying, ‘Yup, I’ll just cancel,’?
To quote the voice of my generation, Puff Daddy d/b/a P. Diddy, aka Sean Puffy Combs, Diddy or as he’s known by the UCLA police, Sean Jean Combs, “Y’all got drama, the saga continues.”
What other way can I explain this Mitt Romney meets John Kerry flip-flop philosophy utilized by American Airlines when it comes to changing award tickets post devaluation. Here’s a recap to the recap (can’t stop, won’t stop) for my return flight post Tahiti:
4/20/2016: Successful change DFW to DTW: 0 miles + $150 change fee.
4/21/2016: “Ticket on request, please call to pay for ticket.”
I’ve been burned by airlines too many times to ever rest easy after receiving the all-clear for a reservation. I used to believe that ‘ticketed and confirmed’ meant I was ready to take flight then United cancelled my flight from Tahiti to Shanghai multiple times without telling me.
So of course, I was slightly suspicious when St. Peter said that I could go to Detroit for no additional miles and only a $150 change fee. Still, it seemed logical that this change should be made which is why I wasn’t too concerned when I didn’t receive a confirmation email right away.
Then this afternoon there were ‘technical difficulties’ on AA’s page which made me a little bit nervous. Nevertheless, I still wrote my post AA Changes Courses on TPOL, Literally to spread the gospel that AA was a rationale being. Well that post like Michigan’s celebration over MSU was premature.
When AA’s site went back online, my reservation said ‘Call to Pay.” I nervously followed those instructions. It turns out that my guardian angel agent had made a mistake and that I would have to pay both the 20k + $150 to make this change.
I was connected to a manager who took pity on me and admitted that AA is having all sorts of confusion post devaluation. He proposed the following:
Reissue the ticket at the new rate of 70,000 miles with no $150 change fee.
Credit my account 10k AA miles.
That would still leave me 5k short. One can argue that the $150 change fee waiver offsets the 5k but that person would not be TPOL. I asked the manager what would’ve happened had I not called in. He said I would’ve had an interesting experience in Shanghai when I went to depart; I would have a ticket but it would have to be reticketed there for the extra 20k. How do you think that would’ve played out? TPOL in a Chinese jail is not a good look.
The manager recommended that I write to AA customer service and believed that they would credit me the 5k for this fascinating mess. I accepted his offer and wrote the letter.
Do you know people who use the word ‘literally’ frequently? Do you detest them as much as I do? TPOL, unlike those non observant grammatical infidels, will be using it correctly in this post to share good news. After dealing with M life (still not booked), AA, and AT&T, I needed something to go my way.
To recap, AA does not allow route changes post devaluation. I was supposed to go from Asia to NYC via Dallas but wanted to change NYC to sunny Detroit. AA wanted $150 + 20,000 miles or 70,000 total miles which is the post devaluation rate for flights in business from Asia.
A quick check of my favorite travel planning tool, Matrix Airfare Search, revealed that a coach flight from DFW-DTW was only $127. How for the love of points could AA rationalize charging those premiums? I called AA and St. Peter answered the phone. He allowed me into the gates of first class heaven to a city many incorrectly depict as hell for 0 additional miles and a now acceptable $150.
The shiny Blackberry Priv arrived today in all of its glory. I knew that I was being prematurely optimistic when I posted about its addition to My Travel Technology last week. After the unwrapping and the excitement, came anger as AT&T tried to pull a low-down, dirty trick on yours truly.
I have an Unlimited International Blackberry Data plan which I signed up for way back in 2008. Since that time, AT&T has done everything it possibly could do to get me off this plan and onto some domestic nonsense. Last time I tried to upgrade my Blackberry Bold to the Q10 the AT&T rep said that I could not do so because the smaller sim card was not compatible with my plan. After plenty of yelling, common sense prevailed and they allowed me to keep what is rightfully mine.
Today, I was given another absurd reason as to why I could not keep my plan. “You see your phone is powered by Android so the data plan will not work.” The Blackberry Priv is a Blackberry. It says so right there on the top of the phone. It has all the great attributes that make Blackberry what it is. It is irrelevant that the mitochondria (to reference 10th grade Mr. Chamberlain’s biology class) happens to be Android. Better still, there is nothing in the Terms and Conditions of my agreement with AT&T that state that I have to give up my plan if Blackberry doesn’t listen to TPOL’s advice to Blackberry and continues to put out shitty phones until they eventually find themselves bankrupt and are forced to switch the operating system to remain competitive.
