Expedia
reviews and complaints

Dear Sir/Madam,

Recently, I have met a very unfair incidence on my air-flight travelling. The thing is that I have tried to change my flight schedule for a air-flight I suppose to take on mid-March 2010. I have called the travel agency to change the schedule more than a month before the flight time; and I was not purchasing one of those cheap airline ticket.

But, according to them, by changing the flight-time, all my ticket payment will be forfeited, and I have no choice but to cancel my travel with them. However, I found it ridiculously unreasonable.

Could you advice me to which association or council should I complain to about this issue?

Many thanks.

Regards,
Jaan

They don't know what they are talking about! One person says to you we will match the price and give a fifty dollar discount on your next booking, so i will transfer you to somebody else to make sure, and after transfer, the new person says you are actually not eligble for this discount because the starting price is the same! Then when you ask why, they say yeah this is why, and then you say I have been waiting for a long time, but they have already HUNG UP ON YOU!

I was headed to NYC to for a few days at the end of '09. A business trip and to be with friends as the ball dropped. In checking flights only a week and a half in advance, I came across a fairly good deal from Expedia: 332.00 rt, but with a flight only $200 coupon to apply to my next flight booked with them. I have a trip to LA coming up in a couple of weeks, so I called Expedia to confirm those terms. Not only were they confirmed, but the rep also forwarded me a link (no longer working) that showed this to be a flight only coupon. I was told that the coupon would be held in reference to my account. I need do is call to book the flight. The Expedia ticket was a little more expensive than some others, but I'd save $150.00 in the long run so I went ahead and booked.

This morning, at about 8:30AM EST on Jan.13th, I got an email alert telling me that the coupon had been deposited to my account. When I checked the details, it turns out they have deposited a coupon that refunds $200.00, but only with a contingent 5 night stay in a hotel (booked through them) at that location. ###. Seeing the classic bait-and-switch, I called to have the terms changed back to our original agreement. Magically, they can find no evidence of an original agreement, but have extended this new coupon to me for being a "holiday customer." They also claim that they could give me nothing, and I should be happy about what I've gotten. After 1.5 hours on the phone trying to get someone who speaks legit English (Please note that I've had some excellent customer service experiences with caring operators in India, but one could not carry on a conversation with these Latin operators because they simply didn't speak the language beyond their memorized scripts.), I'm forced to move on. Btw, I bought the coupon on Dec. 18th, but one of the operators told me that the terms and conditions of the coupon weren't published online until January 8th of this year. Then he said Jan. 8th of 2008. Then he said October of last year. Without consistency in the conversation, though, it's hard to know what he even meant.

I wanted others to know, however, about this latest twist in Expedia's long history of bait-and-switch practices (http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/unfair-fares-5-secrets-for-avoiding-the-bait-and-switch/). To me, these sort of thing is criminal. Expedia's decision to shuffle us off to communicative parts unknown when filing complaints is also part of their business model. I will never use them again, and I say this on principle. I hope that others, if they have similar experiences, will follow suit.

One speculation: this may be a ploy for Expedia to get around their price assurance guarantee. They may be using aggregate price cost (which factors-in bait-and-switch coupons) instead of actual price cost to calculate their reimbursements.

Either way, I'm done with them.

I saw a flight for cheaper in another website but I thought I'd book with Expedia as it is BBB's Business of the Years for 3 years. Expedia said they have a Best Fares Guaranteed policy and told me they would match the fare and issue a $50 coupon however I had to book my flight at Expedia's rate first. Then they transfered ne to customer service who will credit/refund the difference. Well after 3+ hours talking to 6 different customer service reps (because they "accidentally" hung up on me), and sending numerous emails to Expedia's customer service (which they claim they never recieved even one of my emails), and 4 days later I still have not heard from them nor have I received my Expedia "Best Fares Guaranteed" credit to my account...it's a scam! Don't fall for it. I will never book with Expedia again and I will make sure I tell all my coworkers, family and friends to never trust Expedia.

After arriving in Paris, I find out the hotel reservation that I booked and confirmed on expedia.ca did not exist. By then, the hotel was fully booked.

I e-mailed expedia and they would not explain or admit to their mistake. After a few exchanges, they began to blame the hotel and assured me that they stive for 100% customer satisfaction. However, I have a copy of the reservation records from the hotel of customers booked through expedia.ca and my name isn't on the list. Moreover, the hotel has done more to help me by finding me another hotel and settling me in there, while the expedia.ca rep did more to aggravate me by talking around in circles and ignoring my comments.

I now make sure everyone I know does not use expedia.

