Travelocity: Spawn of the Devil?

Today was the day that I finally had to suck it up and buy that airplane ticket home to visit the family for Christmas. I should have done it sooner, but life happens, I don't want to spend the money and it just reminds me that summer is over.

So, here I am again faced with the impending doom of $500 flights to see a family I love for the holidays (but let's be honest, we're all glad that the 24 hour-a-day-fun-and-jollyness is limited a single week), and I could not be less happy. Because, while flying itself is pain in the ass (see South Park episode: The Entity), we do it because we have to, and, other than the obtrusive searches, the waiting on delayed flights and the crappy airport food, it's not that bad.

Personally, heading home for the holidays is a happy time. Or it should be. Rarely is there a year I get to see my parents and sister outside the Christmas vacation period. It costs a lot to fly either way and they just don't have the funds to swing it during summer more than once every four years. So, the burden is on me and I happily accept it (maybe with a little tight-fisted grumbling as I charge it to my credit card). However, over the last couple years, I have noticed a nasty trend. Whether I'm flying home for the holidays, heading to New York to see friends, or skipping down to San Francisco for a weekend trip, it's the same.

Travel sites wait until the very end of the long and excruciating process of finding and purchasing a flight, to let you know the price they'd originally quoted you was at least $50 less than what they are actually charging you.

But wait, there are fees too. And the absolute worst offender--of what I think should be a cyber crime--is Travelocity.

Like an amnesia patient, I go to their site every year around this time to purchase a plane ticket. I see they have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, rate amongst the sites I've searched (when I attempt to use Kayak.com, which is only sort of helpful).

Here is the process I tend to follow: I choose the original airport location, then the destination airport, I wait for the prices to show up, click back to choose "my dates are flexible" because I forgot, wait for the new options, look through them for the least heinous choice, click it, realize there's no accompanying flight at that price I like, click back to find a less heinous choice at the slightly higher price, choose a returning flight at that price, make the decision to jump on in and purchase, type in all my personal info including what name I'll give my first born child, and after all of that I am told by Travelocity:

"We're sorry, this flight is no longer found at that price. It is now $_____" (fill in the blank with a much higher price)

Ok, fair enough, things definitely change throughout the process of buying flights--it's an unfortunate expectation. Though, I would like to note that it doesn't happen during any other online purchases. If you chose a shirt or shoes online and were told at the last minute that it actually costs $20 more, I doubt that business would do very well but I digress. I went through the above process of searching, inputting info, choosing and attempting to purchase about five times and with every single instance it ended in the same quote.

I was nearly ready to throw my computer out the window, but instead, I shut down the browser and went to a different site with great success.

While the others aren't a lot better, they certainly don't lead us down a path that takes about fifteen minutes and change things on us at the very last minute. I guess they can't claim that they mislead their customers but they certainly are trying a bait and switch at a point where you've put in so much time you just end up saying "screw it" and buy anyway.

Consider this a public courtesy message, so you don't go through the infuriating afternoon I have repeated, stupidly, every year.