Expedia doesn’t honor my confirmed reservation

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:

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Tweeps soothe a frustrated customer

Read this post in Russian, translated by Google. Читать этот пост на русском языке, перевод Google.

I guess I was showing some travel fatigue the other day in Barnaul. As our interpreter translated for a Russian speaker, I felt a vibration from my iPhone and looked down at a text message from Mimi, sitting about four feet away on the other side of the interpreter.

“U ok?” my phone asked. My stomach was grumbling a bit. “Maybe,” I texted back.

We exchanged a look and I shrugged and resumed listening to the interpreter. Then the phone vibrated again and I looked again: “U ok?” I might have rolled my eyes. Yes, I was fine, just a bit tired. I looked over at her and nodded. She looked back at me quizzically.

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