4 Feb, 2010
Hidden Fees with Malev Hungarian Airlines Online Booking System
Yesterday, I booked my first ticket online with Malev Hungarian Airlines. My trip is from Beirut to Gotenburg on July 2010.
The total fare to be charged "as per the website" was 567 USD for the roundtrip. The confirmation email (and yes I still have it and is attached below) confirms that the total charges should 567 USD. Yet, my credit card was charged 609 USD.
Being pretty familiar with Credit Card charges, I decided that this should be some sort of conversion between USD / Euro while processing the payment through their payment gateway. Thus, I gently sent them an email asking them to refund the difference.
Today, I received a reply back from them asking me to contact client service on a Hungarian phone number. I did. The woman on the other side simply checked, confirmed the price (567 USD) and said that everything is OK lol
I told her that the card was charged 609 USD. She was surprised first but, then, she remembered (surprisingly she did) that there is something that they call a "Service Fee" that is worth 30 Euros for the Lebanon region and that changes from region to region. What a joke!
She couldn't even confirm that the service fee is 30 Euros. She said that it should be around 30 Euros but there is no way for her to know the exact figure.
The worse part is that she is admitting that they have hidden fees.
The worst part is that she cannot now what the exact fee should be.
No comment from me on this. I know that this will be my last time to book with them online unless some magic occurs and someone points how something so unprofessional can happen with an airline reservation system.
5 Dec, 2009
Halloween 2009
This year's halloween gathering was exceptional with the large number of babies present lol Enjoy the pictures ;)
[Visit this halloween's album]
16 Nov, 2009
One-Million Dolar Picture
The creator of this picture won a million dollar in Van cogh' talents competition which took place in Italy. Please take a closer look at the picture.
25 Sep, 2009
How To Recover Your Hotmail / MSN / Live Passport Account?
Did you lose access to your Hotmail / MSN / Live account and cannot reset your password using normal techniques (like Secret Question / Answer or Alternate Email)?
If yes, here is the link that allows you to "try" to recover your account by contacting Microsoft directly.
https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=wlidvalidation&ct=eformcs
Click on the link above and fill in as much information as possible. Make sure you use an email address that you have access to. The more information you provide (contacts in your address book, folders, email activity, etc.) the more convincing your request will be for the staff member who will be reviewing your request.
Normally, if convinced, Microsoft will simply reset your account password and send it over to the email address that you provide. Pay attention not to get confused between the stolen account email address and the email address that you want to receive the recovered password on.
3 Sep, 2009
Beirut: CNN's Best Party City
A beautiful report from CNN about the best party city on earth. No wonder they chose Beirut.
Watch the Report (Real Player required)
2 Sep, 2009
The Future of Web Programming
I was having an interesting discussion yesterday about web programming languages with a friend of mine during which we tackled various programming languages (PHP, Java, VB and C#) and their competitive nature for web programming. I found it very useful to place a summary (yet a detailed one) about this topic due to the interestingly arguable nature of this topic.
17 Jun, 2009
The 45 Lessons of Life
Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more."
(More)