Originally Posted by
weary_traveler
It turns out that Expedia paid the fare to VA but no money got to AF.
Pretty sure that's not how interline tickets work.
If the ticket was plated on VA ticket stock, VA collects the money and holds onto it. As each subsequent coupon is lifted, the operating carrier effectively "bills" the ticketing carrier for that segment, and funds are then transferred from the ticketing to the operating carrier (likely in an end-of-day batch settlement). No money is exchanged until the operating carrier lifts the coupon and flies the flight.
There likely was a problem with the ticket, but AF was not being honest (or competent) in their explanation of the problem.
Regardless, as your travel agent, Expedia was the one responsible to correct the issue and fix your ticket and/or rebook you. Your first call should have been to Expedia to ask them to either fix your ticket or rebook you on another flight.
You weren't very detailed about the sequence of events at the airport after you were notified of the problem. I would hope and assume you did try having Expedia fix it before going and buying a $3,000 ticket; if not, then booking a $3K ticket and presuming Expedia would simply reimburse you was probably pushing the envelope a bit too far. If, however, you put some time into getting Expedia to fix it
before the fact and they either couldn't or refused to, then you might have a legitimate claim that booking a $3,000 ticket was your only recourse.
I am curious what the ultimate outcome is, though, so please do report back.