Expedia lied to me about being able to change my flight, and tricked me into buying insurance to boot! Internet
I called Expedia a few months ago to arrange a flight to Japan. I knew once I got to Tokyo I wanted to find a job and get a work visa, but I knew that not entering the country with a valid return flight (tourist visas are 90 days), could get me in trouble with immigration. Therefore, I wanted a very flexible return date.
I called expedia and a VERY friendly woman repeatedly assured me that my flight could be changed a month, three months, or a year after my flight date. She suggested that I buy the $30 travel insurance to avoid change fees later. I was pleased with the experience.
So I traveled to Japan and found a job and got a visa. Now I was all set to change my flight date to a random point in the future, knowing I would probably need to change it again. The first agent told me that I had already departed on my first flight, meaning expedia could no longer change flights for me and I should call the airline. The airline told me that I had a 3 month fixed ticket and it could not be changed beyond that.
A few more calls and a few hours of stevie wonder later, expedia determined that there was no way to get me a refund or flight credit, and they were only willing to take responsibility for their agent by refunding my insurance and tossing me $100 in hotel coupons.
This is nothing compared to the cost of booking another flight, not to mention how cheated I feel by all of this. My flight home I guess is going to be a one-way ticket, NOT booked on expedia.
Weirdoalisa
Hollister, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Weirdoalisa
Hollister,California,
U.S.A.
got a refund for half the ticket... after several hours on the phone
#2Author of original report
Sat, December 27, 2008
I couldn't sleep at night knowing Expedia had gotten me to give up. So I called again, not to customer support, but to the booking agents. I pretended to book another ANA flight (a restricted ticket) and I again asked the agent if the dates on the ticket were flexible, even a year later.
He said YES. I asked if he was SURE. He said yes, I'm SURE.
Livid, I hung up on him and got right back on the horn with customer support. I told them that if I hadn't been repeatedly reassured by THEIR agent that my ticket was flexible I would have bought a different, more expensive ticket. I made sure they understood that I was out several hundred dollars because their agents don't know what they are talking about. I talked to a peon, a supervisor, and then that supervisor contacted some "board" or something who called me back with their decision a half hour later- I got the refund for half my ticket that I was asking for.
Things I learned:
1) Expedia has two kinds of people working for them on the phones: customer service agents and telesales agents. If you MUST use expedia, make sure you direct all questions to a customer service agent at 1-800-expedia and NOT a telesales agent (the number is different). The telesales agents will say anything to get that commission.
2) Don't give up. Even if they offer you some $50 dollar voucher and you take it (like I did) out of sheer exhaustion, you never promised to stop hounding them. Calling a different person could produce different results (And no, I don't intend to use that voucher)
3)Be clear about what you want. When the first agent was smart enough to ask me what I wanted to solve my complaint, I told her I thought a refund on half my ticket was fair. She put that in the notes and every agent I spoke to thereafter based their conversations with me on that framework. They're not authorized to bargain, so if you start by saying you want a refund, they probably won't try any BS about a cheap hotel voucher.