need some advice

[papakat]

I am not an experienced world traveler by any means so this makes things even more difficult. I and my wife(both right at 60) decided to see our son in Houston(from Iowa) . We choose Southwest and made travel arrangements through a local ,well known travel agency. We were to fly out Nov. 8 and return November 11. everything went smooth and we had a good time while there. My son suggested that we check quick early Sunday morning to see that our flight out was on schedule. HORROR OF HORRORS we were reserved but not booked. We immediately called southwest to see what we could do . They looked up the information and noticed that we had gone through a travel agency. they said any changes or booking would have to be done through the travel agency(ticket buyers) .We immediately called the travel agency only to here "we are closed till Monday" so here we are stuck with no tickets and no recourse and no help. We are not overly hi tech but my son  luckily calmed us down a bit and bought some very expensive tickets so we could still get home in time for other obligations. We overpaid $840 to get home.the Travel agency is trying to blame southwest  and saying we could have changed things on our own and did not have to have the original ticket buyers i.e. the travel agency authorize. Can someone tell me if you pay the Travel agency to purchase tickets for you and there needs to be a change IS IT policy from Southwest to only authorize a change from the travel agency rather than the individual in this case? Thank you all for your time and insight

[DancingDavidE]

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@papakat wrote:

Can someone tell me if you pay the Travel agency to purchase tickets for you and there needs to be a change IS IT policy from Southwest to only authorize a change from the travel agency rather than the individual in this case? Thank you all for your time and insight

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1) yes there are ways the travel agent can book things that require them to make changes, that seems horribly inconvenient for Sunday travel though if they are closed. I don’t think they had to do it that way. 

2) I’m not familiar with this approach on Southwest to make a reservation without a ticket, maybe someone else can chime in. I’m not sure what “change” they were expecting you to make if everything was according to schedule and you couldn’t fly this sounds like an error on the travel agents part.

Please let us know if you find out more info.

It sounds like a bad travel agent if they were expecting you to take some action Sunday morning to fly and not telling you what that would entail.

[ali012]

Try with this template

Dear [Travel Agency Name],

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing regarding an issue encountered during our recent travel arrangements through your agency for a trip from Iowa to Houston from November 8th to 11th.

Upon attempting to check our return flight on November 10th, we discovered our reservation was not booked. As your office was closed until Monday, we had to purchase expensive last-minute tickets directly from the airline, totaling $840.

We seek urgent clarification on your agency's policy regarding changes to bookings, particularly in cases of reservation discrepancies. Understanding these protocols will assist in preventing similar incidents and guide our future travel arrangements.

Prompt attention to this matter and guidance on potential reimbursement for the incurred expenses would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Contact Information]

[floridaguy]

In today's age, there is absolutely no reason to work through a "travel agency" who has no more information or ability to book an airline ticket than do you.  In LESS TIME THAN YOU SPENT WITH THE TRAVEL AGENCY, you could have booked your flights on Southwest, paid for them, earned Rapid Rewards points and had all of this done.

To me, this is a 1980s view of travel where you contacted someone to set it all up and get through all of the secret handshakes, etc.  

I see that you were an author in your own demise.