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…
I think the airfare is going to refunded separately by the airline, thus giving a full refund. That being said, the way they are handling this is outrageous.
What I am wondering is what term they claim is being violated. Attending a convention was not a term. I am a member of NFB. How can getting the code from the internet be a violation when Travelocity tweeted it?
Good job, sky!
I am AMAZED that the NFB code is now working again on their site. Who’s in charge of their IT department, United???
@ mile collector, I phoned and asked that and they told me that I couldn’t just pay the $200 of the promo coupon. I am just annoyed, they need to get their stories straight!
If we have learned anything from the Hong Kong 4 mile island ordeal…book now and FLY TODAY!
WTF. There is no way Travelocity will get away with this. NO ONE should settle for less than a full refund.
I received the first cancel notice but my package remains intact at the moment on my travelocity account. Not sure how to confirm with the airline (Air Canada/United) directly without calling as I haven’t had a chance yet.
Waiting to see what happens.
After an hour of waiting on hold, spoke to a supervisor. Everyone will be refunded their full amount, but my credit card company suggests that I email them to confirm this so we have a paper trail in the event that charge back dispute needs to occur. Regarding the $200 credit, someone is going through the attendance list to determine if the registered passenger was actually at this conference. So no, they will not uphold the coupon code.
@hetor nice just nearly died when I was reading your comment
Travelocity – I hope you are reading this. You just lost a customer for life.
Just field an complained with the bbb
http://ftworth.bbb.org/
class action!!!
What about all the people that purchased coupon books and other items for this trip.
I almost purchased prepaid bus tickets for getting around Vegas.
This company is abhorrent and should be held accountable.
what about other reservations people have made for those trips besides hotel and flight? Should they not be responsible for cancellations on other plans? And vacation time taken off from work to take the cancelled vacation?! THOSE ARE DAMAGES TOO!!
There are even people currently in the midst of travel.
Travelocity tweets that they are doing full refunds / no cancel fee https://twitter.com/travelocity/status/231523414886715392
Though I’m still not sure how they can claim the promo code is only available for people who attended an event in Dallas
@Hector, I found out what happens:
TotalTrip Price: $0.00
Cancellation penalty – $0.00
__________________________________________
Refund 0.00
So, if your trip was under $200 before discount, you won’t have to pay anything, nor will you get any refund.
I wonder if 3500 people attended the event. That was the limit on the number of times the code could be used. Since the code could only be used only once by each user, if any less than that attended, it would pretty much destroy Travelocity’s “justification.”
Travelocity just tweeted this:
Travelocity @travelocity
Re: NFB promo code, if we cancelled your booking, we will refund your payment and not charge a cancel fee.
So now I get to rebook and pay a higher fare for my seats instead of just giving them an additional $200! Gteat for full refunds but still an angrybird!
@JMS – thanks for the update! They still havent canceled mine, but i’m sure it’s coming.
@Tom I don’t know how many actually attended but they expected 3000-3500 people http://nfb.org/convention-first-timers
They tweeted it, but didnt send emails or post on facebook. They really are messed up.
My latest email from Travelocity states that they are sorry my plans changed and I had to cancel the reservation. My cancellation penalty is the amount I paid.
I had two flight/hotel packages. One on Spirit, the other on US Airways, booked with two different email addresses. The Spirit package was under an email that I’d registered that day for the NFB and the flight still shows up as confirmed on Spirit’s site. I also haven’t gotten a refund email for that trip. The other package was fully cancelled and I received a refund email for that.
How were you guys able to find a flight and 3 nights hotel for less than $200 so that your total was $0??? I’ve been looking for something leaving tomorrow and can’t get close to $200
So dot and bbb complaints ?
I thought about jumping on this when first posted until I heard it was Travelocity. They completely screwed me. I booked a hotel the May before New Year’s Eve in Patong, Thailand at a great price. It seemed too good to be true. Turns out it was. We arrived to the hotel around 2:30 in the afternoon to find out Travelocity had canceled our reservation a few weeks after we had booked but neglected to notify us. It turns out the rate they were posting for the hotel was incorrect and the hotel would not confirm the booking. They asked Travelocity to contact us to check if we’d like to book at the correct rate as the reservation would be canceled, but never did. The hotel had email transcription to verify this. So we were stuck in one of the most congested areas of Thailand on New Year’s Eve with no hotel. We contacted Travelocity from the hotel. The representative on the phone tried to convince us they called numerous times to tell us the reservation had been canceled; however, at no point did they refund our money. When we asked why our reservation was canceled without issuing a refund, the agent said he would issue a refund but that was it. I asked if he could help us find a hotel, since he did have access to every listing Travelocity had, but he said that he couldn’t do anything for us. Rather than argue after almost an hour on the phone, I decided to work with the hotel to find us other accommodations, which turned out to be just fine. I will never use Travelocity, regardless how good the deal seems to be.
