Priceline - Beware

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A major financial institution was promoting travel discounts, and automatically referred respondents to Priceline, as third-party reservation agent. I selected a hotel reservation which promised free cancellations or changes, and did not indicate any upfront payment. Priceline immediately charged my credit card for the full cost, and e-mailed a contract for a non-refundable, non-changeable reservation instead.

I called Priceline several times for correction. Its telephone representatives responded that, regardless of its pre-confirmation website representations, the post-confirmation contract was binding, without exception or recourse. Its agents stated that Priceline was tracking my challenge, and discouraged any continuation, in a tone which felt unfair at best and intimidating at worst.

I submitted a highly documented consumer complaint to that financial institution, which immediately responded, recognizing the importance of fair, reputable, and honest consumer treatment, even when referrals to third-party vendors. Public reviews about baiting with freely cancellable, changeable reservations and unilateral switching to fully paid, non-refundable, non-changeable ones were included.

Promise.pdf (175 KB)

My case was escalated to very senior levels at the major financial institution, which then contacted those at Priceline. Agreeing to a full refund, Priceline reportedly explained that this reservation switch was a technical bug, newly detected here and slated to repair. However, many recent online consumer reviews indicated that Priceline has already known about this switch, but benefitted by doing nothing.

I would not advise using Priceline at all, whereby similarly affected Priceline customers should consider a class-action lawsuit.

Because of the Coronavirus, many airlines are canceling flights and refunding the payments for even non-refundable, non-changeable reservations, as a government-mandated waiver.

I wonder if Priceline will pass those refunds to customers, or just hang onto them, citing its own ironclad no-refund policy.

I have to say. While I understand your issue and understand why it sucks. I’m a big Priceline fan and use it quite regularly when I travel. The Express Deal part where you don’t get the exact hotel name but you can choose neighborhood and star rating and a few other criteria is quite great. You can use the descriptions to absolutely know the name of the hotel before you book (takes a little bit of work) and the savings can be quite substantial. It’s become my ‘go to’ first stop when booking hotels in the US (I should really try internationally also!).

Agree with Peter. Been a Priceline customer for a while now and always been happy with the quality and policies of the properties they advertise.

Maybe it has to do with going direct and not through a 3rd party (like Tripadvisor or American Express)? Going direct, no issues?

My problem was resolved in my favor, when both the financial institution and my credit-card company arranged a full refund to me. Apparently, that recovery is very rare.

Notably, Priceline Terms and Conditions unilaterally force all customers to use private binding arbitration, which explains why no individual or class-action court lawsuits.

There’s a syndicated consumer advocate column in the travel section of my local paper. 90% of the complaints involve third-party bookers like Priceline. No way I ever use them rather than book direct. The peace of mind is worth the extra money, especially if I’m not travelling alone.

Because of the Coronavirus situation, my mother and I had to cancel our February trip to San Francisco. When we booked our flights and hotel in November, this scenario seemed very unlikely.

United kindly refunded in full our first-class tickets, despite being ostensibly non-refundable.

Priceline would have cost us $2250, by canceling the hotel reservation but probably pocketing that upfront-charged amount nonetheless, if all those consumer complaints reflect its overall business model.

Out of curiosity, I just asked Priceline if it has any formal policy, when a normally non-refundable, non-changeable plane or hotel reservation cannot be used, because of Coronavirus-related travel restrictions or service-provider cancellations beyond traveler control. This would apply to even when Priceline has not yet paid the service provider for the reservation, on behalf of the traveler. Priceline told me by phone that: (1.) a traveler can ask the service provider to ask Priceline to make a reservation change or full refund, then strictly subject to Priceline discretion; (2.) Priceline evaluates each such case individually and privately, but does not have a formal public policy, on which a traveler might rely before making reservations. Quite a risk, with no apparent upside to the traveler.

If so, virus circumstances might lead airlines and hotels to offer free cancellations or changes, yet Priceline then does not guarantee to refund prior, upfront payments to the travelers, holding them to “use it—if circumstances permit—or lose it” terms. That reasonably and plausibly means that Priceline just pockets the payments, whenever some travelers inevitably cannot use their reservations.

Lovely way to handle this global situation, if true.

I would not be surprised if some third-party booking services are making substantial profits, by retaining upfront payments even as service providers permit no-charge cancellations.

Priceline seems to be making a packet of easy cash.

The latest posts indicate that Priceline is making substantial profits, as service providers unilaterally cancel plane, car, and hotel reservations, but Priceline keeps the fully pre-paid amounts, even if travelers had spent additionally to purchase trip cancellation insurance…from Priceline itself.

Victor,

I’m sorry that you had this experience with Priceline, however what I like to tell people with OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is “you get what you pay for”. When using a free service you shouldn’t expect favors or them going the extra mile. When everything works its great, but unfortunately things sometimes happen. They are going to hold to their term and conditions regardless of what flexibility the downstream suppliers offer. In the future maybe you should think about using a travel advisor for your planning. You will pay them a fee up front, but you get professional advice and planning. When things go wrong you have someone who personally advocates for your interests. I can say that myself and many others in the business have spend countless hours working with travel suppliers to get our clients the best possible outcomes with refunds and credits. Just something to think about as people are starting to realize the value of someone advocating on your behalf.

Also I can assure you in the current environment Priceline is NOT making “substantial profits” as almost everyone in the travel industry is losing LOTS of money right now.

Your are contradicting yourself.
You yourself precisely describe how Priceline is reportedly capitalizing on cancellations by BOTH travelers AND service providers, but keeping the monies which the former paid upfront but which the latter did not receive, as a well-compensated but no-service middleperson. I got all my money back within two weeks, fortunately, but it took some hard, Chinese-styled feather-dusting at the senior levels of a major financial institution. The cited online reviews independently give specific, detailed examples of other Priceline customer experiences. Those threads are long for a not-so-good reason. Yet, you then say the opposite, that Priceline is not engaging in that practice. If you could point us to data or protocols assuring otherwise, that would be helpful, especially to those other travelers caught out of pocket.

Also, the people in this story paid up for professional travel advice and planning, and still got stuffed. Paying more need not necessarily obtain more. There is a reason why bespoke travel advisories are a niche, not mainstream, segment.

I make no comment on Priceline’s current practices. I have no knowledge of what they are doing. My point was Priceline is your travel agent like it or not, and your getting the service you paid 0$ for. If you want better service that you don’t have to spend your own time chasing around there are other options. You spent weeks chasing them down to get your money back, how much is your time worth? That is the point i was trying to make.

Are travel advisors niche…YES and frankly we like it better that way. The vast majority of the public only wants the cheapest thing or doesn’t actually value professional advice or their own time ( it seems you are in that boat). That is totally fine with us, our clients understand that a few hundred dollars saves them hours of their own time, and more often than not provides a better travel experience. We don’t hold clients money either, everything is paid directly from clients to suppliers which means if they refund it would go directly back to you rather than though a 3rd party.

Again everyone gets to make their own travel decisions with how they book, but if you use a free booking service then understand all that entails regarding service levels and refunds. You always have the choice to book direct with hotels, airlines and tour companies where you don’t have to worry about a 3rd party like Priceline refunding you.

First class??
Must be nice to be rich. [stirthepothal.gif]

No, not at all. It was much cheaper than a timeshare.

Airlines are providing cash refunds for virus-driven cancellations. Online travel agencies are simply not passing them through to the passengers, and are retaining them as free cash.