I’ve run across plenty of problems when it comes to helping our Cranky Concierge clients, but a recent run in with CheapOair.com has me absolutely steaming. It also provides a very valuable lesson: always double check with your airline if you book via an online travel agent.

One of our clients had signed up looking for First or Business class tickets from LA to San Jose, Costa Rica. The lowest rates I had found on most sites were for about $950 roundtrip, a good deal in its own right. But when I went to CheapOair.com, one of the consolidators that I check relatively frequently, I found one that was just over $600 roundtrip on TACA. Was it much lower than elsewhere? Sure. But it wasn’t so insanely low that it seemed completely impossible, like a $10 fare. Besides, CheapOair is a consolidator and can often get lower deals, especially from international carriers.

So, our client booked the trip and the confirmation email confirmed that it was in First. I knew TACA only had Business, but those terms can be used interchangeably by online travel agents for two class airplanes like this. For most people, they would have booked this and been thrilled with the deal. They would have shown up at the airport and been on their way, right? Not so fast.

I always make it a point to double check every reservation made with on online travel agent with the airline directly. Usually it’s just to confirm or request seats, but I always make sure everything got booked properly in the first place. I’ve sent other clients through CheapOair before and never had a problem, but when I checked with TACA, it showed the booking in coach.

Huh? How did that happen? So I called CheapOair and their Indian call center agent assured me that it was booked in First Class. I said that was all well and good but the airline said it was in coach and that meant that they needed to help resolve this problem. They put me on hold.

Sure enough, they came back and said that this flight doesn’t have First or Business so that’s why it was in coach. I told them that wasn’t the case and there absolutely was a premium cabin on this airplane, but the agent refused to believe me. I hung up and figured I’d try again. But first, just to be clear, I called TACA to confirm that there was a premium cabin. There was, and the agent there said that it had been booked with a coach fare.

Round 2 – I called CheapOair back and after going back and forth for several minutes, I was told that I could absolutely get First Class . . . for $1,500 per person. Are you kidding me? I said that our client paid for First Class and expected to get it, but not if it meant nearly tripling the price. This agent went back again and finally came back saying it was a technical glitch and there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She came back and said that there was no supervisor to speak with. Great.

We regrouped. I had one person who emailed me awhile ago about blog advertising from CheapOair, so I sent him a note. I didn’t hear back.

I tried to call one more time the next morning and got another agent. This time, he told me that it was the airline’s fault. The airline had failed to file the fare with taxes and fuel surcharges, so it was their fault. Tired of hearing the third different excuse in as many calls, I finally simply gave up and asked for a refund. That was granted. And we just moved on.

The moral of the story? Well, there are two.

1. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is (but not always – there are great deals out there).
2. Always double check with your airline after booking through an online travel agent to make sure everything is in order.

[Update 4/16 @ 1118: Just got a note from CheapOair. They have now offered our client two vouchers for travel on AirTran in consideration for the problems. Now, I have no idea what AirTran has to do with anything here, but hey, it's something. This points back to previous questions about whether a regular traveler would be able to get the same treatment as a blogger. Apparently they can, if they're Cranky Concierge clients!]

When I went to aa.com to learn more about American’s partnership with JetBlue, I saw this photo and just couldn’t stop laughing. That’s American CEO Gerard Arpey at right, smiling like a madman while looking at a JetBlue A320. On the left, we have a laughing JetBlue CEO Dave Barger holding on to an American 777 and staring at Gerard. A million possible thought bubbles started running through my mind, but then someone suggested a brilliant idea. Why not hold a caption contest?

Create your best caption for this photo and submit it in the comments section. The winner will get air travel assistance from Cranky Concierge for one trip for free. Take a look at the photo, see the rules below, and then start typing that caption.

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Here’s the deal. Submit as many captions as you’d like. There is no limit. Entries must be made by 11:59p Pacific Time on Monday, April 5, 2010. I alone will choose the winning entry based solely on my own judgment of what I think its funniest and nothing else. The winner will be announced in the comment section and in a blog post. Winners must claim their victory via email from the address submitted in the comment section entry. That is the only way to claim your victory, so don’t go making up fake addresses.

The prize will be air travel assistance for one trip via visit this page.

We’ve been working on all kinds of things here at Cranky Concierge, and since it’s been awhile since I last wrote about the service, I thought today’s news would be a good time for an update. Cranky Concierge clients now get 25% off inflight internet via Aircell’s Gogo service on flights that we’re following.

Now, if you’re flying Virgin America and AirTran, you’ll be able to log on during every flight for 25% less. Delta is making a lot of progress toward outfitting the mainline fleet, and American has over 100 planes. US Airways turns on the first of its 51 A321s that will get the service on Monday, and United offers it on flights between New York and LA and SF (not much coverage, I know). Continental and Alaska will both be coming soon. Oh, and don’t forget Air Canada. Remember, Concierge clients get many more discounts as well. If you have a product or service that you would like to offer at a discounted rate to Concierge clients, let me know and we’ll get you up there.

Here are some other things we’ve been working on recently:

• We now have a Cranky Concierge Yelp page up and running, so you can read reviews and, if you’re a client, leave one as well. (Thanks to the two of you who already have!)
• The Cranky Concierge Facebook page just received a major makeover. Come check it out and join in the conversation on the Wall.
• Stickers! Yeah, I had some stickers made, because they’re kind of cool. Want one? Sign up for Cranky Concierge and I’ll be happy to send one your way.

