Will The Real Mr. and Mrs. Thom Please Stand Up?
This summer, I was bestowed the privilege of taking part in three different wedding ceremonies. And when I say privileged, I mean that sincerely. Each of these friends means a lot to me, and being able to be there when they get married, let alone being asked participate, makes feel very honored and very happy.
All of the weddings were scheduled to take place this fall; 2 in October, and 1 in November. The November wedding, it turns out, was be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over Thanksgiving. Which, honestly, was kind of nice, as it gave Megan and I an excuse to skip the craziness that comes from having both sets of our parents divorced and remarried. Last year, I think we hit all four Thanksgiving dinners we were invited to. I like turkey and stuffing as much as the next guy, but a man can only take so much. So, this year, problem solved.
Or at least the problem with having too many Thanksgivings. You see, with Thanksgiving being a holiday, plane tickets are at a premium. It makes you wonder, though, if tickets go so fast because travelers are heading home to see family, or skipping town like us? Whatever the case, when I started looking for tickets in July, pickings were already getting pretty slim. Southwest was out. Name Your Own Price on Priceline was out. The cheapest tickets I could find turned out to be from American Airlines through Priceline. And when I say cheapest, that's a pretty relative term, as in "This is the cheapest Rolex I could find," or "This was the cheapest Lexus I could buy." But like I said, it's a once in a lifetime thing, and Megan and I had never spent much time in New Mexico, so it was money well spent. With the tickets purchased Megan and I began making plans for the trip, looking at stuff to do in our spare time, etc. Everything was going swimmingly. That is until the groom-to-be called me to inform me that the wedding had been postponed.
Not cool.
I have never had something like this happen before, but I knew that it's the airline's policy to screw you if have to change your tickets. The don't actually say that's their policy, rather they say this:
"... any changes to your itinerary must be made prior to the date of your departure, and will incur a minimum of a $100 change fee. If you make changes to your itinerary, your fare may be higher... if you do not use your tickets, and do not make changes to your itinerary prior to your date of departure, your tickets will have no value and cannot be refunded or exchanged.
Subject to certain restrictions and fees defined in the rules of the fare, the value of a wholly unused nonrefundable ticket may be used toward the purchase of a new ticket. Travel on such reissued tickets (or subsequently reissued tickets) must commence no later than one year from the date of issue of the original ticket."
Translation: "we're going to screw you, there's nothing you can do about it, so you might want to get something to bite down on." In our case, this means that either Megan and I fly to Albuquerque over Thanksgiving to, you know, "hang out" for four days, or we lose $200 in fees alone to change our tickets. That doesn't sound so bad does it, "hanging out" in New Mexico? Well, I know that the words "New" and "Mexico" bring about images of warmth and sunshine; and while it is true that Ablbuquerque could be 50 degrees and sunny in November, it's also true that it could be 30 degrees and snowing 10 inches. I don't think it's worth the risk. Even the chance that Megan and I could be snowed in at our hotel eating room service over Thanksgiving makes the notion of ponying up the $200 to change our tickets much more sensible.
What I can't figure out, though, is that pretty much everything else you buy can be returned if not used, so why not plane tickets? Yes, I understand that airlines can't make money if their planes are flying around half-empty because people are getting refunds right before take-off, but I'm talking about trying to get a refund nearly 3 months out. The plane was nearly booked up when I bought the tickets, so I'm pretty sure they're not going to have any trouble filling our empty seats. I mean, having to pay more money to use money I already spent seems really unjustified.
Also, I don't really understand why I can't just sell my ticket. Yeah, yeah, terrorists and blah, blah, blah. But that's what airport security is for. Besides it's not like terrorists have never bought plane tickets before. The only drawback I can see to being able to sell tickets, is that maybe scalpers would start buying plane tickets during holidays and mark up the prices. Seeing concert tickets go for over $1000 makes me cringe at how much plane tickets would be, but I'm sure there's a way around that, like I don't know, making it against the law to sell plane tickets for over face value, then offering rewards to people who report it. Whatever, it's not going to happen, especially before Thanksgiving, but it could work. And it should work. I mean, I'm the consumer. I bought the damn tickets. I own them. I should be able to do what I want with them.
Which brings me to the one and only loophole I could think of. Since each ticket is assigned to you by name, and you have to present your I.D. when checking in, all we have to do is find another couple with the same names as Megan and me. I know it sounds like a longshot, but for my ticket, I found this guy and this guy. There's gotta be at least a couple more out there, right? And as far a Megan goes, believe it or not, I found this one and this one. Now, all we have to do is convince them to fly from Omaha to Albuquerque over Thanksgiving and we're set!
Yeah, I know, probably not going happen. But I can dream can't I?
All I have to say is this, the rest of you are gonna get married! You hear me? I'm not changing my plans again, so if you postpone or cancel your wedding, be advised you'll at least be having a private ceremony with Megan and me as guests. Sound like a threat? Maybe. But as long as you all get married as planned, we won't have to find out... Now aren't you glad you made us part of your wedding?
