This past weekend I blogged about a $200 off coupon at Travelocity for air and hotel vacation packages of at least three days. You could book the hotel in a separate city from the air travel meaning that there were amazing deals to be had. Some folks found hotels in South or Central Asia that were about $10 a night, yielding $170 off airfare using the coupon.
The deal had been around for several weeks and was in its last days when it became publicly known.
The terms and conditions said:
The promotional code (the Promo Code) for $200 is valid between 12:01 a.m. Central Time on July 2, 2012 and 11:59 p.m. Central Time on August 4, 2012 (the Promotion Period) or until it reaches the redemption limit of 3,500 redemptions.
Your use of the Promo Code on the www.travelocity.com Web site (the Site) is subject to the Travelocity User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
The Promo Code is valid only for qualifying purchases made on the Site. A qualifying purchase means a three-night or longer Hotel+Flight Vacation Package which is offered on the Site during the Promotion Period. Travel dates must be between July 2,2012 and December 31, 2012.
Qualifying Hotel+Flight Vacation Package purchase requires a minimum spend of $200 and should be booked immediately following your qualifying air booking.
To redeem the Promo Code, you simply type NFB2012 into the Promotional Code field on the Checkout Review Page of the Site, and $200 will be automatically deducted from the final price of your qualifying Hotel+Flight Vacation Package .
You may only redeem the Promo Code once and only during the Promotion Period.
You may not redeem or exchange the Promo Code for cash. You may not use or combine the Promo Code with any other promotional codes. If lost or stolen, the Promo Code will not be replaced.
Travelocity prohibits posting the Promo Code on the Internet or any public forum, or forwarding the Promo Code to any other person.
In the event of any violation of these Terms & Conditions, Travelocity reserves all of the rights and remedies available to Travelocity including charging your credit card for the amount of the Promo Code not to exceed $200, canceling your reservation without a refund to you, and all other remedies available to Travelocity.
TRAVELOCITY MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO PROMOTIONAL CODES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN THE EVENT A PROMO CODE IS NOT FUNCTIONAL, YOUR SOLE REMEDY, AND THE SOLE LIABILITY OF TRAVELOCITY SHALL BE THE REPLACEMENT OF THE NON-FUNCTIONING PROMO CODE.
Travelocity reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions from time to time in its sole discretion.
The terms said they reserved the right to cancel reservations that were booked outside of these terms and conditions. But as far as I can tell, everyone with a successful booking complied with the terms and conditions.
Commenter Mad Mad Mad shares the text of Travelocity’s cancellation email:
Recently you booked a vacation package at http://www.travelocity.com using the promo code NFB2012. Based on our review of the details of your reservation, we have determined that you were not eligible to use the promo code and, therefore, we have cancelled your reservation.
If you received the promo code when you attended the 2012 National Federation of the Blind National Convention in Dallas, and feel you have received this message in error, please contact us at 1-866-211-1731.
Sincerely,
Travelocity Customer Care Team
Except that nowhere in the terms and conditions does it say that one would have to have received the promo code by attending a Dallas event.
And in fact, that wasn’t Travelocity’s position when the coupon was introduced. They even tweeted publicly about it! Here’s a Google cache of their tweet:
(And while it was clearly intended for members of the National Federation of the Blind, the terms and conditions did not so limit it,and many folks who read about the deal here joined the NFB concomitantly.)
Reports in the comments of my original post suggest that reservations are actually still intact, though Travelocity has indicated their intention to cancel them.
It will be interesting indeed to see how this plays out.
Update: Here’s the link to the original Tweet above from NFB_Voice, which the graphic suggests to me was re-tweeted by Travelocity.
Update 2: It just gets stranger and stranger. Travelocity seems to be sending out cancelling emails indicating that they aren’t providing full refunds, but rather imposing a cancellation fee. That has to be an error on their end. I wouldn’t get too worked up about those emails just yet!
Update 3: Funniest thing of all? It looks like the promotion code is working again! Perhaps after cancelling reservations they are back below the maximum usage cap for the discount. And it was supposed to be valid through August 5, after all…
(sorry for the typo)
where are you guys getting the info that they’re cancelling & charging a penalty?!?!
@vard on redflagdeals, they are getting e-mails about no refund after cancellation fee: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/dead-travelocity-com-200-off-3-nights-greater-air-hotel-package-no-min-spend-1206688/23/
darn you travelocity!! i hate it when people take back something I rightfully took… from them while they weren’t looking.
btw, i have a credit card number that let’s you buy anything you want. it’s in someone else’s name, and i certainly don’t condone your actual use of it, and anyway I blame the victim for speaking so loudly while he was making phone order.. but anyway…. pm me and i’ll tell you.
