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Alan’s View

November 2009

ASD Picks: 3 “Even I Was Surprised” Travel Lessons

With all the research, planning, and traveling I do, I don’t expect to encounter many surprises. But the old adage, "never assume," is true. Allow me to share recent experiences that offered these three lessons.

1. You really can get ripped off at foreign exchange windows.

I usually prepare in advance for my cash needs in foreign countries, but recently in Paris I needed to exchange dollars for euros. The results shattered my assumption that there were only minor differences among currency exchange bureaus. An exchange on Rue du Rivoli offered me 280 euros for $500 cash, which seemed low to me, so I went back to the hotel to find a better service and rate. The concierge suggested the bureau that the hotel used, where I got 335 euros—a 20 percent difference, enough to pay for the taxi ride to the airport! And interestingly enough, it was nearly the rate (348 euros) that showed up on xe.com that day.

2. You are not entitled to a room upgrade at W Hotels, whatever your
Gold Preferred status may promise.

Ten stays at Starwood hotels earn you Gold Preferred status, which means, among other things, that “you’re entitled to an automatic room upgrade at check-in when one is available.” Until recently, I believed it was just a coincidence that for each of my last six stays at W hotels, no upgraded rooms were in fact available. But now I know better—it is simply false advertising.

I checked into W Union Square Hotel in New York not long ago. As the hotel desk clerk was checking me in, I asked if I had indeed received an upgrade. He assured me that I had been upgraded to a very nice Mega room. I thought I had booked a Mega room, but since it was late, my confirmation was on my computer, and his tone was so reassuring, I didn’t bother to check. When I got to the room I confirmed my suspicion. Then I went online to see if the next category of room was available, which it was.

So I returned downstairs and asked the clerk why he told me it was an upgrade. He said he had misspoken, but it was a very nice room and no upgrades were available. Hmmm. I let it rest for a bit, but then decided it was time to learn what had really happened.

I asked for a manager. The manager then apologized for the “miscommunication.” I asked how it could be a miscommunication—don’t the clerks know if it is an upgrade? And here was his jaw-dropping explanation: “Agents see that you are SPG Platinum and get intimidated, and assume you’ve been upgraded if it were available.” I then asked if there wasn’t something on the computer to clearly indicate whether the room has been upgraded, and he replied that yes, it is a box that sits right next to the room type (in this case, Mega) on the screen. How could the agent overlook this?

“Sir, it was just a miscommunication, and there are no upgrades available,” he replied. “But there are rooms available online in the next higher category,” I said. “There are no upgrades available,” he reiterated. Period, dot, no apology, no nothing.

3. You really are being taped.

How many times have you made a phone call to customer service and heard the line, “Your call may be monitored to ensure quality service”? You probably assumed that meant random or occasional monitoring, right?

A few months ago, we wrote about which airlines, when canceling airline tickets within 24 hours of booking, give a full refund. Among them is Virgin America, but the cancellation must happen before the departure time of the originating flight.

I was waitlisted on an evening United flight to Los Angeles, and, as a precaution, I had booked the last flight out on Virgin America as well. I was the last person to board the United flight, which was departing 45 minutes before the VA flight was scheduled to leave. I called VA to cancel my ticket, but got an agent who was incredibly slow at getting the details. The flight attendant was already yelling at me to turn off my cell phone, so I quickly said to the VA agent: “I’ve got to shut down my cell phone, my reservation number is this, my name is this, and I’m canceling for a full refund. Goodbye.”

The next day, just to make sure, I called to confirm that VA was processing the refund, but the rep told me that I had not cancelled the ticket before flight time and so was not entitled to a refund. I started the escalation process, until I got a supervisor who promised to get back to me in a day after “checking the tapes.” Sure enough, the airline apparently tapes all of the calls, and even though the agent I had spoken with did not (as he was supposed to) enter a record of the call in the computer record, VA can trace a call to your phone number. The agent called back confirming that all had happened exactly as I said it had, and that he even heard the flight attendant yelling at me!

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Last Word: Thanks a Lot

Hitting close to home for those of us in publishing, the New York Times just announced layoffs of 100 of its newsroom staff, and we’re going to face 2010 without Gourmet magazine, among many other good publications. For many of us this is going to be a Thanksgiving in which we have to dig deep to reach what we’re thankful for—things like family, friends, and, hopefully, health (but not health care). It is going to be a season when we master our skills at looking at the world as a glass that’s half full, and put aside those dashed Obama-inspired hopes for world peace and a quick economic recovery. It’s unlikely that anyone is better off today than a year ago, unless you happen to be working for Goldman Sachs.

To think that it’s been a year now since we (or at least half of us) elected Obama and the world’s problems haven’t been solved! Fortunately, most of the world’s people are firmly committed to disarmament, universal health care, a cleaner planet, and a fairer distribution of wealth. Many of us are also committed to world travel as a way of enriching our lives and exploring other cultures. This bodes well for the coming year. But because social progress requires such great effort, which, thankfully, many people are willing to undertake, and usually comes with a heavy dose of stress, Night+Day is committed to working harder to make your travel planning easier and your journeys more fun. We continue to move more and more of our content online and improve the navigation tools. Our writers remain watchful of changes in the hospitality business and, with the help of our editors, bring you the best travel content available. For all this, and, most important, for your interest and support, I am thankful.