Expedia -- beware if booking by phone!

MrsGrey

I was booking flights on Expedia website and got as far as entering details. Then the page froze before I got to the payment page. So I called. The assistant said that often happened and he would complete the booking. Suddenly the price had risen by £18. Not a cc fee, just the fare had apparently gone up. It has been the same for 2 days so I smelled a rat. I said I would ring off and try the site again and he was keen for me to do that while he held the phone call with me. I refused, rang off, logged off my account, opened a different browser and started again as "Guest". Bingo -- the original price came up and I booked OK this time. What is this all about? It seems like a total scam to me. I did ask if the price is higher just because it is a phone booking but he denied that too. Just the fare had risen. Not so!:cool:

pogofish

Beware is a good caveat for any dealings you might have with Expedia TBH - and the fluctuating fares are not just a telephone thing, you can get them at any time in your browser too.

Clearing everything and restarting the query is often the best way to approach any change/freeze in your booking process.

IME, you can get good competitive prices/fares out of them for some things but you need to ensure everything on your side of the booking is meticulous - you can bet their CS won't be interested without hefty fees if you have anything to change/correct.

joerugby

I had to cancel a non-refundable Expedia hotel booking because of illness.

They were very helpful on the phone, contacting the hotel on my behalf and getting me a full refund

jpsartre

Take off your tin-foil hat. Thousands of people book online with Expedia every day without any problems.

MrsGrey

jpsartre wrote: »

Take off your tin-foil hat. Thousands of people book online with Expedia every day without any problems.

No tin-foil hat here Mr. Sartre. I was just reporting that it seems most odd that I get one price online, 5 mins later a higher price on the phone that the assistant swears is an actual fare increase, and 5 mins after that the original price online. A little suspect and more importantly -- worth being wary of. That's all.

visidigi

You try out the hotels.com app (part of the same company) - they were doing 12% cashback for mobile site bookings versus 10% for normal site bookings.

Problem was. The mobile site prices were almost double the main site. £88 on the main site, fully refundable, £150 on the mobile site, no cancellations.

The whole thing is a complete stitch up...

callum9999

visidigi wrote: »

You try out the hotels.com app (part of the same company) - they were doing 12% cashback for mobile site bookings versus 10% for normal site bookings.

Problem was. The mobile site prices were almost double the main site. £88 on the main site, fully refundable, £150 on the mobile site, no cancellations.

The whole thing is a complete stitch up...

Or it was just an error... You get an awful lot of people on these boards who must be perfect human beings - it never occurs to them that something could ever be an accident. It must be them trying to scam you...

Your theory would make sense if the prices were 5% higher, not 100% higher. That difference is big enough for most people to notice and therefore not use.

visidigi

callum9999 wrote: »

Or it was just an error... You get an awful lot of people on these boards who must be perfect human beings - it never occurs to them that something could ever be an accident. It must be them trying to scam you...

Your theory would make sense if the prices were 5% higher, not 100% higher. That difference is big enough for most people to notice and therefore not use.

Actually its my error.

It had populated the rooms to two, not the occupants.

My bad.

In saying that, the interface doesn't tell you its for two rooms when it quotes the price...but I'll still accept I'm not perfect and its my mistake.

Intrepid_Explorer

I too have grave concerns with using Expedia especially with any phone conversations. I used them to book a hotel (on line) but then received an email to ask us to contact hem as the hotel was now not available. We did and even accepted an alternative but now after almost 15 hours of phone calls we still do not have confirmation of a hotel (despite being promised the same and when we ring we are told we do not have a booking and my credit card is almost £900 lighter and I have had to go else where to book as they were unable to confirm a hotel. Eventually they said they would cancel with no cost but the next thing is all that money is going out of my account. The last I heard was the hotel may still charge (cant see how as they told us it was not booked on several phone calls).A valuable lesson learnt I think. Would really try to avoid using them if I were you but also they are one of these firms that cover a lot of booking site such as hotels.com and !!!!!!!!!!!. curiously the customer services say it is lodge booking then they say it should be with customer services. Now all I can do is play the waiting game.