Expedia flight change nightmare

Upvote:5

Expedia acts as an intermediary and can sell you different kinds of tickets with varying conditions. Commonly though, flights bought on Expedia tend to be single fare tickets from an airline, even if more than one operator is flying the route. It is important that you check and confirm that what you got is a single ticket for the trip.

Calling Expedia will get you a representative saying that you should contact the airline, while calling the airline gets you a service agent telling you to contact Expedia! I do book often with Expedia for convenience and price but I absolutely agree that dealing with issue is a nightmare. It can make many calls to both Expedia and the airline until you get one to help you.

Assuming what you got is a single ticket, you will generally be left dealing with airline service representatives. That means that they will almost always rebook you on the same airline or with a partner airline, but they tend to do that very reluctantly in my experience. What you must do is keep politely insisting with the airline agents until you get one that is willing to help.

Ask for something that is reasonable and suitable, explaining your constraints. Since the change is significant you are entitled to a refund but this is extremely hard to get when Expedia is involved (I have an open case with them where they agreed to give me refund but it has not happened yet, after more than a year). It is more likely that you get your flights changed. Since the Hong Kong flight has been moved further, that route is probably no longer flying. You can ask to move your other flight to reduce the gap or you can see if you can move both of your flights earlier. There might be a flight a day or two before. What greatly helps is doing your research ahead of time and coming with some alternate dates and flights already noted down when you call. That way you can ask about each one until they accept rather then them saying there is nothing available.

Upvote:7

You always have the right to cancel the flight and get a full cash refund. It may take some work to get it since Expedia will probably try to refund in the form of a voucher which has terrible conditions and constraints. NEVER accept a voucher.

Beyond that, it gets difficult and depends on your negotiation skills. Expedia will point you at the airline and the airline will point you at Expedia. That's the reason why you should always book with the airlines directly unless there is a really strong reason not to.

They will most likely offer you alternatives which you can accept or refuse. Unless your ticket is covered by some governmental rules (like EU 261) it's unlikely that they would pay for hotels, etc.

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