Last time I called American Express Travel, I was told they were no longer allowed to book my flights over the phone – always a painless process – and I needed to use the AmEx website.

Apparently this is meant to be cheaper.

So now:

1) It took a day to retrieve my login password

2) It took an hour to fix my details and book flights, manually select the default options which we’re meant to get anyway, find my usual hotel, book my usual hotel, etc.

2b) Did I mention the user interface is crummy and straight out of the ark?

3) And now, when trying to checkin with Virgin online (10 mins) I find that my checkin-in failed; this led to 15 minutes on hold with Virgin (phone bill) to hear my ticket had not been issued

4) Which lead to 15 minutes on hold or talking with an Amex person who cannot find my booking irrespective of any/all information I provide to them, and to whom I have just sent a PDF of the webpage with all my booking details on it, so they can call me back.

This sucks.

And this 2+ hours of my time is meant to be cheaper than 5 minutes on the phone to someone who knows what they are doing and who has access to the right systems?

To whom do I complain?

Oh, and I can kiss goodbye to the “I’ll log straight on and get a good seat with the online checkin system” thing. It’ll be another 12 hours of shitty seating again, this trip.

I swear, if the ticket does not exist, I am cancelling the trip to the USA.

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1145h Update 1: Okay, so it appears that at least three, possibly four separate URLs exist for me and my fellow employees to book travel.

They include:

1) www.americanexpress-travel.net
2) e-travelmanagement2.amadeus.com
3) world.cytric.net

Back in March I used Site#1 to book the flight, and the nice AmEx account-manager person this morning told me that that website was meant to have been dead since January and should not be in use any more. I have been assured that I have been rebooked on the same flight with the same details.

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1245h Update 2: am waiting for my new ETKT number so I can try and salvage a less-than-shitty-for-someone-with-34″-legs seat; in the meantime I have queried a couple of colleagues who have cited to me that I should be using URL#3 (cytric) – but that website looks exactly like website #1 and contains my old details/booking, so I am betting that that one is broken / dead / we should be locked-out but it’s not been done yet, also.

I have checked out website #2 and it looks different and rather more modern, so I am betting that I should be using that one; however I have no password and my request to be reminded of my password has not yet borne fruit…

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1330h Update #3: I am booked in, checked in, and have selected an only-moderately-crappy seat.

I remain vexed by Virgin’s lack of clarity, as:

– one part of the website tells me that I cannot meddle with seat assignments within 24h of the flight
– another lets me meddle with the seat assignment after checkin
– another tells me that i can change the seat assignment apparently _days_ before the flight
– and yet the seat map for the return flight has not been opened yet, however you can bet that points 1 and 2 will apply when the clock rolls around.

AmEx seems to have sorted out the other issues (yay! well done team, etc…) – but I still don’t know what website, username and password are applicable.

And neither do my colleagues, now.