Expedia warning

[bookbabe626]

Just an FYI re booking flights through Expedia...

We booked through Expedia for our Labour Day week trip, because we needed a multiple city trip (YYZ to TPA, TPA to GCM, GCM to YYZ) since we had a Cayman vacation week planned following our Disney trip. We knew the airlines, and their policies, we read over the Expedia policies, we thought we knew all the important info. We read all the fine print in the booking confirmation. No problem, right? Then came Dorian.

All of the relevant airlines were offering no-charge changes due to the storm, and Expedia would have happily made the changes, but unbeknownst to us, our tickets were actually ‘owned’ by Hahn (sp?) Air, and they weren’t answering Expedia’s emails requesting permission to make the change. It took six hours on the phone over the course of four days, re-explaining the situation to multiple Expedia agents, to get anything settled, and we still won’t know for about four-six weeks if they are waiving the $200 a person rebooking fee or not, even if both the airlines and Expedia would be happy to, because this Hahn company won’t reply.

So, fair warning, Expedia has great prices, but sometimes those tickets are actually owned by charter companies and not by Expedia, and you won’t be told that that’s the case until there are problems. They seemingly do not disclose that fact at any point in the booking process or in any of the fine print, or at least not that we can find in anything that we were sent. Lesson learned, I guess.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Never book third party air! Sorry for your experience.

 

[Alesia]

Every time someone posts about booking through a third party, a lot of us tell them not to. This is exactly why.

I know it doesn't help you now, but for what it's worth, you can almost always get the same price booking directly through the airline. It literally just takes a phone call

 

[MillauFr]

Does Expedia ever offer prices lower than booking directly with an airline? I know with hotels I have found they did offer lower prices for some Las Vegas hotels than booking direct. I guess they were buying up blocks of rooms at a discount and passing the savings along. I have never heard them doing this for airlines.

 

[JimMIA]

As a last resort, dispute the charges through your credit card company.

 

[SteveH]

^^^ This! It's one of the quickest ways to get any business to immediatly respond to you. You might not win but the business will respond, but I say use this as a last resort.

 

[JimMIA]

^^^ This! It's one of the quickest ways to get any business to immediatly respond to you. You might not win but the business will respond, but I say use this as a last resort.

Right. You have to understand that it is up to the merchant you purchased from whether you get a refund or not. The credit card does not make that decision unless it's a simple case of merchandise not ever received.

But the credit card dispute in itself is no guarantee of a good outcome. We had a terrible experience with a Kaplan SAT prep course last year and disputed it with Citibank. Citibank was perfect, but it wasn't their decision. Kaplan stalled us until the course was completed and then denied the refund. We lost $700.

So, bottom line, hope you're dealing with a reputable company because they have the have the final say.

OP, you need to go back to your original purchase docs from Expedia and see whether the broker was disclosed -- and if so, what the fine print says about refunds. Expedia itself is a very reputable company and we've had good experiences with them for many years. But if the final decision is not theirs to make...

 

[rwdavis2]

Never book third party air! Sorry for your experience.

Tis. It's rarely, if ever, a good idea to book air fare with a third party. Expedia is one of the worst.

 

[MikeOhio]

Packages are often significantly cheaper when booking hotel and air together instead of direct, especially for international travel. But it’s definitely a risk if there are problems.

 

[AngiTN]

In all honesty I will never understand why anyone books airfare though one of these resell sites. It is never. Ever. A good move. OP mentioned something about multi city but you can do that on your own easily

I'm really sorry to hear that OP had issues but I'm not one bit surprised

Hopefully their warning among with every other one that is ever posted will stop others from doing this

 

[Lewisc]

1. Consolidator fares offered by some travel agencies, including online TA, can't generally be booked on airlines websites. They can offer savings in exchange for greater restrictions. Consolidator fares are frequently available for international bookings. The savings can be meaningful if you're booking routes which aren't competitive.
2. It's not clear from the OP. Did your original flights operate as scheduled? In other words were you forced to make changes or did you change your flight to avoid possible issues?
3. Your case with Expedia, and Expedia vendor, is stronger if your original flights didn't operate.
4. A company is entitled to charge fees over and above fees charged by the airline. The airline would have waived the fee if you had booked direct. The airline might (or might not) extend the same courtesy to Hahn. You should attempt to determine if Hahn was made whole. If so I'd try to have the fee waived or reduced. Prehaps pay a flat $200 and not $200 per passenger.
5. Obviously re-read the fine print. My guess is the fine print will back Expedia. Expedia appears to be passing along a fee charged by a supplier. I'd be very surprised if this isn't covered by the fine print.
6. Not sure if this is covered by travel insurance. Check if you purchased travel insurance. See if your credit card offers coverage.
7. If nothing else works ask Expedia to waive the fee, even if Expedia has to absorb the charge, for goodwill.
8. I doubt the Expedia employees answer calls in a call center can do much. You might want to send a certified letter to corporate.
9. I agree with the PP, savings obtained by booking air through third party booking sites is rarely worth it.

Look at what you paid. Look at what a regular fare would have cost. Did you get a good deal, even if you have to pay the full $200? Some consolidator fares could be use it or lose it.

 

[_19disnA]

3rd party airline websites are best used to do price comparisons between different airlines. Mostly they are just gathering data from airline websites to make it easier to view. Unless they offer a lower fare, you are better off booking directly with the airline.

 

[Alesia]

3rd party airline websites are best used to do price comparisons between different airlines. Mostly they are just gathering data from airline websites to make it easier to view. Unless they offer a lower fare, you are better off booking directly with the airline.

