Sorry, you don’t have an airline ticket

Expedia also needs to be paying the finance charges and interest on the balance plus compensation (and not a credit towards a future purchase!). They committed to the tickets and then dropped the ball. How come they get off so light here?

Chris,

I entirely disagree with your suggestion that it’s the responsibility of the customer to check in with the airlines after booking with a travel agent – online or otherwise. They are compensated for that service and it’s their responsibility. That doesn’t mean that it’s not a good idea for a consumer to check it, but it’s not their responsibility. This is Expedia’s screw-up, so don’t try to blame the customer on this one. Frankly, at this point, the consumer should be compensated for more than just the extra ticket – their screw-up cost the consumer time, which is the most precious commodity we all have.

From article: “Make sure the confirmation is in writing and contains a six-character alphanumeric confirmation number. That’s a sign that you have a real reservation.”

The six-character confirmation number means you have a reservation, but not necessarily a confirmed ticket. Unless you have a ticket number (usually 13 or 14 digits) then your ticket is not actually issued and your reservation just as worthless as not having one at all.

What you got from Expedia was a ‘reminder’ not a reconfirmation – people need to read the language very carefully.

The problem is that you were dealing with script readers in the overseas customer service department who don;t know anything. Next0 when ever you actually buy something from a travel consolidator like Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz, you need to VERIFY that an actual ticket was purchased by them for you for EVERY element of your travel. This means there will be airline ticket numbers in a little field. You need to call the hotel to make certain they have a reservation for you – and make sure you get EVERYONE’s confirmation numbers- airlines have 6 digit alphanumeric PNR’s and hotels have confirmation numbers. Otherwise, trust at your peril.

TO EVERYONE OUT THERE: If this happens – you send a very nicely worded demand to the CEO of the company. You say this:

“On[date] I purchased an air-inclusive package from Expedia. Upon arriving at the airport on [date] Expedia has not purchased tickets as part of the package. I was forced to purchase day of travel tickets. That cost was $871 more than the cost of the package. My Expedia package itinerary was [insert itinerary number] and attached is a photocopy of my ticket receipt for the purchased package.

Demand is made for the immediate payment of $871 which is the excess of actual travel cost versus the travel cost Expedia promised me. Failure to receive a check for the aforementioned amount within 30 days will result in litigation.”

Period – end of letter – end of demands. Don’t bother following their procedures and sending demands second and third copies of documents which they lost to every escalating departments. One letter. One demand. Then, small claims court. You sue them for breach of contract. In a case like this, you will EASILY win.

Once Expedia gets the lawsuit, someone will a) contact you immediately and you will have a check within days, or b) they will not show up and you can start looking for assets to attach.

Another negative story about an online travel agency. I am sure that there will be some comments posted stating “I have dealt with this online travel agency for years and never had any problems”…that is great. I judge a company when you have a problem…that shows their true colors.

It is not just six characters confirmation number, you need also thirteen digits ticket number. Each airline has assigned first three digits, and even if you travel on multiple airlines, there is only one will be issuing a ticket. You may have a confirmation number, but if tickets are not issued before departure, you may be asked to pay again at the airport. Confirmation number is just holding your seat on the plane, ticket is evidence you paid for your seat.

My job used American Express Corporate Travel to book my trip from CLE to TUS. They booked me on Continental. It was rainy day in March, but temperature was dropping. After we got on the plane the rain became ice and Continental cancelled all flights out of CLE. It was rush hours around 6 pm. Tens of thousands of people were directed to a handful of agents for reaccomodation. Southwest and United were still flying but they were cutting some people off to have only half full planes to be able to take off from an icy runway. I hanged at the airport for a while and when I learn there is no chance for me to fly that day; I phoned American Express travel and asked them to rebook me on the first available flight next morning. A representative confirmed me on 7 am US Air. But the confirmation number he said is the same as I had for Continental. It alerted me. After I got to airport hotel, I decided to call Continental and confirm if I had a confirmed flight for next morning. The hold time for an agent was 70 minutes. The agent said you do have a confirmed flight on US air but ask if I could be on hold for a moment because he needed to check something. After another about an hour “moment” of hold the agent explained: He spoke with his help desk and after my flight was cancelled due to weather, Continental automatically rebooked me on the first available Continental flight 3 days later. Amex travel confirmed me on US Air flight but they didn’t re-issue ticket I only had a confirmation. So, Continental help desk cancelled my US Air reservation without even asking me because they didn’t want to transfer the ticket to another airline and found a spot on 5 am Continental flight. By the time I got off the phone it was already 1 am. I had to start making my way back to the airport, because taxis or hotel shuttle did not operate due to three feet of snow. I made it on 5 am flight, we pulled from the gate and the engines would not start. We stock in the midfield because of ice the ground equipment to bring plane back to the gate did not operate. Finally we were back at the gate at 7 am. I got of the plane and first phoned to Amex Travel and asked to get me out of here now, I mentioned I can make it to 7:12 am US air flight. A person I spoke was really helpful and she issued a new ticket within a minute. I ran fast from one end of the airport to another and made it. Problem was I had a full fare Continental ticket and Amex booked me a new full fare US air ticket. It took me about three months to get refund from Continental, because according to the record I took the flight. My boarding pass registered when I got on the plane, but they did not noted I got off the plane.

