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Comment by bvdbijl | Hacker News Reader

Although... "While we can make purchases for you, we cannot do certain things including reservations (at hotels, etc), and airplane tickets."

So fancyhands couldn't have helped the writer of the blogpost with his airplane ticket problem

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I've had corporate travel services place tickets on a 24 hour hold for me before (i.e. the itinerary is reserved, but not yet paid for). I assume that's still possible, at least for the legacy carriers.

Continental used to have that, but dropped it shortly before the United merger. I think other companies did too. Instead, they let you cancel with no cancellation fee within 24 hours. (Although the funds may take up to two weeks to go back to your account).

So essentially, FancyHands can book it for you with their card, and cancel it if they can't charge you within 24 hours - but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't want to go that route.

American Airlines still has this feature (or at least it did last night when I was making a booking) Edit: By this feature, I mean the ability to place a hold without the credit card.

United still has this feature. Choose "pay at the airport" and then just go back and pay online within 24 hours.

They could set up the itinerary for him to purchase quickly.

But they can certainly help find the best options for your travel so that you can go there and buy yourself.

That's what takes the most time, once you have that, just go and buy. Sure, having someone that could do everything would be good.

But you could do that with a travel agent.

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