My Expedia phone call adventure

[Anonymous]

I booked a round trip ticket with Expedia from DCA to Providence.

This morning I called to inquire about adjusting the departure time of the return flight (to leave earlier). I'm told there is a $200 change fee, I say ok that's too much. Hang up, go about my business. Then I remember I purchased vacation insurance so I call back.

The operator confirms yes, I am allowed to change the flight without a penalty. OK, so they should have mentioned that, but ok. Let's change the flight.

My flight left at 11 and I want to leave at 6 am. The original ticket (return portion) was $178. I see the 6 am flight is $190. So I ask to change to the 6 am flight. The operator tells me that while buying a new ticket would be $190, changing my ticket will be $579.

I say, "I thought you are covering the change fee" and she says, "this is not the change fee. This is the fare for the ticket if you change the ticket"
I say, "that makes no sense. The difference in fare is $12. Why are you telling me rebooking this ticket is $579? How is that not a change fee?"

I say, "OK, what if I just cancel the return ticket?" (since I have this insurance, I get a credit, and I can just book my own return for $190)
She says (each answer follows 10 minutes of looking things up): "Then you will get a credit for $178 for the return portion of your ticket which you can use for up to one year"

So I say, "OK, well what I want to do is cancel the return ticket and use my voucher now to book a new return ticket" (I also say, "You know, this should have been mentioned to me as the option for rebooking the ticket...obviously if I can avoid paying $400 more to rebook a ticket by just canceling and then using the voucher, I would want to know about that")

She says she has canceled my return ticket. Now we go to book my new return ticket with my credit voucher. Then she discovers she canceled my whole ticket so she needs to rebook everything. I start getting nervous because I want to make sure that the fare is not going to go up. I keep asking her to check on a separate system what a round trip ticket will be BEFORE she cancels the entire ticket.

She begins to look for tickets. I am telling her my flight out was fine -- left at 4:30 pm. I just wanted to come back on the 6 am flight. I go through about 30 minutes of her checking back with me. She has everything confused and is telling me she is booking my flight TO providence at 6 am. I keep having to correct her and tell her the flights.

Finally, after a half hour, she informs me that my new round trip ticket will cost $579. She will apply my $178 voucher to it but now I owe an additional $401.

I am currently on hold with the supervisor.

[Anonymous]

Always book directly with the airline. I know that's not comforting now, but maybe it will help someone else. With these middle men, they are incentivized to pass your problem on.

[Anonymous]

Expedia can be helpful or really suck
Last yr I booked tickets to South Africa, and never got a confirmation when I clicked book now. I waited an hour and didn't see any confirmation in my account or email. So I went through the process again, and I got my usual confirmation
Next day, I see that I have 2 sets of tickets, so I hit cancel reservation on one
Next day I see everything is cancelled, and after lots of time on the phone, Expedia refuses to reinstate my booking, I have to pay nearly $500 more for the new set of tix.
Expedia is ONLY useful if booking a package, IMO, so if your flight doesn't go, your hotel isn't charged out

[Anonymous]

So sorry, OP. I, too, now avoid booking on Expedia or other sites because of things like this. I try to go directly to the airline so they can't just pass the buck around and around. I hope you get this resolved for far less than $400.

[Anonymous]

i agree with pp's...book through the airline. I learned that the hard way a few years ago. Whatever chump change you're saving on a third party website isn't worth it at all. Hope this is resolved for you!

[Anonymous]

Canceling the return portion of a r/t ticket before you have flown the outbound always cancels the entire itinerary. You should have waited until you already had flown the first segment if that's what you wanted to do. The higher fare quotevwas because the agent was repricing the entire itinerary when you asked for the change (before flying the outbound) and the outbound now is higher. That's why you're getting the same quote when you try to rebook. It might be confusing, but those are standard airline rules. If you think you will change the return before you fly, then you should book two one-ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Canceling the return portion of a r/t ticket before you have flown the outbound always cancels the entire itinerary. You should have waited until you already had flown the first segment if that's what you wanted to do. The higher fare quotevwas because the agent was repricing the entire itinerary when you asked for the change (before flying the outbound) and the outbound now is higher. That's why you're getting the same quote when you try to rebook. It might be confusing, but those are standard airline rules. If you think you will change the return before you fly, then you should book two one-ways.

Hi. Well, I guess I expect the agent to tell me what will happen. SHE was the one who said I could cancel just the return ticket and get a voucher for $178. And SHE was the one who also saw a one way ticket was $190.

Anyway, after 2 hours they rebooked everything and gave me the earlier flight without any fee. The supervisor was very apologetic. So, ultimately, I feel they tried to resolve the mistake they made But lesson learned. I will not book through Expedia again. (and yes, PP, I will now know to cancel the return portion only after I have flown the first leg).

[Anonymous]

I have had similar experiences with both Expedia and Orbitz. Spent 2 hours on the phone with Orbitz recently after they changed my flight for the 4th time and only informed me of two of the changes. My original departure time had gotten 2 hours earlier and layover 2 hours longer so called to complain. Most of my on hold time was while they contacted the airline to see if they would make the change. Much easier to book directly but in this case I was trying to save some $$ on an expensive holiday flight. In the end, as others have said, not worth it.

But I did get them to change me to a completely different flight that leaves later than my original flight (but still had a 2 hour layover). So sort of a win?

[Anonymous]

OP again. Well, there is no record of my rebooked flight. I am supposed to leave today, and there is no record that this supervisor rebooked my flights. It is not listed in my account, and no email confirmation was received. So I called, and here I am again on hold with Expedia, who do not see any record of a new flight.

Well, this certainly was a hard lesson learned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i agree with pp's...book through the airline.

+1

Yep. I learned the hard way too. Expedia can be a hassle with hotels, too.

[Anonymous]

I don't know anyone who uses Expedia. What's the advantage of that?

[Anonymous]

OP did you get a flight?

[Anonymous]

Aaargh.

Change it all back to what it was before, at the original price. If they can't do that, shame them all on social media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aaargh.

Change it all back to what it was before, at the original price. If they can't do that, shame them all on social media.

Oops didn't see you were supposed to leave today.
Tell us how it went down, OP. What a shitshow.

[Anonymous]

OK, here I am again. I am in Providence, so indeed I made the flight!

Long story short, after an hour on the phone with the agent, I suggested that this was actually a horrible ordeal, and the difference in price between the original ticket and the flight that left earlier was all of $12, which to me didn't seem enough to justify all the pain and suffering I have had to go through.

SOOO, they gave me a $200 voucher to make up for all the trouble.

This was not a fun experience, but I will always give a company another try if they have made an honest effort to keep my business. I feel like with that voucher, Expedia took accountability for their error. Of course I have to use Expedia again to use the voucher! But I am satisfied that they have tried to make up for their error.

Good night all! Early flight tomorrow!