Expedia warning

[Lewisc]

Some of the posters are offering advice which, in general, is correct but not always. Posters on DIS generally book domestic flights to Orlando. Those flights can, and probably should, be booked directly on the airline's website.
Sites like Kayak and Google flights list some combinations which can't be easily booked, and sometimes can't be booked on an airline's site. Sometimes they list consolidator fares. Sometimes they list one way fares on different airlines which can only booked R/T through a third party site. This is rare with domestic flights but not with international. I wouldn't do it unless the savings were large. Different people view savings differently. Saving a few dollars is enough for some.
I googled Hahn. Hahn isn't a broker or travel agency. Kahn only sells B2B, business to business. Kahn is a (charter) airline. They have ticketing agreements with many partner airlines. They are able to issue multi city, multi airline iteinearies on one ticket. All ticketing is done via the TA. Again some of the iteniaries listed on sites like Kayak and Google Flights can only be booked through third parties.

to the OP This is the link to Hahn's webiste regarding changes.
https://www.hahnair.com/en/faq#richtext_2
The link got parsed. Indicate you're a passenger, go to the FAQ section on changes. Hahn defers to airline and TA (Expedia) policies.
I have no doubt the Expedia customer service rep has no idea how to change such a ticket. As long as each segment you changed is covered by the airline's waiver policy you should be OK. I'd be comfortable using the verbiage on the website I posted as the basis for a credit card charge back, if necessary.

Airfare from cities like NY to Orlando is very compettive. I'm not so sure air from Montreal is a competitvie. Some posters in Canada drive to US airports in Buffalo and Albany. It's possible the booking made by the OP resulted in real savings.

 

[JimMIA]

Some of the posters are offering advice which, in general, is correct but not always. Posters on DIS generally book domestic flights to Orlando.

Yes, that is my situation -- all domestic flights.

 

[EveDallas]

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.

This is why I only book through the airline.

 

[Lewisc]

Yes, that is my situation -- all domestic flights.

Occasionally there will be real savings using consolidator fares domestically. TA like Expedia are able to include discounted airfare as part of a package. Occasionally a poster will book such an offer including a throw away hotel room. A cheap 1* hotel. Total is less then booking air on the airlines site. Agreed for domestic flights this isn't common.

Not as rare with international flights. Online TAs are sometimes able to book a different airline for departure and arrival at the round trip fare. Booking directly on the airlines site might require a R/T purchase from the same airline. OP already said booking direct would have cost 3X the price. I suspect discounted airfare isn't as available in Montreal as it is in the major cities in the US.

OP Your dispute is with Expedia. Print out the section from Hahn's site. It's not your fault the Expedia CSR, outsourced?, doesn't understand how your tickets work.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Did you book with a credit card that has travel insurance as a benefit. If so go through the CC company for help

 

[bookbabe626]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, but the money isn’t a big deal at this point. We’re still ahead price-wise, even with the rebooking fees. I just wanted to give people a heads’ up on the non-disclosed third (fourth?) party ownership of Expedia airline tickets. That’s the part that was a complete surprise to us, and that Hahn Air company wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the fine print.

 

[ironz]

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.

Appreciate the post-- my nephew had similar problems with a flight cancellation like this (overseas travel) last year.

Question about the bolded, and it may well have not made a difference, but for me to learn: Did you try the "multi-city" booking as opposed to 3 one-way flights? I don't know if airlines cut you a little break in the fare when you book that way. It's a feature on airline pages I don't have to use too often, but it sometimes is not obvious to try to price that way.

 

[bookbabe626]

Appreciate the post-- my nephew had similar problems with a flight cancellation like this (overseas travel) last year.

Question about the bolded, and it may well have not made a difference, but for me to learn: Did you try the "multi-city" booking as opposed to 3 one-way flights? I don't know if airlines cut you a little break in the fare when you book that way. It's a feature on airline pages I don't have to use too often, but it sometimes is not obvious to try to price that way.

Two initially, then three different airlines to get the dates/times/destinations we needed, so not an option unfortunately.

 

[UmmGooD]

With international travel it is often easy to get a much cheaper ticket if you DON'T go through the airline website. Especially if you have more than a simple round trip ticket. I do multi-leg international travel for my work 3 or 4 times a year and a good travel agent can get the same flights 1 or 2k less than what an airline like British Air or Lufthansa can provide. They have more control over ticket classes etc... than the actual airline site will show. For example I was getting $5k for tickets to Europe from BA's website and a TA was able to get it down to $2400. Same flights, same class of travel, same days... Booking international travel is a different ball game than US domestic travel.

 

[Darcy03231]

We won't even book hotel rooms through Expedia. We cruised out of San Juan four weeks after Hurricane Maria. There were people wandering the streets carrying their luggage because they booked their hotels through Expedia and no one told them that (1) the hotel had been severely damaged and wasn't operating or (2) their reservation had been cancelled because the hotel was housing FEMA workers. I booked my hotel directly and had 5 cancel on me. Luckily, the Comfort Inn came through.

 

[Lewisc]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, but the money isn’t a big deal at this point. We’re still ahead price-wise, even with the rebooking fees. I just wanted to give people a heads’ up on the non-disclosed third (fourth?) party ownership of Expedia airline tickets. That’s the part that was a complete surprise to us, and that Hahn Air company wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the fine print.

Nor was there any reason to have listed Hahn, absent any legal requirements. Earlier in this thread I posted a reference to Hahn's website. Expedia was responsible for making any requested changes, subject to fare rules. Hahn has nothing to do with flight changes. As such, I'll speculate, Hahn simply ignored Expedia's emails.

JMO, the OPs real point....customer service, particularly when outsourced, can be abysmal. Companies like Expedia have no idea what to do when there are issues. I wonder if the OP would have gotten further with Expedia if they had referenced the appropriate section in Hahn's website. It shouldn't be out job to education CSR.

I still think the OP should reference Hahn's website and dispute.

 

[JediTev]

I haven't flown international since I came back from being stationed in Germany in '91, but maybe you could try booking two separate trips, one from Canada to the US, and then US to the Caymans. I mean it's what I would try to come up with a cheaper deal.

I prefer Priceline myself, but I will usually get the price and then go the airline. It's what I did for my Honeymoon last year and lucked out it was Untied (I got another 5% discount from Veteran's Advantage). But Priceline cna give you last minute deals. I got RT tickets for myself when I was dating my wife for $75 between LAS and SFO. I don't trust Expidia and refuse to use them. I had to cancel a flight and they wanted to charge me $75, called the airline and they did it for free. Just my experience.

Good luck on getting your refund.

 

[Polydweller]

Actually, and it is somewhat hidden, but Hahn Air is shown as the discount air flight broker on the Expedia.ca site. It would probably meet minimum standards for legal disclosure. And, you are booking directly with Hahn not Expedia so it is Hahn’s issue.

But your warning is a good warning and Expedia should be much clearer about this. An additional heads up for those in Quebec. In Quebec you aren’t working with Expedia at all but Travel East Holidays who represent them in Quebec. With Expedia you can very likely be working with a third party and Expedia is just a sales rep.

 

[Hikergirl]

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

Because it's cheap (when combining hotel too) and there aren't always problems.