Europe flights are finally booked!

[brian1]

OMG,you guys are saying you've never used tickets since the days of BOAC,lol.Now your saying she needs one.

[Zach1213]

Just now, brian1 said:

OMG,you guys are saying you've never used tickets since the days of BOAC,lol.Now your saying she needs one.

 

It appears you're misunderstanding. Paper tickets are a thing of the past in all but the absolute least developed countries and airlines...and even then, very few exist and I likely wouldn't want to fly on the airline that has them in 2018 (though I have not too long ago). What we're talking about is the ticket number. Behind every ticket, even electronic ones, is a ticket number...not the confirmation code (that often six digit alphanumeric code), but an actual sequence of numbers. That is what really makes the ticket. Having that number somewhere, whether it be written down or in your phone or something, can be very important if something goes wrong.

 

So, there's a huge difference between a ticket number (important) and a paper ticket (pretty much non-existent). This is what we're talking about. 

[CruisingSince2012]

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

OMG, you guys are saying you've never used tickets since the days of BOAC LOL. Now your saying she needs one.

 

What is BOAC?

 

What I got was the website printout that includes my ticket number, record loocator,, and flight numbers, etc.

Edited October 25, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[DogLover]

BOAC

British Overseas Airways Corporation: A state-owned, British airline that merged with British European Airways to form British Airways in 1974.

[brian1]

7 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

What is BOAC?

 

What I got was the website printout that includes my ticket number, record loocator,, and flight numbers, etc.

Exactly,that's what I'm trying to get across.You were hounded because you used the word ticket and not eticket.

[FlyerTalker]

59 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Exactly,that's what I'm trying to get across.You were hounded because you used the word ticket and not eticket.

 

 Nope...likely hounded because the wonderful travel agent somehow insisted on a manual pickup of a piece of paper, rather than electronically transmitting the data to the client.

 

Welcome to the 1990s.

[brian1]

Nobody knows the circumstances here.The TA probably did email everything,but the OP mum may not be as tech savvy as some.She doesn't own or know how to use a printer.She may live only a block away from TA,so no big deal picking up the paperwork,which people are saying she should have now,due to the failings of the US airport systems.As I said,I always carry a printout of etickets,but have never had to produce them in the world outside of the US.

[Zach1213]

8 hours ago, brian1 said:

Nobody knows the circumstances here.The TA probably did email everything,but the OP mum may not be as tech savvy as some.She doesn't own or know how to use a printer.She may live only a block away from TA,so no big deal picking up the paperwork,which people are saying she should have now,due to the failings of the US airport systems.As I said,I always carry a printout of etickets,but have never had to produce them in the world outside of the US.

 

The times I have had to produce them, it was because I had to get transferred over from one airline to another, non-partnering airline. For example I got move from Qantas to Virgin Australia and the ticket number came in handy. Also from Xiamen Airlines to Beijing Capital Airlines. And another one that I am blanking on right now.

[CruisingSince2012]

16 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Nope. likely hounded because the wonderful travel agent somehow insisted on a manual pickup of a piece of paper, rather than electronically transmitting the data to the client.

 

Welcome to the 1990s.

 

Why do people hound me for what the travel agent did? It is not my fault Mom had to pick up a document she could have printed at home.

 

BTW Mom does now how to use a printer. She did not know the information her TA wanted to pick up is only a printout of what we can see online.

 

Of course, all that matters now is I have all the information from Delta directly.

Edited October 26, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[Globaliser]

4 minutes ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Why do people hound me for what the travel agent did?

 

I think that this stems from you trying to defend a travel agent who has gone about this whole transaction in a very odd way. And possibly from you then saying some rather odd things about the document that you did get (like it didn't tell you the duration of each connection, when the arrival and departure times were clearly printed).

 

5 minutes ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Of course, all that matters now is I have all the information from Delta directly.

 

If that's a reference to the paper document that you got, this is a prime example: you could have got all that information directly from Delta by going to the Delta website with booking reference/locator. That's how people normally do it these days.

