Expedia Flight Bookings Consumer Reviews - Page 2

I first discovered and started using Expedia in 2009. I used to go to a local travel agency for all my flights and hotel reservations but I much preferred being able to see all my options laid out for me and doing the looking myself. My family and I booked several round trips going to Florida, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, China, and Taiwan.

In a year my cousins would travel to Canada two-three times and to China at least once so I would say that my family and I were pretty frequent users of Expedia. We'd book the flight and hotel, receive confirmation e-mails and when the time came we would check in using our passport.

My cousins came to visit me in Canada in the winter of 2011 (December) but had to cut their trip short because of a family emergency in China. We immediately called Expedia and got them on the next flight back to Los Angeles. They knew they would probably be gone for a while this time so they had to return home to pack and take care of some things first. We made flight reservations to China leaving in two days. The payment went through and as per usual, we received e-mails confirming that we made reservations.

However, when they arrived at the LAX airport and tried to check-in they were informed that there were no such reservations. They were puzzled but thought it was probably a misunderstanding. I quickly called Expedia and explained the situation to their Customer Service agents.

After asking us to speak to the people at the airline counter and putting us on hold several times they finally informed me that Expedia never actually secured seats for my cousins. I did not understand how that could be possible and they explained that there was most likely a communication error between them and the airline so they weren't able to reserve our seats. We were panicking at this point.

I was upset and flustered and asked the agent what they could do for us to remedy the situation and she said to ask to speak to an individual at the counters by the name of ** because that individual understood our situation and would do their best to help us. I thanked the agent for her help and asked for her name. Then I went to look for said person.

There was no such person working there. I called Expedia again, explained the situation and asked if I could speak to ** who had previously helped me before. They told me that they could not transfer calls and this agent said that they were unable to help me with the predicament (that they put me in). I asked to speak to a supervisor/manager and was put on hold.

When the supervisor picked up he told me that he could assist us in booking another flight leaving in the next day or two. Now this is a family emergency and we needed to get on that plane or the next plane out of there. He told us there was nothing they could do and that it was our fault because even though they had sent us confirmation e-mails they did not ever e-mailed us the e-ticket numbers so we should have called to inquire about it rather than assume that we had seats.

Aside from being no help whatsoever he basically told me that it was my fault. I asked for his name and he gave me his first name and refused to give me any further information. We ended the call and spoke to the airline again and luckily were able to get a spot on a flight leaving in a few hours (at a steeper price than our original ticket).

I'm generally not a person to hold a grudge and am pretty silent about my complaints but this infuriated me so much that I still remember the experience to this day. Since then we have traveled to Europe, Hawaii, Asia (a few times) and within North America a few times too and if I could help it I would not book with Expedia because they're unreliable and irresponsible. I'm finally sharing this with everyone out there. Please be aware and triple check everything if you ever decide to book with Expedia because they honestly don't give a rats ass about their customers.

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON -- I booked a trip to Brazil for myself and my wife 3 months prior to departure. 6 days prior to departure, I received a phone call from Expedia saying that the airline had made a schedule change, and Expedia couldn't do anything about it but cancel my flight with a full refund and try to help me rebook.

Working with them, I cancelled my existing flight and arranged a new flight (costing $600 more) that more or less met our needs. Luckily we had the flexibility to stay an extra day in Brazil, although this was not ideal. I was upset about this turn of events, but Expedia passed the buck and said if I wanted to call (US AIRLINE HERE) directly with a complaint, they may do something about the additional fare.

When I did call the airline, they said that the schedule change had been sent to Expedia 1 and a half months earlier and therefore the fault lie with Expedia. They also said that they get lots of angry calls from Expedia customers, and overall they feel like if you want good customer service from the airline, you should book with the Airline. (After this experience, I tend to agree).

So I called Expedia back and asked about this schedule change. Did they really sit on it for 1 and half months before calling me only to cancel my flight? It turns out yes, and they weren't culpable because they sent me a *single* e-mail at the time of the schedule change which asked me to call them, and therefore it was my fault that the schedule change didn't occur.

I could go into detail into why this email got overlooked at the time (I did call Expedia about a schedule change in the time frame and thought there was a single schedule change where there were two), but I don't think it this is important. More important, in my opinion, are the following points:

1. Expedia made no effort to contact me after the original single e-mail, over the course of 1.5 months, about this issue. I think this is unacceptable and irresponsible for a company that claims to be in the business of arranging travel.

2. Expedia sent me on a wild goose chase to contact the Airline, when they could have informed me right away that this schedule change came in a month and a half earlier and nothing was done about it.

3. When dealing with customer service, I was hung up on once. I was told they would call me back after looking into it once (they never did). It took me repeated attempts to finally reached someone who told me that they understood what had happened, and no they didn't take any responsibility and could do nothing for me.