I will never use Travelocity again after this fiasco.
I have been calling them all day. The best they have for me is – we don’t know we will have to call you back in 30 minutes!
Do the new DOT rules apply since airfare was involved?
Travelocity stole my $74.00. So much for wanting to save a legally blind citizen $200.00. Go Romney!
I actually booked a plane and hotel reservation from Las to Hartford, CT aqnd they cancelled it. I wasn’t even trying to work the trick and it got booted. I just called and they asked me to call back in 5 hours. What a joke.
Does anyone know if they will be giving a 100% refund? My email says they are keeping 261.00.
…someone will call you back in 24-48 hours!? Are They kidding? I asked to speak to a supervisor now. They said they will call me back. It’s been 1 hr 15 min and no call. LESSON IS DON’T USE TRAVELOCITY.
hey guys, Travelocity site is down and they offer a 10% off code,
We should use this code now and we won’t have to worry about cancellation
Bully to everyone for trying, but another travel scam bites the dust. I really don’t understand why people are so upset when they try to game the system, and the system fails. Trying to book a flight to point A, and then book a cheap hotel at point B, and then use a coupon intended for the blind was destined to crash and burn.
I booked a trip to London for the olympics next week – I’m not interested in a refund, I want to travel. 3hrs of phone calls later and they pretty much tell me that its really expensive now so good luck. Terrible customer service. Now I cannt go to the olympics because prices have risen about 800 for the 5 day trip. Never dealing with these clowns again!
@Carl
Don’t worry. Many will start rationalizing how they deserve this deal. They will scan the T&C and feel that they didn’t break the letter of the rules, while no doubt breaking the spirit of the rules. Fine, many feel that there is nothing wrong in taking advantage of a mistake of a for profit company.
However, many of these self righteous “victims” sure do not feel any anger at taking advantage of a deal intended for those who are dedicated to serving the blind. They will somehow feel that a 10 dollar donation can help clear their conscience.I bet the vast majority of new $10 members will never do anything else to help the blind.
At least those $10 are going in for good cause plus free advertisement and exposure for future.
There are few people who used promo code for flight and hotel in same city. Travelocity burned those vacations and holiday plans. I hope they will get better understanding of “goodwill” in year end cash flow.
Their website has been down all night.
Pretty sure most people didn’t even know it was for the blind organization, so saying they did something wrong is a joke. You guys are obviously working for travelocity.
The only justice to this is getting this company out of business.
It’s kind of fun watching Travelocity trying to do damage control on Facebook.
Damage control?! You mean Elaine cutting and pasting: we’re sorry you feel this way.
People heckling others for being upset over this are eitherhigh or just trolling.
This is pretty basic stuff; Travelocity offered a promo, they advertised it to the general public, people used it according to Travelocity’s own terms, Travelocity screwed something up (most likely the 3500 uses cap did not work for them) and now Travelocity is making stuff up to try and cover their behind.
And the only reason Travelocity thinks they can get away with this is because they are positioning it like they are on the side of blind people vs the evil internet hordes. Which is a joke. I’ve been an nfb member for 12 years, got this deal from the nfb twitter, my trip is canceled and I can’t spend 40 minutes or more on the phone to try and work this out.
I don’t blame customers for using the offer presented to them. I blame Travelocity for being incompetent liars who won’t abide by their own terms. Lesson learned about Travelocity.
Exactly! I wonder if Elaine has submitted her resume to Expedia yet.
Does your story make any sense to you. You say:”This past weekend I blogged about a $200 off coupon at Travelocity for air and hotel vacation packages of at least three days.”
Then you say: “Travelocity prohibits posting the Promo Code on the Internet or any public forum, or forwarding the Promo Code to any other person.”
You also say: “But as far as I can tell, everyone with a successful booking complied with the terms and conditions.”
Then you say: “Travelocity reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions from time to time in its sole discretion.” Whether or not someone violated terms, Travelocity has the right to change it at any time for any reason.
Explain yourself…
Travelocity isn’t playing fair. They send me an email stating “the change I requested…” yeah, right. The change I requested. I hadn’t requested anything.
They illegally cancelled my trip as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure but I predict that they are making a very big mistake and will pay the price.
@Brian – travelocity could have changed its terms and conditions but it did not do so, and certainly cannot do so AFTER A BOOKING HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
They prohibit posting it, but they POSTED IT THEMSELVES. And while I posted it also I wasn’t a party to the terms and conditions and certainly the people whose tickets were cancelled hadn’t violated the rules unless they themselves had posted it…
It always amazes me when people think they are entitled to something when they are not and then proceed to bitch about it, and say things like “Travelocity just lost another customer,” “I am going to sue or file a complaint with the BBB” etc…
Look people, it’s all part of the game. We all win some and we all lose some. Half the fun is being able to tell your friends you got a plane ticket or hotel for next to nothing. The other half is actually being able to take advantage of it.