 

Instead, you seem to have a piece of paper that has information that came indirectly - it went from Delta to your travel agent, then from your travel agent to your mother, then from your mother to you ...

[em-sk]

26 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

I think that this stems from you trying to defend a travel agent who has gone about this whole transaction in a very odd way. And possibly from you then saying some rather odd things about the document that you did get (like it didn't tell you the duration of each connection, when the arrival and departure times were clearly printed).

 

I would give the travel agent some slack.  The customer has had some very particular and specific requirements that many flyers would have not specified.  In itself that is not a bad thing,  after all that is the prerogative of the end customer. 

 

Perhaps the travel agent felt it appropriate for one final review with the customer in person.

Edited October 26, 2018 by em-sk

[CruisingSince2012]

Globiliser, there is a big difference between "normal" and best" ways to do things. Just because most people don't get their ticket information in paper form, preferring to just receive an eticket, does not mean my mom should have done that. Our travel agent is very good at understanding her clients are individuals and every client is different, unlike some who always recommend the same itineraries and companies to people wiht similar travel interests. I would not like her if she insisted on booking a Viking cruise.

Edited October 27, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[brian1]

5 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Globiliser, there is a big difference between "normal" and best" ways to do things. Just because most people don't get their ticket information in paper form, preferring to just receive an eticket, does not mean my mom should have done that. Our travel agent is very good at understanding her clients are individuals and every client is different, unlike some who always recommend the same itineraries and companies to people wiht similar travel interests. I would not like her if she insisted on booking a Viking cruise.

Spot on,in fact I think your TA is a cut above the rest by catering for individuals.Any faceless TA can bang off an email attachment and then collect their commission.

[Globaliser]

12 hours ago, em-sk said:

I would give the travel agent some slack.  The customer has had some very particular and specific requirements that many flyers would have not specified.

 

That's very fair. And any one of the things we have mentioned would probably not itself have rung alarm bells. But there have been so many cumulative oddities in the whole business of buying two economy trans-Atlantic air tickets that it seems to have been turned into a trip through Dante's Inferno, when it should have been a 30-minute job from start to finish.

[CruisingSince2012]

Remember this is not about one trans-Atlantic flight. There are four flights on one ticket.

 

BTW she does not collect commission.

[Globaliser]

5 minutes ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Remember this is not about one trans-Atlantic flight. There are four flights on one ticket.

 

So what? That didn't make it complicated. That's almost as simple as it can get. The fact that there was one connection in each direction is what might make it take 30 minutes. If it had been non-stop single sectors in both directions, booking the ticket should probably only have taken half that time.

[CruisingSince2012]

What makes you think it is so simple to book these flights after I repeatedly stressed we had to get airfare through the cruise line to save money? The only thing that is simple about this is having all flights on one ticket.

Edited October 27, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[FlyerTalker]

STILL RESTRAINING FROM BEATING HEAD

[CruisingSince2012]

Still wondering why you would want to Flyer.

[frantic36]

8 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

What makes you think it is so simple to book these flights after I repeatedly stressed we had to get airfare through the cruise line to save money? The only thing that is simple about this is having all flights on one ticket.

 

I understand your comment about saving money as we all need to do that.

However for someone like myself living in Australia and also for others who fly to all over the world, this is a very easy flight to book. For my flights when I travel overseas this format you are doing is not unusual. So for your TA this should be an easy booking to make. The getting a good price is the only tricky bit and that is simply a case of monitoring pricing. 

 

Have a good flight and a good holiday.

 

Julie

[CruisingSince2012]

What I am saying is gertting lower airfare is not as simple as monitoring prices. It is 100% about AMA Waterways offering deals - their discounts on certain flights, not just airlines lowering airfare. If all I did was wait for airfare to drop, it would still be hundreds of dollars higher than $1,023. So Mom had to wait for the right cruise line discount.

Edited October 28, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[Globaliser]

20 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

What makes you think it is so simple to book these flights after I repeatedly stressed we had to get airfare through the cruise line to save money?