For almost two decades, I have fought with the cell phone companies. The frustration began with my Motorola Timeport from Sprint which was fashionable but did not work in my Michigan dorm room and has continued on to the present day.
Indeed, my disdain for wireless providers is so great that I recently added a consumer protection division to Bachuwa Law called FightMyPhoneBill. This is a live website that I started to go after the unscrupulous, one-sided business practices of companies which no longer allow class-action suits for their scandalous ways. Prior to Bachuwa Law, the only recourse consumers have is to either sit on hold forever or take the case to arbitration on their own. Now, consumers have a better option: Retain TPOL’s alter ego, Bachuwa Law, at no cost, to get these mischievous [INSERT WHATEVER WORD YOU WANT]!
As far as my situation goes, I don’t want to go through the arbitration process. All I want is my data package to be reinstated for my Blackberry powered by Android.
They f&!k you, they f&!k you with the cellphones!
Get off Hold! Get Results! Call Bachuwa Law
Bachuwa Law 22 Cortlandt Street 16th Floor New York City, New York 10007
How bad are the Captain Obvious commercials from Hotels.com? How much has TPOL been complaining the last few days? Here’s some more of both:
I booked JAL from PVG-NRT-DFW-EWR under the old AA prices. Today I wanted to change the DFW-EWR segment to DTW. I knew the change fee of $150 was coming but I was hoping that they would not actually enforce the new award price by charging an additional 20,000 points for a domestic change.
In this post deval world, the dates can be changed but the routing cannot. My lawyerly argument was that the spirit of the rule was to increase the cost of the international segment. I tried to explain that DFW-EWR or DFW-DTW is basically the same route. Much like M life, AA wasn’t buying what TPOL was selling.
Can you imagine paying 20k more to change the useless last leg of an award ticket? I think I’ll just fly SWA from NYC instead.
Maybe tomorrow I will have less complaining. Maybe not. At least I don’t have to pay the $150 change fee.
Update: WTF, really AA? How does your policy make any semblance of sense?
TPOL is looking to book a hotel in Vegas for next week’s Freddie awards. I asked you, the reader, to come golf with me but it appears everyone is too afraid. I also believe that the customer service at M life platinum line must also be afraid because it has been three hours since I was promised a call back and so far there has been no communication.
When I called yesterday, I was offered a rate and was told there was no urgency in booking. Today I called and they said that rate is no longer available and questioned why I didn’t book it when I had the chance. That’s a good question.
The agent continued to pester me by asking if I remembered who I spoke to when I called in. My response was, “Do you remember who you spoke to twenty minutes ago?” Usually, I’m more calm and collected but today was tax day so I was in no mood.
My real issue with the customer service is how I have to call each hotel directly to speak with someone regarding platinum benefits. When I call central reservations, I am offered the standard room rate which were pretty obscene given that I am not staying for the weekend. In order to get the platinum rate you have to call directly, be placed on hold indefinitely, and hope that the rate you want to book is still available.
Much like searching for an exit or a clock in a casino, my experience booking a room with M life had me going in circles.
TPOL is going to Tahiti, finally. Before I do, I needed to get a new Blackberry to compliment my Samsung S7 Edge. Blackberry is an indispensable part of my Travel Technology because I need to blog on the go. There’s no way to write a-live posts from a touchscreen and I am not going to sit in my bungalow and type out elaborate posts on my laptop.
With unlimited international 4G data on the Android powered Priv, I can blog from anywhere without having to beg for a Wi-Fi password.
Who still has a Blackberry? TPOL does and loves it.
I don’t usually post about deals because everyone else does but I had to say something about this crazy Southwest sale. Initially, I thought it was some sort of mistake because I haven’t seen these rates since the good old days of PHX-LAS circa 2008.
A reader asked me what bank I thought was the best for online banking if “Wells Fargo is so antiquated.” Wells Fargo may be America’s biggest bank by size but their online platform, credit card approval process, and commercials make them look like they are a local credit union, except for the customer service of course, for which they are dreadful.