Did I have zero culpability in this situation? No. This tempers my anger with Expedia a bit. At the same time, I feel that their policy in this regard is very odd and irresponsible. It seems to be a policy that holds the customer in very low regard. I doubt that I am the first or last customer to have a last minute surprise.

Is it right that the travel agency charge you with a “reschedule fee” when your flight is canceled and you have to reschedule your flight because you can't make the time of new flight? Is it right to hold up the “good” flights and only release crappy flights with very late/early/sleepover in the airport flights to customers who reschedule flights? Is it right to reject the customer's request to cancel a flight leg? If your answers are “NO,” read on.

I am a student in Texas A&M University and will attend an academic conference in Boise, ID in October 2009. I have been ordering tickets for my personal trips with Expedia for a couple years so I still trust their service this time. In the first place, I booked my flight to leave College Station, TX on October 4 and return on October 9. The outbound flight is basically following the order of “College Station, TX – Houston, TX – Boise, ID” and the return flight is in the reversed order.

Four days later, I received an automatic email, telling me that my flight is canceled by Continental and a new schedule is provided in the email. I wasn't given a chance to reject or accept the new flight schedule. I scrutinized my new schedule and found out that my return flight (Boise, ID – Houston, TX – College Station, TX) was put forward to depart in 11:35 AM in Boise, almost four hours earlier than my original plan (3:04 PM) and I definitely cannot make it.

I called their customer service to reschedule my flight. I told them clearly what has happened. The first representative told me that she needs to call Continental to confirm my information and will call me back. I waited for a whole day and no one called. I called again. This time Expedia insisted that I have to pay the reschedule fee of $150, or they cannot reschedule the flight for me. It is totally not right because the whole situation is caused by the airline company. But finally I succumbed and agreed to pay the reschedule fee.

The interesting part follows. When I asked to choose a flight I saw on their website, I was told that I am not allowed to choose that flight. The only flight that is available to me is in a bad time: I will fly to Houston at late night and the final leg (Houston – College Station) is in the next morning. I asked if I can cancel my final leg since no one likes to sleep over in the airport. My request was rejected.

In the end, I lost $150 for no reason and was put in a flight with worst schedule. I have to spend another $30 to take bus from Houston to College Station on that night because like I said, no one wants to sleep in the airport. No compensation of any kind is provided by Expedia.

I sent them a complaint letter, and this is their response: “…We are more than willing to assist our customers in any way commercially possible. We, at Expedia, are dedicated to providing knowledgeable service and support to our customers. But we are constrained by the policies of the vendors whose services we provide on our website. When a flight itinerary or hotel itinerary is purchased on Expedia, we act as the agent between the client and the vendor. Any transactions are governed by the rules and restrictions put in place by the vendor providing the service.”

Even though they have their own “secret rules” with vendors, what about consumer rights? This is the worst service I have ever experienced. If anyone is interested, I have kept all correspondences for future references.

Expedia agent misspelled name on airline ticket and the company does is stonewalling in making the change. Wants me to pay for the airline company to reissue the ticket at a cost of 300.00 per transaction. A total cost of 900.00. On hold for nearly 3 hours and they would not resolve the issue. Based on this experience I would not book with them again.

I have spoken with the Expedia customer service twice in the past 2 days. The first day I was on the line for 63 minutes. The second day, which is today, I have been on hold for 48 minutes, and I am not certain that this will be resolved today. Their stall tactics and passive aggressive nature is quite frustrating, but I have chosen to look at it as a gift of patience. I will never reserve another flight through this airline service.

Wedding plans changed so I had to change two flight days and times - same airlines. Shouldn't be a challenge for Expedia, right? 3 phone calls, repeatedly put on hold for long waits, 2 disconnections, 2 agents, 3 supervisors, 5 different stories and never told the same change/cancellation fees. I had no idea who was telling the truth. I gave up. I'll never use them again.

NANAIMO -- I just got off the phone with Expedia trying to cancel a ticket. It was well within the 24 hrs. but I was informed that it had to be in the same calendar day (not what I had read from people on the net that had cancelled). I bought the ticket last night before 9:00 and I called them back just before 9:00. They informed me their 'system' was 'down' and I should call back in an hour which I did.

Their system was still down just before 10:00. I was told to call back in an hour at which time the system was still down so I called back until I got hold of someone and the system was finally working. I thought I would l just change the ticket but they wanted 200.00- this was midnight so I decided to cancel the ticket in the morning only to find that the 24hr. cancellation period had expired because it is not really a 24 hr. but a calendar day period (when the calendar date changes you are out of luck so never book with them in the evening).

So while their system was not working and I was waiting, my 'grace' period had passed. When I explained this to the individual they were not willing to make any kind of concession and when I asked to speak to the manager I was told that unless it concerned something not covered in their policy I could not speak to the manager.

What I wound up getting was a 200.00 penalty and a credit for the balance although they put a different spin on it - I was getting a full refund but would have to pay 200.00 to use it. I have spent three or four hours working on this as well. The girl I spoke to had a strong accent and seemed to struggle when reasoning which probably didn't help either.

