But I asked them to hold my ticket!

Question: Two years ago, when I was stationed in Hawaii, I called Expedia to get a price quote for an airline ticket to California. I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my fiancee.

The agent could barely speak English, and insisted that I give him a credit card number in order to reserve a ticket for 24 hours.

The next day I was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, and I never called Expedia back to buy the ticket. I was in the intensive care unit for five weeks, and when I came out, I learned that Expedia had bought the ticket.

I’ve been trying to get my $500 back since then. Northwest Airlines has denied my claim, even after providing it with proof of my hospital stay. And I continuously reminded them that I did not purchase the ticket — I just reserved it. Is there anything that you can do about this? — Lizelle Figueroa, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Answer: It sounds as if you weren’t speaking the same language as Expedia. Maybe the agent wasn’t American, but by referring to your purchase as a “reservation” and offering your credit card company, you appear to have inadvertently booked a plane ticket to California.

It didn’t have to happen like this. Although it’s more convenient, you might want to think twice before phoning an online travel agency, even if you’re just getting a price quote. The most efficient way of working with an online agency is through its Web site. Booking online saves the agency money (it has to hire fewer human agents) and eliminates booking errors (like misspelled names or wrong dates).

Don’t get me wrong. I think calling a conventional travel agency — by which I mean a brick-and-mortar travel professional — for a price quote is perfectly fine. They’re trained to ask you if you just want to find a good fare or if you want to buy. But I’m just not sure I would take my chances with an offshore call center for an online agency.

Once the ticket was bought, you could have done a few things differently. Initiating a credit card dispute might have worked in this case, because it might be difficult for Expedia to conclusively prove you booked the ticket. A brief, polite email to Northwest Airlines, which is now a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, might have also helped.

As I review the facts in this case, I find plenty of blame to go around. By asking to make a reservation, you authorized the representative to buy your ticket. But the agent apparently didn’t understand your instructions or communicate his intention to buy the tickets.

Expedia explicitly promises that if this kind of thing happens, it will fix it. Its Expedia Promise assures would-be customers, “We’ll take responsibility–at no additional cost to you — if we make a mistake booking your travel.” You can read the whole guarantee on its site.

I contacted Expedia on your behalf. The online agency researched your case and determined that there was a “communication error” between the agent and you. Specifically, it found that the ticketing agent was under the impression you wanted to purchase the trip, when you just wanted to only hold a reservation.

Expedia has refunded the full amount of your ticket.

(Photo: Free Bird/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • http://www.travelsitesonline.net Traveler

    ‘communication error’ – ha ha ha! :)

  • Phil

    Perhaps it is time to boycott all US companies that have call centers outside the USA

  • Carver

    Although I tend to trash talk Flyertalk, their advice would be useful here. If you don’t feel that you are getting good service from the agent, thank them, hang up, call back. Repeat as necessary.

    As far as call centers as concerned, its a mixed blessing. They reduce the company’s overhead which in turn can permit more competive pricing in a robust market. But the company must invest in training the call center employees to understand American paradigms.

    I personally find that call center employees work well for routine tasks that can be performed withou deviation from a script. I opened my cable television account online with someone who was obviously a from India. But when a problem recently arose, the online folks absolutely useless, even after escalating to a supervisor. Yet a regular rank and file American was able to handle the problem in 1 minute flat.

  • David Z

    Perhaps it is time to boycott all US companies that have call centers outside the USA

    Start with your cellphone provider or ISP.

  • http://www.cutcat.com ChelseaGirl

    “We’ll take responsibility–-at no additional cost to you — if we make a mistake booking your travel.” Uh-huh. After reading numerous complaints about Expedia on this site, I think their so-called guarantee is BS. I wouldn’t use them.

  • http://www.roamingtales.com Caitlin @ Roaming Tales

    This is all very well but can you even actually “hold a reservation” with Expedia like with bricks-and-mortar travel agencies? I didn’t think they offered this service.

