ugh...I hardly have any confidence in the american system. sorry if this sounds racist, but I have even less confidence in the indian system.
for instance, I called an Indian travel agent that my family and I have booked our flights with numerous times in the past. He doesn't take my call, and makes me speak to one of his employees, which is fine. I give her my travel dates (they are somewhat flexible), and I told her that I'd have to confirm travel dates(once they find flights) with my employer, then only I can purchase the tickets, and even then if the price is right. and the stupid lady asks me "are you ready for ticketing if we find you a flight?" - took me a minute to understand her question ("ticketing"). Now, what kind of stupid question is this?? They don't even tell me what the going rates are for the travel period I told them about, and they want to know if I'll buy tickets from them unconditionally? And ofcourse, I'm ready for "ticketing" if the price/travel dates are right, else I wouldn't be wasting my time looking for the information. Yes, I know, that's just one person, but they are all morons. Another travel agent asked what airline I want to travel
It doesn't matter as long as they are travelling via Pacific ocean (another racist view
)
2 years back, I needed to make last minute travel arangements, but my passport had expired a few months back. I was surprised to have gotten a new passport within a short time. ofcourse, I paid a lot of money to insure they send it to me in time, just because I wasn't comfortable with their 'basic' service.
they just want to make us feel insecure, so they can get suckers like me to pay extra. for instance, my ex-colleges charge $10 for "expedited" service, to send transcripts to universities. they print out official transcripts at the time of request. it's just a freaking print out. if you don't pay $10, they'll wait a few days to print out/mail