I thought I booked a flight Sunday to Ottawa, Canada, on Expedia.
I learned in a half-hour phone call with Expedia Tuesday that the travel service that invites you to “find your perfect trip” online doesn’t honor the reservations that it purports to make. So I won’t be flying to Ottawa on an Expedia reservation. Or anywhere. Ever again. I can’t understand a business that doesn’t honor its commitments.
My experience with Expedia underscores three important principles of doing business in the digital age:
- Above all, you must be trustworthy. If people can’t trust you, they are not going to buy your services and they won’t give you credit card information.
- You must provide a good user experience. If somewhere in the fine print of Expedia’s disclaimers, it provides a legal basis for its refusal to honor the reservation I made, it still provided a horrible user experience. And that’s just bad business.
- Screw a customer in the age of social media and that customer won’t just share his or her anger with a few friends. We share our anger on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other platforms, costing you far more than the few bucks it would have cost to honor your original commitment.
Here’s what happened: I need to fly to Ottawa next month for some workshops at Carleton University and the Ottawa Citizen. Mimi’s flying with me and it’s a bit of a tight travel squeeze, because we need to fly out of Minneapolis and need to leave late enough that she can attend a baby shower in the Twin Cities on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 17.
I found a flight that worked and booked Mimi’s flight on United using frequent-flier miles. When I went to book my flight through United, the fare seemed a bit high, so I checked Expedia, which I have used many times before (at least twice this year, according to confirmation emails I still have).
Expedia offered a flight through Air Canada on the same United flights Mimi was booked on for $528.46 total. I booked it immediately and received an email “Travel confirmation” starting: “Thank you for booking your trip with Expedia. This email is your receipt for the travel item(s) you just booked.”
So I was set for my trip to Canada. Or so I thought.
I got a call Tuesday from Expedia, telling me that the fare had gone up (over $700, though I didn’t get the right amount, because I wasn’t paying it, at least not to Expedia). I said I didn’t care. Expedia offered the trip for $528.46. I booked it at that rate and that was what I would be paying. The rep kept trying to offer me options that I found unacceptable, so I insisted on talking to a supervisor.
While I was holding for the supervisor, I went to the email account I use for Expedia (my third account, one I don’t check daily) and saw a Monday email informing me: “Due to technical difficulties beyond our control we are currently unable to confirm your reservation.” Interesting choice of words. I had an email from them the day before confirming the reservation.
I never talked to that supervisor. After several minutes on hold I gave up. But first (since I had been informed the call was being recorded for quality purposes), I said aloud that I expected Expedia to honor the reservation I had booked.
The confirmation email that apparently didn’t mean anything included a link to customer service, where I got a form to fill out. I expressed my displeasure at the refusal to honor the commitment and at being left on hold for unreasonably long and insisted that someone call me immediately. I got an auto-generated email, telling me someone would get back to me in 24 hours.
After a few hours of no contact, either from the supervisor I had been holding for in the first place (they had called me, so they had the number) or from the online customer service, I called the number in one of the two emails I had received.
There I went through a song-and-dance with a “customer-service” rep who explained Expedia’s business model. Apparently they aren’t actually making reservations for you. They’re quoting recent fares from the airlines and after they book (and confirm) your flight, they try to buy the actual ticket. And if the fare goes up, they try to stick the customer with the increase. (I’m pretty sure I’m not using the rep’s exact words.)
The rep directed me to the “my itineraries” page, where a disclaimer told me: “Your ticket purchase has not been confirmed by the airline. Please check back in 24 hours for ticket confirmation information.”
Funny. Nothing indicated that when I was booking this trip and it didn’t say that on the confirmation email. In fact, I’m not sure I had ever looked at the “my itineraries” page until that phone call.
I went back through the reservation process, looking for some sneaky disclaimer I must have missed all the times I booked with Expedia. Closest I could find was this vague (passive voice is great for obscuring meaning) warning: “Fares are not guaranteed until purchased.” I presumed, as any customer would, that this meant the fare would be guaranteed once Expedia took my credit card number on the next screen and sent me the confirmation email, but that it might not be there if I came back later to make the reservation (or if the fare changed before I got to the next screen).
The language right under that warning clearly indicates, though, that I would be buying the ticket immediately: “Due to the restrictions associated with this fare, tickets must be purchased immediately. It is not possible to reserve this fare for later ticketing.”
The customer-service rep and his supervisor both offered me two unacceptable options:
- Pay the higher fare for the flight I originally booked.
- Accept an alternate flight closer in price to what I initially booked. (I did not explore this option with them, but looking later at Expedia, the lowest price offered was for a trip from Minneapolis to Tampa to Washington Dulles to Ottawa. No, thanks. I don’t hate O’Hare that much.)
After a half-hour conversation with this Expedia rep and his supervisor (who identified himself only as Leon and refused to give his last name and said he was the highest supervisor on duty), I tweeted my disgust with Expedia:
Just hung up after a half-hour phone call with Expedia, which is refusing to honor reservation I made Sunday. Last time I do business there.
