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Expedia.com cost me an international flight and blamed it on the airline.
I used Expedia's to book a round trip second honeymoon destination to Australia for my wife and I in December 2016. The flight was through Virginia Australia (handled domestically through Delta). Our entire trip was planned from there (rental car, hotels, airbnb, snorkel packaging). The ticket for my wife was incidentally booked under her legal married name, rather than her maiden name as reflected on her passport. I understand how this would not allow her to fly internationally without change, and I understand that there can be fees involved to address such a change. At the Delta desk on the day of our flight, we were told that to change her name, it would have to be through your service since the ticket was booked first party. Delta assured me this would be a simple, if not standard, change.
I called Expedia's customer service representative and while there was a quick understanding over the change needed to allow us to honor our flight deal, I was put on hold while they worked to make the name change happen. It took over two hours of standing in an airport terminal with the customer service representative popping in every 40 minutes or so to tell me that they were now on hold with Virginia Australia. Your customer service representative sounded flustered and unprepared for the task at hand. Ultimately, she told us that the change could not be processed and we would lose out on the ticket and be unable to fly, effecting cancelling this trip for us. I cannot begin to describe for you the disappointment over your customer service representative's ability to adequately handle this challenge and save our trip. The blame game quickly started -- it's Virginia Australia's policies. I was told that the change couldn't be processed in time (we were three hours early from our first flight domestic; nearly 8 from our international leg with V. Aus). I asked how long before the flight could the change have been processed, and your customer service representative had no answer for me, further clouding the waters.
Standing at the Delta desk with the minutes ticking away, I arranged separate travel for my wife. She would now fly through Dubai, arrive over 12 hours later than me, and at the cost of over two thousand dollars for a last minute ticket.
The thing is -- we actually did get to Australia together at great cost and stress. In person, we went to the Virgin Australia desk at the airport and explained the situation to see if, at the very least, they could adjust my wife's name on her return ticket so we could travel return together. Here is where I got two diverging answers. In person, I was told that having booked through Expedia's third party service, Expedia should (and could) make the change to the ticket themselves. That's quite different from my time with their customer service representative, where I was told it was V. Aus policies keeping the change from happening. Now, this could have been more of the blame game and the deferring I encountered on your end (visions of two hour hold time come rushing back) except for one single difference -- the helpful V. Aus representative then said that if Expedia didn't make the change, that they could then do it for a fee of $200 (due to it being an international flight). The villain they were painted out to be with staunch and immovable policies had but a price -- and a far more reasonable solution than having to get a second ticket at over two grand and missing out on entire day together.
You see, our ticket could have been saved. There's no question of that now. I even asked how early in advance the ticket could be changed (as your representative implied some cutoff after the excessive hold time) but this appeared to not even be the case. The fact of the matter is, this change at most should have been a $200 fee, and my wife and I should have been able to travel together.
I accept some fault in the matter, but it is clear that the original ticket could have been salvaged. The original ticket was worth $1,300, and if you subtract the fee for the name change of $200, that is still $1,100 that was the very direct result of your customer service representatives ineptitude.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
You are also good at the blame game
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, December 20, 2016
This is a direct result of you trying to act as your own Travel Agent, where if a TA had done this, you could go after them for the cost. But since it was you that is not an option. It is amazing how you understand how booking the flight under the wrong name could result in fees in making this change,but when you find out that the fee is the cost of the ticket you go on blaming everyone but the source of the issue. You and your ineptitude, Oh wait I am sorry, you said you accept "somel" blame. Well this may be news for you but had you booked it correctly in the beginning or taken other actions earlier you would not be in this situation.
What could you have done? Well short of actually booking it right. We have to look at the time involved. From the time you booked the trip, of probably several thousand dollars, until you got to the airport did you not even look at your Passports to make sure they were still okay? Are you really going to come here and say that the first time you looked at them was at the airport?
As had you looked at them before there was a real simple solution. Have your wife apply for a new passport her Married Name. Do you know what the kicker in this would have been. Even if you had to "expedite" the passport and get it in 2-3 weeks, the cost would have been only $170 total. Which is $30 cheaper than what you THINK the airline/Expedia should have charged for the Name change. Even if you needed it in less than 2 weeks there are ways to get that done in as short as a day.
Now, as for the other "blame game". Yes, 3rd party sites are good for checking prices and if NOTHING goes wrong. But it is for when things go wrong that it is always a good idea to just book directly with the airline or you will tend to get bounced around. Had you done that, VA would not have had anyone else to bounce you to.
But the fact is that both are right..and both are wrong. You see "wholesalers" have different arrangements and terms and I am not going to say if Expedia could have changed the name or not, but in a lot of cases they don't have that authority based on the terms of their agreements with the airlines.