I booked a hotel with expedia.ca in Paris and find out when I arrive that the hotel reservation did not exist. The hotel was fully booked but they were very nice and found me a room at their sister hotel and also provided me assistance in going there. They recommended that I e-mailed expedia.ca because I had provided my credit card information to book the hotel and also to inquire as to why the hotel failed to receive my reservation.

Expedia.ca was not helpful at all and spent the bulk of the e-mail exchanges between the company and I, apologizing for my frustration (and not their mistake) and blaming the hotel. They also told me that they usually strive for 100% customer satisfaction. Then, I explained to them that I am clearly not satisfied as they have done nothing to help my situation and that the hotel had provided me a list of guests that have booked through Expedia.ca with my name failing to appear. The customer service representative replied by ignoring everything I said, and basically copy and pasted paragraphs from previous e-mails such as:

"Thank you for contacting Expedia.ca...

As stated previously, we do show a reservation in our system and the notification may simply not have been received by the hotel.

We apologize for your frustration...

If you have questions regarding this matter or require further assistance..."

Their customer service rep did nothing to make me feel better and has instead turned me away. In the future, I will find my business elsewhere and will ensure that all of my friends are turned off Expedia as well.

Expedia is supposed to be competitive and yet I've just paid $747 for a flight that I've just seen on Zuji for $450 (same plane, same time.) If it had been only something like $50 dollars difference then I would have shrugged my shoulders, caveat emptor and all that, and moved on.
As it is, the difference is a rip off to all of those using Expedia.com. I tried to complain the day after getting confirmation and they tried to invoke small print that said I hadn’t complained in time. I phoned them and they tried to fob me off with an Expedia voucher. I refused and told them I wished my complaint to go higher.
My emails requesting a report status on my complaint are now just ignored. So I am making sure everyone knows about it.

My husband and I booked a trip to Las Vegas over the new year. The whole trip was arranged with Expedia.co.uk. They sorted out the flights and the hotel for us. They could not offer any direct flights so we were booked via Washington on the way out and via Los Angeles on the way back. On the way out they only allowed us an hour and a half transfer time between flights. We have since discovered that this is an extremely busy airport for international flights and we queued for 2 hours just to get through immigration. As a result we missed our connecting flight to Vegas and there were no more flights that day. United Airlines said it was not their fault and we had to book into (and pay) for a hotel in Washington and try a stand by flight the next morning. We also had to contact Expedia and change our hotel booking in Vegas. In addition our luggage had been taken from us and we did not know where it was.

After this stressful start to the holiday we managed to get on a flight the next day and carry on with our trip.

Then on the way home we were on the plane in Vegas to take our flight to Los Angeles when there was a problem with engine. We were taken back to the terminal and told they would try to fix it. After 2 hours or so they then said they could not do so and the flight was cancelled. We then had to queue for a further 2 hours to try and get another flight. Again there were none that day so we were put up in a motel off the strip and put on a flight the next day. We were told we would get compensation but got nothing. The flight the next day was early in the morning and the international flight back to London from LA was not until the evening so we had to sit for 9 hours at LA airport.

As a consequence we were a day late getting home and had to pay additional car park charges and our son was late returning to school.

We tried complainint to United when we returned but go no response so went to Expedia (as the agents). They said it was nothing to do with them but did, eventually, agree to contact United for us. After months of tooing and froing we finally got an offer of $100 dollars flight from United. However, this could only be used on an internal flight in the USA so is worthless. We have been in touch with another couple who were on the same flight as us coming back and they got $800 each with no such restrictions.

We maintain that Expedia should have firstly made sure we had enough connection time on the outward journey and also, as agents, should sort out our compensation and they claim it back from United.

They have withdrawn £300 from our credit card without authorisation. There is no explanation for what it is for. We have an invoice saying that we have paid more than is due, yet they are now refusing to refund it. They have given us the run around for 2 weeks, and given us a multitude of excuses. Ranging from we owe them money, to we agreed that amount(we have no reference and there are records of what the amount is for)When we send them the receipt of what is owed they then deny receiving it, they also say they have no record of them owing money yet they have sent us an email to this effect.

I purchased an airline ticket through Expedia and was unable to use it when the time came for me to fly. I contacted them and asked for a credit and inquired about the possibility of transferring it to someone else and was told that I could. When I called a few months later to ask to transfer the ticket to my brother in another state so that he could come to see our terminally ill brother, I was told NO. This company does nto care about anything but taking your money. Once they have it, you are out of luck if you need to make any changes. They also are NOT customer friendly! I was on the line for 20 minutes with someone from another country trying to explain my need to get my brother here to see our terminally ill brother before he passes away and they DID NOT CARE! I WILL NEVER EVER PURCHASE A TICKET THROUGH EXPEDIA AGAIN AND I RECOMMEND EVERYONE ELSE THINK TWICE ABOUT BUYING AN AIRLINE TICKET THROUGH THIS COMPANY!

