fairviewroad

I'm contemplating a trip to various points in South America for next summer. Right now I'm seeing some great prices on Expedia. Normally I book directly with an airline, but this trip involves multiple carriers.

I've used Expedia for hotels, rental cars, and the occasional domestic USA flight. But I'm a little apprehensive about using them for a multi-segment journey that involves foreign carriers (Mexicana, LAN, TAM). But the price is right. Anything I should be aware of before I click "purchase"?

FedUp2

Some people have regretted using Expedia to book international tickets, when Expedia has come back to them long after the ticket has been issued saying that the tickets are invalid for travel and all they can do is to issue a refund! In other cases, Expedia has come back to 'reinvent' the rules or pass the buck to the airline.

dogcanyon

I also read a lot of horror stories from people who say it can take hours on hold to talk to a customer service rep.

trooper

Used XP.com twice now for reasonably complex multi flight/multi airline itins from Asia to North America .. and for an MR within the USA...

No problems with either of the multi airline/flight itins... check in staff were quite happy with the XP printout (which has the conf codes for each airline on it anyway) .. that was a relief!! (Cheap C deal.. I was a bit paranoid!)

Needed to change the domestic MR () and rang the 1-800 number... ended up talking to a lady in MNL (IIRC) who got it all sorted... eventually.

Took no longer than other calls to help lines I've made here in oz...

YMMV of course but I plan to continue booking through them.... until and unless of course!

fairviewroad

Thanks for the responses. I chose to go with a local brick-and-mortar travel agent, who was able to quote the same price (and a slightly better routing) as I saw on Expedia. It involved two Latin American carriers, and I called several agencies until I got someone on the line who seemed knowledgable with that part of the world.

It's the first time I've used an actual travel agent in 4 years. My experience with Expedia has been mixed...generally speaking they're fine unless something goes wrong, in which case you spend lots of time on hold, eventually speaking to an agent overseas who doesn't really understand how to resolve the problem.

GB

I have used them many times for complex int'l itineraries and it is usually no problem, other than getting my preferred carriers or preferred flights to come up in sequence.

I have also used zuji.com for various segments that Expedia couldn't do and then just used Expedia around these segments.

The only caviat to Expedia is that with many of the more unusual foreign carriers, it will only issue paper tickets. Other than the insane fee for delivery, it is a real hassle if you have to make a change or cancel due to the paper tickets.

y528s

Expedia has been great for me in the passed, but recently I have found it as a good place to look for guide prices, and have found cheaper flights when booking directly through the airlines.

Booking multi-segment with Expedia can get annoying, especially if you want to customize hotels or cars.

BDA shorts

For complex tickets it makes huge sense to either (a) know what you're doing beforehand, i.e. get information about rules, routings, and availability through whatever sources you have available, or (b) go to a travel agent.

A lot of times there are possibilities that you had no clue existed, and simply plugging in a bunch of dates and places won't tell you--for example, IB US-Spain routings generally allow stops in both MAD and BCN, generally for a nominal stopover charge.

GDSes like Sabre are the best for this sort of thing because you can rapidly check fares, rules and routings from multiple cities, but cost about $40/month to get for yourself. So if you're an infrequent traveler, I think it's best to just pay someone who has a GDS to get the information for you.