Employee Error, But Expedia Customer Needs to Pay

I booked airline travel through Expedia from Birmingham, AL to Washington, D.C. from January 7-11, 2008. The January 7 flight was late afternoon; the January 11 flight was for about 10:00 A.M. I received an e-mail confirmation of the schedule. I had to change the January 7 flight to January 8. I paid Expedia @300.00 for the change. I requested that my return flight on January 11 remain unchanged and received verbal assurance that my return would not change. I was told that I would receive a confirmation via e-mail. It never arrived.

In D.C., I happened to be in hotel that had boarding pass print out facilities. When I printed my boarding pass on January 10, I learned that my January 11 flight had been changed. I called Expedia, was kept on hold for more than 15 minutes, and was told that Delta had made the change. I called Delta and was told that Expedia had made the change. The Delta representative gave me a code that documented the change, and I was told to call Expedia back. I called Expedia and was again told that Delta made the change. When I kept asking about the situation, I was put on hold for long periods of time (approximately 2 to 2.5 hours total) while the customer service representative spoke with a supervisor about the matter.

The Expedia supervisor indicated that the change was an employee error, but insisted that I had agreed to the change when I made the @$300.00 transaction. I repeated that I had only requested the change in the flight from Birmingham to Washington. She was apologetic and indicated that I could pay the change of ticket plus any other costs incurred and seek reimbursement from Expedia. However, she could not tell me the cost of the ticket change or any other costs until I gave her a credit card number and agreed to let her process the transaction. I declined. She indicated that she hoped that Expedia acknowledging their responsibility provided me some solace.

She also acknowledged that my trip to Reagan Nation Airport to catch a 10:00 A.M. plane would have put me in the airport for about seven hours and that I had no way of knowing about the change since no confirmation had been sent. However, I was still only given the option of paying for the change of ticket and seeking reimbursement through Expedia. I was told that I could arrive at the airport before the morning plane left to see if I could get the people at the Delta would assist me. (I learned from the Delta representative that I spoke with after speaking with Expedia a second time that I would need to arrive three hours prior to the 10 A.M. flight and pay $50.00 to get on the earlier flight,)

When I indicated that I did not plan to use Expedia again, the supervisor indicated that she understood and that she hoped that Expedia acknowledgement of their error made me feel better. It did not. I spent about four hours on the phone with airlines and Expedia. I could not get to the airport because I didn’t get the information about the $50.00 same day change until 6:03 A.M., and the information did not come from Expedia. I will lobby my friends and employer not to use Expedia.

Angry and Wiser

Be first to comment this article

Comments on Employee Error, But Expedia Customer Needs to Pay
Consumer Forum is another great place to discuss consumer concerns NOT RELATED to this article.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments