Purchasing Tickets via Booking Companies- Expedia

[TheFiend 1,181]

My home town shopping centre is quite busy. They did a major rebuild of the shopping centre about 10 years ago and attracted some big name stores. It's paid off because it attracts plenty of folk to come into the town.

[torrenova 644]

My home town shopping centre is quite busy. They did a major rebuild of the shopping centre about 10 years ago and attracted some big name stores. It's paid off because it attracts plenty of folk to come into the town.

 

Anchor tenants are key to survival as otherwise you have to make two trips, one local and then elsewhere to get the remainder of what you want. Or you just go to the place where you can get it all.

[torrenova 644]

Seriously I went into the town centre yesterday, a trip of just over a mile, a quid return!

 

Pity it isn't really worth going, beggars dotted around who all look able bodied, the police don't seem to worry about them. Shops are mostly charity shops, gambling shops and Pound Shops! No police about, but plenty traffic wardens.

 

If it were not for a rather good Wetherspoons......

 

I agree with the charity shops.

 

They only pay half rates (or none) I think and they have all staff bar one manager as "helpers" and as charities they get away with all sorts of tax breaks which means that they drive rents up because they are not well versed in negotiation and simply accept the first or second offer without reference to other nearby leases.

 

I pitched in for another place the other month which should have gone for less than £10k rent and come with rent free upfront and some other incentives and a local charity just agreed to no incentives and £14k a year.

 

That doesn't sound a lot but say £6k a year on a 15 year lease, £5k of upfront breaks, capped rent increases probably worth another £10k and a half rates for 15 years at about £4k a year and you have a total of £165,000 where they are better off. Add in the free staff and that rises to some £345,000 even before the fact that they get most of their stock for free !

 

Expand that over my group size and you are disadvantaged by over £5m through the life of the lease. Not exactly pocket change !

[jacko 8,778]

I still have not received any refund for the unused portion of my ticket, despite Expedia telling me I would (within 8-12 weeks). It is now over 10 weeks! I would expect at least the UK taxes on the flight, which are a fair quantity of money, could have been refunded more efficiently. Whether it is Finn Air or Expedia holding onto my money I am unsure but I think I will stick with booking directly with carriers in the future.

[firth1974 2,659]

I still have not received any refund for the unused portion of my ticket, despite Expedia telling me I would (within 8-12 weeks). It is now over 10 weeks! I would expect at least the UK taxes on the flight, which are a fair quantity of money, could have been refunded more efficiently. Whether it is Finn Air or Expedia holding onto my money I am unsure but I think I will stick with booking directly with carriers in the future.

Legally, you have to have all taxes returned to you if you didn't take the flight!

[jacko 8,778]

Legally, you have to have all taxes returned to you if you didn't take the flight!

Yes I guess so, doesn't seem to be happening too quickly.

[Goldpanner 399]

I still have not received any refund for the unused portion of my ticket, despite Expedia telling me I would (within 8-12 weeks). It is now over 10 weeks! I would expect at least the UK taxes on the flight, which are a fair quantity of money, could have been refunded more efficiently. Whether it is Finn Air or Expedia holding onto my money I am unsure but I think I will stick with booking directly with carriers in the future.

 

Dont let them piss you about any more. Do a County Court Summons online, that will get their attention. You have to send them a Letter Before Action first giving them maybe 2 weeks to pay you or you will take legal action, if nothing then Online summons, it costs a few quid but you get that back. Go for it. I should have done that with my claim against BA but I let them bulshit me for too long before I issued a Claim online and they paid.

[firth1974 2,659]

 

Dont let them piss you about any more. Do a County Court Summons online, that will get their attention. You have to send them a Letter Before Action first giving them maybe 2 weeks to pay you or you will take legal action, if nothing then Online summons, it costs a few quid but you get that back. Go for it. I should have done that with my claim against BA but I let them bulshit me for too long before I issued a Claim online and they paid.

Does this action only work against UK based airlines, or can you try this with any airline that flies in and out of the UK?

[Goldpanner 399]

Does this action only work against UK based airlines, or can you try this with any airline that flies in and out of the UK?

Effectively yes but with reservations, You can claim against any Airline with a start point of a UK Airport

[jacko 8,778]

 

Dont let them piss you about any more. Do a County Court Summons online, that will get their attention. You have to send them a Letter Before Action first giving them maybe 2 weeks to pay you or you will take legal action, if nothing then Online summons, it costs a few quid but you get that back. Go for it. I should have done that with my claim against BA but I let them bulshit me for too long before I issued a Claim online and they paid.

I have talked to Finn Air while I was in the UK, they point at Expedia who I booked the ticket through. Also Expedia UK always say I have to deal with Expedia Thailand, as if it is a completely different company. Also I am in Thailand at the moment and that is where I live.

