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When Linda Foy checks in for her flight, she's told she has no airline tickets. But wait! Didn't her online travel agent, Expedia, just confirm her flights? And will Expedia now refund the new tickets she must buy?
Sorry, you don't have an airline ticket - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/07/30/no.airline.ticket/index.html?hpt=Sbin - broken link)
When you pay someone else to do something for you- YOU are responsible. And thus YOU should always verify that 'they' did their job.
Linda paid a third party to get tickets. Linda should have checked that they did what she paid them to do- as the article even stated.
But it's a good post as everyone using third parties for buying tickets instead of the airline/hotel directly should confirm their purchase with the airline/hotel instead of just taking someone else's word for it.
Why bother with a 3rd party such as Expedia if you have to double check everything they claim they will do?? Might as well book directly and trust me I've done a lot of comparison shopping for vacations..these sites Expedia, Orbitz etc are NOT giving you any great earth shattering deals...
I always double check my reservation code on the airline's website, just go to the airline's website and pretend to check-in, it will find your reservation and tell you that check-in is not yet available..but the fact that the airline found it means you're in the system I also call all hotels and double check my reservation directly with them...takes all but a few minutes
I love NatGeo Traveler and this is always one of my favorite sections
I think his response was pretty fair ... you can do more to protect yourself and keep yourself out of a jam.... some just don't have that much fight in them - they absolutely should of had expedia book the new flight for them at their charge immediately, i'm not loaning you the difference because of your error on the hopes you will pay me back
however, expedia is 100% at fault here .... they provide a professional service for a fee .... they are beholden to complete that service to the terms agreed upon .... failure to do so is their error .... any harm that it causes the person paying the fee is on them as well
if H&R block messes up your taxes and you get a penalty from their error you can have recourse with H&R block
if a doctor messes up their treatment of you and causes harm, you have recourse against the doctor
if a travel agent screws up your plans and causes harm you have recourse against them
all expedia is liable for is returning the money for the trave not available and amount of service fees you paid them or $100 dollars whichever is greater. They owe the person nothing more, that is their written terms and conditions you agree to when you book with them. A regular travel agent is stuck with the difference in cost to complete the trip and probably other compensation, but not those 3rd party travel web sites.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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When I began traveling, I used Expedia and never had any issues with them and always confirmed my purchases with the carriers in question. I found out on one trip the advantages of booking directly with the airline itself. When I did a Seattle/Victoria combo trip, I had found a lower rate on Alaskan Airlines website and promptly booked it. The next day, I found that I needed to change my departing flight to an earlier time and contacted the airline to find out the best method for dealing with this. Turns out that since it was less than 24 hours after booking, they were able to change my flight for free and I only had to pay the difference in the flight price ($35 dollars). Had I booked through Expedia or another third party site, I would have been screwed big time!
unfortunately this traveler is just very inexperienced. You NEED to get a airline confirmation code not the expedia ticket#. The airline code is just a bunch of letters and numbers like IA5UXP or something like that. That is the key piece that tells you that the ticket has been issued by the airline. Then you use that code to do a mock check-in as I said earlier.
all expedia is liable for is returning the money for the trave not available and amount of service fees you paid them or $100 dollars whichever is greater. They owe the person nothing more, that is their written terms and conditions you agree to when you book with them. A regular travel agent is stuck with the difference in cost to complete the trip and probably other compensation, but not those 3rd party travel web sites.
absolutely not true ... they can write all they want in their terms and conditions but you cannot limit your absolute liability
your errors and omissions create your obligation to make people whole
no chance in the world that would stand up in court - it's a great deterent to keep people from pressing it though
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I also call all hotels and double check my reservation directly with them...takes all but a few minutes
