276
votes
Accepted
My name causes an issue with any booking! (names end with MR and MRS)
Airlines were early pioneers in communication technologies, and have been very slow to modernize. For example, today, airline IT systems still communicate extensively using TTY: Type-A for synchronous ...
- 2,557
181
votes
I am Chinese. Which name is my surname and which is my last name, for a flight booking?
In terms of booking flights, the only thing you need to consider is what your passport says. It will have fields that are also marked in English, such as "Surname" and "Given names". When you book ...
- 14.8k
145
votes
Accepted
Should I not use double things in a double room if I have booked it as a single guest?
Being a supervisor at a well known 3/4 star hotel I speak from experience.
If a consumable/expendable amenity has been provided in your room, it is yours. This includes personal care products, snacks,...
- 1,066
131
votes
Accepted
Airline reservations require name to exactly match passport, but won't allow entering name that way
Many of the systems involved in air ticketing have been around for 50 years or more, and definitely show their age as you've seen...
The good news is that these restrictions are very well known, and ...
- 119k
131
votes
Accepted
Book one night on Airbnb, then make a deal with the host to book directly. Any downsides?
As Nate Eldredge pointed out this is against Air BnB's T&C's and could result in both you and the property provider being banned from their platform.
But it's pretty dam unlikely you would get ...
- 744
118
votes
Accepted
Hotel booking: Why is Agoda much cheaper than booking.com?
Booking.com uses the Agency model, this means the website is a place where hotels list their offers and booking.com gets a commission with every booking done through their website.
On the other hand, ...
- 96.5k
115
votes
Why can't airline tickets be booked far into the future?
It's less of a technical constraint and more of a practical one. The servers maintained by airlines could certainly hold another year's worth of flights. The issue is that it doesn't make much sense ...
- 3,208
112
votes
Is it possible that the return ticket of a round-trip is counterfeit?
Anything is possible, of course, but it is overwhelmingly, vastly, immensely more likely that this is a scam, and that the source of this email or message is not actually your daughter-in-law, but ...
- 25.3k
87
votes
Accepted
How to book a flight if my passport doesn't state my gender?
The number of people without a gender is extremely small and therefore even the most progressive countries still issue passports with a gender field. Airlines have even less incentive to accommodate '...
- 82.1k
78
votes
How to book a flight if my passport doesn't state my gender?
There is not going to be a single solution here that will be applicable to all airlines everywhere in the world.
Generally, the thing to do is to contact the airline, explain the situation, and ask ...
- 14.8k
76
votes
Why would a company want me to book a flight via a travel agent if it is more expensive?
There are several reasons why such internal policies exist:
Your institution may get a discount on certain services of the travel agent if it buys enough from the agent
By having a contract with a ...
- 9,185
76
votes
Why won't Delta Airlines sell me a ticket for a trip entirely within Canada?
This is "cabotage" - when an airline from Country A gets permission to fly from A to B, and from B to A, it agrees not to do domestic flights inside B. Usually the way around it is to use your Airline ...
- 79.8k
72
votes
Accepted
How do dummy tickets/itinerary service websites work?
Some countries demand to see paid reservations before they will even consider issuing a visa. You could buy refundable reservations, but these are often very expensive. Or you could pay someone a ...
- 79.8k
70
votes
Accepted
Why are airline websites blocking access through Tor?
Credit card fraud is a considerable problem for airlines. You would think the fraud risk would be low—after all, passengers usually have to appear in person with photo ID to make use of the service—...
- 86k
69
votes
Accepted
Why do Ryanair allow me to book connecting itineraries through a third party, but not through their own website?
Ryanair is working almost strictly point-to-point. With a very few exceptions, they simply don't do connecting tickets, which saves them all the hassle and costs with accomodating people who missed ...
- 5,452
67
votes
Accepted
Am I entitled to a refund on a non-refundable booking that has been cancelled by the hotel
If hotel is cancelling, you will get refund. Since hotel said that they didn't charge, you have two things to do.
Contact booking site, hotels.com and explain the situation and ask them to reverse ...
- 13.8k
60
votes
How to book a flight if my passport doesn't state my gender?
If future travel involves visiting the USA the CBP offers this:
Q: My passport shows an 'X' sex marker. How do I complete the gender
portion of ESTA?
A: ESTA does not currently have a gender X to ...
- 28.4k
59
votes
Book one night on Airbnb, then make a deal with the host to book directly. Any downsides?
I would do this only for subsequent stays and with a written contract.
I've done this. I was renting a furnished apartment for about 5 weeks over Airbnb¹. After about 3 weeks, the host asked if I ...
- 54.9k
57
votes
Accepted
Rebooking same hotel for cheaper price - ethical?
Let's take a look at the facts:
You've signed a (virtual) contract with the hotel stipulating that you are free to cancel your stay for any reason
The hotel now has an offer to book a room for a ...
- 82.1k
55
votes
Booked a room 5 months ago, now hotel lowers the price, what can I do?
There are no rules that say a hotel has to refund money to already-booked patrons if they lower their prices. And you would certainly object if the hotel asked you for more money because 'prices had ...
- 64.1k
55
votes
Accepted
Can you reserve a seat with a free child ticket for trains in the UK?
It looks like you've discovered all the options. From the Virgin Trains site:
Kids under 5 go free
Yup, that’s right – totally free. However, as under-5s don’t need a ticket, they also won’t have a ...
- 86k
51
votes
Accepted
I need to fly between two European countries once a month. What is the cheapest way to do it?
There is no truly practical discount card for regular flights in Europe that I am aware of. You are looking to fly often and this comes at a price. That being said, there is a number of tweaks where ...
- 26.2k
51
votes
Accepted
What’s the point of flight ticket cancellation charges?
A cancellation implies a refund, and the fee eats into that.
It's really that simple. The only reason to bother cancelling a ticket is that you want you money back. (Possibly only the airport charges ...
- 5,452
50
votes
Accepted
Why does Virgin Trains need two addresses?
These fields aren't for separate addresses; they are for different parts of one address. For example, in the second field you could write "Sesame Town".
- 14.8k
50
votes
How do I get a full refund when my Airbnb accommodation was inaccessible due to a hurricane?
You made a mistake by cancelling but obviously the host tricked you into doing so.
At this point, the best you can do is to be persistent with both AirBnB and the host.
Tell the host that you will ...
- 94.9k
48
votes
Accepted
Why won't Delta Airlines sell me a ticket for a trip entirely within Canada?
It's not merely the agent (or airline) refusing to book it. It's illegal per Canadian law.
Honestly, this part surprises me
They are willing to book me on two separate itineraries where I leave ...
- 13.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible