Hotwire Rip Off

I think this place is a rip off. I booked a flight and misread the
times when I hit the best deal button. Not a problem I know I need to
be held accountable. However, when I called and and told them if I
missed the first flight and get on the return flight would that be ok.
I only asked just to be sure I could do it. Well to my surprise they
said no. They said that if I missed the first flight it would cancel
my return flight. That is a real ripoff. Imagine going to a
restaurant and pre-paying for your food and you decided you don't want
the greens on your plate. Then the waiter takes your entire plate
because you forfeit the rest of your food. I paid for those tickets
and they are mine. Hotwire told me to call the airlines and then the
airlines told me to call hotwire. If I don't show up for the outgoing
flight fine sell my seat but there is no reason to sell my return
flight. So basically I'm out of the entire ticket price. Never again
and if I can help it never again for any of my friends. H
Honestly I don't know what I was thinking I use to work at a hotel and
we would feel bad for people that booked through them. Most of them
got screwed. I always had to tell customers to call hotwire because I
couldn't change anything. Everything on the computer screen was
literally locked. I couldn't even cancel the reservation. However,
if they needed to show up a day late we never cancelled their
reservation we would hold it for them as long as we knew they were
coming. We held it because no matter what the room was already paid
for. Now if they didn't call that's a different story. Maybe there's
a customer group I can join about this place.

I think you nailed it on the head random internet person! Everyone
below me is probably Hotwire employees...just kidding (or am I?)

My gf booked with hotwire once, hotel only, didn't buy the 30 dollar
insurance, and then plans changed. Without the insurance we couldn't
change the date without paying a fee. I checked directly on the
hotel's website for what the price would be if I booked the same thing
with them, guess what? It was exactly the same price, but because of
Hotwire we had to pay to change the date, unlike if I would have
booked directly with the hotel.

Hotwire needs to realize people need flexibility it's extremely
important to most people; especially when the savings are not
compensating.

I used to work in the travel industry. I can't tell you how many
times a day I had to deal with someone who couldn't understand why
"just a little change" wasn't always possible or free. That usually
went double for third party sites (anything that isn't the airline,
hotel, or car rental agency directly).

I'm sure someone else has already said this, but: This was your
mistake. You should have confirmed the dates with your husband before
you confirmed the flights.

like Hotwire passing on the fee the airline charges for changing
tickets.

I may be wrong, but you may want to try complaining to the airline.
However, the terms are probably very clearly spelled out, as
change/cancellation fees usually are.

You purchased non refundable tickets. You would have been hit with a
change fee no matter how you booked, directly with the airline or
through Hotwire.

This isn't Hotwire's fault. If you had booked directly with the
airline--any airline--you would be charged a hefty fee.

Hotwire is just passing along its costs to its customers. While
Hotwire, and Expedia, and Travelocity offer great deals, even they
cannot get around airline flight-change policies.

They do it because they can.

This policy was likely available before you booked. There are fees for
everything in the airline industry.

This is not necessarily a rip off fee for something the computer can
quickly do. It can help offset lost revenue. Say they had to turn away
passengers because the flight was booked, and now that they have a
seat open, it could go empty.

Hotwire states on their website that Hotwire Hot rate deals are
pre-paid and cannot be changed or canceled. Regular airfare tickets
are subject to each airline's special rules and fees.

Since you have the ability to change at all, I am assuming that you
purchased regular air tickets. These fees are from the airline and
hotwire has no control over this.

I doubt that any of the airlines will be changing that rule any time
soon. You could try calling the airline directly and speaking with
people higher up the management chain. Sometimes, the change fees are
misquoted.

This happened to me when I was attempting to have a flight changed for
a client. They wanted $350 to change a flight to an earlier one the
same day. I could have booked a new ticket at that price. I spent a
long time (maybe a hour) on the phone bumping up my call to the next
person and the next. Finally, I got a supervisor who said that my
client only needed to pay $50 to make the change and that the other
agents had made a mistake.