If I have to do all the work of calling, verifying, etc. what exactly did I spend my money purchasing with the travel agent? That’s why unless its a particular complicated trip, I just go directly to the travel provider. AA.com, Marriott, com, SPG.com, etc.

Sometimes even if you purchase your ticket directly with an airline the ticket is not issued due to some technical issues. It doesn’t make difference where or how ticket was purchased, you can always go to airline website, retrive your itinerary and see if there is a ticket number on your receipt. If you can’t find ticket number – call. Just seat selection will not give you right to fly. You can select and reserve seats without even buying ticket and you will have six character confirmation number. When you purchase ticket you usually will get two e-mails: first, a confirmation, and second, a receipt with a ticket number. Or if for some reasons you transfered to a different airline make sure to ask the agent if your ticket was endorsed to that airline. My United flight was cancelled due to mechanical issue, United reservation booked me on Delta. An agent provided me with Delta confirmation number. When I arrived at Delta gate, I was told that even I had a reservation, United did not pushed ticket to Delta and I was sent back to United to fix it.

@ Carver – well said. I find it somewhat ludicrous that those who utilize the services of a travel agent should then have to do a bunch of work themselves to make sure that the travel agent is doing what they’re being paid to do. It would be like if my clients paid me money to prepare and electronically file their tax returns, then are advised that they need to call the IRS to confirm that I actually did it. Mistakes happen on occasion, but if the argument is you can’t rely on a PAID travel agent to do what they’re supposed to on a regular basis, that’s a pretty jarring indictment of the industry.

@Arizona

If you call their call centers do you speak with a person that is a licensed travel agent?
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Except of course that no state licenses travel agents in the same sense that plumbers, real estate agents, contractors, etc. are licensed. Accordingly, each travel agency determines for itself the level of skill, experience, and competency required of its travel agent employees.

So while we may individually choose to define that a “true travel agent” is, there is no general consensus. One person considers AAA and Amex to be travel agents, another does not.

I’ve used Expedia and Orbitz for years. When booking only plane tickets, it’s nearly always cheaper to go to the airline, but travel packages can be significantly discounted on these sites. Our trip to Jamaica this summer was about $400 (20%) cheaper than anywhere else due to the package price. I could not book the parts separately and get as good a deal. I always go to the airline web site after the booking and look up the reservation, but I’ve not had any problems with either company.

I have booked a couple of rooms with hotels.com because their rates were cheaper even than those on the hotels’ web sites. However, I called the hotel directly to make sure the reservations were confirmed.
Like Joe and Carver, I generally use Expedia and Co. to survey the available fares and so forth. I use those sites as an overview. Occasionally, I’ll rent a car through Hotwire or Priceline, since I don’t care, really, which company I rent from, as long as they have a car for me on the day I need it.
Usually, though, I reserve rooms, flights and cars through the company web sites. So far (fingers crossed), I’ve never had a problem. And almost always, with a little poking around, especially for cars and hotels, I can often find a little extra discount I can use. For example, I rented a car through Alamo recently and since it was a weekend rental, I got a $15 discount, which paid the taxes and fees. Not bad.
If I were booking a complicated international itinerary, however, I’d go to a human travel agent at a brick and mortar company in my town. One office is just up the street from where I work, so if something goes wrong, I know where to find them. LOL.

Whether or not Travelorbpedia is a “real” travel agent or not isn’t the question.

When you book a ticket on these sites, it’s my understanding a fee for the service is included. If that’s the case, then they are being paid to perform a service, and it is not unreasonable, in my view, to expect them to perform that service.

Now, speaking from a practical standpoint: no matter who you pay to perform any service, it behooves you to stay on top of things and not just assume it will be done according to the agreement you believe you have. I had a roof installed recently; although I’d gone over the details of the requirement carefully with the roofer, I was still out there checking on the work constantly – not because it’s my job to do so, but because it was the only way I could know for sure it was done. There are a handful of vendors I trust implicitly enough to allow them largely unsupervised work; the rest, I watch, because even if only 1% aren’t fully competent and trustworthy, that 1% can ruin your day.

@Joe Farrell What is your source for the statement that “rarely will a corporate agent book the lowest rate-they will book the lowest commissionable rate.”? This is, in my opinion, a gross canard, unsupportred by any facts. It is like my saying that rarely does a lawyer stay at the most economical hotels when the client is paying. As to the value added by a travel agent, I would say that I can buy a kit that will enable me to write a legallly binding will and don’t need an attorney. On the other hand, if I have a complicated estate I would consult one. The same is true of travel-if your trip is simple you can do it yourself but if it’s complex you might need a specialist who knows more than you do about destinations, hotels, complicated airline itineraries etc. That is where the value is added by a good travel agent./

I had a very similar experience about 5 years ago, but with Travelocity. I ended up on the phone for 2 hours with their India-based customer support, who were unable to handle anything outside of their scripts.

Expedia sold me a ticket with an airline they don’t even have a contract with.