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Air
Hitch- A Great way to get a discount airfare
to Europe or was?
Whoops....times
have changed....
read what Frommers
says about AirHitch!(or is it the two
AirHitches!) and what people
and Robert Segalbaum(founder and operator
of one of the Air Hitches) has to say....
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I
flew AirHitch about 20 years ago and had success
with it, although one of the things that stood
out was the rudeness of the people who work
there. I assumed that not much had changed with
a relatively good program until I received an
e-mail from a visitor to my site who thought
the were very rude to her. I decided to look
into AirHitch and see what people were saying
online...
I
spent a morning searching, following strings
of communications, reading about complaints,
responses to the complaints, interpretations
of the complaints and much more. After a couple
of hours of reading, I formed some of my own
opinions on AirHitch based on the following.
1.
There appear to be two AirHitches....AirHitch.org
and Air-Hitch.org. Different companies, possibly
embroiled in a lawsuit over which one is using
the name legitimately. One is the original and
the other allegedly purchased the rights to
the name, or the business....or something. Regardless
they are very similar and that's probably what
you need to know so that you realize that you
may be dealing with one or the other without
knowing that there are two!
2.
The Air-Hitch.org is the newer site and has
a more organized web site. AirHitch.org is the
original one and has a chaotic website thrown
together, what appears to be in a haphazard
manner.
3.AirHitch.org
says they're a nonprofit and that they don't
have customers, they are just helping people.
They claim to be a sociopolitical organization
fighting the injustices of the airline cartel
which is overcharging travelers. They try to
come off as the champion of the traveler who
wants to save money, but they seem to have a
disdain for anyone who asks a question they
think has already been answered on their web
site. I've never seen an organization that responds
so rudely to inquiries(They defend their rudeness
by saying that they are being honest and helping
you to understand how the business works- but
never use the word business because they're
calling it a nonprofit. Jeeeesh!).
4.
They are both legitimate and not scams, but
it sounds like Air-hitch.org doesn't have the
database of flights to ensure that you get where
you're going and AirHitch.org will probably
most likely get you to or from Europe, but you
may incur extra expenses getting to the city
or country where you flight may depart from,
eating extra meals waiting to get your flight
or spending money on hotels(unless you want
to sleep in the airport). The time it takes
to get a refund seem to be the biggest complaint
about AirHitch.com(besides their rudeness).
5.My
personal opinion as to whether I would fly them
again: If I'm in a masochistic mood and I want
to risk being berated by an organization that
is probably going to save me less money than
I think then I might give it a shot, but I don't
foresee myself reaching that frame of mind in
the near foreseeable future(or the extended
future for that matter.
About
the two Air Hitches
(Air-Hitch.org
/ How Air Hitch
works / Air
Hitch Fare Options)
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