 

11 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

What I am saying is gertting lower airfare is not as simple as monitoring prices. It is 100% about AMA Waterways offering deals - their discounts on certain flights, not just airlines lowering airfare. If all I did was wait for airfare to drop, it would still be hundreds of dollars higher than $1,023. So Mom had to wait for the right cruise line discount.

 

On each occasion that you suggested a reason why this ticket was "complicated" for you, that suggestion was disproved. Each time you then went on to offer a different reason why it was "complicated" for you.

 

You can hardly expect anyone to afford you any credibility.

 

That's before going back through your posts to see whether or not ever said that you had to get air fare through the cruise line. If that was a requirement, personally I wouldn't ever have bothered to spend some of my own time looking up published fares for you, or making suggestions for different itineraries, or working out how you could solve the apparent problems about driving in the dark or being apparently averse to staying overnight to get more practical flight times.

 

Or, for that matter, going back through your posts to see whether you had ever said that saving money was of primary importance. I seem to recall some mention at the beginning of getting first/business class tickets.

[Chairsin]

And I’m also willing to bet that the OP does not understand that airline “tickets” purchased from the cruise line potentially include very severe restrictions. 

[CruisingSince2012]

The travel agent said only economy tickets are available through the cruise line. The only restriction I am aware of is a fee to pick seats on KLM unless I wait until checkin. Of course, that just means I will not select my seat until June 11, when seat selection is free. Obviously the travel agent would not select a fare that prohibits checking bags because she booked the 13-day itinerary.

 

When Mom was thinking about booking business class seats, she had no idea they are over 3x the price of economy seats and can't be discounted through the cruise line. The first time she talked to the travel agent about that, the idea was ruled out.

 

Her problem with coming home from Prague is confusion about what her body time will be in Orlando. My guess is CET (ET + 6). So she is planning on reserving a hotel room in Orlando to make sure a room is available if we need it.

 

I hope this helps.

Edited October 29, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[waterbug123]

On 10/8/2018 at 4:39 PM, grandgeezer said:

 

 

 

On 10/22/2018 at 9:14 PM, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

Seats are assigned for all flights except AMS - BUD, which the travel agent said nobody can reserve yet. We can do that later. The document does not specify layover durations, but there is no hurry at JFK.

 

Correct.  For intra-European flights on KLM, you will be unable to select coach class seats until the time of check-in.

 

 

On 10/25/2018 at 11:24 AM, brian1 said:

OK,I'll rephrase that,passport and eticket printout to hand.Which we always do anyway.Our flights were not US.What was all the fuss then,when the OP said she had to collect tickets when people are saying she had to carry a hard copy of the etickets.What's an e amongst friends,lol.

 

Because there is no reason to have to pick up something the TA can email to you.  As for a hard copy of the actual e-ticket, if you have the airline app, all of that information can be accessed from within the app, generally speaking.

 

On 10/26/2018 at 6:30 PM, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

Why do people hound me for what the travel agent did? It is not my fault Mom had to pick up a document she could have printed at home.

 

BTW Mom does now how to use a printer. She did not know the information her TA wanted to pick up is only a printout of what we can see online.

 

But you insisted that this all had to be done through a travel agent, and from where I sit, it seems that this particular TA is trying very hard to make herself seem more necessary than she really is.  Did she offer your mom the option to just print an email?  Because if she didn't, and instead said "you will need to come pick up your tickets" she is being very irresponsible, in that she's making your mom think there are things that only SHE (the agent) can do, and that is simply untrue.  And if she actually called the paperwork in question a "ticket" she is really feeding the false idea of your mom NEEDING an agent.

 

On 10/26/2018 at 6:37 PM, Globaliser said:

If that's a reference to the paper document that you got, this is a prime example: you could have got all that information directly from Delta by going to the Delta website with booking reference/locator. That's how people normally do it these days.

 

 

Or even just from the app on a phone....

 

 

On 10/27/2018 at 8:10 AM, CruisingSince2012 said:

Remember this is not about one trans-Atlantic flight. There are four flights on one ticket.

 

 

A round trip itinerary with one connection in each direction is still a very simple itinerary.