AIBU to think that this brave new world of everything needing to be booked in advance while simultaneously being non refundable is a massive PITA?

[Uptee]

And that it's all down to the internet?

Yeah, it's "easy" to book things online, but it's not always "easy" to turn up for them. Life gets in the way, people get sick, have pressing commitments appear, plans change. And when that happens, easiness goes out of the window. Suddenly it's not so easy, to do anything at all, because none of this ease is really for the convenience of customers. It's just to push cash flow forwards.

Half the time, you have no choice but to book in advance. There are no walk-up tickets. Or, if you're talking walk-up tickets on the train, they're £200. So instead you buy a train ticket for £70 which is still let me remind you a fuck of a lot of money, and even though your journey that you won't make (say for example, because a booking you had as a self employed person got cancelled) is weeks and weeks hence, there is no refund. You might just have well have burnt that bloody money. It's a fucking con.

Yanbu

Yabu and yanbu.

Its better than the old system of turning up, no space travelling for nothing. I often book things the night before.

Yanbu, and I hate the constant exhortations to fork out for insurance that will only pay out if you have 7 forms of evidence of an extremely unlikely event occurring.

@GettingFestiveNow yes, that's another con. Pay even more for what is still essentially a non refundable ticket, documented verified and stamped incidents of nuclear war excepted.

@OneTimeThingToday do you book train tickets the night before?

Yabu and not at the same time. It depends on context.

I recall days when my ex-h and I used to book last minute flights to a random destination, land and then worry about where we were going to stay. No planning. It was great. Very freeing. There should be more of that.

That said, I am a self-employed person and I work in a field where clients need to book in with me. If they book in and then cancel (sometimes less than 5 mins before the session was due to start) it astounds me they still try to push for a refund, or try to rearrange (so taking not only their originally booked time, but also an additional time as well at no extra cost to them).

So, for things like train tickets, hotel bookings etc yanbu.

For dealings with smaller businesses and sole traders eg hairdressers and the likes yabu.

Ive booked all sorts the night before! If the train is half empty, you often get cheap tickets. Its only exoensive if its a busy service.

Oh don't talk shite. Train tickets don't come down in price.

In a way it's handy you've said that early doors on the thread because I can now safely disregard everything else you add to it.

Went to book a restaurant (normal type, nothing fancy, but was an independent) for a few days time and they wanted £25 non refundable deposit. I have every single intention of going, but I just couldn’t book it and risk losing £25 if say I got ill and cancelled etc.

Wait what? This has literally never happened to me

YANBU. For me it’s not just the non refundable nature of absolutely fucking everything but also the fact that if you want to do anything at all ever you have to register, and create an account, and give up a load of personal data just for example to go swimming at a leisure centre. And if you want to do a specific thing like go to the theatre, or a concert, you have to either book hundreds of years in advance or register to join an early online queue. The whole thing is a gigantic con designed to suck more marketing preference information out of you. And don’t get me started on the cost of train tickets at short notice.

So, for things like train tickets, hotel bookings etc yanbu.

For dealings with smaller businesses and sole traders eg hairdressers and the likes yabu.

Yeah I'm definitely thinking about the massive players here, not hand to mouth sole operators. Alton towers/transpennine trains etc aren't going to go bust because Brenda in Portsmouth gets food poisoning and needs to visit in a different day than originally planned. Just give the bloody money back already.

Thinking wider, loads of tourist attractions across Europe require you to book in advance, often months in advance, places like the Louvre or the Vatican. These are places that have a huge chunk of international visitors, they can't all be turning up on time. They must be making a packet from non refundable tickets that have to be booked in advance but are never actually used.

No, they go up in price as more sell!

But fine if you think its shite.

For example, ive just looked and i can book a train ticket to london tomorrow for £30 from my home in Yorkshire.
More popular trains are more than double that.

Yanbu. I’ve been absolutely RINSED by a Virgin experience which I have been unable to fulfil for four years due to weather uncontrollable by me or virgin but as it’s a weather based activity I’m not entitled to a refund and need to keep booking indefinitely, it’s cancelled at such short notice and they’ve removed weekend options so I’m completely limited now to school holidays only now and having to take annual leave etc, such a stressful situation I wish I’d never tried to fulfill my lifelong dream!

Don’t forget the inevitable app download too, especially for event tickets

You're right. I just looked and for tomorrow I can get a train to Manchester and back for just over £100 direct travelling around 8am and back around 5:30pm same journey I did a month ago, that ticket I booked two months in advance and cost me nearly £200 (well cost work), so it was more expensive in that case to book in advance

Sorry multiple posts, my matrix glitched

Booking to go to the bloody tip - this all does my head in

Yeah, that's bad. Every time I do it a part of my lifetime quota of joy dies.

Todays train ticket to London was £85 when I booked it last week.
Last night the same train was £35.
OneTime was not talking shite!

I do like booking in advance because I don't like queues or being disappointed, but I don't like the lack of any leeway or spontaneity - you can't just go to the tip when you have a garage full of crap & the will, energy and time to do it. You now have to summon the will in line with the councils booking policy.

I agree companies are cashing in on misfortune a bit, but also agree some businesses e.g. physio or hairdressers are reliant on you turning up and that's different.

OMG yes! I have so
may apps downloaded for one event plus I have specific ones for kids school events (several of these).

Agreed its also the weather. I dont want to commit often until the day before. As things like theme parks are outside and so expensive plus travel time.

And the stress of booking holidays and pausing to think and then being timed out, only to find the prices have risen in those few minutes

Very strange reaction to learning something you didn't know before. Are you often this aggressive?! **