Last March when we were planning this venture, we decided to cancel our previously booked France summer vacation. We had some British Airlines tickets from London to France that we had to cancel. When Melissa canceled them with Expedia, they confirmed that there was $750 worth of credits on the tickets (after the cancelation fees) that had to be used within a year. The Expedia system showed the credit both on the confirmation screen when she canceled, and in the confirmation email they sent as a follow up. The email says, "Per your request, your flight is canceled. You have a credit of $933.40 USD with British Airways. A $181.36 USD penalty will be applied at the time of credit redemption. Generally, airline credits must be used to book and complete travel one year from the original date of purchase." Melissa had checked and British flies from most destinations in Mexico back to Seattle (albeit the flights are operated by American Airlines but assigned British Airlines flight number) – so using the credit should be no sweat. You see where this is going right?
We are planning to come home to Seattle in January. So Melissa pulls out the Expedia email confirmation confirming the credit being available and tries to book the tickets on British Airlines website. She can’t figure out how to do it using the credit, so she calls the 800 number. 10 minutes on hold. Agent #1 informs her that this isn’t considered a new reservation so she’s got the wrong department. 20 minutes on hold. Agent #2 doesn’t speak English. The conversation goes like this:
Melissa: I need to use the credit on ticket number XXX and YYY to rebook a new trip from Guatemala to Seattle. The airport codes are GDL and SEA.
Agent #2: Ok, so you want to go from London to where?
Melissa: No, London isn’t in the itinerary. I need to go from GDL to SEA.
Agent #2: TPL?
Melissa: The flight numbers are BA4846 from GDL to DFW, BA2400 from DFW to SEA, BA2380 from SEA to DFW, and BA4880 from DFW to GDL.
Agent #2: So the city is Guadaia?
<This conversation then repeats almost exactly the same two more times>
Melissa: Please put me through to a supervisor or another agent who speaks English.
Agent #2: No. I will help you.
Melissa: No, please put me through to a supervisor or an agent who speaks English.
Another 30 minutes on hold and then click. I suspect Agent #2 put me on hold and then hung up on me. I call back again. 30 minutes on hold. I then explain what I want to Agent #3. He has an accent, but his English is excellent. He says “let me research these tickets”. He puts me on hold for another 10 minutes. He comes back and informs me that these tickets have no credit on them. When I canceled I forfeited the money entirely. I say this can’t be because my email from Expedia says different. I ask for a supervisor. He says, it will be a while till one is available. Another 10 minutes on hold. Then the supervisor, Agent #4 comes on and informs me that indeed there is no credit available. I asked to speak to her supervisor. Nope she says, this is as far as you can go. If you want to complain you will have to write a letter. I hang up.
I call Expedia and after only a few minutes on hold (thankfully), I explain the situation to Agent #5. She says let me do some research. 10 minutes on hold. She comes back and says, yep, Expedia is very sorry, but indeed there is no credit available on these tickets. I say but I have an email here from Expedia telling me there is a credit. Yeah, she explains that the email is automatically generated out of their system and this happens all the time. And there is nothing they can do about it. I say, “well, that’s fraud. And moreover you are telling me you do it routinely. Seems to me that’s just ripe for a class action lawsuit. Get me a supervisor.”
A mere 5 minutes on hold. Supervisor, Agent #6 comes on the line. She’s been briefed. She informs me that there is no credit. I say I have an email from Expedia saying there is a credit and to not honor it is fraud. She puts me on hold for 10 minutes “to do some research and speak to her escalation team”. She comes back and says that if I still have a copy of the email and can send it to them (they apparently have no record of it) then they will honor the credit. (Don’t get excited that I’m finally winning this battle - the story isn’t over.) They send me an email and I reply with a copy of the credit email as an attachment. No pasting the information into the email they say. Ok, that makes sense because they want to make sure I haven’t edited the email. This whole rigmarole takes another 20 minutes.
Ok, Agent #6 says, we will honor the credit. Expedia will have to pay for the tickets because there is no credit available on British. Ok, so I give here the British flight numbers. She says, sorry, but those flights don’t show up in Expedia’s system. She can’t book them if they don’t show up in Expedia's system. Ok, fine, I tell her, just book me some other airline from GDL to SEA. Expedia is paying for it – so what difference does it make? Nope, she says that since the original credit was on British the rules associated to the credit are that I have to rebook on British. I point out to her that if the credit were available on British, I could call British and book the flight numbers I want. So the fact that their system doesn’t have the flights is irrelevant to me. In order to honor the credit they have to get me $750 in flights. I could care less how they do it. They made this mess, it’s up to them to make it right. Nope, she refuses to book anything but British and only those flights available in Expedia’s system. I point out that this is essentially Expedia placing a new contract term on the sale (only British flights available through Expedia) after the fact – which isn’t legal. She says that they are honoring the credit, I just have to “choose other British flights that are available in our system”. I point out that I don’t have any other travel plans – so where does she suggest that I book flights to/from? We go round and round for another 20 minutes. I continue to point out that this is fraud and ripe for a class action suit. She says there is nothing more she can do. I told her that I wanted this conversation and specifically Expedia’s position documented to me in an email. She refuses to do so.
Three hours on the phone and I've got zip to show for it.
So seriously, anyone out there know an attorney who would want to take this on? It’s not worth us paying an attorney as $750 doesn’t get us very far in legal fees. But it’s clear that Expedia’s systems routinely tell customers that they have credits they don’t have. Not every credit is false - but I'm guessing that when the fine print in the airline fare rules say that no credit is to be issued, that Expedia's systems somehow can't detect it. And rather than fix it, it would seem that Expedia counts on the fact that (1) most people probably can’t figure out a way to use them within the 1 year time frame in which the credit expires, and more importantly (2) when they discover the mistake can’t do anything about it. So this really is ripe for a class action.