All of the weddings were scheduled to take place this fall; 2 in October, and 1 in November. The November wedding, it turns out, was be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over Thanksgiving. Which, honestly, was kind of nice, as it gave Megan and I an excuse to skip the craziness that comes from having both sets of our parents divorced and remarried. Last year, I think we hit all four Thanksgiving dinners we were invited to. I like turkey and stuffing as much as the next guy, but a man can only take so much. So, this year, problem solved.
Or at least the problem with having too many Thanksgivings. You see, with Thanksgiving being a holiday, plane tickets are at a premium. It makes you wonder, though, if tickets go so fast because travelers are heading home to see family, or skipping town like us? Whatever the case, when I started looking for tickets in July, pickings were already getting pretty slim. Southwest was out. Name Your Own Price on Priceline was out. The cheapest tickets I could find turned out to be from American Airlines through Priceline. And when I say cheapest, that's a pretty relative term, as in "This is the cheapest Rolex I could find," or "This was the cheapest Lexus I could buy." But like I said, it's a once in a lifetime thing, and Megan and I had never spent much time in New Mexico, so it was money well spent. With the tickets purchased Megan and I began making plans for the trip, looking at stuff to do in our spare time, etc. Everything was going swimmingly. That is until the groom-to-be called me to inform me that the wedding had been postponed.
Not cool.
I have never had something like this happen before, but I knew that it's the airline's policy to screw you if have to change your tickets. The don't actually say that's their policy, rather they say this:
"... any changes to your itinerary must be made prior to the date of your departure, and will incur a minimum of a $100 change fee. If you make changes to your itinerary, your fare may be higher... if you do not use your tickets, and do not make changes to your itinerary prior to your date of departure, your tickets will have no value and cannot be refunded or exchanged.
Subject to certain restrictions and fees defined in the rules of the fare, the value of a wholly unused nonrefundable ticket may be used toward the purchase of a new ticket. Travel on such reissued tickets (or subsequently reissued tickets) must commence no later than one year from the date of issue of the original ticket."
Translation: "we're going to screw you, there's nothing you can do about it, so you might want to get something to bite down on." In our case, this means that either Megan and I fly to Albuquerque over Thanksgiving to, you know, "hang out" for four days, or we lose $200 in fees alone to change our tickets. That doesn't sound so bad does it, "hanging out" in New Mexico? Well, I know that the words "New" and "Mexico" bring about images of warmth and sunshine; and while it is true that Ablbuquerque could be 50 degrees and sunny in November, it's also true that it could be 30 degrees and snowing 10 inches. I don't think it's worth the risk. Even the chance that Megan and I could be snowed in at our hotel eating room service over Thanksgiving makes the notion of ponying up the $200 to change our tickets much more sensible.
What I can't figure out, though, is that pretty much everything else you buy can be returned if not used, so why not plane tickets? Yes, I understand that airlines can't make money if their planes are flying around half-empty because people are getting refunds right before take-off, but I'm talking about trying to get a refund nearly 3 months out. The plane was nearly booked up when I bought the tickets, so I'm pretty sure they're not going to have any trouble filling our empty seats. I mean, having to pay more money to use money I already spent seems really unjustified.
Also, I don't really understand why I can't just sell my ticket. Yeah, yeah, terrorists and blah, blah, blah. But that's what airport security is for. Besides it's not like terrorists have never bought plane tickets before. The only drawback I can see to being able to sell tickets, is that maybe scalpers would start buying plane tickets during holidays and mark up the prices. Seeing concert tickets go for over $1000 makes me cringe at how much plane tickets would be, but I'm sure there's a way around that, like I don't know, making it against the law to sell plane tickets for over face value, then offering rewards to people who report it. Whatever, it's not going to happen, especially before Thanksgiving, but it could work. And it should work. I mean, I'm the consumer. I bought the damn tickets. I own them. I should be able to do what I want with them.
Which brings me to the one and only loophole I could think of. Since each ticket is assigned to you by name, and you have to present your I.D. when checking in, all we have to do is find another couple with the same names as Megan and me. I know it sounds like a longshot, but for my ticket, I found this guy and this guy. There's gotta be at least a couple more out there, right? And as far a Megan goes, believe it or not, I found this one and this one. Now, all we have to do is convince them to fly from Omaha to Albuquerque over Thanksgiving and we're set!
Yeah, I know, probably not going happen. But I can dream can't I?
All I have to say is this, the rest of you are gonna get married! You hear me? I'm not changing my plans again, so if you postpone or cancel your wedding, be advised you'll at least be having a private ceremony with Megan and me as guests. Sound like a threat? Maybe. But as long as you all get married as planned, we won't have to find out... Now aren't you glad you made us part of your wedding?
posted by Christian at 4:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home