Warning to vacationers who book local tours and excursions in Maui through the Expedia Kiosks...they offer $100 off your tour package if you go to a Timeshare presentation and spent at least 90 minutes of your time. But first you must sign a pre-authorization to charge $100 to your credit card. DON'T DO IT!

I went to the presentation near the Papakea resort I stayed, spent 2 hours, which is well over the required time. I got the chit/note that said I attended and I turned it in at the Kiosk at Papakea. They still charged my card and trying to deal with it from home, I was given the run around and a bogus phone number of the manager. They think you're rich because you can go to Maui and you won't fight over $100 once you're home.

The credit card company won't handle it because I did sign the pre-auth even though the conditons are listed, saying Expedia needs to issue the credit. I met those conditions but I have nobody left to deal with.

I have photos of attending the presentation.

On our return trip from the Sturgis motorcycle rally, we booked three rooms using Expedia. Upon our arrival we were quoted a rate at the hotel that was 28 percent cheeper than the rate book at Expedia. The hotel said that they could not refund the difference and we would have to contact Expedia. Well Expedia gave me the biggest run around. I spoke to a customer service rep, then a supervisor and finally a manager. It boiled down to "to bad so sad". I told Expedia that I will do everything I can to let people know not to use their services. So here I am. Needless to say I will never use Expedia again.

I booked my trip to Ireland 4 months in advance using Expedia. This included a car rental in Dublin with a company called “Payless”. Because we booked early, we got a good rate. Apparently too good, because when we got to Dublin, we couldn’t find a “Payless” counter anywhere. We spoke with several airport employees who said that there was no company called Payless in the airport. Turns out that it was under a different name (doing business as Dooley Car Rentals). Nowhere on the Expedia printed itinerary was this listed, nor was it in the itinerary you can have e-mailed to you. The U.S. number listed on the itinerary was not helpful either due to the time zone change (voicemail). We had no choice but to rent a car for 5 times the amount at another rental counter. When we got back to the states, my husband called Expedia to explain our situation. After over an hour on the phone, we were of course told that it was our fault, because way at the bottom of the booking page on Expedia (not in the print version) buried in a bunch of other links was a link that said ‘Detailed Rental Information’, and that it was our responsibility to click these links and either print them out or remember that it is called Dooley Car Rentals during the 4 months between the time we booked and our trip. With this type of customer service, we will never use Expedia again, since there may be other times where they are ‘hiding’ CRITICAL information deep in the fine print.

I booked a hotel in italy online with expedia in april 2009. My husband is undergoing tests for a brain tumor so I called to cancel the hotel with them. I wasn't listed on the account but had all pertinent information such as our names, hotel, travel dates and most importantly, both locator numbers with expedia and the hotel in italy.
My husband is on their account so they would not even consider speaking with me nor give me a way to cancel the hotel. Donna was quite rude and the supervisor greg would't help without speaking with my very ill husband. I realize privacy is an issue but under the circumstances you would think they would cancel given I had both locator numbers.
I will never book them again. Bad customer service! Absolutely no compassion what so ever! At least give me a way to cancel - what if he was unable to speak? Absolutely brutal!

I will never use Expedia ever again to book a flight or hotel because of the terrible experience I've had with their customer service team. I normally do not have any problems when booking a flight but I booked a hotel for a business trip last month and I got charged by both Expedia and the hotel. When I contacted Expedia customer service about the issue, their customer service representative was rude, unhelpful, and evasive. She tried to help by calling the hotel manager for me but she didn't do what I asked. I needed her to provide evidence/documentation that Expedia paid the hotel for my reservation but she just called and got the same excuses that I got from the Holiday Inn Express in Grants, NM. The Holiday Inn claims that they faxed Expedia to get documentation that Expedia already paid for my hotel but never got a response back. So naturally, I tried to expedite the matter and get the situation resolved by attempting to get Expedia to provide the documentation but the customer service team is inept and could not understand what I needed them to do or would not do what I asked. I have a long stream of emails from Expedia that all says the same thing by 5 different people. It's been nearly two weeks and the charge is still on my credit card and now I have completely given up on Expedia and The Holiday Inn and will dispute the charge formally with my credit card company.

Booking through Expedia is not worth the hassel or the savings. And to be frank, I actually ended up paying more by booking through Expedia because of their booking fees.

