Booked flights from Birmingham Alabama instead of Birmigham UK - Cannot cancel

MarkyMarkD

CFC wrote: »

What a very unpleasant post. I can quite understand why Skyrat is worried sick over it - if my OH made the same kind of mistake with our hol of a lifetime he'd be worried sick too, at the thought of the heartbreak and disappointment it would cause me, and his burden of guilt would be enormous. I've never been in a position to pay £1700 for a trip either, but it doesn't stop me sympathising with this poor guy.

Thanks for your opinion. I don't consider it unpleasant to try to put things in proportion. If you think "worrying yourself sick" will do any good, then please feel free to do it whenever you end up in this sort of circumstance. But better to move on and recognise a mistake, rather than make yourself ill over it.

None of that means I don't have sympathy - I've said that I would feel completely stupid and be very angry with myself if I made this sort of mistake. And believe me, I've made mistakes in the past - and borne the cost.

But I wouldn't spend hours posting on here saying that Expedia and the airline are both in the wrong, simply because they won't ignore the terms of the tickets that the OP purchased which would have clearly stated that they weren't refundable.

The OP has a quite unreasonable view of how businesses do/should work. If you choose to buy a ticket which is deeply discounted compared to the fully flexible/rearrangeable/cancellable/refundably price, then you gain that deep discount at the expense of loss of flexibility. There is no reason why an airline shouldn't offer people the choice of flexibility at a high price, or NO flexibility at a low price. That's a perfectly reasonable way of giving customers choice. Sam_Bee has posted most eloquently a few posts before this one to that effect.

Arguments like "they can re-sell the ticket" are completely irrelevant. If they refund a ticket, they may or may not re-sell it. They may re-sell it for less. They may not re-sell it at all. Why should they lose that money just because a customer makes a mistake (or, for that matter, changes their mind)? That's why, if people need that sort of flexibility, they pay a HUGE premium for it.

And Expedia, which is getting most of the ire, can't even re-sell the ticket as they aren't the airline. All they MAY be able to do is to get the airline to "let them off" entirely on a goodwill basis. And why should they go through all the hassle of doing this, when THEY haven't done anything wrong?

I could go on and on, but I can sense that I'm banging my head against a brick wall.

CFC

Interested in looking into flying into Miami and changing your car hire? It would be £300 less than your Virgin flight though certainly not as convenient.

Total price incl. of taxes and fees £ 792.40 with Air India to Miami ( change at JFK.)

Southall Travel.
/www.southalltravel.co.uk

sky_rat

I have now cancelled the holiday with Expedia.

Its meant that Ive lost my deposit of £309 which Im gutted about.

The Expedia rules say if you cancel the holiday you loose the whole amount (£1700 in this case).

As we have been ringing Expedia that much and we asked to speak to a supervisor, we managed to get them to cancel the holiday and only loose the deposit.

There are deals on my travel for £1300.

Including the £309 deposit Ive lost at Expedia that totals £1609.

Which is still cheaper than the £1700 holiday at Expedia, and we still had to find flights on top of that.

The downside with the My Travel holiday is that the accomodation is not anywhere near as nice and gets very mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.

But I now know that the accomodation we booked on Expedia plus the correct flights would have been at least £2500, which is well out of my budget.

Ive just had to cut my loses but I will still write a letter of complaint.

I always knew Expedia was expensive, but now I know how bad the customer services is I will never use them again.

Now we are back to square one (but £309 worse off), does anyone know any other good places to book Florida holidays ?

Erikin_2

This thread reminds me of a couple, a year or so back, who booked flights to Sydney, thinking it was Australia. In fact it was Sydney, Canada.

Because it was an economy airline ticket (once booked no refund) they decided to cut their losses and went there instead. The local press found out and they were taken on board by the locals and given special attention. Loved the holiday, people and were so pleased the mistake happened as it took them to a place where probably they would never have travelled.

Life works in mysterious ways!!

I’ve used Expedia a number of times and rate them highly – it’s unfair to slag them off because it was not their fault. An economy ticket is an economy ticket and it common knowledge that once booked the deed is done. It is the same with any of the online travel firms. You’ve done well to get away with just losing your deposit.

“…………. does anyone know any other good places to book Florida holidays”

Maybe avoid the internet and use a high street travel agent and pay extra for the safety aspect.

budgetflyer

sky_rat wrote: »

Ive just had to cut my loses but I will still write a letter of complaint.

I always knew Expedia was expensive, but now I know how bad the customer services is I will never use them again.

I think they (Expedia) have been reasonably fair.Youve lost £300 due to your own fault.Their T&Cs stated full amount due. Its easily done I know, I nearly made a similar mistake myself (not with expedia)
Was looking for flights to GOA (india) got a price of £200 rtn. Thought WOW and very nearly booked!!!
GOA is airport code for GENOA (italy)
GOI is airport code for GOA (india)
Thats how confusing it can be

BTW, even if they demanded it, I still wouldnt have given them the balance, if I wasnt going the holiday. For £1400 my credit score wouldnt matter a stuff, even if it was affected. They would have to go to court, and I would think a judge would maybe look kindly on the case once the circumstances were explained.

