4 ms·

I had the weirdest experience at the airport yesterday, LAX. I went to the the United ticket counter to buy a ticket for lax to nyc, same day. They told me I

I had the weirdest experience at the airport yesterday, LAX. I went to the the United ticket counter to buy a ticket for lax to nyc, same day. They told me I was better off buying online. In fact they looked completely unprepared to book a ticket. I couldn’t believe it. I checked other counters and sure enough, I was at the right place. So I tried using Hipmunk yesterday. It felt tired to me for some reason. I ended up booking on Amex platinum travel. Who do people use for booking flights?

reaperducer 7y ago
Lots of weirdness in travel these days. The last time I booked a flight on Delta (October) I found out that it can no longer handle cash payments at the airport. Not for anything. Not tickets, not baggage fees, not upgrades. Nothing. They direct you to a place in the airport where you can guy a Visa gift card with cash and then pay for what you need from Delta. I don't know if that's true of other carriers these days, or not.
- rconti 7y ago
  offloading liability for cash tickets (terrorism) onto someone else.
- monksy 7y ago
  DO NOT EVER buy a ticket with cash. It's silly since it's the nation's currency. Yes, it is silly you can "avoid it" by other card methods. But at least theres a longer trail associated with that, and probably puts you at a lower risk of being labeled as a concern.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    In the early 2000's (pre- and post-9/11) my wife had a job where she would 2-3 times a month get a phone call at 5am and then have to go to the airport and get on the next plane to whatever city was specified by her boss, take care of business, and then return at the end of the day. Paid for her ticket in cash, and her only luggage was her purse and her Palm Pilot (actually a Sony Clié UX50, which I remember because it was awesome). She got pulled aside by security every single time for extra pat-downs and such. It got so frequent that they knew her by name, but they still went through the routine every single time. She's very glad not to have that job anymore, but for other reasons.
reid 7y ago
I tried buying a ticket same day a few months ago in SJC at the airport ticket counter. The agent would not sell me a ticket. I was told to go online.
lojack 7y ago
I rarely need same day flights or even short notice flights unless they're for work (in which case they would book the flight for me using their travel agent). As a result I'm flexible with the airline and travel dates and usually have months in advance to shop. Typically I'll set up alerts on Hopper as soon as I know I'll be traveling, and that will tell me the right time to buy. I'll often also look at the budget airlines sites themselves as well because I know a lot of them don't allow aggregators.
ulfw 7y ago
I'm a bit confused. You'd go to the United ticket counter in person but then don't go to united.com when asked to book online? May I ask why that wasn't your first choice for this particular incident?
- monksy 7y ago
  Why go to UA.com when you can talk to a person that can tell you about the plane loads, what has more availability with FC/B. Also if you're flying that day, they can tell you more about the backpressure on flights. Not everything has to do with the cheapest price. Most of the airlines like to complain that people are only focused on the price. They market themselves and try to make themselves look at price. They don't offer a lot of transparency on their product and they complain why people are using their site as intended. (Or avoiding it with comparisons)
- Multiplayer 7y ago
  The flight was going to board in 20 minutes. I still needed to get through TSA, etc. I didn’t feel I could trust trying to book online vs. the person at the terminal in front of me. Might be a generational thing.
- st1ck 7y ago
  It'd also make sense if their phone got broken unexpectedly.
jonknee 7y ago
That's an extremely niche transaction and when I'm waiting to check my bag I'm glad I don't have to wait for someone who can't use the website to try and book a trip. I can't believe you waited and were told to go to the website and decided to wait again just to make sure. What's wrong with united.com? If it's through my usual airline I just book through the site or app, it takes a few seconds as they already have all of my information from pre-check to billing. Otherwise Google Flights is a great search interface and gives you a link to book directly through the airline.
- Multiplayer 7y ago
  Here’s exactly how it rolled out: I get a call, my wife has been taken to the hospital in nyc, and it’s a bad situation. I look at google flights, see the upcoming flights, don’t book because I don’t know how long it will take to get to the airport. Driving to the airport, I call Delta, almost book their flight until they casually mention it’s delayed 8 hours. Call United, it’s a 30 minute wait to book a ticket. I put my Tesla in auto steer and pull out the app. Fucking thing keeps reminding me to touch the steering wheel. Eventually the Tesla revokes my auto steer privileges for the rest of the drive. Thanks. A. Lot. I scream into the airport, while talking to Amex travel. There’s an united flight boarding in 20 minutes. Amex tells me that due to the inherent delay in the online ticketing process, to buy my ticket at the airport. And that’s why you might have someone who couldn’t use the website to book a trip. They say you don’t know what the guy in front of you could be dealing with. I was that guy that day. I called Amex back and they expedited the ticketing. United never called me back after I left my number earlier for their automated call back service for the 30 minute hold time.