I admire your perseverance wrt your claim though.

[Goldpanner 399]

OK I have just reread your original post (My apologies for not reading it fully in the first place) and you can only deal with Expedia Thailand as it is a separate company, legally from Expedia EU. Your contract is with Expedia Thailand and not Finnair or Expedia UK or EU

With respect to Air tickets, with most if not all cheapo economy tickets there is a Fare rule that the fare will be Non Changeable-Non Refundable. Generally you can get a slightly more expensive Economy ticket if you ask, which will allow cancelation or rerouting, but those on Skyscanner are the cheapest tickets with no refund or route change once ticketted.

Now some will, if spoken to VERY nicely attempt to change the date if notified early enough but not a chace within 3 days and legally they have no obligation to do so. You buy Insurance to cover eventualities like cancellation. There is effectively NO reason for cancelling a cheap ticket that will allow a refund or rerouting even if you have a life threatening accident and are in Hospital near death! the airline or Booking agent has no obligation to refund.

So to be honest you have no claim against anyone.

[jacko 8,778]

It was a business class ticket. I just tried to use the old Expedia link to the terms and conditions and it doesn't seem to work!

The T&Cs I did locate say Full Refund permitted for the reason I have.

The bloody taxes should be refundable at least. Hundreds of pounds there!

[Goldpanner 399]

OK Cool, but your claim will be against Expedia Thailand. But just thinking, many moons back I had a Business class ticket with Thai that I had to cancel one leg of the trip and they and Opodo refused a refund.I had too many other things going on at the time to even care. Once again it all goes down to the class of any level ticket.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Goldpanner

[jacko 8,778]

Expedia now do not respond to emails other than the automated response.

Looking around Facebook and the web it appears Expedia leave a lot of dissatisfied customers behind.

 

I would say avoid them.

Edited September 17, 2016 by jacko

[teelack 9,352]

Back to the subject. I have usually done the following. It takes a bit of work setting up the relationship but it works.

 

Where I live a major player is The Flight Centre which I believe is international. They claim is that they will beat any advertised fare by $1 and give a $20.00 voucher for the next trip. What I do is to trawl the local travel agents and interesting airlines web sites for great fares. I simply copy and paste to my 'chosen/designated' travel consultant and that is the deal that I get.

 

I have been doing this for years and I believe that it could have saved me a heap of money and aggravation. It means that I deal with one LOCAL travel agent and usually just one person.

 

As a tail piece I asked the consultant recently if this method bothered her. She laughingly replied "That is what I am here for and get paid for".

[jacko 8,778]

Expedia Thailand no longer respond to my emails.

An outfit to be avoided.

[Gary 4,100]

I once made a bad mistake looking for the absolute best ticket price. To my horror, I had made a mistake with the connection time. It was a 12 hour mistake and I sat in the Taiwan airport for about 13 hours. After that I paid particular attention to connection details. I will pay more for a flight that has the best connections. I probably have used Expedia more than any other and have never had a problem.

[jacko 8,778]

Just thought I would update on this.

I just received a refund from Expedia, 7 months after I had to cancel my return leg and requested the refund, spent many hours on the phone!

 

I just recently had a flush of annoyance and decided to push this again, I had all but given up.

So I sent emails again to Expedia Thailand, I sent in a new complaint via their web-page, and I also phoned their number.

I wasn't too optimistic as they kept me on hold for ages and ages and then disconnected the call (no I was not getting hot!).

But I wonder if my other tactic helped, I went to the Airline too, Finn Air. They confirmed to me they had already processed a refund back to Expedia, and I complained to them the refund had not reached me.

 

Anything to learn here.... booking directly with the airline is the best approach.

Use the agents for bargains, not more expensive tickets. (Mine was a Biz Class fare and that was why it was eligible for a refund).

Stay clear of them if there is the slightest chance you will have to cancel or reschedule your flights, the tickets often come with a lot of restrictions.

 

That said, I am pleased Expedia ultimately came through, such a pity they made it so difficult!

Their tactic is to make it difficult in the hope you will give up!

Edited January 10, 2017 by jacko

[Bullfrog 2,224]

Glad you had a Happy Ending ....

[jacko 8,778]

Glad you had a Happy Ending ....

I frequently do.............

[Bullfrog 2,224]

I frequently do.............

Today's Homework:-

 

How many Happy Endings will a Happy Ending buy...???

[TheFiend 1,181]

Most of the time I tend to book direct with the airline, but my most recent booking was made via netflights.com.... their price was 10 % cheaper and they were also quoting for Qatar flights between DOH and MAN via LHR an option which was not available with Qatar themselves. An option I took as the direct option would have meant a 7 hour layover plus I get an A380 instead of a Nightmareliner on my return to MAN.via LHR.

 

Congrats on finally getting your refund...

Edited January 11, 2017 by TheFiend