We have been told by Expedia that a flight we booked to Asia cannot be changed despite the ticket confirmation stating, "any changes to your ticket may incur additional charges". We were very careful to read the website in full before purchasing this ticket because we might have to change the return date. We read all the "rules and regulations" and including a section which said, "we have not received rules or restriction information for this flight. In most cases the following rules and restrictions may apply". We reviewed these "rules" and noted that we may have to pay additional charges, but there was no statement that changes may be prohibited.

When we called Expedia to change the return leg they refused. We pointed to the website confirmation page and and they explained that other customers had a similar problem but there was nothing they could do about it. Expedia had a problem with the Finnair computer connection and the flight restriction information could not be displayed. They said we should have called Expedia (AT 10 PENCE PER MINUTE!) if we wanted to know what the restrictions were. They claimed that they were required by law to provide the common rules applied by the airlines when their computer could not link to the airline's specific rules. In these general rules (see attachment Page 1 and 2) there is no statement that ticket changes may be prohibited. Inexplicably, Expedia denied that they had any obligation to tell their customers clearly to call Expedia if the airline specific rules were not disclosed on their website. They added that tickets purchased through Expedia would always default to the harsher airline specific rules if these rules were not posted on Expedia's website.

Finnair, to their credit, said that if Expedia were to call them, Finnair would be willing to discuss this case. However, Expedia refuses to call Finnair saying that it is our fault that we did not call Expedia to clarify the rules using Expedia's 10 p per minute "help" line.

Amazing. We have now booked a separate return from Asia costing us an additional £500 and this airline and its website clearly states that "changes are not permitted". An expensive lesson.

So ever wonder why they keep changing their name? Its to fool the customers. I wouldnt trust any company that has pissed so many people off they have to change their name. So they went from Expedia Home Loans, to whenever the market crashed, they had to make money somewhere, to Expedia Loss Mitigation, trying to take more money from the people they already screwed over on their first loan, by modifying their loan for 2, 500 bucks. Dont you think taking these peoples money once was enough? So they set their customers up with the worst loans possible, with option arms, with high intrest rates, and Neg Am loans to just take more money from them when they are in so much debt they cant pay their MTG? Well before I knew all of this I worked there. It was going ok at first, it was really hard to get any customers, but I didnt know why yet. So no one was getting any customers, and they "laid off" the whole group of employees they just hired a little over a month and a half ago, I thought to myself "thank god" the work sucked, I was relieved, I just took my check and left. Well about a month later my bank sends the check back, they couldnt pay it, it bounced! This is the worst co. ever, so they are screwing the customers, and the employees! I went back to the building, and they are gone! But please look out people, because that doesnt mean they didnt go change their name to Expedia Mtg or something like that, trying to fool more people again. Are they ever going to stop?

Plainly put, I went on Jetblue Website to get information on a Charlotte to New York r/t ticket. Found lots of flights for $158.

Came across an Expedia promotion "trueblue36" whereas, you get $36 off your new Jetblue reservation made on expedia. I go to expedia.com, choose identical flights as Jetblue website and find they charge $214. Being new to this, I attempted to get through to Expedia to find out if they charge more than Jetblue for identical flights, times, dates, etc.

Took 30 minutes to get through and was told no, that expedia has best price guarantee. I was connected to the Philippines (employee 32654) who for the next 79 minutes would be on and off hold, gathering information from someone standing beside him as to what to say to me. Mind you I now have almost an 1 hour 40 minutes invested in this (feeling like a total loser for wasting this much time).

Outcome was he booked my flights at the higher rate and said the Jetblue36 doesn't work because of a time zone problem but, I would eventually see a credit. Keep in mind he charged me $214 each ticket (x2). So, basically I am now paying $178 (if he applies credit)for a ticket that I could have booked on Jetblue for $158 and no booking fee. He then says someone will call me to review price guarantee.

The call came after 10pm eastern time, I repeated entire story and was told a call back would come and was given incident number. 30 minutes later a different person calls with a different incident number and says he will call back. Approaching 11pm (my time) I get a call back again saying I will receive a credit for the price difference and an additional credit for future Expedia travel.

So, having spent over 3 hours on this debacle to save $36 I get a $50 expedia credit (p.p.) 3 hours wasted, total nonsense explaining a problem they caused and I get a lousy $50 credit.

Basically I prepaid Expedia.com for hotel reservation of 13 nights
but only stayed 8 nights due to unforseen circumstance.
I requested to get refund for the 5 nights that I didn't stay, but been refused. It's a rip off policy that they are practicing...talking about unfair business practice. I've been spending way too time talking to them over the phone with various managers and customer service agents but couldn't get anywhere. It's over $1000 that they are ripping me off here...Somebody/someone has to do something about this as there are way too many people are getting ripped off by this company, Expedia.com.