I’m fucking livid right now. Last night I was booking a family trip from Tokyo to Okinawa and the cheapest flights I could find were on Expedia. I entered the details and credit card info and hit submit only to see “Sorry, an error has occurred, please wait a moment and try again”. So I did. Same thing happened. Then I noticed two pre-authorised transactions popping up on my credit card. Ominous, I thought, but it was late and I wanted to finish this off at the price I had found.
So I gave up on Expedia and just went direct to the airline and bought the tickets for the same price. No problem I thought, until today when I started getting emails from a middleman company saying that my payment had been confirmed – twice.
So I called them up and they said that the payment has been confirmed and the only way out is by paying cancellation fees. I told them to eat rocks but they said take it up with Expedia.
So I did, and they were at least sympathetic, but Expedia can’t do shit without an “Itinerary Number”, which was conveniently left blank in the emails provided by the middleman company. They couldn’t find any record of the bookings that failed (unsurprisingly I guess).
So now I’ve bought the same flights 3 times, twice through Expedia/middleman and once through the airline. The middleman company won’t cancel them for free saying it’s Expedia’s problem, but Expedia doesn’t know anything about the bookings because they were never successfully created.
So what do I do now? It seems dumb that they’d accept the same flight for the same people twice, but they don’t seem to be budging.
My only proof is a cropped screenshot I took and sent to my friend of Expedia’s error message, but it doesn’t really show any information except the error itself.
I haven’t contacted the airline yet (out of business hours) so maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.
Edit to mention: credit card dispute is an option but the bank says to try to resolve the dispute with the merchant, and only if 10 days has passed can I submit a dispute. The credit card is from Wise.
Another edit: I really think Expedia should fix this. I mean, they have no record of my booking, but they’ve sent a payment request to their partner company who are happy to take it. But there’s no booking. So what am I being charged for??
UPDATE for those kind people following along: The middleman company agreed to cancel the two flight bookings, but for one of them they couldn’t find a way to waive the cancellation fee. The fee is 19120円. What surprised me was that she told me that Expedia _DID_ have a record of the transactions, so it’s harder for them to justify just removing them for free. So I asked for the Itinerary Number so I can ask Expedia, but she said not even they have that number, so the best I can do is try to get them to locate it by credit card transaction number etc. I guess all I’m hoping for is the cancellation fee to be covered by Expedia, but TBH it doesn’t seem all that likely. Still, at the very worst, I have paid 19120 yen for the life lesson to never use these douchebags ever again.
9 comments
Try disputing the charge via the credit card company, that’s one reason they exist.
I don’t know how to proceed in this case. But it might be important to mention if you put this on Japanese credit card or on a foreign one. The solutions might differ.
I had a slew of charges like that from an international debit card purchase, with even more annoying emails that the transactions went through the following day. I get on the phone with them and they ask me if the transactions confirmed with my bank. I go to the bank website and they had all reversed, but they don’t send emails about that. Wasted a ton of hours and stress over this
I hope your luck is as good. Worse case, threaten them with a charge back and get the fraud department of your credit card involved
Expedia sucks had a similar thing happen to me and since then havent used it a single time. Tried booking ? An error occurred, no confirmation emails received. Tried again, it worked. Got to the hotel later, well apparently I had booked two rooms… had to pay for them both of course. I never trust Expedia.
You definitely have more proof, the payment on your cc and emails. Press Expedia on the matter, because they are the main party you dealt with. They should solve it with the other company. Explain you’ll do a chargeback and they should understand no one books same trip three times.
As someone who used to workin a travel agency, I never ever purchase my tickets from places other than the airlines themselves. In most of the cases the prices that are available on the airline’s websites are similar or slightly higher than in 3rd party vendors. If you don’t purchase directly from the airline, they won’t be able to help you with anything regarding your ticket. They will forward you to the agency you purchased your ticket from. Those travel agencies know that and they have you on the hook. So they start charging penalties, processing fees, etc. So always purchase your tickets directly from the airline
Expedia S U C K S.
Yes they should fix this, you have proof, but I wouldn’t count on them being helpful at all. Get ready to dispute at 10 days with your credit card company. Sorry this happened to you.
Did you try asking the middleman for an itinerary number?
Credit card company is the next step IMO. Tell them the situation and request a chargeback. Take it a step further and say you suspect fraud from Expedia.