I recently booked a work trip through Expedia using their "Flight, Car, Hotel" package grouping. BIG MISTAKE!!! At the time of booking I did not receive a price breakdown as expected (i.e. X costs for flight, car and room rate). I emailed Expedia to inquire about this (as I need a detailed breakdown for reimbursement purposes) and was told I would have to take that up with the vendors used. I then contacted the hotel and was told that they cannot provide that information because I actually paid Expedia. This back and forth went on for 2 weeks prior to my trip. Every time I asked Expedia for this information they just referred me back to the hotel.

Fast forward to checkout. I did not receive an itemized bill from the hotel, so I requested one from the front desk. After some back and forth, I was told there was nothing they could do because, again, I had actually paid Expedia for this trip - not the hotel. I contacted Expedia for some type of resolution. After approximately 10 minutes on hold I was connected to a very helpful and friendly representative. She immediately recognized the ongoing issue I had been having and apologized (unexpected, but not enough to get me to EVER use them again). After another 10 minutes she was able to provide me a breakdown.

Since when are receipts reflected how much you paid for something state secrets? I did not realize that Expedia dealt with classified information. All I wanted to know was my room rate and car rental amount. I don't care if Expedia has a rate that is $500 better than another site, I will pay more to avoid the headache of dealing with them. P.S. Their fabulous package deal ended up costing me about $250 more than if I had booked each item separately. Nice huh?

DOVER, DELAWARE -- My father passed away on 11/15/2011. I book my ticket through Expedia going from JFK dt 11/16/2011 to Bombay and coming back on 11/27/2011. When I cancel my return flight due to funeral process Gulf Air charge me $197.00 Try to call from Bombay to Expedia 1800 number have to wait more than 30/40 minutes.

No one answer, try to talk to Gulf Air personnel in their office. They don't want to listen to any thing in Bombay office. If have to change ticket date they will just charge. Secondly from JFK to London flight we specially order Indian non veg food but in American airline they don't had veg food at all. Our total trip travel time was 30 hrs from JFK to London-Bahrain-Bombay.

Same thing with Gulf Air too. Don't know what kind of food they were giving. But in short when we complain the same to Gulf Air they said they carry only this food? And airline don't provide any extra water for waiting period of more than 4 hrs. They only provide any food if hold is for more than 12 hrs. So my friend, brother and sister please make sure before booking through Expedia please check that they give right contact info and tel no in case of problem like me what happened.

Also when I came back I lost my baggage. Till now have not received the same call Expedia to complain for the same and the representative told me they can't do anything about this issue is with airline. Have to talk to them. I came back to USA on Sat 12/03/2011. Lodge complain to American airline. Call them on 12/04/2011.

The operator told me that I am supposed to come in Air France where ticket was booked for AA. And surprising that I had 2 bags and I got 1 at the time of arrival and 2 one is still missing. The funny thing is operator don't look into any problem and just without looking any problem give answer which has no value. Don't know how airline company appoint this kind of staff.

Recently, I had booked a flight through Expedia for the day that Hurricane Irene was predicted to hit my departure airport. As soon as the airline I was on announced that they would change flight schedules free of charge, I called Expedia to change my flight. I was on hold for OVER 2 HOURS. When I finally reached an agent, he was very nice, but could not speak understandable English. Despite having to repeat myself (and ask him to repeat himself) over and over, we finally established that I needed to change my flight. I asked for a flight a day earlier than the one I had booked.

I was on hold for 20 minutes while he looked for a flight and he came back on to offer me one later on the same day I had booked. I explained again and even told him flight numbers I was interested in. He put me on hold repeatedly for 10 or 20 minutes at a time and never returned with any useful information. He 'could not tell' if there was room on several flights. By this time it had been more than three hours since I had placed the call. My cell phone was running out of batteries. He asked if an agent could call me back later. When I complained and said my phone was running out of batteries, he said he would connect me to a manager immediately.

I held for more than 35 more minutes until my phone ran out of batteries. I purchased a car charger and a manager did eventually call me back. He said that there were no flights available to which I could change and said they would credit the purchase price of my flight. I said I also had a return flight I needed credited back. He told me that was not possible since it was on a different airline than the first leg of my trip. This was not clear at all when I booked my flight. When I complained, he snidely said "Well, you booked the flight. What did you expect?"

When I expressed that my biggest frustration was Expedia's poor customer service and long wait time to speak with a representative, he said "Well it's not our fault there's a hurricane you know." I said "I'm not upset about the hurricane. I'm upset about your customer service," with which he continued to argue that the hurricane was not their fault. When I stated my complaint once again and said "Let's be clear, I'm upset with your service, not about the weather," he ended the call by saying "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Aside from unclear policies, Expedia's customer service is absolutely unacceptable. I will NEVER use them again and will advise everyone else I know to avoid Expedia.