life and puppies

There have been times over the years when I have used this forum to rant about poor customer service. You may recall Hyattgate or Chartergate. Recently, I have been annoyed because I have had to call Capital One three times in the last month to ask them to send a credit card with Aaron’s name spelled correctly. Twice, the card came with his name spelled Arron. I called again yesterday — when I came home to another mispelling — so we’ll see if the fourth card will be the charmer with a properly spelled name. But yesterday also came with a pleasant surprise. A major company that does what it says it is going to do. And does it promptly.

Aaron and I are going to St. Maaaaaaarten for our honeymoon in March.  Awesome, right?  I think so.  Anyway, it seems nearly impossible to get to St. Maarten/Martin from Madison in one day, so we fly out in the evening from here, have a layover in Newark and are off to the island the next morning. We have a similar deal on the way back, but the layover is in Chicago. Given this itinerary, we need cheap hotels at which to rest our vacation-bound and vacation-mourning heads. Last night, I booked said hotels. In Chicago, it’s some self-styled boutique hotel with free airport transport for $35. In Newark, I booked through Continental – my airline of choice and the airline that is flying us, on frequent flyer tickets, to the Caribbean. I booked a room at a Wyndham for $90; it was a little pricier than some of the other options, but it looked nicer, and gave us significantly more miles for the stay. I noted, though, that Continental was advertising the price as a “Best Rate.” I looked into this and found that Continental pledged that if I were to find the price for the same room at the same hotel for a lower price, Continental would refund me the difference plus 10% of that difference.  Well, I checked on Wyndham’s website and the room was listed for $80.  I quickly returned to Continental’s website and filled out the “Best Rate” claim form, hit send and did not hold my breath.

I figured there would be some catch.  You know, something like, well, the hotel’s own website doesn’t count or the room you booked has a love seat in it whereas the hotel’s advertised room has a chaise. Or $80 isn’t really that much less so you’re out of luck. Something. At the very least, I figured I would not hear anything for 4-6 weeks. Boy, was I wrong.

At 11:30 last night, I received an email from Continental thanking me for bringing the lower price to their attention and stating that I would be refunded the difference plus the 10% — a whole $13! Super hooray!

Go Continental! Thanks for making me so happy by standing by your promise.