More flight questions...

Sorry to ask a million and one flight related questions, but this process is throwing me for a loop.

So I watched airfares and, when the flights I wanted were cheap enough, called ABD to book. I was transferred to the airfare department where they told me the flights had too short of a lay over (55 minutes in Amsterdam) and then suggested instead of a round trip, multi-city, we buy two one ways, tripling the price. The only other option was to change airports, spending another night overseas. They told me to call back when I decided which option to take.

Instead I searched online and found a second flight, still on Delta, with a 3.5 hour lay over. Honestly that's more time than I'd like to spend, but I'll live with it. I called them on Friday and they booked the flight. However, I had to spend an extra $200 to get seats (supposedly that's a KLM requirement, even though it's a Delta flight) which was annoying. My credit card got charged and I got a flight confirmation email.

It's now Monday and I just got a long voice mail that didn't make much sense. Apparently although we were charged and were given seats we don't really have seats. They can't get us the flight we wanted through Delta but can get the flight through KLM.

So that's a total of $200 more than if I booked directly with Delta, and I spent 30 minutes on Thursday, 60 on Friday, and am going to have call back again today.

Please remind me again why it's important to book my flights with ABD?

I have booked several flights in recent years on Delta through Amsterdam with connections on KLM and I've never been charged to select my seat. Most recent flight was last July. I've always been able to view the seat map, as well, just the same as for the Delta flights. But I think they do say on their website that there may be a charge for selecting seats, but I've never experienced that myself. I booked my flights through ABD once, but I have a Delta Amex and since the charge appeared as Disney Travel Company (or something similar) instead of Delta on my statement, I didn't receive double miles for the purchase, so I always book directly with Delta now.

Lufthansa is doing the same thing. I got an incredible price for flight to Rome, returning from Florence. $850. But no seat selection. When you go to the Lufthansa website, you can select seats for an additional small charge, or wait and get assigned seats at the gate. They will also try to upsell you to a premium seat. In Lufthansa, there is a "Premium Economy" which has slightly better food, slightly wider (but not as wide as Business Class) and more legroom. Then there are the seats directly behind Premium Economy which also have more legroom. Then there are the run of the mill seats. Initially there was no option to upgrade to Business Class, but after we chose to upgrade to those seats behind premium economy, at about a month before the flight, we were offered upgrades to Business Class, but they were pricey.

It seems to be a way to pluck the chicken one feather at a time.

As for why book through ABD, it appears to be something about if the ABD trip gets cancelled, your airfare is protected.

I'm not posting/surfing on here as much since I've taken my last trip with ABD but saw this thread and thought I would post something. Here's an example of why it's not always better to book through ABD or any travel agent for that matter and better to book directly with the airline.

We are booked to go to South East Asia with another tour company in February. Our trip starts in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and finishes up in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The trick was the flight out of Siem Reap had to leave after 6pm as we have activities that day, we can't just leave at any time. I managed to find flights from Toronto to Ho Chi Minh and out of Siem Reap back to Toronto through Seoul on Korean with the flight leaving Siem Reap at 11:20pm. Both of these flights only had a single connection which was an added bonus. We are 2.5 months out from our trip and I get a notice from Korean Airlines notifying me of a change to my itinerary. Turns out Korean Airlines is no longer flying out of Siem Reap as of February 1, 2017. Great. I need to get out of Siem Reap on February 16, 2017. They have changed my departure airport to Phnom Phen, which is on the other side of Cambodia. This wouldn't have been an issue if we had been touring Cambodia on our own or if we were able to leave at any point on our last day and we could have booked an internal flight to get us to Phnom Phen but that wasn't possible. I called Korean Airlines up and explained the situation, that we were on a tour that finished up in Siem Reap and there was no way we were going to be able to get to Phnom Phen to catch that new flight they had us booked on. Within 30 minutes Korean Airlines had us booked on a new flight out of Siem Reap for no additional charge. They got us onto a flight with Vietnam Airlines out of Siem Reap to Hanoi that connects to a Korean flight from Hanoi to Seoul that connects to our original flight from Seoul to Toronto. Oh and this all took place within 30 minutes on Friday night at 8pm. Had this flight been booked with ABD or a travel agent, nothing would have been done until Saturday at the earliest depending on the agency or maybe not even until Monday. And then you have to deal with an extra person in the mix and that's when things can get complicated.

With some airlines, you can do a complimentary seat selection 24 hours prior to the flight online. Unless the airline is charging you for an upgraded seat prior to the online check in?

dvcjane said:

With some airlines, you can do a complimentary seat selection 24 hours prior to the flight online. Unless the airline is charging you for an upgraded seat prior to the online check in?

Click to expand...

Depends on the airline and the type of flight. I know that when booking European airlines within Europe they do not allow seat selection at all and they will assign seats 24 hours in advance. I do a lot of flight bookings for my boss who flies within Europe alot (Paris to Budapest, etc). But if you are flying from somewhere within the US/Canada to Europe, then most airlines will allow you to select your seat 24 hours in advance without having to pay a fee. If you want to book your seat more than 24 hours in advance then you will have to pay for it, or if you want to book a certain row, like the exit row.

Wow, it's been 3 years since I flew to Europe (and before then I flew yearly for about 8 years) and we were never charged for our seat selection booked almost one year in advance through the tour company we went through.

We had an airline confirmation # so if I needed to, I could call them or change seats (again) through their website.

I flew Delta & KLM earlier this year. I booked the entire thing THROUGH the Delta website. I did not have to pay any additional fees for my seats on the KLM portion of the flight.

Amsterdam can be very, very busy at times so 55 minutes in my opinion is way too short. As someone who has gotten "burnt" when I purchased my own tickets and the ABD went and cancelled the trip (less than 90 days) and it cost me $600.00 just to change my tickets. I may be good to let ABD take the risk and financial hit if your trip could be cancelled. In all our European trips I never remember paying for your seats. With airlines it never surprises me on how they can weasel more money out of your pocket.