We’ve also started a referral bonus program. Cranky clients who send a referral our way will get a $25 credit when that person signs up for his first trip. Yep, that’s worth free assistance for one trip within the US and Canada or it can be put toward a bigger package. Pretty slick, huh?

We hope to be able to help some of you soon.

Cranky Concierge is now a few months into its existence, and things are going very well. We’ve helped out on more than 100 trips and more people are signing up all the time. But with a few months of experience comes the time for tweaks to the model, as I expected. If this were an airline, I would say that we’re positioning ourselves for future financial growth and right-sizing the business to be able to better compete on the global stage.

But I’m not good at bullcrap.

The reality is that some things were priced too high while others were priced too low. Those have been fixed in this new plan. At the same time, we’ve rolled out prepay plans (Cranky Credits) for multiple trips and travel product discounts. Here are the details:

Pricing
The previous model of including both travel planning and assistance just wasn’t working out. Yes, that means it’s time for unbundling. The airlines would be proud. The good news is that it will now be less costly for assistance (starting at $25) but planning will cost more. The geographical areas have been redefined as well. Canada is now considered domestic for pricing purposes. Here’s the plan.

We have also gotten rid of the price hike within 7 days of departure. These prices will be good all the way up to one day prior to travel. At that point, when you need urgent help, this pricing will apply:

Prepaid Cranky Credits
You’ll notice that everything is now priced as a multiple of $25. That was done by design so that we could start offering prepaid Cranky Credits. You can now purchase books of $25 Cranky Credits at a discount. The more you buy, the more you save. You can then use those credits for whatever services you choose in the future. For example.

What kind of discount can you get? Let me show you.

Friends and Family Notification
Now when you’re traveling, we’ll be able to notify friends and family of your departure and arrival times. Have someone picking you up? Just tell us how to get in touch with them and we’ll let them know. All you have to worry about is getting on the airplane.

Travel Product Discounts
Cranky Concierge clients will now be able to get discounts on travel products. For our initial launch, we have discounts from KVS Tool, ExpertFlyer, and Frequent Flyer Master. We have a couple more in progress right now with more planned. Stay up to date with our current list of travel product discounts.

New Concierges
Last but not least, I’d like to introduce our new concierges. Andrew lives in Northern Virginia and is a proud airline dork. Patrick lives in Atlanta and he used to work for the world’s largest airline. Both Andrew and Patrick are now fully trained and have begun handling clients. The three of us are in constant communication to make sure that clients are well-served. This will allow us to handle more clients and expand the business more quickly.

So, that’s a fair bit of news here. Feel free to leave comments down below, and of course, we’ll look forward to helping you at Cranky Concierge some time soon.

Many of you guys asked for a story where Cranky Concierge couldn’t help someone escape a delay or cancellation. I’ve got a perfect example for you that just happened. Even though we weren’t able to help this client get to his destination in time for his meeting, he said he was still thrilled to have someone giving him updates and just being there to answer questions.

This client, let’s call him Long Duk Dong, was flying from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Beijing via Miami, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. Yeah, this was a heck of an itinerary. He had one ticket going Guayaquil to San Francisco on American and another going San Francisco to Beijing on Cathay Pacific/Dragonair. He didn’t have much time to connect in San Francisco, so he was concerned.

Things looked good leading up to the flight. The weather was good and the American 767 arrived in Guayaquil the night before, ready to go. Long Duk Dong had boarded the plane when I noticed that the flight had been delayed for 45 minutes and I sent an email. He replied that I had beaten the PA announcement with the email, but they said there was a brake problem that needed to be fixed. Um, 45 minute delay? This didn’t look good.

I started looking for alternate ways to get him to San Francisco just in case, and then the flight took another delay. A huge one. His flight was now delayed more than 12 hours. It seemed pretty clear to me that American was going to fly down a part on the regularly scheduled Miami flight. Then they could take off, but that meant he wasn’t getting to his San Francisco flight. I sprung into action.

FlightStats showed a flight to Miami on Martinair, but their reservations office was closed and Long Duk Dong said that flight wasn’t anywhere to be found. Maybe they weren’t taking local passengers. There wasn’t another Miami flight that would get him on to his connection to San Francisco.

Next up, I found an option on TACA that would go to San Jose (Costa Rica), then San Salvador, and then San Francisco just in time for his connection. Only one problem. That flight from Guayaquil had no seats left. Ugh. That was our only chance to get Long Duk Dong to San Francisco in time for his connection. Now we had to move on to damage control. Could we get him to Beijing in time for his meeting?

There was a flight on COPA via Panama City to LAX that could have connected to a flight on Air China, but again, there were no seats available out of Guayaquil on that flight. We looked at JFK, but it wasn’t going to work out. This just wasn’t going to happen.

Ultimately, Long Duk Dong was able to reschedule some of his meetings, so he spent the day in Guayaquil until his flight eventually made it to Miami and then on to San Francisco. Had Cranky Concierge failed? Well, no . . . and yes.

We weren’t able to get him to Beijing in time for his meeting. Unfortunately, we don’t have the option of chartering a plane when nothing else works (though we could do that for a much higher fee . . .). What we did, however, was keep Long Duk Dong fully updated on what was happening, and he had complete confidence that every effort had been made to get him out. In the end, he was a happy client despite the problems he had flying. I just wish we could have gotten him there in time.