If a Company accept Coupon Codes they have to accept People like us that Play the System. Either do Not Take Coupon Codes or Give Out single use Gift cards as coupons.
I made a call to them and sent an email and ask to get the register agent information. Cc was charged 4 days ago, so my guess is that they won’t cancel anything ….
Just my two cents …
Jr
Von meinem iPad gesendet
same here, cancelled with a refund of 19 Cent (paid way more than that).
This is the e-mail I just got… I’ll be calling them shortly.
You will be issued a refund of 0.00 on American Express xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx. The refund will appear on your credit card statement within the next few weeks.
TotalTrip Price: $63.03
Cancellation penalty – $63.03
__________________________________________
Refund 0.00
cancelling is one thing, but not refunding anything, that really make me angry.
@milecollector call!!! them
I paid with a good credit card. If this goes south I would dispute the charge.
i think they are cancelling those by hand, one by one. I am guessing by tonight everyone will have one of those emails.
I agree – Fine they cancelled the trip. But not refunding anything is utterly outrageous. We ALL need to ensure we are calling Travelocity to put an end to this. I refuse to let them charge a penalty when most people (like myself) were unaware this promo code was limited to a certain group of people.
This is not cool at all
cancellation without refunding, I get the same email as well
it seems that they ONLY cancel the hotel, and the cancellation fee is the flight charge
I’ll be certain to contact AMEX with my Centurion card if they try to not give me my money back.
Just got off the phone with them for the 5th time today and surprise surprise no definate answer as to what they are going to do. I have to wait 24 to 48 hours for an email. I even told them to just charge my credit card for the $200 promo code and they told me they can’t do that! Biggest scam ever!!!!!!
Flight is cancelled!!
United Confirmation Number IS***1
! Your itinerary cannot be retrieved because it has been cancelled. You may use the portion of your ticket that has not been flown towards a new trip by selecting the Change Flight link below. A change fee may apply.
This reservation has been cancelled.
It seems you still can use the value of the flight to make a new booking. Just how to wave $150 fee?
So I received the email this morning (post 7) and my reservation is still intact on travelocity as well as through the airline and my card has not been charged anything. So who knows what they are doing….
No refunds. I have been charged $112.
TotalTrip Price: $349.6x
Cancellation penalty – $278.20
__________________________________________
Refund 71.4x
First, the cancellation penalty 278.20 = the cost of flight
second, they also cancelled the flight
@Jay…
The same thing happened to me. I received an email saying my reservation has been cancelled this morning, yet when I sign onto my travelocity account, the reservation is still intact.
This is going to be bad news for all.
UPON READING ABOVE I WOULD SAY BY POSTING THE CODE ON THE BLOG THERE WAS A VIOLATION OF THE TERM LISTED BELOW. If I just read this correctly.
Travelocity prohibits posting the Promo Code on the Internet or any public forum, or forwarding the Promo Code to any other person.
In the event of any violation of these Terms & Conditions, Travelocity reserves all of the rights and remedies available to Travelocity including charging your credit card for the amount of the Promo Code not to exceed $200, canceling your reservation without a refund to you, and all other remedies available to Travelocity.
I have an interesting scenario. My total ticket price came out to $189. Yes, I realize the T&C said it was for $200 and above, but when I applied the NFB code, it came out to a total charge of $0.00. It explicitly says that my card will be charged a total of $0.00 in the confirmation.
Now today I did receive the email that my reservation will be canceled. It currently still shows as valid on the airline website, though I assume it will be canceled soon.
Since I paid nothing, they can’t charge me a penalty, right? I mean, if they are going to cancel the reservation, fine, but I cant imagine in my scenario that they would turn around and now actually charge me something. Thoughts?
Karma’s a B**** huuh!
good luck to all.
Twenty-four to forty-eight hours to resolve the issue…maybe they are hoping people forget?
Or trying to come up with some damage control?!
This is actually pretty ridiculous. Discount codes are used all over the internet, and to punish consumers for using them by cancelling purchased itineraries without refund should not be acceptable, regardless of the origin of the coupon code.
Everyone needs to calm down. There is literally no possibility they are not going to issue refunds.
@Suz but at worst *I* violated the terms and conditions of an offer I did not take advantage of when I posted the coupon. And Travelocity even re-tweeted the coupon, THEY posted it on the internet. But they are cancelling reservations of people who did NOT violate the terms and conditions of the offer.
