Grinds My Gears - Hotwire

The bachelor/bachelorette party for Mo & Dunsing is all set for Labor Day Weekend. Everyone seems real excited about it because its gonna be in Vegas. I wonder if we'll meet up with those ladies from New York, New York that said Vaughan looked like Ashton Kutcher. They seemed nice. And they said they were working girls so you know they won't be hounding you for money.

So its time to look into travel arrangements. Teo got us a room at the MGM so we're halfway there. I've been using the travel websites on the information superhighway to find the best flights. (Side note: Teo informed me that Southwest's website won't let you book a flight past August right now, thus deeping his hatred of their company).

Now I don't find much difference in the travel sites. I default to Expedia out of habit and have always found this site useful. We used Travelocity for our Spain trip and it was a success. And I've always enjoyed the games that Orbitz provides. No ill feelings there. But this morning I heard a radio commercial for Hotwire claiming they were the best (as they all say) so I decided to check them out this morning. Bad idea. I feel like booking a flight to corporate hq and smacking someone in the face. Here's how it went:

I search for a flight from Chicago-Las Vegas. Right off the bat it wants me to choose ORD or MDW. The other sites let me search using both of our great airports but Hotwire wants to limit my results. Minor setback so I select ORD. The results populate showing a flight for $254. This I like as its cheaper than the other sites. Sure its only $10 but I'm happy their radio ad didn't lie. So I select one of the flights and a screen pops up saying "Sorry that flight changed from $254 to $294." Awesome. So, I select another flight. Same deal. So apparrently they advertise the flight at one price and once you're ready to commit they change it. Fine, I will continue to see what else this fine establishment is going to throw at me.

Here's the best part. The departure time just says "Morning" and return is "Evening." Thinking this is strange I click on the departure and the flight time is listed as "this flight departs btw 6am and 11am. You'll know the exact time after you book." Huh??? What is this grab ass all about? Now I'm just disgusted. And the airline is listed as "Hotwire Airline Supplier." I'm really not sure how them not telling me the flight times or carriers saves money. It must be a business objective to keep everything a secret. Another one must be to annoy the hell out of a potential customer so they never consider doing business with them again. Well done Hotwire, that's 2 for 2.

Maybe its just me, but an 11am flight on United or American is a helluva lot different than a 6am flight on Southwest. Complete amateur hour over there.

I need to cool out after this. I'm going over to Orbitz to play some mini golf.