Leaving Washington – after the snow

USA Today Reports on the Travel Situation

February 11, 2010, Washington   It wasn’t the worst day to travel, but it was certainly wasn’t one of the best.  But these challenging days are useful experience for the traveler.  When things are fine, it is quite easy for an airline to give you good service with a smile, but when there is nasty weather about or some other problem, you quickly see who lives up to the promise of being easy to deal with and who doesn’t.

It’s quite amazing how many companies you find that you are dealing with when you try to get out of a place.  Here are a few of the companies I was doing business with when I left London.  I have given each a grade based on how they dealt with me as a customer in the circumstances.  This does not reflect the quality of their products, which I’ll discuss in other posts.

Hotwire – Hotwire sells “last minute” hotel room, and I’d booked with them to stay at the Holiday Inn at Brentford Lock.  I phoned them to say that it was possible that I might arrive a day late because of the weather and asked them to inform the hotel.  They told me that if I arrived late my whole hotel reservation would be canceled, and perhaps I should talk to the hotel about this.  In any case, I should not call them until my delay looked like a certainty, in which case they said they would help me out.

This raises serious issues with Hotwire.  I had booked two rooms for six nights.  This means that, if there had been a delay, I stood to lose 12 room nights.  I would find it understandable if they did not refund you money for the nights you missed, but the idea that your entire stay might be cancelled is appalling.

If I use Hotwire again – and I am not sure that I will – I will make sure that I split the booking.  I’ll book one night following my arrival as one stay and the rest of my stay as another.

Grade D+

Holiday Inn (Brentford Lock) – If I arrived late, they said, my entire reservation would be canceled.  And since I’d booked with Hotwire, I should talk to them.  Grade F

Budget – My usual way of getting to an airport is to rent a car.  My preferred rental company is Hertz, but I sometimes rent from Budget as the price of a Hertz car is often too high.  I had made my reservation at the nearby Laurel office on the day before my flight.  Because of the snow, that office was closed so I couldn’t pick my car up.  They would not offer “pick up” service without 24 hours notice, and they wanted to raise my price because I did not pick up my car at the appointed time.  After trying to explain to them that the only reason that I had failed to pick up the car was because they had close, I told them to stuff it, and I ordered a car from Columbia Airport Shuttle.  Grade F

Columbia Airport Shuttle – I ordered the car at about 10:30 on this very difficult day.  Yes, they could pick me up at 12:15.  They arrived exactly on time.  The only minor gripe with them is that the driver said he’d prefer cash although they advertise that they accept credit cards on their web site.  Pleasant and safe driver!  Comfortable, large SUV with nice leather seats for $100.  Grade A-

Lufthansa – Cheerful and efficient check in despite a chaotically long line at the desk.  Timely notification about a two-hour delay.  They worked hard to find an aisle seat for me on a crowded plane.  Nice touch – bottled water and snacks at the check-in counter!  Grade A.

TripIt – I use TripIt.com to manage my travel schedules, and, on the whole, I like the service very much.  I subscribe to TripIt Pro, which charges an annual fee.  TripIt was mostly fine.  For a bizarre reason, TripIt thinks I am spending the week in New York rather than London.  And I knew about the delay to my flight before I got the message from TripIt.  Grade B.