What is Digg?77 Comments
- Ducksa, on 05/16/2008, -5/+67You must have downs to make most of these mistakes.
Next Digg article: Avoid these 5 Common Shoe-Tying Errors - anyone4apint, on 05/16/2008, -3/+22To sum up the articles so called tips:
1) Dont be a retard
2) Get on a plane and go to wherever it is you want to get.
Next week on Digg, how to correctly spell your own name! - inactive, on 05/16/2008, -0/+146. Falling for Orbitz' bait-and-switch nonsense...
I saved $300 by going directly to the airline after Orbitz claimed all the cheap seats suddenly and instantaneously filled up the moment I clicked on the fare to buy it.
I understand it's pretty typical behaviour from them and other services like them. Watch out for it.
As for the article: Who makes these kinds of errors? You get half a dozen verification screens when you buy tickets online. Switching the To and From cities? Really? - roostersheep, on 01/16/2009, -1/+10"Don't put the shoes on your hands - Shoes are for feet! You may find yourself in a little trouble when you've restricted the dexterity required to tie your shoes. You're a very very simple person."
Damn good article if you ask me. - buffyangel108, on 05/16/2008, -0/+66. Don't throw your ticket in the trash before using it. I cannot stress this enough, people!
- roostersheep, on 01/16/2009, -0/+5I don't want to offend anyone by posting this, but it's just something I've noticed.
Just about everyone in this thread agrees these tips are stupid, except for this poster. So who dugg it to the front page? Also, this comment looks a little generic to me. I've looked over this guys other comments and noticed he has the first comment in almost all of the stories he posts in. Also, jordankasteler, the user who posted this story has plenty of diggs no matter what he submits (e.g. this!)
I really don't mean to offend either of you but it looks fishy to me. Does anyone else think someone might be abusing the system here? Please let me know if I'm on to something or should just keep it to me and my tinfoil hat. - dbit483, on 05/16/2008, -0/+5This article is terrible. Not only is it all common sense, but they also suggest buying refundable tickets instead of just making sure your travel plans are solid before buying. The last time I tried to get a refundable ticket, the price went from $500 non-refundable to $1300 for refundable. Refundable tickets are a rip-off.
- cha5e, on 05/16/2008, -1/+5Maybe I'm taking this a little personally since I used to work as a website designer for an airline, but I can't imagine that someone would find them difficult to use. I mean...come on, you enter where you want to leave from, where you want to go to, what dates, and how many people. Then you pick if you want the morning flight or the afternoon flight. Then you type the people's names and put in your credit card number. How freaking hard is that?
Granted I'll admit that I have a lot of experience with air travel and with the web. Perhaps if someone has never used either before, then the process might be daunting. But at my former airline we certainly tried our best to make the website easy to use. Too bad said airline no longer exists :( - unconfirmed, on 05/16/2008, -0/+4Avoid this 1 common mistake when you're an American writing an article about someone in the UK. DON'T presume that every town and city is in England. Swansea isn't in England, it's in Wales.
PS. Cymru am byth - Ducksa, on 05/16/2008, -2/+6Because spending another 10 seconds to revise your information would have cost you the "deal". Yeah, you probably are retarded.
- matx, on 05/16/2008, -1/+5What sucks worse that even if you did make a mistake such as the wrong name, they charge you quite a lot to fix it. I always take my time when it comes to booking plane tickets.
- flip2trip, on 05/16/2008, -1/+5And to screw you over.
- inactive, on 05/16/2008, -4/+8I had to read all that to learn that if you're a dumbass you'll ***** up your flight. Pro Tip: Don't show up to the airport with a breadboard pinned on to your shirt with leds on it.
- havokzero, on 05/16/2008, -3/+6If I was the poor bloke forced to write this senseless article, I would go out and join Fight Club right now.
- b04155, on 05/16/2008, -4/+7Everything else could be chalked up to accidents when clicking options on the websites. The first one however, "As far as mistakes go, the one Janet Gordon recently made didn't seem like a big deal. She booked an airline ticket from Toronto to London under the name "Jan.", that's her own damn fault as she did it on purpose. It's basic security. We're not even talking terrorism or bringing on dangerous water bottles or anything.
