I just want a flight ticket: Why is it taking me so much time?

A flight ticket to London and back. That is all I want.
Why is it taking me so much time?

I am spending hours searching for the ticket.
what am I looking for? A cheap ticket which allows me to change my date of return within a six month period, since my plan is sto stay there "a couple of months", with no definite return date yet.

I am combing through the sites and I am full of complains here. Here is a list of my pet peeve
1) No indication of which currency they are using. "$"- means which country's dollar? USD? C$, SGD? I have to search for the type of currency (sometimes to no avail). Ridiculous! Despite all those talking about globalisation and reaching to customers all over the world, these sites seems to forget that many countries use $ sign as well. Dun mislead me into thinking that a ticket plus tax to London cost $700 plus. My interpretation of $ is SGD. Orbitz, cheapticket.com and hotwire are some of the sites.

2) You need to supply your personal information before you get information. Since when does a customer need to supply all the details, from passport numbers to addresses and phone numbers and emails etc just to find out more about a product? These top airlines must have forgotten who is king.

3) Please do not bombard me with all those terms, i am not a travel agent! Just tell me in plain simple English whether I can change my date of departure after booking. And if you decide to fine me for being fickleminded and yet cheapskate at the same time, tell me how much is the administrative charges for changing my departure date. I do not understand why they cannot spend some time writing these simple information but can go on and on about telling me that I have the privilege of getting a full refund should I be dead. If the ticket is so cheap that you will not allow me to change my mind, just tell me, "no changes and refunds are possible, unless you are dead or dead sick".

4) and yeah.. tell me those terms and conditions(including the luggage allowance) up front. there must be a link to it the moment you make me happy with the display of low fares. Dun make me choose flights etc, only to be told at the last one or two steps the terms and conditions. And tell me if i dun like these terms and conditions, how much more i have to fork out to get what i want. I will gladly pay the differece.

6) please, tell me about the planes (i expect this froom airlines, although not from the middle men). I actually have a preference. Yeah, I travel cheap, but still have the extra one hundred or two to spare for a more comfy flight.

Cathay have one of the best sites, you can actually choose your seats when you book! I love this so much that I was contemplating a detour and stopover in HK, as I do not have to remend me to check in as early as possible- at the 48th hour prior to departure to get a nice seat. And yet, why do I have to fill in all the details before I can see the fare rules?? I am a typical internet shopper and I browse. You understand? I browse and compare. I want the info quick. I need to info to make my decisions. I am not interested to fill up forms just to find out the terms and conditions. Duh! And please dun add to my agony by reminding me that the fare migt change if I choose a flight of a different timing. Just list all the flights and timing! Learn from BA/Qantas in this aspect.

kayak.com gave me hope, as it claims that it searches hundreds of airlines websites and showthe available fares.

I was not impressed. My excitement and expectation which was built up while watching the the green bar indicating that they were churning my results crashed when i say the 13 pages! My first impression of the results is, " oh dear, you do not need to display all the different flight and all the "sellers" on the page and gave me 13 pages of results".

As an impatient consumer, I just want to see where to get my cheap tickets. Lump all those flights by the same airline together, whether it is a morning flight or night flight. Since there are a handful of people who are particular about the timing, add a filter function! You know what made me mad? After dilligently going through 13 pages of results, I hit "book now" and what turned up was an apology:

"We strive to include every airline on earth with accurate flight information and direct booking links. You have chosen an airline that we do not yet have a direct link with yet but we are working on it."

Well. Not only there were no direct link to the sites. Worse still, they brought me to a site which is not my country of residence and I could not book or even check flight information from the site. I needed to hit many more buttons to reach the correct site, and enter the booking information all over again.


BA wins hands down compared to many airlines when it comes to tranparency regarding the fare rules. There is a link at early stages ofthe booking to it, and the display the amount for taxes early. No last minute suprises. However, BA drove their business to Qantas by not offering a cheapskate traveller like me an option of getting frequent flyer miles. I thought I saw world traveller's membership a couple of months ago. May be i am wrong but all I see now is the Executive club. Read- take business class before you get your miles, no FF miles for ecconomy passangers!

Ok. A pauper like me would not be spending so much $$ for a plush-er seat for that ten odd hours. (Call me calculative, but the price difference is sufficient for me to get a new set of sofa) What do I do? Join the qantas FF club and book from Qantas! If I do miss BA very much, i will just select a BA operated flight since they have a code share! Woo all the business class people you want to, just dun forget that many of us fly on business while on business but fly economy when we want to economise and go shopping! If you make me unhappy at the back of the plane, you will have a harder time pleasing me when I am at the front.

Misa's site made a good attempt at tranparency by even listing all the booking classes and fares. However, these alphabets like W, H, Q, D I ring no bell to someone like me, and I spend one hour reading all those fine prints. If you want to include these terms, provide a "dictonary" to explain what it means. If I can understand these info, I will not need spend time to fill in a form to get you to spend time to find out about my tickets for me. I would just call and book!

Despite the large amount of ticket bookings throught the internet, there are still a lot to be improved by these portals. Airlines that have friendly portals will gain alot of business while those who don't will definitely lose out. After spending tens of thousands to build a site, have they tested how user friendly it is for the customer? Having standard typical functions are just not enough. Your typical customer will one day might have an extra condition when booking, and the system fails to meet up to expectation. This is a good way to lose a customer. Dun believe it? Try.

so .. where is my ticket after spending so many hours? I gave up. I am relying on the good people at misa to find me a ticket.