DH and I each booked on this deal Sunday morning before it was discovered that the code was meant only for NFB members. Just received the cancellation emails stating no refund and flights have disappeared. Time to dispute with the CC company. Needless to say, this will be my last time booking with Travelocity.
Just had a thought. Airline tickets are non-refundable to the consumer. Are they non-refundable to Travelocity? In other words, is Travelocity canceling reservations just for spite, or will they get their money back from the airlines?
It looks like they are cancelling all now. And quickly. It will be interesting to see how they handle this from here.
I just got off the phone with them and was assured by ‘Jason’ that I will be getting the full refund. The cancellation fee was automated in the form email but I will get it all back. Stayed on hold to talk to a supervisor, he said the same.
The supervisor agreed that I did not break the T&C, however they are no longer upholding the deal. I asked “so your company released a code on twitter, had a whole bunch of people book, and now you are cancelling, backing out of our agreement for no reason other than your company decided to. Is that what you are saying?” he paused then said yes sir, that is what i’m saying.
apparently teams will be calling in 4-8 hours (may be 48 hours) to see if they can re-book our trips. I asked if there will be a special offer during these calls or if its just current prices. There will be no offers. I told him there is no way I will ever book with travelocity again, whats the point they will just cancel my trip again in another week or two. His response was simply that it is not up to him who I book with. (wtf, worst customer service ever)
I’m so pissed right now, travelocity will be getting a long letter from me.
@redcat i believe what they are doing is attempting to pass on the airlines cancellation fee to us
Spite! I have westjet flights booked and the cancellation fee is only $50 for westjet. If they do cancel them I think I will have a refund with westjet…..but who knows. Travelocity is a joke! Never again will I book with them!
@Hector [reply 75]:
did you actually receive cancellation email yet?
I am, too, interested what will they do if one’s original trip was $0.00
Also, for those who received second email, how many hours after first one did you get it?
What are those of you with “cancellation emails” but intact flights doing? I have a DL RT scheduled for a holiday weekend under this that they’ve supposedly cancelled. Still intact as far as DL is concerned, but I feel like if I need to buy a replacement ticket, I need to do so very quickly before prices skyrocket…
Those motherf#ckers are charging the full airline ticket price as cancellation!!! Both trips cancelled! How can they charge the full fair, with no airline credit for flights we’re not even taking?
TotalTrip Price: $930.92
Cancellation penalty – $559.50
__________________________________________
Refund 371.42
TotalTrip Price: $889.83
Cancellation penalty – $604.66
__________________________________________
Refund 285.17
Really? Can Travelocity cancel flights? I believe there are many people who booked hotels and reserved rental cars solely because of this deal. Travelocity will take away tremendous amount of money from nemorous people if they cancel the flights. I wonder how Travelocity will address this issue. Don’t you guys think a large scale lawsuit might take place depending on how they handle this?
looks like the promo code is working again.
Who wanna try the second time and get cancelled again
Not me
haha…The promo code works again, round 2! 😀
Got cancelled. I paid $22 and email says that is nit being refunded. I will do chargeback with Amex and file a dot complaint. And I assume there is still a $72 credit I can get out of it (flight was $222 so that minus $150 fee)
This is utterly ridiculous. Travelocity has done such a poor job of handling this issue and does not realize what this will cost them down the road. We cannot let them get away with this. We all need to take a stand. Call Travelocity and give them hell. File a complaint on every possible site that is even remotely affiliated with Travelocity. Write to the Better Business Bureau. The more complaints that are filed, the more calls Travelocity receives, they better chances we have. I personally will not settle for a partial refund. Why should we pay even a cent in cancellation or penalty fees? If enough of us call, they might realize how much bad publicity they will get and how many thousands of customer’s business they will lose forever. Travelocity was recently charged steep fines for “misleading fare prices” and this will only cause more damage to their reputation. Seriously, this has already gone way too far. I won’t settle until I receive a FULL refund and I suggest you all fight for YOUR own money.
@JMS – no, at the moment, I have only received the initial email stating that my reservation will be canceled. When I log on to travelocity (and the airline website), my reservation still shows intact.
It seems pretty clear from all of these other posts that they are going to cancel it, but the real question is whether or not they are going to attempt to charge me some ridiculous fee, which of course I will fight since my confirmation shows (and I agreed to pay) $0.00.
At the very least, Travelocity should have given code-users the option to pay the extra amount (amount saved through the coupon) and keep the reservation rather than forcing cancellations on non-refundable airfare, resulting in some people being charged >$200 for nothing.
@VL – If you call Travelocity you will be given that option (at least I was).
Since the code works again now re-booked my ticket and used a virtual card number with a $1.00 limit. (My reservation totaled $0)