I recommend Google flights or kayak. They give you the actual price and link directly to the airline for purchase.

 

[seashoreCM]

Short and parrotted answer: Look on Expedia. Book directly with the airline, etc.
Warning: Stop reading here if you dislike gobs of verbosity.

Was it really necessary to rebook?
If parts of your vacation e.g. hotel room disappear making other parts in vain then insurance is needed and used to cover monetary losses. In general, if most flights in and out of Orlando (including yours) are wiped out due to a hurricane or other lengthy problem in or near Orlando (not cancellations due to a problem in or near your home city) Disney will cancel your resort package at your request without penalty. The refund can be applied to a new vacation but at current prices. You might get a price break if the new vacation had a sale price that just ended or had a sale price with a limited number of allowable bookings that was just exceeded.

I guess they were buying up blocks of rooms at a discount and passing the savings along.

Many third party travel agencies do this; I do not need to comment on Expedia here yet. But the important point is, if the item (hotel room, etc.) should become unavailable or unsuitable then the agency wants to substitute something else within the block purchased at a discount. If the customer wants something else then the agency would have to "go outside the box" and get it possibly at a higher price to it. And also have to take more effort to finish selling the block because this customer took nothing from the block. Agencies dislike this.

As a last resort, dispute the charges through your credit card company.

I added the bolding. It is important to deal directly with the seller or merchant or provider directly first, in writing preferably using snail mail. But do not delay; you must start the dispute of charges within the time limit provided in your credit card or whatever rules.

{E*******} itself is a very reputable company and we've had good experiences with them for many years. But if the final decision is not theirs to make...

The final decision is too theirs to make and they might or might not make the "right" decision. That in turn establishes their reputation (reputability?) which in turn may or may not render the quotation excerpt immediately above false.

Airline flight schedule changes are a common problem. I personally consider that connection time and total trip time are arguable points as well as departure time and arrival time, and within the scope of free reselection of flights witin the new schedule by the customer following a schedule change. It does not make sense for the customer to lose his early boarding or seat or even the connecting flight itself because the agency wants to hold the customer to flights within the agency's bulk block or whatever or because the airport says a connection time of X minutes is sufficient.

However the final point is that if a dispute cannot be settled in your living room over the phone or in the cavernous room where passengers wait to board a plane or in the cylindrical room within the plane fuselage or in the board room with company officials looking over a credit card dispute then it may be necessary for the dispute to be settled in a usually dark paneled room with a podium up front behind which there is a person in a black robe holding a wood hammer.

 

[Lewisc]

I googled hahn. It looks like they allow TAs to piece together flight segments on one ticket. It looks like they wont charge the fee BUT if you changed a segment which wasn't subject to an airline waiver you might have issues.

 

[bookbabe626]

OP, you need to go back to your original purchase docs from Expedia and see whether the broker was disclosed -- and if so, what the fine print says about refunds. Expedia itself is a very reputable company and we've had good experiences with them for many years. But if the final decision is not theirs to make...

The broker was NOT disclosed, thus this post. Had a broker been disclosed, we never would have booked with Expedia.

We normally book all vacations direct with the hotels/airlines, and never use even a travel agency. This time, the price differential was just so big, as our preferred airline is really pricey for single leg flights, and we needed to combine flights with an additional airline to make the trip work.

The big thing I wanted to point out is the broker-owned tickets that weren’t disclosed until you need to make a change, and then the fact that both the airline and Expedia were willing to make any changes we wanted, but the broker was incommunicado so they couldn’t without the broker’s permission.

 

[Lewisc]

From Hahns website

You need to contact the travel agency or booking portal where your ticket was purchased. Hahn Air does not change itineraries, reissue ticket or process any refunds. Your travel/online agent will process the rebooking/refund according fare rules.

 

[JimMIA]

Consolidator fares offered by some travel agencies, including online TA, can't generally be booked on airlines websites.

I have only my own experience to go by, but my experience is the opposite. In booking dozens of flights over many years, I have NEVER found two things:

1. I have never had one single instance where I could not get the same fare shown by a site like Expedia, Kayak, etc.
2. I have never had one single instance where I couldn't get better flight options...at the same price quoted by the travel site. Travel site fares are for one itinerary, no changes. The airline sites offer multiple time and connection options for the same city pairs at the same price as the travel site -- or at least that has always been my experience.

 

[bookbabe626]

We initiated the change to go down early when Dorian was due to hit on our travel day and the airlines posted the travel advisories. We rebooked other flights after the first conversation with Expedia, since we had a non-Disney commitment we couldn’t miss if our original flights were cancelled. Four days later, when we were already down at Disney and still trying to get this resolved, and Dorian switched paths, the advisory was lifted so they’re claiming technically there was no advisory, and they still couldn’t get an answer from Hahn.

They were international flights (Canada to the US to Cayman and back to Canada) which would have been 3x the price booked separately direct with the airlines. Even with the rebooking fees, we’re still ahead, so no worries that way, and we’re not needing to fight the charges with our credit card or anything like that.

It’s the undisclosed broker angle that threw us. Nowhere is it mentioned in any of the fine print. Only the airlines are mentioned. That part was really frustrating, and I figured worth a warning here.

 

[bookbabe626]

From Hahns website

You need to contact the travel agency or booking portal where your ticket was purchased. Hahn Air does not change itineraries, reissue ticket or process any refunds. Your travel/online agent will process the rebooking/refund according fare rules.

Sadly, Expedia claims they can’t make a change without Hahn’s permission since they ‘owned’ the tickets, and they weren’t answering emails. A huge game of “he said, she said” that went on for four days, and we still don’t really have a definitive answer.