Caught between American and Expedia

[John Bredin]

As the title suggests, my wife and I are in a dispute regarding canceled air reservations that has Expedia and American Airlines each blaming the other while one of them has our money.

Back in the spring, we booked on Expedia an April trip to the national parks of southern Utah. We were going to fly from Chicago into Salt Lake City, rent a car, drive to various national parks near which we booked hotels, and then fly back from Las Vegas to Chicago. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our trip in March when a health issue rendered me unable to fly right at the time in April we were scheduled to travel. We quickly got refunds from any pre-paid hotels, and we got a credit of over $1160 (actually, credits of about $580 for each of us) for our American tickets. The March email was from Expedia but said we had an airline credit that we could use for American flights (that is, not an Expedia credit we could use on any Expedia booking). In the meantime, the charge of over $1160 to my credit card went through just fine.

The medical issue has since been resolved, and we decided to rebook for September. I went back to Expedia to book the same American trips; that is, Chicago to Salt Lake and then Las Vegas to Chicago. I made the mistake of not booking it as a round-trip and, once I used the credit to book the outbound trip, Expedia said I had no credit left for the return leg because it was an airline credit that could be used only once per terms dictated by the airline. In other words, they claimed their hands were tied.

That prompted me to try my luck with American. The American operator I spoke with said he found our credit, and stupid me didn't ask how much of a credit he found. Instead, I told him to use the credit to buy the Las Vegas-Chicago flight for us, in belief the Chicago-Salt Lake leg was firmly booked through Expedia.

Nope, I was told a couple of days later that American canceled my ORD-SLC booking through Expedia because it and the direct booking with American for LAS-ORD used the same credit.

Many phone calls and emails later, Expedia insists it can't fix the problem because "the airline has taken over the booking" while American equally firmly insists the original $1160+ credit from March was Expedia credit and Expedia needs to fix it. Meanwhile, either Expedia or American got my $1160+ back in the spring and I now have only half the tickets for our trip to show for it. Until this is straightened out, I feel like the balance of my payment not used for the LAS-ORD tickets has been stolen. I certainly have no inclination to do further travel business with either pack of thieves.

Suggestions? Useful curses?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If you book through a travel agent then they are the responsible party when it comes to resolving disputes with an airline. At this point it sounds like you need Expedia and American reps to be on the same call at the same time as this will be a manual fix. If Expedia refuses to do this you'll need to keep escalating until you can find someone willing to make it happen. If they keep refusing you may need to threaten a small claims action against Expedia. In the past you could get around these kinds of impasses by reaching out to a corporate twitter resource, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. I've had good luck using cancelled flight credits when booking directly with AA, DL, WN, etc. I've also had good luck making changes through the corporate version of Expedia. The last big mix-up I had was with cancelled AA flights booked through JL. The only way to fix it was to keep calling JL until they re-booked me on their own metal.

 

[Nance]

Since you used a credit card with Expedia, call your credit card company and explain the issue you are having.
The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) gives you the ability to dispute any charge that you feel there was a problem with the service and feel that the merchant did not fulfill its end of the transaction. Hopefully the credit card company will open an investigation, and both sides will each have to give their side of the issue.

 

[Trollopian]

Since you used a credit card with Expedia, call your credit card company and explain the issue you are having.
The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) gives you the ability to dispute any charge that you feel there was a problem with the service and feel that the merchant did not fulfill its end of the transaction. Hopefully the credit card company will open an investigation, and both sides will each have to give their side of the issue.

And if you follow that route, do it fast. The general rule is that you must send your dispute by snail mail (certified is best) so that it reaches the credit-card issuer within 60 days of the disputed charge's first appearance on your bill. The card issuer then has 30 days to acknowledge your claim, and another 60 days (i.e., 90 days in all) to resolve it. See Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges. Unfortunately, given that the initial charge by Expedia was in March or before, the "window" for disputing that has closed. So your current dispute is the "overcharge" by (Expedia? American?) for the rebooked trip. Those 60 days are ticking by very fast.

I share your frustration. I've gotten into the habit of buying cancellation insurance except for the very cheapest "throwaway" fares. I only once filed a claim, yes for medical reasons, and although submitting documentation was a bore, the refund came through zip zip.

 

[John Bredin]

I'm glad to post that I have an update. I sent a complaint by certified letter (and email) referencing the Fair Credit Billing Act to FNBO, as I used the AGR card for my tickets. FNBO called me a few days ago to confirm my letter. I referred to details from various emails I has received, and FNBO didn’t ask to be forwarded copies. Today, I saw FNBO credited me for half the charge I paid back in the spring.

Since American has issued me tickets for half the trip based on the credit from March, that sounds right. I’ll check in a few days that my American tickets haven’t been canceled on the basis that payment was reversed. But if that doesn’t happen, I’ll be happy with this solution.

 

[Palmland]

Many like the discounts received when using a third party to book travel reservations. No doubt there are times when I leave money on the table but I always book directly with the service provider. Chances for miscommunication are greatly reduced and it is easier make changes, resolve disputes, and receive customer service assistance. And it helps too if you’re chasing points. Only exception is foreign travel when because of unfamiliarity with the providers I’ll use booking.com.

 

[B757Guy]

Unfortunately, this happens with 3rd party providers (Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz) sometimes. As an airline employee, I have had friends and family complain to me the airline stole their money. 8 times out of 10, it was the 3rd party provider who created the issue, not the airline.

Glad to hear your issue is getting resolved.

 

[PVD]

People should also realize that there is a difference between an actual travel agent and a 3rd party booking site.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Unfortunately, this happens with 3rd party providers (Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz) sometimes. As an airline employee, I have had friends and family complain to me the airline stole their money. 8 times out of 10, it was the 3rd party provider who created the issue, not the airline.

It's true the booking agent bore primary responsibility to resolve the impasse but the implication the airline's rules for using and forfeiting legitimately acquired travel credits played no role in this problem is a little disingenuous. Nothing prevented American Airlines from making an exception or working to resolve the impasse from their end. I've had reasonable luck dealing with American Airlines and Expedia (B2C and B2B) but I can also see how it could go wrong through no fault of the customer or passengers.

 

[PVD]

Since the 3rd party sites are generally not official representatives of the airlines, they generally don't go out of their way to help them or their customers. Those sites generally don't do a good job of pointing that out to their users.

 

[Old MM]

I strongly recommend not booking through third party travel sites.
In the past, Priceline and Hotwire were so cheap it was almost a throwaway if not used, at least for hotels. Generally people understood the nonrefundable aspect and were okay with it. There were airfare bargains too although passengers would wind up with inconvenient flights.
Today the savings are not substantial and airlines typically do not deal with customer issues when booked third party.
In my airline days the ticket screen on our side for these bookings had very limited functionality and we routinely referred the unhappy customers back to the third party.