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I've been dragging my butt booking my usual August birthday trip, irritated over air fares, skipped the BD target date, now looking at September. Some of you all get great fares from your local airports, but not for us West-Texans. 
I swear, if I didn't have to drive around the Bay of Campeche I might just motor down, but it's over 2,000 miles just to PDC driving around all that water. Eh, maybe someday I will, as I've never seen the RGV area nor the sights along the hiway south of the border - but I'll need an extra week at least for the sightseeing and all. Not this year.
So, I'm clicking from site to site: Matrix to check air fares possible - screaming about all date pairs being obscene but picking out a pair under $600, then looking at Kayak, Orbitz, Cheap Caribbean, etc. for air & hotel packages - for a solo traveler, private room, private taxis if I want to leave the hotel, etc. trying to keep costs under some control. I like Hotel Coz and food personally - I know, some of you food snobs don't, but I do - so I'm trying to get in that AI and avoid repeated taxi trips at their monopolized rates. Ah ha - Bookit.com offers me a deal. Higher than before, but much lower than the other sites, so I grit my teeth and reach for the credit card.
Oops! What is this caca?! It offers me $1072, then accepts the BKPF25 coupon I found by asking google for their discounts, agrees on $1047 - but when I click the Continue box, it changes my flights and bumps me to $1180!
I am in no mood for this game! So I call to complain. The discount is for online only, no calls, but damnit I tried! A very nice agent really tries to explain that the plane ticket is just no longer available, or maybe I need to clear my cache & cookies, blah blah - no way! I open a different browser, start from scratch, get the same flight offer, same price offer less $25 coupon, then it tries to jerk me for the extra $133. I look at Martix again, then at AA.com, and the flight is still there at the same price originally found! I am not budging....!!
Well, I guess the nice lady accepted that I wasn't giving in, and she's not allowed to hang up on me if I don't get vulgar or out of hand - which I wasn't, just stubborn, plus she can't leave at closing time until she makes me happy, so he came up with a plan! If I will book the AA flights at the $582 offered, she will give me the AI hotel I wanted at the $466.
That'll work. (If you're checking my math, I'm using rounded dollars - the deal really did work.)
I'm paying AA too much, and having to accept seats further back at that, but Hotel Coz is a nice hotel, good enough food for me, free drinks good enough for me, etc. for $66.57/night including taxes. I'm pleased, enough. It can be frustrating to have to be stubborn and make calls to fix what you wanted to conveniently buy online, but it paid.
I swear, if I didn't have to drive around the Bay of Campeche I might just motor down, but it's over 2,000 miles just to PDC driving around all that water. Eh, maybe someday I will, as I've never seen the RGV area nor the sights along the hiway south of the border - but I'll need an extra week at least for the sightseeing and all. Not this year.So, I'm clicking from site to site: Matrix to check air fares possible - screaming about all date pairs being obscene but picking out a pair under $600, then looking at Kayak, Orbitz, Cheap Caribbean, etc. for air & hotel packages - for a solo traveler, private room, private taxis if I want to leave the hotel, etc. trying to keep costs under some control. I like Hotel Coz and food personally - I know, some of you food snobs don't, but I do - so I'm trying to get in that AI and avoid repeated taxi trips at their monopolized rates. Ah ha - Bookit.com offers me a deal. Higher than before, but much lower than the other sites, so I grit my teeth and reach for the credit card.
Oops! What is this caca?! It offers me $1072, then accepts the BKPF25 coupon I found by asking google for their discounts, agrees on $1047 - but when I click the Continue box, it changes my flights and bumps me to $1180!
I am in no mood for this game! So I call to complain. The discount is for online only, no calls, but damnit I tried! A very nice agent really tries to explain that the plane ticket is just no longer available, or maybe I need to clear my cache & cookies, blah blah - no way! I open a different browser, start from scratch, get the same flight offer, same price offer less $25 coupon, then it tries to jerk me for the extra $133. I look at Martix again, then at AA.com, and the flight is still there at the same price originally found! I am not budging....!!Well, I guess the nice lady accepted that I wasn't giving in, and she's not allowed to hang up on me if I don't get vulgar or out of hand - which I wasn't, just stubborn, plus she can't leave at closing time until she makes me happy, so he came up with a plan! If I will book the AA flights at the $582 offered, she will give me the AI hotel I wanted at the $466.
That'll work. (If you're checking my math, I'm using rounded dollars - the deal really did work.)I'm paying AA too much, and having to accept seats further back at that, but Hotel Coz is a nice hotel, good enough food for me, free drinks good enough for me, etc. for $66.57/night including taxes. I'm pleased, enough. It can be frustrating to have to be stubborn and make calls to fix what you wanted to conveniently buy online, but it paid.