  • SandyC

    It may have ultimately been a communication error, but shouldn’t you be a little suspicious when asked for a credit card to”hold” your reservation? Red flags should have gone up.

  • Barry

    Sounds like this type of thing is a hidden cost of outsourcing. I wonder if Expedia, etc takes these types of costs into account when making their staffing location decisions.

    More directly, one these calls, they always say, “This call may be recorded…” I wonder what percentage of calls are actually recorded. How long are they saved? Could they go back and listen to the call now?

  • Cory M

    Calling a res agent to get a price quote and ‘reserve’ a ticket for 24 hours? Dumb. Get a quote or buy a ticket, there’s no middle ground, whether the agent speaks english or not. If they’re not understanding the words coming out of your mouth, then ask for someone else that does understand you and keep asking until you get someone. It’s as bad as the previous posting about the individual signing a contract written in German and being billed. Idiot signed a contract written in a language they didn’t understand. Even dumber.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Caitlin @ Roaming Tales – “This is all very well but can you even actually “hold a reservation” with Expedia like with bricks-and-mortar travel agencies? I didn’t think they offered this service.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - — – - – -
    A few years ago, I used to work for a company where we used Egencia, the ‘division’ of Expedia for corporate travel. I could go online, price out a ticket and it gave me the option of buying it or holding it. If I selected holding it, it would reprice the fare when I was ready to buy it.

  • http://noaddedsalt.blogspot.com Elisa

    It’s all very well to boycott any company using outside labour, but are you willing to pay more in order to do it? Time and time again people complain about talking to “foreigners” on the phone – and it can be frustrating, I know – but the truth of the matter is that consumers are forcing this by demanding ever-better prices.

    And I’ve gotta ask, WHO on earth calls and puts air tickets on hold? I don’t get it, you’re either buying or you’re not!

  • MeanMeosh

    “And I’ve gotta ask, WHO on earth calls and puts air tickets on hold? I don’t get it, you’re either buying or you’re not!”

    It’s more common than you might think, especially for business travelers. I have to do this quite a bit actually. I’ll sometimes get asked if I can attend a meeting, but will need to either wait for an approval or a confirmation from somebody that I’m actually needed at the meeting. If the fare happens to be cheap, I’ll ask our corporate travel agent to hold the fare until I can get the approval or confirmation. If I get it within 24 hours, great, I’ve potentially saved the firm some money. If not, no harm-no foul, the reservation just lapses and you don’t have to deal with a cancellation penalty, and I just buy it later.

    “Sounds like this type of thing is a hidden cost of outsourcing. I wonder if Expedia, etc takes these types of costs into account when making their staffing location decisions.”

    You bet they have. And the financial analysis probably showed that they’ll still save money. And that’s the catch-22 that most American businesses are in. Everybody complains about outsourcing, but the majority of consumers have also spoken loud and clear that what they’re most interested in is to get their stuff cheap. They’re giving you the consumer exactly what you want. If you don’t like talking to someone in India, it’s a free country and you have the option of choosing a company that doesn’t outsource, but are you willing to pay a higher service charge or fare for the privilege?

  • SandyC

    It’s not at all unheard of to “hold” a reservation. I believe on AA you can still do it for 24 hrs. And when I worked for a brick & mortar travel agency years ago, we held tickets all the time. But we didn’t ask for a credit card to do it. The credit card isn’t need to “hold” a reservation. It’s only needed to “buy” the ticket. The OP should have never given given out her CC # if all she was wanting to do was “hold” the reservation. That’s where the red flags should have gone up.