Here are the following banks/credit card companies that TPOL uses to get down and dirty in the points game: Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Barclays, Discover, and US Bank. I use Chuck for international checking because there are no ATM fees but that’s not part of this discussion because I do not have a credit card through them.
This list focuses on ease of use for paying bills and navigating the website. It is not about the actual credit cards that are offered.
Here is the list from worst to best banks for online banking:
7. Bank of America: BOA sucks from top to bottom. Most of us only use BOA because we love the state of Palin or because they offer insane balance transfer options where the cost of capital is virtually nonexistent. But, once you do use your Alaska points to fly from Anchorage to Russia which you can see from your house, you will rarely visit the BOA website. That’s a good thing because setting up bill pay is a pain and the online chat always leads to the same advice, “You’ll have to call our customer care for that.” The reason I hate BOA the most is because they won’t let me change my bill due date to the 28th. This magical day that I set all my bills to be paid is not allowed as the statement date for some silly reason. As a result, I have to keep an extra red tab in my Excel spreadsheet so I don’t miss a payment.
6. US Bank: Luckily post Club Carlson devaluation, I don’t have to go to US Bank’s website either. Why do I hate US Bank too? Because they list my business card balance under accounts but this amount is not always accurate. I have to log in separately to my business account to find that balance. By the way, where the hell are my anniversary points? I updated AwardWallet the other day and I still only received them for one of my CC accounts. I wanna talk to the President! I know that most banks have a separate login for business cards but this is the only one I know of that posts the right card with the wrong balance.
5. Citi: Citi’s website is a piece of poop. I’m not sure if it is a cache issue but more often than not I have to log into my Citi account by using private browsing otherwise I will get an error. Even after I am logged in, there is still error after error for ‘Forbidden behavior’ and not the kind that one stumbles upon in a private browser forum.
The good thing about Citi is that you can change your due date very easily online, the chat is decently helpful, and the option to refund a credit balance can be requested via secure message.
The bad thing about Citi beyond errors is the need for three accounts: one for normal Citi cards, one for Hilton Citi cards, and one for business Citi. To make life ‘easier’ I even had a fourth Citi account when I botched the Citi Gold checking account. This turned out to be a wise move because closing Ms TPOL’s Citi gold account which was linked to her personal account led to all of her online accounts being deleted.
Don’t even get me started on the No ThankYou program page which has nothing on Chase’s UR portal.
4. Barclays: Barclays has a great secure message system and a bright display that shows you when your bill is due. In the glory days of the Arrival plus card, redeeming points was also very easy. I do not like how I have to click off of one card to get the last 4 digits of the card that I am not viewing.
3. Discover: Discover is number three because it takes up the least amount of my time. I log in, I see a zero balance, and I leave. If somehow I have a balance and I forget to pay it, Discover treats me like me and waives the late fee.
2. Chase: I love Chase. All of my accounts including my checking account are available on one page for which I enjoy scrolling endlessly and seeing the list of cards and the pretty logos next to them. All of my due dates are the 28th and the UR balance is easily accessible. When I pay my credit card bill, the checking account balance is automatically updated to reflect this even if the payment has not gone through. To that end, if there is a mistake and I need to cancel a payment, Chase readily allows me to do so while Citi often results in an error.
I do not like how long it takes for my Ink card to update from one cycle to the next. The new points balances usually come out around the 3rd of the month but the Ink which has the same due date as the other takes until the 6th or 7th. Chase should have a chat but I forgive them because of the promptness and helpfulness of their secure message center.
1. American Express: If the world was run by Amex, life would be better. The website is as close to perfect as perfect gets. The menu of the cards is crisp and clear. I see right away my balance due and they spare me the math of trying to figure out how much my statement balance is by showing that I still have X amount left to pay this cycle in the event that I made a prior payment .
The online chat is also very helpful and the MR portal is easy to use. One thing that is annoying is transferring a credit balance from one card to another. This literally takes days to do and many times I have to request it to be done again. In terms of disputing bad charges, Amex makes it easy as well. Thank you Amex for making paying and managing bills enjoyable.
There you have it, the best platforms for online banking.
