Less than Awesome
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:31 pm
I'll keep this brief (probably not) but I wanted to share our misfortune with everyone so you can plan accordingly...
Our flights were to leave DC on Friday the 29th at 6:00AM, with a hop through Chicago to put us in Cancun by lunch. A 2.5 hour mechanical delay in DC got us off the ground *after* our Chicago connector had already left. I requested to deplane so we could make other flight arrangements, but the crew said that there were plenty of options once we got to Chicago. So, they talked us into staying onboard. Mistake #1.
Upon hitting Chicago, we ran to the gate agent (as instructed) to rebook. They put us on a 4:00 flight, so we had several hours to kill in the airport. We sat and read for a few hours. Then, when we hit around 2:30, I got an update that our flight was cancelled. Not delayed, but cancelled completely. I went back to the gate, and they said the best they could do was get us out around 8:00 AM THE NEXT MORNING. The agent suggested that we simply "hang out and have fun in Chicago." It occurred to me to explain to her the difference between hanging out in Chicago, and "hanging out" around the jacuzzi at Pearl, but my wife persuaded me otherwise.
Once I realized that we were stuck, I went to Expedia and checked for a hotel room. The Hilton O'Hare was only $249, so I walked to the front desk (it's in the airport) to check their pricing. The check-in gal said that she showed a rate of $550, so I should book online. When I tried to book on my phone, there was some obscure error, and I was connected to an Expedia agent via voice. I told her what happened, and she said she could book me, at $550, and then just refund the difference later. Long story short, after 2 hours on the phone in the Hilton lobby, I somehow ended up with two hotel rooms (one at the Sheraton) at full price. Another hour, and they were so confused that they decided they weren't gong to help me any further, and the cancelled everything and hung up on me. Awesome.
I went back to the desk, and said I'd take whatever they had. "Fortunately" the price dropped back to $350 (from $550) so I took it. We dropped our bags in our room, and then came back to the concierge to ask WTF we could do in an unfamiliar city for the evening. He suggested hopping on the L and heading downtown, so we did. Right into the center of Lollapalooza. Seriously. Out of all the places we could have ended up, that was quite possibly the worst place for two pissed off over-charged, flight-delayed travellers.
We went back to the room, and I called Pearl to let them know we'd be a day late. I asked if we could slide our reservation a day (Sat-Thurs instead of Fri-Wed) since we already booked 5 nights. She said "Sure, you can add a day." I said, "no - I mean I need to move both our check in and check out by a day. We don't want to add a day, we still want to stay 5 instead of missing a night." This is when she politely informed me that we would be paying for the night when we couldn't effing get there.
I'll break from my little story to cut to the chase: I understand what non-refundable means. Most adults do. But when I'm spending $950 a night for a luxury resort, and I can't get there due to someone else's fault (we didn't miss our flight, it was grounded, rescheduled, and then cancelled) then I would expect a little leeway. She expected me to "understand" that they couldn't rent out that room since we reserved it. The problem is that the resort wasn't fully booked (not even our room category) so that was crap. They wouldn't have lost any income due to a full house - there were other suites available, if anyone would have called to rent one.
This has happened to me in other situations, with $200 a night rooms, and the resort or hotel *always* accommodated us. Once we were even upgraded for free simply because they saw that we were stressed out when we arrived. For Pearl to not make *ANY* sort of gesture towards us was a slap in the face. They refused to help in any way.
When we finally got to the resort, 32 hours late, we checked in and then got handed over to a concierge who we were told would help us get our bearings and make any arrangements we needed. I thought they finally had a sense of compassion. Then, about 3 minutes into it, I realized I was sitting in a timeshare speech. After explaining that we just missed 32 hours of our vacation, and were out $950 for the night we weren't there, $350 for a hotel we didn't want, and probably $100 for food that we shouldn't have needed, the rep had the gaul to ask us for "just an hour" of our time, and what amounts to $10K in timeshare investments.
In the end, the rest of the trip was fine, but the sting of that first interaction with the resort staff is something I'll never get over. They need to understand that they're selling an experience, not just renting rooms. And part of that is taking the responsibility to help guests who get unlucky with travel hiccups - not seeing an opportunity for easy cash.