I think the moral is-

If you are going to miss out the professionals (travel Agents) then you do have to be aware you are shifting the liability on to yourself if it all goes t!ts up or mistakes are made. Thats how good ones make their money-they provide a SERVICE.

DIY is DIY whether it be plumbing, electrical or travel. It could have been worse, you could have wired a plug wrong and fried;)

PBA

I've just tried going on the Expedia site and booking a holiday from Birmingham to Orlando, and based on what I've seen I think you might actually have a case against them.

Admittedly, when you key in Birmingham, it then comes up with three options (Birmingham, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama (and vicinity), United States of America; Birmingham (and vicinity), England). Admittedly, at this screen you must have accidentally clicked on the middle option.

However, from this point on in the booking the airport was only referred to as "Birmingham (BHM)". At no point after this (and I went through the booking until the point when I was asked for credit card details) did the site confirm that you were booking from Birmingham USA. Expedia is supposedly a site where it's easy to book travel, but I'd bet that the average man in the street wouldn't know the difference between BHM and BHX.

I seriously think you should be speaking either to Citizens Advice or to a solicitor about this. Yes you must have clicked the wrong option originally, but it's easy to click the wrong thing on a website you're not used to using and, crucially, Expedia never properly confirmed what you'd clicked on until after you'd paid for the tickets. If you make a court claim on Expedia they'd have a good chance of losing, and because of this I'd imagine they'd almost certainly settle straight away.

sky_rat

PBA wrote: »

I've just tried going on the Expedia site and booking a holiday from Birmingham to Orlando, and based on what I've seen I think you might actually have a case against them.

Admittedly, when you key in Birmingham, it then comes up with three options (Birmingham, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama (and vicinity), United States of America; Birmingham (and vicinity), England). Admittedly, at this screen you must have accidentally clicked on the middle option.

However, from this point on in the booking the airport was only referred to as "Birmingham (BHM)". At no point after this (and I went through the booking until the point when I was asked for credit card details) did the site confirm that you were booking from Birmingham USA. Expedia is supposedly a site where it's easy to book travel, but I'd bet that the average man in the street wouldn't know the difference between BHM and BHX.

I seriously think you should be speaking either to Citizens Advice or to a solicitor about this. Yes you must have clicked the wrong option originally, but it's easy to click the wrong thing on a website you're not used to using and, crucially, Expedia never properly confirmed what you'd clicked on until after you'd paid for the tickets. If you make a court claim on Expedia they'd have a good chance of losing, and because of this I'd imagine they'd almost certainly settle straight away.

PBA,

Thanks for your post and you are completely correct.

I only found out the flight was wrong when I rang Expedia, and at first even they couldnt understand why the flight duration was 1hr 35 min.

I was on hold for 5-10 min whilst they tried to find out why the flight time was so short.

I presumed the web page just hadnt taken the different time zones into account.

After realising I had booked the wrong flights, I went back onto Expedia to try exactly the same thing you tried.

And like you say, when you key in Birmingham on the first page it then comes up with three options.

The mistake must have occured because I didnt select Birmingham England (or entered BHM for the airport code).

But like you say, from this point on in the booking the airport was only ever referred to as "Birmingham (BHM)".

At no point after this did the site confirm that you were booking from Birmingham USA.

The only way to tell that it was Birmingham USA was to ring Expedia themselves.

And even they took sometime to realise this.

Do you really think I have a case ?

exel1966

Why is it some people always want to hold others accountable for their own misgivings ?
You screwed up, you admit that. You were given the option to check the destination, you ignored it and proceeded with the booking. Just how are Expedia to blame ?
In life we all make mistakes, some dwell on them, others move on !

Sam_Bee

PBA wrote: »

I've just tried going on the Expedia site and booking a holiday from Birmingham to Orlando, and based on what I've seen I think you might actually have a case against them.

Admittedly, when you key in Birmingham, it then comes up with three options (Birmingham, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama (and vicinity), United States of America; Birmingham (and vicinity), England). Admittedly, at this screen you must have accidentally clicked on the middle option.

So, admittedly, you must have made an error.

No, you don't have a case.

Why not move on, as you've escaped with a £300 loss. You'll just stress yourself out more and get no-where. You can restart planning a holiday which might put a smile back on your face?

dianadors

http://www.travelcitydirect.com/

If you can go outside of school holidays, these have some great deals. We went with them a couple of years ago. The accomodations was basic but more than ok. We found that we didnt spend any time around the hotel anyway.

Stop stressing about the £300. You cant change whats done. Its just an expensive life lesson. Best of luck. Hope you get your holiday. You'll love it.