  • Marjie Darling

    My sister recently was the victim of a “communication error” on the part of United Airline Outhouse Outsourcing to India. No matter how little United pays these employees, they are wasting their money if their goal is customer service.
    My sister flew to our 93 year old mother’s house to celebrate her birthday. In attempting to check-in by phone to fly to Dallas she foound an error had been made(come on folks, mom is 93 & lives in a very rural area, no computers available, no WI FI). She is not understood by the “customer SERVICE person” nor does he understand her. After multiple consultations with the “supervisor” she is told a refund will be made. She arranged for flights and another airline for the last leg of her trip ( since none was available on United). Upon checking in the next few days, she is told “no, but she can have a $100 credit” or some other equally pecuniary options. United does not have customer service, their agents can say whatever they want to say and leave the victim with no recourse but to pay a double bill for flying.
    She would have been satisfied with a credit for a future United flight in the FULL amount for the last leg of her trip but instead was told “sorry for your inconvenience”—- HOLY COW !!! Spending 1/2 hour on the phone with customer dis-service, spending almost $300 dollars extra, and still having to pay United…. come on. Miscommunication or purposive behaviour????

  • Louise

    A big chunk of our unemployment problem would be solved if ALL offshore call centers were closed. Canadians are fine if you’re lucky enough to get one

  • David Z

    A big chunk of our unemployment problem would be solved if ALL offshore call centers were closed.

    Maybe. But as the others said, are you prepared to pay extra for that?

    Not gonna happen, sadly.

  • Amber

    I worked at an airline for 9 years and now work for a tour operator. For those who are surprised that people hold airline tickets, it happens all the time. People will book a reservation and hold it for the time allowed. At my airline it was 72 hours. They would let that reservation expire and book a new one. They would repeat this until the air fare went on sale or they would finally decide to buy the tickets. Sometimes we would need to pull up their booking by name instead of their confirmation code and you would see a list of 20 or 30 different bookings in the same name. People do the same thing with a whole vacation package. They can’t decide if they are going to Cancun or Jamaica so the book both. Or they don’t know if they want to fly UA or AA so they book both. It happens every day.

  • Joe Farrell

    What does ‘we’ll take responsbility if we make a mistake’ mean?

    First off, they have to admit they made a mistake. Ok. We know how often that occurs in the real world.

    Then, assuming that admit the error – what are they gonna do about it? There is a glitch in their system and they NEVER buy your ticket. You have a reservation from them – well – maybe you do. If you CAREFULLY read a booking from Expedia the FIRST confirmation is merely that they ‘got your order.’ They are clear, sneakily clear’ that you generally must await confirmation of the receipt of ticketing the itinerary from the airline – only THEN do you have a confirmation. Go back and read your confirmations – they ALL are the same and you do NOT have an actual reservation unless you get the separate confirmation.

    OK, they screwed up. You bought a top of the line suite cabin on a Christmas sailing and ooops, no cabin and no reservation and they are all sold out. Not much they can do there. same with airline tickets or hotel rooms or anything else of which there is a finite number.

  • Mike

    Ok who are these companies trying to fool? They might tell you that your ticket will be more expensive, but in all reality you might be talking about an extra dollar or two a ticket. Are you REALLY going to go with another travel provider over a $2 difference when you KNOW that the higher priced company has USA based customer service? I would venture to guess the answer is well above 90% of people would pay that $2 extra. The sad reality is that companies have moved off shore to save a buck or two per ticket or reservation costs and yet they try to blame us for wanting the cheapest price. I’d bet that if they told us what the bottom line would be in extra costs, the amount would be almost insignificant when compared to the cost of an airline, cruise, or hotel stay.

  • Meredith Putvin

    Not all companies the have international call centers are outsourcing.

    Starwood Hotels uses International Call Centers in Additional to the 6 Call Centers in North America.

    This allows Starwood to run 24 hour Customer service without having to staff a call center for 24 hrs (And pay the increased compensation for the later shifts). Also, because the company does have hotels in countries across the globe, it allows them to staff Non-English speaking call centers.

    For example… New England would roll over to St Thomas Canada, with would roll over to Lancaster California with would roll over to England… Then you look at the South American and Japanese Call Centers.

    Yes, many companies outsource to a third party Agency, but not all Hotel companies do.

    We won’t talk about the Hotels only staffing one or two Reservations people on Property in favor of regional Reservation centers.