FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Nonrefundable hotel reservation chargebacks / refunds
Old Apr 27, 2020 | 1:37 am
  #23  
diburning
10 Countries Visited
500k
All eyes on you!
10 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: New England
Programs: DL, UA, AA, B6, 2V, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt
Posts: 6,093
Originally Posted by sullim4
...the second one is through Expedia who hasn't yet extended their flexibility beyond April 30.
Go into your reservation on Expedia and hit the cancel button. It will tell you whether you'd get a refund of $0.00 or whether there is a waiver in place despite them not updating their website for COVID cancellations beyond April 30th. If the property is a major chain such as Hilton, Marriott, IHG, etc, it will most likely let you cancel without a fee.

Here's my experience with Hotels.com (Expedia):

My booking was made in February for a trip in early May.

Mid-March after everything shut down, Hotels.com was unreachable. I've sent them messages on social media, and received no response from an actual human. Marriott at this point would have given me a refund had I not booked through an OTA.

I called Amex and tried to dispute the charge. The agent told me that she didn't advise it because in the event that Expedia had someone responding to chargebacks, all they'd need to do would be to copy and paste the cancellation policy, and I'd lose the dispute. She told me that I should wait and give Hotels.com/Expedia more time to respond, and that I had 60 days from the date that I was charged to dispute it, so I could always dispute it later.

At the end of March, the property (Marriott) cancelled my reservation as they were closing for all of April and May. Inventory was zeroed out and unbookable.

Mid-April (a little over two weeks ago) I looked at my reservation and found that I could cancel it with no fee due to COVID-19 waiver. I clicked cancel and got a screen that gave three conflicting timeframes. First, it said that a refund would be issued to my credit card (last 4 digits displayed) within 24 hours. Then it showed a message saying that it would take 7-10 days. Below that was a message saying that due to high volume, the refund could take 30 days.

On day 59 (a few days ago), I called Amex and told them all of this and asked whether a dispute would be appropriate in this case. The agent said absolutely, and since this is a case of a refund not received, and I have screenshots and a cancellation email, I could simply dispute the charge, provide the proof, and then I'd either get a credit when they review the proof and find it in my favor, or Expedia could refund me during the investigation process, and either way, I'd get the credit.

Last edited by diburning; Apr 27, 2020 at 4:00 am
diburning is offline