Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Expedia Won't Refund Ticket - What to do?

I am holding a full fare ticket with expedia.com on Air India. Everytime I call them (7 times total so far approx ~1hr per call) they put me on hold explaining they have to call Air India to verify if it is refundable and then say that Air India is closed and to try again later.

Any ideas what I should do? The last person suggested I call Air India for a refund. They won't touch it because it was issued by Expedia. Shall I take it up with my cc?

Cheers,

I had a similar problem with a refundable EK ticket issued by Expedia. Only after bombarding Expedia with emails and complaints (phone calls didn't work) did I get the refund. It took about four months to process. Their refund system is an absolute disgrace. A perfunctory web search will reveal similar tales of woe.

This is also a very good candidate for a dispute action by the credit card company. If you bought the ticket with Amex, they ought to be able to get you satisfaction, and you can also avoid paying for the ticket while the dispute is under resolution. I had a similar case with Indian Railways (charged multiple times for online tickets) and Amex got the job done for me. It still took several months.

I'm not sure how good other credit card companies are in such situations, but Amex has always been very useful for this stuff.

File a complaint with the BBB. You can do it online.

Don't know if it'll work, but if it seems like the folks on the regular phone line are clueless, unhelpful, or simply can't get anywhere, it's sometimes nice to try some back-door numbers.

So here's one: Expedia's Vendor Services phone line can be reached at 1-877-EXPEDIA (397-3342) or 1-817-524-4121.

They may get mad at you for calling them, or they may not even be able to look up and/or touch your itinerary, but it might be worth a try.

Just for curiosity, have you tried calling when it's definitely daytime in India and Air India should be open?

Please follow the discussion in our On-line Travel booking forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Is the flight you purchased still in the future, and if so, is the refundable fare you purchased still viewable/available? If so, perhaps an Expedia agent could view the fare information on their own screen as if you/they were booking a whole new reservation. I wonder if that would be sufficient for them to verify you did in fact purchase a refundable fare???

Just for curiosity, have you tried calling when it's definitely daytime in India and Air India should be open?

That was going to be my suggestion. If things are as the OP says they are (7 attempts to resolve this, each taking about an hour on the phone and ending with "Air India is closed now"), you'd think it would have occurred to them to find out when Air India is open and try again during that time frame.

That was going to be my suggestion. If things are as the OP says they are (7 attempts to resolve this, each taking about an hour on the phone and ending with "Air India is closed now"), you'd think it would have occurred to them to find out when Air India is open and try again during that time frame.

After 4 months and 6 phone calls, I recently resolved a Virgin Atlantic ticketing problem. Every time I called from California, the UK ticketing department was closed. Each Virgin call center agent would send a message to ticketing asking they resolve the problem, all to no avail. It wasn't until I called early enough in the morning in California while UK ticketing was open that I could ever get the issue resolved.

Definitely dispute the charge... that is what the credit card company is for.... you tried on your own... no sense in your using up any more of your valuable time. Have your people work on it... :)

I have had my share of woes w. Expedia. I believe that they say 'no'
or shift responsbility at every juncture. I spent much stress and hours on the phone...no luck. Finally, I filed a complaint with the BBB and within one month I had a full refund and a letter of apology. Unfortuately, I concluded that you need the power of the authorities behind you in dealing with them..

Most people who buy airline tickets on website such as Expedia tend to buy non-refundable tickets.

It is quite rare that somebody would purchase a refundable ticket on Expedia, so their agents are not used to handling them.

I have a suspicion that most Expedia telephone agents aren't even trained travel agents who understand fares, ticket, fare construction etc.!

I asked them when Air India was open - they said they didn't know. They said it was a London, UK office though and an online search suggests they are open 9-5. (One agent said the office should be open but they have the wrong phone number.)

Regardless, I have phoned at several times throughout the day - 7am, 12, 5pm all on business days.

Sidestory:

I would prefer to change the ticket, delaying my flights by four days However, no agent was able to do this either. Therefore I thought it would be easier to refund and then book my new flights with another reputable agency instead. I currently have flights for my new dates on hold with another agency.

I paid with my Citibank student credit card, and have already paid the bill for my ticket as I bought it 2 months ago. Can I dispute retroactively?

Cheers,

Is the flight you purchased still in the future, and if so, is the refundable fare you purchased still viewable/available? If so, perhaps an Expedia agent could view the fare information on their own screen as if you/they were booking a whole new reservation. I wonder if that would be sufficient for them to verify you did in fact purchase a refundable fare???

It is in the future and still available. However, the agent said the fare rules do not come up. I told the agent the fare basis asking if it would help but it didn't

I paid with my Citibank student credit card, and have already paid the bill for my ticket as I bought it 2 months ago. Can I dispute retroactively?

I don't know what the federal regulations and credit card company policies for dates are, but two months should be fine.

Federal regulations state that the service must be within something like 50 or 100 miles of your home, but that requirement is usually overlooked. Just bringing it up in case your card company declines your dispute.

You are supposed to make "reasonable" efforts to resolve the problem before disputing with your card. While you could probably do more to get it done without involving your card company, I think you've made "reasonable" efforts.

It is quite rare that somebody would purchase a refundable ticket on Expedia, so their agents are not used to handling them.

I have a suspicion that most Expedia telephone agents aren't even trained travel agents who understand fares, ticket, fare construction etc.!

That's an understatement. I spent 90 minutes on the phone today with an Expedia agent regarding a Best Rate guarantee claim (hotel purchase). The agent basically said any lower rate found on a website other than Expedia would be a 'promotional rate' and not eligible for their BRG claim. After finally being put through to a supervisor, the claim was instantly approved and the sup agreed my BRG claim was 100% legit.

Back to the subject at hand, it should be up to Expedia to do the leg work and contact Air India. Expedia is your TA in this situation and this is their responsibility to handle.

You might email Expedia once more, this time including Christopher Elliott as a CC

http://www.elliott.org/

Know that some credit cards have a 60-90 day limit for disputing charges... I would suggest making the dispute immediately. Many cards allow you to do it online.