I received three responses on Twitter and Facebook (where my tweets appear as status updates):
- Someone named J.D. Raimer tweeted: “I have the most burning hatred ever for @Expedia right now, a cheating, scumbag of a company. No one should ever use them!” This was one of many tweets by a most unhappy traveler, followed by: “@Expedia I would like to be on an airplane on my way home right now…like I paid you to do!”
- Facebook friend Rick Thomason said: “Dealt with them once…the first and last time.”
- Christine Cavalier of Philadelphia (@PurpleCar), not knowing I had already emailed, suggested email instead of calling. When I tweeted back that email hadn’t worked either, she suggested, “go up the food chain at Expedia. They are a travel agency and should honor their quotes.”
- @Expedia also responded: “sorry to hear about your situation. We’ll try to help. Follow us and DM us your itin # and any previous customer service convos.”
I responded quickly to Expedia, providing my itinerary number, phone number and email address in two direct messages. That was 20 hours ago and I haven’t heard from Expedia, except for two automated emails: One told me they wouldn’t call in response to my email request for help and wouldn’t help by email. They gave me a phone number to call. A second email promoted a special on hotels. I won’t be taking advantage of that special.
I will, though, offer Expedia a couple of options:
- Honor the deal I booked in good faith with you.
- Never receive another nickel of my money and be sure that I’ll warn friends, family and tweeps against using Expedia.
Wow. That sounds like a terrible business and customer service model. I’m quite disappointed that they tweeted offering to help and then didn’t come through. Guess I won’t be adding Expedia to the list of companies using social media as a customer service platform successfully.
LikeLike
Expedia is a scam. Source: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com
LikeLike
[…] Summarizing what I blogged last week: […]
LikeLike
Same thing boss, same thing just happened to me. Booked last night. Got a call today (14 hrs later) that fares for my buddy and I had increased over $600. Used the same rationale that you used. The crazy part is this: I went BACK on the website after they called me and the fare is still being offered at the price that they said had increased! NUTS. I told them they were crooked.
LikeLike
hi,
This is exactly what happened to me. I cannot believe that they can get away with telling the customer, they cannot honor a commitment after sending the confirmation. That has to be illegal….
LikeLike
It’s two years later, that just happened to me. Very disappointing. Better to use them as a search engine and book directly.
LikeLike
Now I am worried! I have booked a car from LAX, 8 hotels in US and Europe this year. Hope all goes well.
LikeLike
I also just booked a flight and hotel to Boston. They sent me an email to access my itinerary but it after filling out info they requested, it didn’t work. Only came back with a goofy message: “The Itinerary you’re trying to open is associated with an account of Expedia” What is that supposed to mean? Now I’m scared too. Keep me posted.
LikeLike
my mum and daughter are on their way home from heathrow having been DENIED board because they booked with EXPEDIA , the flight was full, expedia offered a next day flight if my mother paid extra! what a farce. how can this be legal. taxi, car hire and hotels waiting at other end… nightmare.
LikeLike
I used Expedia to book a flight, mistakenly under a guest. I realized my error within 30 min, researched how to cancel and did within 30 mine, expecting a cancellation email within minutes, much like you get with confirmations. I then logged into my account and re-booked the same flights. When I didn’t get a confirmation of the cancellation in 20 mins, I called in to cust service, who assured me it was cancelled. Then I sent a message requesting the cancellation email. Then I let the gears of their tech system crank thru. 3 weeks later, I still have no refund of the original error-booking. I received an email saying Alaska had canceled the flight. I can still see the flight on their website, so it must be something cooked up by Expedia to issue a travel credit because the rep confirmed (twice) that the flight will still take off and I have an active booking. I’ve been on the phone over an hour and am now waiting for a supervisor. They want to issue me an airline credit that I have to call in to claim via Expedia. They will not put it in writing or on my profile. They’ve assured me twice it was cancelled but refuse to issue a refund only travel credit. The female rep has been patient and glacially slow (asking to put me on hold several times to check with others about her response) but does not answer questions directly, only responds with her version of what should happen. She keeps referring to me by my first name and repeats it many times. It got annoying and condescending sounding after 3 times. It’s like talking to a politician. They have not honored what their website says should happen. I’m still on hold for a supervisor. It’s been over 15 minutes on hold, entire call has lasted over an hour.
LikeLike
Experida guarantees a poor experience and I found it the hard way. Never book on expedia ever! They are crooks running a business – here is my story.
I am going through the same expedia hell. Ticket says: “Your reservation is booked and confirmed. There is no need to call us to reconfirm this reservation.” Sounds positive right? No. They dont know about the concept of ticketing and also don’t know that there is a thing called customer service. It usually starts with taking responsibility and making sure that the customer is taken care of.
But expedia doesnt have customer service or customer care – all they want to do is screw their customers. Very professional stuff from Expedia!
The shittiest experience guaranteed from expedia.
LikeLike
Same thing happened with me on Expedia. I had a confirmed reservation and got a call later saying that flight no longer available the new one available is $800 more. This is false advertising.
LikeLike