To whom it may concern,


Re: letter of complaint


I am writing to complain about the dreadful level of service that I recently received as an Expedia customer. I was promised a call back in order to resolve this issue and this action has not been taken so I am left to relive the experience writing to you.


I am expecting that Expedia will investigate this thoroughly and inform me of the outcomes as to how and why this happened. I also expect to be refunded for the flight that I paid for as Expedia didn’t honour the booking that I had paid for which caused me considerable duress.


On 15.03.10 I booked a flight from London to Mytilene via Athens with Expedia in order to attend a wedding. The initial booking was made for the following itinerary:

27th May 2010 London to Athens – Departing 22:15

28th May 2010 Athens to Mytilene – Departing 04:00

01st June 2010 Mytilene to Athens – Departing 07:10

01st June 2010 Athens to Mytilene – Departing 09:15


On 13.04.10 I received a barely understandable voicemail informing me to call Expedia urgently regarding my flights. I called back the number that they had requested but I could not provide the reference number as the message had been poor (English and call quality). I found my original booking reference and called back immediately due to the apparent urgency at a time really inconvenient to me. The man that I spoke to didn’t listen to me at all. He explained that I had to change my flight times and kept repeatedly saying ‘Maam, I have a great solution for you’. He didn’t once ask what a ‘good solution’ would look like. I explained that I was attending a wedding on the day that I arrived and that his ‘great solution’ didn’t work for me on that basis. This is interesting as I later found out that there was no need to change my flights at all. Six ‘great solutions’ and about 20 mins (on my phone bill) later, he booked me onto suitable flights. I then received a confirmation email of my new flights.


One 27th May 2010 I checked in at LHR on my flight to Mytilene via Athens (along with my luggage). When I arrived in Athens, I went to the Aegen desk in order to check-in to my onward flight (as requested) and was informed that they could see my booking but the agent (Expedia) had neither confirmed nor paid for the flight. They requested that I check with the Olympic desk (as per my original booking in just case). I checked and there was no booking with them. I then returned to the Aegen desk. They told me that this was not a rare situation with Expedia and that I needed to call you. The only number that they could get was a number in the United States. I had less than an hour to rectify this. It was the middle of the night. Firstly I was calling from my UK mobile to the United States office as it was the only number that they had from Athens (I will send you the mobile phone bill as I couldn’t use their phone) and secondly the voice recognition would not recognise my British accent so I had to speak in a false American accent which was embarrassing. After circa 10 minutes on hold, I spoke to a lady who was very apologetic but unable to help. I explained that I was in the company Aegen staff who could see my booking and that it had not been confirmed. Once again, your agent did not speak good English and time was of the essence. Expedia could not identify me using any of the following; my name, my booking ref, my passport number, my email address (x3), or my bank details. After just under one hour on the phone, your representative informed me that I needed to speak to a supervisor. I requested not to be put on hold at all and that I would wait on the line. I was sure that I would now miss the flight and not make it to the wedding. I was tired, frustrated and anxious. I am a regular traveller (also in developing countries) and have never experienced such frustration and incompetence. I was kept waiting as there was no supervisor available to take my call and no acknowledgement was made of the urgency. I was then put on hold. Eventually I had to hang up as I was feeling very anxious and was clearly going to get no support and miss the flight. Then Aegen informed me that I would not make it on to the flight. They also expressed that there should never have been a modification made to my flight as there was space on my originally booked flight (which I had also now missed). This only fuelled my frustration.


I eventually gave up and purchased a new ticket on a later flight (I will send you the receipt for reimbursement). Both Aegen and Olympic Air have insisted that I push for further compensation for the stress caused. Catching the later flight resulted in an €75 taxi to my final destination on top of the flights. I had the additional inconvenience of having to trawl through ‘lost luggage to retrieve my case.


The knock-on effect meant that I did not have a holiday. I did not know whether my return flights were confirmed. I spent my free time that weekend waiting in places where I had a phone signal in order to remedy this debacle cause by Expedia. I had to forsake activities that I had paid for in order to ensure that I could get my return flights that would. My holiday was entirely ruined. I spent hours alone in a hotel making and receiving calls at my cost. To add insult to injury, I was than informed that I had never checked-in and LHR and that I was affectively a ‘no-show’. This was not true. I was on the flight. I have the boarding card (which I will send to you). The final day and night of my 3 day holiday was spent alone in a hotel (that I wasn’t staying in) waiting for Expedia’s calls (who were still struggling to resolve the situation). At approximately 11pm the night before I was due to fly back on an early morning flight, I received a call to say that they had found my details and provided a new booking reference number. I then had to pay another €75 taxi to the airport as I had missed the last bus.


I was informed that Expedia would follow up on this issue and resolve my complaints. I have still not heard from Expedia months later and cannot wait any longer.


Please send me the address to where I can claim on my expenses. Details of my supposed flights are below.


I will await a speedy response (my contact details are as below) and I hope for an acceptable resolution which will compensate me for not only the anxiety caused but for the financial loss.

Please let me know what you require in order to make a claim for compensation. My holiday was ruined as most of my time was spent attempting to identify myself with Expedia who I had paid and flown on one of my booked flights.


I will not hesitate in taking action against Expedia through formal channels and share my experiences with relevant online spaces/bogs or with my network of frequent flyers. See below for my booking details.


Yours sincerely,