Maybe no one cares if it's "Jan" flying from Cleveland to Detroit, but on an INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT it should be common sense to fill in your complete name. They teach you how to do that in kindergarten. - cha5e, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3When you say "like bus tickets" I assume you mean that you should be able to buy a ticket from A to B, and not specify a date, and it should be honored on whatever date you choose to show up?
If that's what you meant, I disagree completely. Because then what if 200 people show up, but the plane only seats 100? Your ticket needs to be tied to a particular flight, so that everybody gets to go.
Okay, yes, that brings us to the practice of overbooking. Airlines observe that on average, x% of people no-show, so they then sell (a little less than x)% more tickets on a given flight than the number of seats. Sometimes that comes back to bite them. That's a problem if you are the last one to check in, and nobody volunteers to be bumped in return for compensation. But if the airlines had no way to anticipate how many people were going to show up for a given flight, the situation would be much worse.
If you meant something else, though...nevermind :) - MMilitia, on 05/16/2008, -1/+4Holiday operators charge for things like name changes because they don't want you re-selling the tickets. It's just the way it works.
If you're really that worried about MIS-SPELLING YOUR OWN NAME then you probably shouldn't be going on holiday in the first place. - knowitman, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4The article makes it sound like that the air industry is just there to screw you over. They are in fact trying to protect themselves from liabilities and government regulations.
- ytsejam29, on 05/16/2008, -3/+5The article summed up: Don't be an idiot.
- akatherder, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4I need to get into the airline ticketing industry. I've always been held responsible for user data-entry screw-ups in every other industry I've worked in.
Hi, I entered my cat's name and my deceased aunt's address for the shipping information. I never received my package. What gives?
Sincerely,
Joe Montana (he's my favorite football player!) - Ducksa, on 05/16/2008, -2/+4something about the pot and the kettle here
- whaler, on 05/16/2008, -3/+5I just got hosed when I mistakenly booked a Frontier Airlines flight for the wrong weekend using Orbitz, which was like $30 cheaper than Frontier's web site. It was a $200 one-way flight, but changing it would have been a $100 fee from Frontier and a $30 fee on top of that from Orbitz, and I could only use the remaining $70 to buy another Frontier flight. I'm pretty much forced to eat the whole cost of the ticket.
I'm pretty sure I'm not retarded - I just had the wrong date in my head and was in a hurry to pounce on what I thought was a good deal. I mean yeah, that's kind of retarded. But $130 to change a ticket is retarded, too. So if you do the math, retarded move + retarded airline and travel site policies = double retarded. - sq2shooter, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2I have been flying for 2 1/2 years with a ticket and a drivers license that do not match. I have flown at least once a month during that time. So I figure at least 30 flights and not once has anyone noticed. I figured that somebody would notice that the names don't match exactly but our highly trained TSA agents have yet to pick up on it.
It's a long story why but it is something I cannot change on my own. - metamorfoza, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3I just read the first sentence and stopped there..
I mean, seriously, how stupid you must be that - especially in this time of 'terror paranoia' and whatnot - you book international ticket with you nickname and thinking "well, no problems there - Jan is short of Janet! everyone knows that!".
Still, however, I don't understand how this 'airlline guide for retards' article ...got on the front page?
oh yes, i know.....
to all people that dugg this article: Your nicknames are booked. Next flight - my block list! - MMilitia, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3These types of problems often occur when third party booking agents use things like screen scraping or Viewdata automation for bookings. The problem is that in order for the system to be remotely responsive you need to do all the initial querying on a separate database which is populated with supplier AVLABL files once every few hours/days (depending on the supplier). Once you actually want a costing it'll go off to the supplier's system and try and cost the itinerary which it found on the database. Oftentimes the seat will no longer be available due to bookings talking place directly with the supplier.
- goldfishey, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2she didnt do it deliberately. The system autofilled her name "jan" from an awards database when she was booking. What she didnt do was read the screen and correct the field to her full name.
- sgtpppr, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2People, don't digg things just to digg them. This article must've been written for either 15 year olds buying a plane ticket by themselves or 80+ year olds who haven't flown since 1981.
