I booked a vacation package to the Mayan Riveria on April 13th through Expedia.ca to travel May 1-15th for $3550.32. However, due to the swine flu i was forced to cancel. Upon cancellation with Expedia, I was refunded the hotel portion of my trip ($2248.35 from Hotel Ocean Coral and Tuequesa) but was told that I would only be given a credit valid for one year from the date of purchase for my flight, with the same passengers, airline and departure country. A difference of $1301.97 remains. I had concerns about rebooking because it was a vacation package and I wanted to make sure that i would have no hassles rebooking for something similar in the future. I was assured that I would be able to rebook another vacation package as long as it was saved to my itinerary online. I was told to find any vacation package with the same airline and save it in my itinerary and then call in to have them push the booking through.

In the beginning or mid July I Tried to book a vacation package and was told that i would be unable to do so, because there was a miscommunication from the staff. I was told due to my flight credit I would have to book a flight and hotel seperately. I was upset as this would cost me more money but had no choice. Then I lookded for a seperate flight and hotel and when I tried to book this I was told that I would be unable to do so because my oringial ticket was a special fare ticket. A special fare is only offered periodically and i would have to wait untill another one came up. I was never told nor aware that I had a special fare flight when I booked or cancelled my trip. I am a studen and work part time, I should have to be flexible to expedia's dates. I have been trying to book a vacation package for August 18-27th. I have talked to at least 4 different supervisors who have all told me different stories. I have been placed on hold and I have wasted hours of my time with no results. They tell me that they will call back and I never recieve calls. They even told me a person who was suppose to call me back had quit. This was within 2 days. Their story has changed now and they say that there was a miscommunication and the guy still works for Expedia. It seems like this is a theme within their company that there are many incidents of miscommunication at the customers expense. They won't even take responsibility or try to help their customers. It is not my fault I had to cancel my trip due to the swine flu. I have worked hard for my money and can't just let 1300 go down the drain on useless credit.

After many frustrated calls finally on August 7th I spoke with a supervisor Shawn, who assured me he would work on my case and get it moving. He did not call me back so Monday August 10th I called expedia again. I spoke with an Agent Joscelyn who said they would be able to put me on my flight but that I would have to speak with Shawn, as he would be able to do it not her. I spoke with Shawn later and he told me that he was unable to do it and would pass me to the flight department. The flight department then called me saying that they are not able to book this and that I would have to deal with the airline itself. During this whole time the cost of the flight went up at least $300-400 and I have wasted many hours talking with Expedia for them to now tell me that i must deal with the airline. They told me that I had to use my credit with them and now they are passing me off, 7 days before I was suppose to leave on my trip. I now am unable to go on my vacation because of this whole hassle.

Is it right that the travel agency charge you with a “reschedule fee” when your flight is canceled and you have to reschedule your flight because you can’t make the time of new flight? Is it right to hold up the “good” flights and only release crappy flights with very late/early/sleep over in the airport flights to customers who reschedule flights? Is it right to reject the customer’s request to cancel a flight leg? If your answers are “NO”, read on.

I am a student in Texas A&M University and will attend an academic conference in Boise, ID in October 2009. I have been ordering tickets for my personal trips with Expedia for a couple years so I still trust their service this time. In the first place, I booked my flight to leave College Station, TX on October 4 and return on October 9. The outbound flight is basically following the order of “College Station, TX – Houston, TX – Boise, ID” and the return flight is in the reversed order. Four days later, I received an automatic email, telling me that my flight is canceled by Continental and a new schedule is provided in the email. I wasn’t given a chance to reject or accept the new flight schedule. I scrutinized my new schedule and found out that my return flight (Boise, ID – Houston, TX – College Station, TX) was put forward to depart in 11:35AM in Boise, almost four hours earlier than my original plan (3:04PM) and I definitely cannot make it.

I called their customer service to reschedule my flight. I told them clearly what was happened. The first representative told me that she needs to call Continental to confirm my information and will call me back. I waited for a whole day and no one called. I called again. This time Expedia insisted that I have to pay the reschedule fee of $150, or they cannot reschedule the flight for me. It is totally not right because the whole situation is caused by the airline company. But finally I succumbed and agreed to pay the reschedule fee.

The interesting part follows. When I asked to choose a flight I saw on their website, I was told that I am not allowed to choose that flight. The only flight that is available to me is in a bad time: I will fly to Houston at late night and the final leg (Houston – College Station) is in the next morning. I asked if I can cancel my final leg since no one likes to sleep over in the airport. My request was rejected. In the end, I lost $150 for no reason and was put in a flight with worst schedule. I have to spend another $30 to take bus from Houston to College Station on that night because like I said, no one wants to sleep in the airport. No compensation of any kind is provided by Expedia.

I sent them a complaint letter, and this is their response: “…We are more than willing to assist our customers in any way commercially possible. We, at Expedia, are dedicated to providing knowledgeable service and support to our customers. But we are constrained by the policies of the vendors whose services we provide on our website. When a flight itinerary or hotel itinerary is purchased on Expedia, we act as the agent between the client and the vendor. Any transactions are governed by the rules and restrictions put in place by the vendor providing the service.”Even though they have their own “secret rules”, what about consumer rights? This is the worst service I have ever experienced. If anyone is interested, I have kept all correspondences for future references.

A few years ago Expedia and other online booking companies were a good deal. Now their prices are higher than or equal to booking with the hotel or airline directly. AAA rates will give you even a better price. Also booking with the hotel directly you will be able to deal with them directly if there is a problem instead of them saying "this is not booked with us" we can't help you. Also dealing with the hotels/airlines directly you can be involved in their rewards clubs more easily. I use the online websites to see what is available then call the hotel/ airline directly and always get a better deal. By all this I mean to say that booking through this site turns out exorbitant but booking the other way brings a vast difference in your expenditure.

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.

I showed up at the Hotel and found out that they were a non-smoking only Hotel. When I reserved my reservation online through Expedia they had a option box to check for smoking room to choose and I did. The Hotel Clerk didn't offer anything for that mistake through Expedia's mistake and didn't care. He just acted in a PC manor covering up that he didn't really care. Further the room did have a nice bed the television didn't work and I asked them to fix it 4 times and it never was fixed in my 3 night stay over 4th of July weekend. I will not book anymore reservations through Expedia.com. What they are is a Third-Party that makes there own rules and the Hotel you book at isn't responsible for any changes or problems what-have you. These Third-Party companies are out for themselves and I guess you get what you pay for going through them. If you use them make sure you followup with the information they list is accurate by calling the location yourself and find out what's current and accurate. That was my mistake.