reaperducer 7y ago

Lots of weirdness in travel these days. The last time I booked a flight on Delta (October) I found out that it can no longer handle cash payments at the airport. Not for anything. Not tickets, not baggage fees, not upgrades. Nothing. They direct you to a place in the airport where you can guy a Visa gift card with cash and then pay for what you need from Delta. I don't know if that's true of other carriers these days, or not.

rconti 7y ago
offloading liability for cash tickets (terrorism) onto someone else.
monksy 7y ago
DO NOT EVER buy a ticket with cash. It's silly since it's the nation's currency. Yes, it is silly you can "avoid it" by other card methods. But at least theres a longer trail associated with that, and probably puts you at a lower risk of being labeled as a concern.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  In the early 2000's (pre- and post-9/11) my wife had a job where she would 2-3 times a month get a phone call at 5am and then have to go to the airport and get on the next plane to whatever city was specified by her boss, take care of business, and then return at the end of the day. Paid for her ticket in cash, and her only luggage was her purse and her Palm Pilot (actually a Sony Clié UX50, which I remember because it was awesome). She got pulled aside by security every single time for extra pat-downs and such. It got so frequent that they knew her by name, but they still went through the routine every single time. She's very glad not to have that job anymore, but for other reasons.

reid 7y ago

I tried buying a ticket same day a few months ago in SJC at the airport ticket counter. The agent would not sell me a ticket. I was told to go online.

lojack 7y ago

I rarely need same day flights or even short notice flights unless they're for work (in which case they would book the flight for me using their travel agent). As a result I'm flexible with the airline and travel dates and usually have months in advance to shop. Typically I'll set up alerts on Hopper as soon as I know I'll be traveling, and that will tell me the right time to buy. I'll often also look at the budget airlines sites themselves as well because I know a lot of them don't allow aggregators.

ulfw 7y ago

I'm a bit confused. You'd go to the United ticket counter in person but then don't go to united.com when asked to book online? May I ask why that wasn't your first choice for this particular incident?

monksy 7y ago
Why go to UA.com when you can talk to a person that can tell you about the plane loads, what has more availability with FC/B. Also if you're flying that day, they can tell you more about the backpressure on flights. Not everything has to do with the cheapest price. Most of the airlines like to complain that people are only focused on the price. They market themselves and try to make themselves look at price. They don't offer a lot of transparency on their product and they complain why people are using their site as intended. (Or avoiding it with comparisons)
Multiplayer 7y ago
The flight was going to board in 20 minutes. I still needed to get through TSA, etc. I didn’t feel I could trust trying to book online vs. the person at the terminal in front of me. Might be a generational thing.
st1ck 7y ago
It'd also make sense if their phone got broken unexpectedly.

jonknee 7y ago

That's an extremely niche transaction and when I'm waiting to check my bag I'm glad I don't have to wait for someone who can't use the website to try and book a trip. I can't believe you waited and were told to go to the website and decided to wait again just to make sure. What's wrong with united.com? If it's through my usual airline I just book through the site or app, it takes a few seconds as they already have all of my information from pre-check to billing. Otherwise Google Flights is a great search interface and gives you a link to book directly through the airline.

Multiplayer 7y ago
Here’s exactly how it rolled out: I get a call, my wife has been taken to the hospital in nyc, and it’s a bad situation. I look at google flights, see the upcoming flights, don’t book because I don’t know how long it will take to get to the airport. Driving to the airport, I call Delta, almost book their flight until they casually mention it’s delayed 8 hours. Call United, it’s a 30 minute wait to book a ticket. I put my Tesla in auto steer and pull out the app. Fucking thing keeps reminding me to touch the steering wheel. Eventually the Tesla revokes my auto steer privileges for the rest of the drive. Thanks. A. Lot. I scream into the airport, while talking to Amex travel. There’s an united flight boarding in 20 minutes. Amex tells me that due to the inherent delay in the online ticketing process, to buy my ticket at the airport. And that’s why you might have someone who couldn’t use the website to book a trip. They say you don’t know what the guy in front of you could be dealing with. I was that guy that day. I called Amex back and they expedited the ticketing. United never called me back after I left my number earlier for their automated call back service for the 30 minute hold time.