Horrible Expedia Experience...

Hello,

First off, I know they're a very major travel company and with any such organization you'll have your share of happy and unhappy customers. As of right now, I fall squarely into the latter.

I had received an email that my flight was moved 50 minutes and my connecting flight was less than an hour and a half. I did some searching and saw I could get a non-stop through SouthWest and not have to deal with all this junk but still wanted to keep the hotel reservation.

So I first called in around noon yesterday and chose the callback option. Within 5 minutes of talking to the person I was disconnected. I called again and waited 30 minutes on the phone for a rep - I was put on hold again and then I was dropped again. I called in yet again and opted for a call two hours laters - I talked with a supervisor... when I was once again disconnected. I called one last time, and immediately escallated up to teir 3 (4?) until I got someone in "Corporate" (definitely American as I could understand him without issue).

At this point I was pretty fuming, I had called in 4 times and spent 6 hours waiting for call backs plus another 2.5 hours on hold between the initial call ins and waiting for information from the rep. I gave the teir 3 support my info, and he called United only to determine that even their supervisors deemed this a "minor change" to my itinerary and refused to let me cancel my ticket.

I got a whole $200 credit from Expedia "for my troubles" of wasting my entire Sunday only to find out what the first guy could have told me in 15 minutes of effort. I may use it next year for a hotel since their LV hotel policies are pretty lax, but damned if I'll ever book a flight through them again!

Anyone else have horrible experiences with Expedia or United?

Cheers,

Ryan

 

No problems here, although we don't fly all that much. Used them for a Vegas trip last year, did my homework and got flights for 2 and a remodeled Riviera room for 825 for 5 nights(over a weekend)...all taxes included. Non-refundable, but it worked for us, as the flights alone were running $400/person from MSP.

 

You'll most savey Vegas go'ers on this board do NOT us a third party like Expedia to book rooms or flights...if you book with a hotel direct EARLY and see rates have fallen you can just keep on rebooking that room for the lower rate....AND no penalty if you cancel....and with SWA you can book your flight EARLY and if prices drop you can rebook also.

 

I book 50/50 direct with hotel (comps/discounts) and through Southwest vacations.com (whichever comes out cheaper) I've done a number of SWA vacation packages which I've had some pretty killer deals on there and have had ZERO issues with them. Even with a no cancellation policy I called and was able to cancel and rebook making adjustments with no penalty or extra cost.

The best deal I've ever got on SWA was 3 nights, 3 plane tickets non-stop round trip out of Midland, TX, 2 August Tower rooms at CP for $1,500 including tax.

I've used SWA Vacations for trips to Denver, CO and Vegas.....great experiences every time. Every hotel I've been to sees the correct reservation every time in Vegas that has been CP, Encore, Aria, Mandalay Bay, Wynn, and Mirage.

 

We booked through Expedia our last trip and our flight changed to an earlier flight home by 3 hours. That part was fine with me but the flight where we were changing planes in Phoenix also changed and we were going to have a 6 hour layover in Phoenix. I called USAirways since that was the airlines we were going through and they changed it for me at no charge where we ended up with only a 1 hour layover. Did you try to call the airlines direct? After you have purchased your trip through Expedia, you have a confirmation number from the airlines to deal with them and not have to go back through Expedia.

 

This is the best way to go when it comes to buying airfare thru one of these travel websites. Once I've gotten my confirmation email, I make sure it shows up on the airlines website along with MY AIRLINE MILES NUMBER to get credit for the flight and only deal with the airline for any changes; seats, time/flight changes, flight notification, etc.

 

Sounds like they were doing everything right on their end until you decided to throw a wrench into the plans.