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Need help from Airlines, Banks etc? Use Twitter..

3/4/2018

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Let me state this outright that I am averse to any interaction which would make private information public. Although social media is all about sharing it is also a boon to getting your issues resolved without picking up the phone or hunting for that email or chat option. So why twitter among all the social media?

Twitter has nice feature called "Messages" which you can use to send Direct Messages to anyone on twitter. The way it works is below:
  • You need to search for the "handle" which represents the airline or bank or any other merchant you want to interact with. Its like a twitter account representing the business.
  • Once you find the handle you need to follow them
  • After following them send them a public twitter using their "handle" and stating your issue in general form with no specific details
  • They will follow you in turn and once that happens the direct private messaging channel (Messages) opens up for one to one communication. Note: You still should keep your credit card etc details private but you can provide details on the flights record locator etc so that they can help you. For illustration shown below the handle is "@AmericanAir". Once you follow them, the blue bar on right will show "following". Once the brand follows you back you can see that on left just besides the brand handle.

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You will see "Messages" on the top bar of twitter.
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View after following each other
  • Now you can use the "Messages" to communicate with brand and get your issue resolved.
  • The airlines might want to call you sometimes if they need more info or specifics on your transaction and that helps to close on your issue quickly.

You can resolve all kinds of issues relating to flight change, compensation for any service issue, miles not credited etc. For other merchants you can also resolve your account or order issues. The reason it works so effectively is you can make comments publicly with their twitter "handle" and no brand likes a bad publicity/comments and would work to resolve it immediately. 

So, next time you have issue with your flights, hotels do use this option as an effective way of getting your issues resolved. 

Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
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When Non-refundable hotels/flights becomes refundable?

2/18/2018

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Most of the airlines tickets today are non-refundable or carry hefty cancellation and change fees unless you are willing to shell out 2x or 3x the fare for refundable ticket. The same is not true for hotels but sometimes non-refundable hotels reservations might save you 10% or more than the refundable reservations.

So what to do when you booked that awesome flights for a great price but cannot take the flight? Or you had found a great deal on a hotel and booked it despite it being non-refundable? Getting refunded for that non-refundable hotel booking or flight reservation depends on the reason why you are looking to cancel. Below are few times you may be eligible to get refunded for a non-refundable flight ticket or hotel reservation.

Refunding non-refundable Airline fares:

Airline Schedule change:
Since all airlines like to have near full utilization on their flights they might change the schedule of the flights to align with their flight utilization capacity. This may lead to changing the schedule of the flights (very often) or cancelling them altogether (rare). What it does is opens up an opportunity for you to use it as a reason to ask for the involuntary refund without any penalty given the schedule would not meet your travel needs. 

Lot of airlines has various rules on what changes would qualify for involuntary refund but still there is a good chance you can get the entire paid fare refunded or credited for future travel without any penalty.

Medical Emergency:
Most of the airlines would refund your fare or provide credit for future use without any penalty when a medical emergency occurs to you or your close family member. While some airlines limit the refund only to the case where passenger travelling gets in to medical emergency in all cases it requires documentation from your Doctor to prove the kind of emergency to determine the eligibility for full refund.

Another situation is if you happen to book the flight ticket with a credit card that provides complimentary travel insurance in case of medical emergency. Even if you do not meet the airline criteria for refund under their rules you would still be eligible to get refund for your tickets from your credit card company in case of medical emergency. So, do check which credit cards provides this complimentary insurance and use them for your non-refundable flight reservation whenever possible.

Refunding non-refundable hotel reservation:

Ask Nicely:
Hotels are operated by either the big chains such as IHG or Marriott or they could be independently operated and that opens up gates for negotiation. You can talk to the customer specialist for big chain hotels and be ready to go higher up to supervisor and see if they can make this happen. Alternatively for independent hotels it is best to reach out to the hotel directly and explain your situation and see if they can refund your reservation.

While there is no guarantee this would always work there is a good chance it might. Also most hotels are more willing to accommodate if you are looking to change the dates rather than outright cancellation. So, if that works for you do ask for it as well.

Medical Emergency:
Similar to Airlines; hotels do consider medical emergency situation and provide full refund provided you can present proof of medical emergency. Again each big chain hotels and independent hotels are different and might have different rules on what constitutes a proof for allowing you to get full refund on your reservation.

Alternatively as stated earlier if your credit card covers you for refunding your travel expenses in medical emergency you can always approach them and get the refund for your hotel.


So, next time you are unable to travel do keep in mind you might still be able to get refunds for either all or some of your travels.

​Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
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USEFUL WEBSITES FOR HOTEL STAYS (AWARD/REVENUE)

4/6/2014

1 Comment

 
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Broadly Speaking there are three kinds of Hotel Stays:
  1. Revenue Hotel Stay paid with Cash/Money.
  2. Award Hotel Stay paid with points.
  3. Hotel Stays Paid with Points + Cash.
I would be discussing useful sites for the (1.) and (2.) kind of Hotel Stays as those are the one's most often booked for hotel stays. In general the decision for booking a hotel with Cash or Points depends on couple of factors:
  1. Are you doing the stay as part of promotion for which it has to be a paid stay through Hotel Website?
  2. Or are you looking to stay at any good hotel and just want to pay the lowest price and want to evaluate is it worth paying the cash or better booking with points?

Let's assume your intent is to "pay the lowest price". In that case this article would give you various resources which will help you making that decision better and faster (Hopefully!). Below are few websites/tools which will quickly allow you to narrow down your search to few of the hotels in your desired area.
  • Award Mapper
  • Wandering Aramean Hotel Tools
  • HotelsCombined
  • TripBam

Award Mapper:
This is a pretty useful tool where you can enter your desired hotel location and it will quickly show up the hotels and the points required to stay there. Since, it uses Google Maps as the backdrop, it is very easy to map the hotels with your desired place of stay. Currently the website supports following Hotel Chains:
  • Best Western
  • Club Carlson
  • Choice Hotels
  • Hilton Hotels
  • Hyatt Hotels
  • Intercontinental Hotels (includes all Priority Club Hotels)
  • Marriott Hotels &
  • Starwood Preferred Guest's Hotels

All you need to do is to enter your "Destination" in the search box and it will pop up hotel property names and price in award points for them. This makes it very easy to short-list the hotels and gives estimate on price you would have to pay (based on your valuation of the points) if you chose to stay on "award". For e.g. I have searched "Bali, Indonesia" below and as you can see that there are several options to select from based on where I want to stay and price I am looking to pay. Of-course there are certain limitations of this tool, as it does not list the "exact rates" for your dates as well as it does not specify the availability of award for your dates, but you at least get to know available properties and the points required which makes your selection easier.

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Award Mapper Hotel Awards for Bali, Indonesia
Wandering Aramean Hotel Tools:
This tool gives specific information about the hotels as well as comparison between the "cost of award stay" and "cost when payed with cash". The comparison does require your "Fair value of points input", but it is pretty neat in that it will only show hotels with availability on your dates. It requires you to create your "login ID" before performing the search and currently supports Rates comparison for following Hotels:
  • Wyndham Hotels
  • Intercontinental Hotels (includes all Priority Club Hotels)
  • Marriott Hotels
It does have support for "Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG)" awards, but the search is limited to availability check on "points" or "points+cash". There is no price comparison function for SPG hotels. As an example I did search for hotels in "Bali, Indonesia" for 1 night stay at Intercontinental group hotels from 3rd May 2014 to 4th May 2014 and the results show that the best value I would get from my points is for staying at "Intercontinental Bali Resort" whereas if I am looking to stay at cheapest cost then I should stay by paying cash at "Holiday Inn Express, Bali Kuta".
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Wandering Aramean Hotel Search for IHG
HotelsCombined:
Now you have done your reward stay research it's time to check if there are hotels available (may or may not be brand affiliated hotels) which are better bargain then redeeming your points. HotelsCombined is hotel aggregate site which searches for the hotels in your "desired location" and gives you whole bunch of criteria to narrow down or refine your search. The best part is it will show various "OTA as well as hotel websites" where you can book online along with their price comparison. For e.g. searching for hotels with only "5 stars" gives us prices ranging from $21 for a shared dorm to a price of $2299 for a resort room. You can further filter down on brand name and other bunch of criteria to get best bang for your buck.
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HotelsCombined Price Search
TripBam:
Enter TripBam! This is a useful tool once you have done the search through HotelsCombined and have booked a "refundable room" for your stay. You can use this "TripBam" to send you alert if the price of your reserved hotel goes up or down on your desired dates of stay. You can also set the criteria if there are other hotels of your interest where you can possibly stay if the price is within the desired range of the price you paid for the current reservation. TripBam can send you an email alert about the price changes for your set of desired hotels so you do not need to keep searching for lower price once you have booked your reservation. For e.g. you can select the set of hotels you are interested in as shown below and you are on your way to savings if the price drops below your price paid or desired price.
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TripBam Hotel selection for price check
Although there are numerous other sites which can help you search Hotels such as Kayak, but the above are just a few gem of tools which would help you make your hotel search better and faster. 
1 Comment

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    I love traveling / backpacking. This blog focuses on below 3 aspects of travel:
    1. Maximizing your travel experience .
    2. Sharing how to travel with miles in premium class or at discount in economy class.
    3. Great cash-back deals in travel.

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