BA and Expedia - Flight never existed!

kaggi

I was booked on a flight from Barcelona to London City and then connecting to Edinburgh last September. This was booked through Expedia on BA flights. I received a reminder to check in online to the second leg of my flight but nothing about the first. When I arrived at the airport the BA check in told me the first leg of my flight had never existed. They did redirect me via Heathrow but now I can't get any kind of response from BA or Expedia. BA are saying this is my travels agents fault and Expedia are saying they are not a travel agent, but a link to the BA website. Basically they are blaming each other and I can't get a straight answer about what happened, or how they are going to compensate me for this. Neither of them will let me know who their governing bodies are or what the escalation procedure is. To be honest I don't want to book anything with either of them now as there doesn't seem to be any guarantee the flight exists even if you have confirmation. How to I get this matter resolved to my satisfaction?

Caz3121

what financial loss did you suffer, you said they put you on a flight via Heathrow, did they make you pay for a new ticket?

When you book through a third party, changes to flights such as reschedules or cancellations would be advised by the airline to the third party, I would be surprised if you would have been able to get a price and book for a flight that never existed so I assume that with schedule changes etc (especially if you booked well in advance) there was a change and there was a breakdown with communication.

I had LCY flights affected last summer when BA cancelled/retimed some FAO-LCY flights but, as I booked through BA site, I could see the cancellation on the BA website when I viewed my booking and was able to call up and selected alternative flights via LGW

If you had a confirmation of your booking when you originally booked, I would ask BA to confirm what date they notified Expedia of the changes

richardw

This looks like expedia didn't check notifications from BA and act accordingly.

Perhaps ask BA which date did they notify expedia and go from there.

How long later did you arrive at EDI than originally planned?

Doshwaster

I have booked BA flights through Expedia before but I would always monitor the booking on BA.com. All you need is the booking reference and if you gave Expedia your BAEC membership number then the booking will be in your account within seconds. That way if there are any changes then you should hear direct from BA.

In this particular case I can't see what compensation would be due other than an apology or a nominal number of Avios as a goodwill gesture.

kaggi

Thanks everyone, BA finally came back to me, let me know what had happened and gave me money off a future flight as a gesture of goodwill. In future will only be booking direct with the airlines as I think the problem has been with the agency I booked the flight through.