aboyd

I booked a flight through Expedia from HON to BOS. A couple weeks later, Expedia contacted me to say that they needed to change my flight so that I would fly out a day earlier and it would be with AA instead of Delta. Okay, no problem... Until I show up to check in for my flight.

AA told me that I had my ticket but needed to pay a $1,250 change fee (basically the cost of the ticket)! So I go to Delta to ask why my flight was changed in the first place - they apparently had no record of me ever being booked for the flight. Expedia had "booked" me for an overbooked flight and when they realized their mistake changed it without paying any change fee so that it fell on me.

In a panic because it was the last flight out for 3 days (spring break overbooked flights), I paid the change fee. This was after 2.5 hours at the ticket counter trying to work with AA and going through the hoops on the phone with Expedia. Finally, the person on the phone from Expedia told me they would refund me if I paid the fee.

The original flight with Delta cost me $750. The change fee cost $1,250. That is a lot of money! Since that day, between my husband and I, we have spent approximately ten hours on the phone with Expedia to no avail.

Any recommendations?!

Overlord168

I think the only solution is to request a full refund and make a new book DIRECTLY on the company's website.. If they don't want to refund you, you should contact the operator of your credit card & open a case.. Next time don't book in cheapset tickets websites, you will always have problems like that, and even worse.. Book directly!

Often1

OP - I can't quite figure out how it is that AA wanted a "change fee". My suspicion is that Expedia collected $750 for the DL ticket, but could not issue it and thus, booked but did not pay for the AA ticket. AA had the reservation but simply had not been paid for it.

You can certainly initiate a chargeback of the Expedia payment, but that only gets you $750 and leaves you out the balance of $500. You certainly don't have a basis to dispute the AA charge as they simply collected the AA fare.

You will likely need to sue Expedia in small claims court in order to get the balance of $500. It may be worth sending a letter to that effect, but my guess is that you are going to have to sue.

Water under the bridge for OP, but for others: why on earth book on Expedia when you can book direct on a carrier's website? FT is a tiny sample and there are hundreds of examples of people who have had horrible experiences.

Sure, when things go right, it is fine. But, when they go wrong, you are really stuck. Rarely are there much, if any savings. And when they are they don't justify the hassle.

M60_to_LGA

To be honest, I use Expedia for almost all my travel, business and professional, and I've never had a problem.

In fact, they helped me out a great deal in March, when US canceled a flight I had booked to MEX for a business trip and would only offer to reaccommodate me on another US flight the following day. After I talked to my boss and we made the decision to buy a new ticket for later that day, I couldn't get through to US to cancel the US-rebooked flight because their phone lines were swamped - but Expedia took control of that and canceled for me. That definitely saved me lots of time and hassle because otherwise I would have had to fight with US after the fact.

I'd ask whether the OP received an email or other confirmation from either Expedia or AA showing s/he was ticketed on the new flight. It sounds like that didn't happen. OP, if you're around, what form did the initial contact from Expedia about the flight change take?

Also, fear of stuff like this is why I always print out a hard copy of the ticket/itinerary before I travel. And ALWAYS reconfirm the reservation before going to the airport!

At any rate, I've had pretty big problems in the past with tickets being assigned from one airline to another - even without a TA's involvement - so I'll personally refrain from fleeing Expedia at the moment.

squeakr

Do you have any emails from Expedia OK'ing the change fee?
Contact EXPEDIA'S twitter account - usually gets a quick response.
challenge the charge on your credit card

Often1

As noted, that still leaves OP out $500. He can't challenge the AA charge as that was apparently legitimate, he agreed to it and flew the ticket. But, Expedia only collected $750.

For this, it's worth both a complaint to the FTC (not that the FTC does anything on individual complaints), and a SCC claim.

B1

The OP says that she and her husband are having trouble with Expedia but the points she makes confuse me. A change fee would apply if she decided to take a different flight. This is not what happened. Instead, she says that they were booked onto a more expensive AA flight - there is no change fee that could be refunded so why expect it? The amount collected by Expedia for a flight that was not booked seems to be the issue that needs clarification. I've found that Expedia does their job and will go to a higher level if needed. I would put the story in writing and send a letter to Expedia and insist on receiving a written response. Multi-hour phone calls have no clear record and things easily get misunderstood despite good intentions. Expedia is a reputable organization - they do slip up but they should want to correct their errors.

MLCJ

I just used Expedia for the first time to book a hotel and purchased the quote at $181 a night receiving the page that my booking was confirmed. 30 minutes later, I received my confirmation email that said my rate was $231 and my card had been charged more than $200 more. I was able to go back in and rebook the hotel at the $181 rate right up until the purchase screen and took screenshots of the pricing. I called Expedia and after waiting 50 minutes, got a CS agent to apologize and said he would help me, only to disconnect the call. I emailed and after 5 days, received a reply that didn't address the issue, only said sorry we don't price match. I called again today and there was a 70 min projected wait. Guess this will be going to AMEX instead since Expedia doesn't appear to care and will be the last time I book with them.

SK AAR

After the ordeal with last-minute and no-warning cancellations by Exp earlier this year

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...t-stay-25.html

I'm for sure through with Exp - never again...

Big4Flyer

OP, if Expedia is truly being impossible to work with I'd suggest getting in touch with the consumer advocates at Elliott.org. They can help steer you in the right direction and this sounds like the kind of case they can help with.

Often1

It's too late for OP, but this is all part of a consistent issue. Do not, do not, do not book through third-party vendors unless: 1) you are somewhere where you cannot for some reason book through an air carrier's channels, e.g. online or telephone; or 2) there are significant (and I really do mean significant) savings.

Had this been booked through DL, DL would have handled the reroute and reissue and that would have been the end of it.

The fact that many people have good experiences does not excuse the many people who either never see satisfaction or wind up spending hours, if not days, fixing something easy.

YuropFlyer

Often, a carriers website won't allow you to book some combinations that OTA allow (Take LH, LX or OS as extreme examples of "cant-do")

There are reasons why several airlines have tried/are trying to slap OTA's (and traditional TAs) with extra fees - they simply have more capability than their own website.

That said, Expedia seems to majorly having it gotten wrong here. I thought Expedia was in the same camp as Opodo, Ebookers etc. - reasonable OTAs that one can trust on.

Firstclasser

Ive used expedia and it worked for me. When you received a higher rate email, you could've used the 24 hour window to just cancel the reservation for free. I once booked my husbands ticket with my name out of error and called immediately to cancel. They reversed the charge within the day.

Firstclasser

Dispute the charge with your card company.

Sabasi

That will not work.