- op12, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Plus there's usually at least a couple of steps where you confirm what you're doing before you accept the charges. Mixing up airport codes or destination cities is no excuse when the confirmation screen includes the city names, and the dates of each flight with destination.
The name thing is the only thing I found stupid/potentially confusing, and a lot of times they specifically say to enter your name as it appears on your passport for that very reason. - op12, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2It's also convenient that they can make lots of money off of getting your mistakes corrected.
- MikeyMoose, on 01/30/2009, -0/+2"Ass From Hole in Ground - A Comparative Study"
- nicc, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2I dont quite follow this issue with the "name"
most of my flying has been post 911. my real name is "Nicolas" (and is printed as such on my drivers license and credit cards) but on my flight tickets, the name printed has always been "Nic" but no one (security, check-in, ticket counter, etc) has even glanced twice about it.
absolutely no issues.
do they just assume rightfully that Nic and Nicolas are the same person, but somehow get confused that Jan and Janet are different people? - op12, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Those are always at a higher cost, often as much as the penalty for changing a non-refundable ticket date.
- veriix, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2oops, I just pooped myself, I wish I read an article how to avoid that.
- Hincapie, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2it also sucks when you have an incredibly common name and two (sometimes three) people have the same name in the e-ticket kiosk thing. frustrating.
- drachemorder, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Especially when the change fees for making alterations to non-refundable tickets are something like $50-$100 (that's what they are for Delta, anyway). Not that those are particularly reasonable either, but still...
- inactive, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1A.K.A. Don't be a ***** retard.
- Hohoemi, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1What a joke. I was on a domestic flight last year, and as we were boarding, an older gentleman comes up saying that I am stitting in his seat. I check my ticket (an e-boarding pass printed out from online) and I am in the correct seat. We check his ticket (a standard airline-issued paper ticket) and it turns out his ticket has MY name on it. He certainy did NOT look like an Emily, yet he somehow made it all the way through the ticket counter and security without anyone noticing. Even worse, the flight attendants didn't even care. They never checked his ID, instead they just hustled him one aisle over into an empty seat, and we were on our way. I still have no idea how he got that ticket, or if he even ever bought one himself. It was crazy.
- shaba1, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1All these online agencies have the bait-and-switch method of showing you the lower quote and then adding up service charges later when you buy the ticket...its nonsense
- potterboy, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1My Grandmother had an issue the other week where her AAA agent scheduled her a 15minute holdover at Cincinati even though she had to go to a completely different terminal.
- Twenty, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Dugg for "Batman, Turkey."
- absurdist, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1"(But it could be worse -- Hyde might have ended up with a ticket to the familiar-looking BAL city code, which would have taken her to Batman, Turkey.)"
Batman, Turkey? WTF? - tower31, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I you can't get those five things right you don't deserve to fly...Just my opinion of course.
- chinacensored, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Only mistakes I've made with airline tickets were: flying United once and buying a round-trip ticket to China (couldn't get the return ticket extended because of inept phone operators and cheap calling cards that kept running out).
- damxgirl, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1This is the stupidest article I have ever read.
- jennabunnykins, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Technically spelling your name correctly was part of this article too!
- ubuwalker31, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I think that the wrong name issue comes up with newly married/divorced women. Once you get used to writing your own name for 20 years or so, remembering to not use your old last name takes time.
- invinciblechunk, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I've been in situations where my company tells me to book a flight+hotel for specific dates, then changes them. Even though they pick up the bill, it's still a royal pain in the ass - massive change fees, hours spent on the phone, even coming back to my hotel room to find it's occupied by someone else (despite assurances to the contrary). I would never want to go through any of that in my own personal travel, so I plan accordingly.
- Ducksa, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Why would he be pushing a CNN article though? I can see this with a link to a blog or something.
- imLissy, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1We went to Colorado a few months ago and my bf's friend bought the plane tickets for us. Instead of using my real first name, he thought it would be cute if he used "Lissy" instead. I didn't find out he did this until the Friday before the trip. He fixed it, but I was ready to kill him.
- Hincapie, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1orbitz completely changed my flight on me once, no e-mail or anything...i went to the delta counter to get my ***** and there was no record of it, even though i had the paper with my confirmation number on it. so i had to go over to NWA, where my flight was changed to. lame.
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