Of course, that was only the first time I would hear that lie.
It turns out American Airlines lets you search for flights you might see when using Google Flights, Hopper, or any other search engine, but if you can't book it online at the price you see, you can expect the price to go up the moment you pick up your phone to call them. Bait and switch is what they call it, right?
But let's go back to the beginning…
If this is your first time reading my blog, hi! My name is Mandy and I am desperately trying to get into the travel blogging niche. I love exploring the world, writing about it, and taking pictures of all that I see, do, and experience. Ideally, if you are reading my blog, I hope to inspire you to make your travel dreams come true as well as warn you of any possible downfalls you may encounter along the way. (Because downfalls are simply a part of life.)
For the month of April, I intend on blogging all about my trip to Canada this past December. I began planning in October, but I didn't have anything set in stone until only a few weeks before we were suppose to leave. And let me tell you, planning anything in that short of a timeframe can be disastrous! Especially with Christmas shopping, Christmas baking, and Christmas wrapping all going on in the background. And you are kidding yourself if you think prices will go down during the holiday season, especially when you are days away from travel. Book early!
But, of course, hindsight is always 20/20. :)
Back to our story…
I had struck a deal with my husband that if Chase agreed to give me the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, we would go to Canada for Christmas with the $300 travel credit they give you. If Chase turned me down, I would let go of my new year's eve hotel room and we would stay home for Christmas.
And that is why I was struggling to make American Airlines give me the price I found on their website, the one that happened to be ridiculously low, so close to Christmas and our trip.
I'd like to tell you that within one call my woes were settled. But no, that was not the case. Not even three calls nor various attempts at tweeting to American Airlines was enough to get my price. Every single time I would call, just after searching for the price on their site, they would tell me that the last seats on whatever airplane I was looking at had just sold for that price range and they could only charge me a higher price. Y'know even if the price had stayed the same for four or five days in a row… even after calling American Airlines to get that price.
My reaction was always (and will forever continue to be): "What the…?!?!"
Unfortunately, unless I wanted to pay an even higher price with a company like Delta or United, I was stuck.
Yet, the higher price American Airlines quoted over the phone was simply too high.
Would we be able to go to Canada for Christmas after all?
(I know you know the answer, but check back tomorrow to discover our solution to this dilemma.)
Have you ever had a nasty run-in with an airline like this? How did you handle the situation?