Our flights were to leave DC on Friday the 29th at 6:00AM, with a hop through Chicago to put us in Cancun by lunch. A 2.5 hour mechanical delay in DC got us off the ground *after* our Chicago connector had already left. I requested to deplane so we could make other flight arrangements, but the crew said that there were plenty of options once we got to Chicago. So, they talked us into staying onboard. Mistake #1.
Upon hitting Chicago, we ran to the gate agent (as instructed) to rebook. They put us on a 4:00 flight, so we had several hours to kill in the airport. We sat and read for a few hours. Then, when we hit around 2:30, I got an update that our flight was cancelled. Not delayed, but cancelled completely. I went back to the gate, and they said the best they could do was get us out around 8:00 AM THE NEXT MORNING. The agent suggested that we simply "hang out and have fun in Chicago." It occurred to me to explain to her the difference between hanging out in Chicago, and "hanging out" around the jacuzzi at Pearl, but my wife persuaded me otherwise.
Once I realized that we were stuck, I went to Expedia and checked for a hotel room. The Hilton O'Hare was only $249, so I walked to the front desk (it's in the airport) to check their pricing. The check-in gal said that she showed a rate of $550, so I should book online. When I tried to book on my phone, there was some obscure error, and I was connected to an Expedia agent via voice. I told her what happened, and she said she could book me, at $550, and then just refund the difference later. Long story short, after 2 hours on the phone in the Hilton lobby, I somehow ended up with two hotel rooms (one at the Sheraton) at full price. Another hour, and they were so confused that they decided they weren't gong to help me any further, and the cancelled everything and hung up on me. Awesome.
I went back to the desk, and said I'd take whatever they had. "Fortunately" the price dropped back to $350 (from $550) so I took it. We dropped our bags in our room, and then came back to the concierge to ask WTF we could do in an unfamiliar city for the evening. He suggested hopping on the L and heading downtown, so we did. Right into the center of Lollapalooza. Seriously. Out of all the places we could have ended up, that was quite possibly the worst place for two pissed off over-charged, flight-delayed travellers.
We went back to the room, and I called Pearl to let them know we'd be a day late. I asked if we could slide our reservation a day (Sat-Thurs instead of Fri-Wed) since we already booked 5 nights. She said "Sure, you can add a day." I said, "no - I mean I need to move both our check in and check out by a day. We don't want to add a day, we still want to stay 5 instead of missing a night." This is when she politely informed me that we would be paying for the night when we couldn't effing get there.
I'll break from my little story to cut to the chase: I understand what non-refundable means. Most adults do. But when I'm spending $950 a night for a luxury resort, and I can't get there due to someone else's fault (we didn't miss our flight, it was grounded, rescheduled, and then cancelled) then I would expect a little leeway. She expected me to "understand" that they couldn't rent out that room since we reserved it. The problem is that the resort wasn't fully booked (not even our room category) so that was crap. They wouldn't have lost any income due to a full house - there were other suites available, if anyone would have called to rent one.
This has happened to me in other situations, with $200 a night rooms, and the resort or hotel *always* accommodated us. Once we were even upgraded for free simply because they saw that we were stressed out when we arrived. For Pearl to not make *ANY* sort of gesture towards us was a slap in the face. They refused to help in any way.
When we finally got to the resort, 32 hours late, we checked in and then got handed over to a concierge who we were told would help us get our bearings and make any arrangements we needed. I thought they finally had a sense of compassion. Then, about 3 minutes into it, I realized I was sitting in a timeshare speech. After explaining that we just missed 32 hours of our vacation, and were out $950 for the night we weren't there, $350 for a hotel we didn't want, and probably $100 for food that we shouldn't have needed, the rep had the gaul to ask us for "just an hour" of our time, and what amounts to $10K in timeshare investments.
In the end, the rest of the trip was fine, but the sting of that first interaction with the resort staff is something I'll never get over. They need to understand that they're selling an experience, not just renting rooms. And part of that is taking the responsibility to help guests who get unlucky with travel hiccups - not seeing an opportunity for easy cash.