Holiday booking error

Carbonfrozenone

Hi, I wondered if anybody could give me some advice? I tried booking a package holiday through expedia on Sunday 11th March and chose my hotel and flights etc then put my credit card details in and pressed confirm. The screen buffered for a minute and then said oops there was a problem. Please try again. So I checked my details again and had another go and the same thing happened. After the 3rd attempt I came the conclusion that I was wasting my time and there was something wrong with either my credit card or the system. The same message every time. No holiday confirmation.
A few hours later i got an email from Thomas cook saying thank you for booking my flight with them! My stomach sank because I'd tried several times to book and knew it hadn't been successful. So I thought I'd check my credit card transactions on my banking app.
There were at least seven pending transactions from expedia and Thomas cook airlines! Panicking I phoned expedia and explained what has happened and they said the pending transactions should disappear within 36 hours and to contact them if they didn't.
The next day I checked again and all the transactions had disappeared EXCEPT the Thomas cook one for the flights. Since then my credit card has been charged £495 for a flight that I haven't really booked. I got in touch with expedia, who, every time I phone say what's your itinery number and I don't have one because the booking was never confirmed! They said they have to speak to Thomas cook airlines about it which they did and I've since been told that if I wanted to cancel my flight it would be Non Refundable.
Not a happy bunny!
As far as I am concerned how can I be charged for a holiday (or part of) that wasn't confirmed? I wanted the 'package' not just the flight.

Do you have any advice on how I can get my money back? I have emailed expedia again as advised by the guy I spoke to from expedia and am waiting for a reply. I really don't want to be nearly 500 quid out of pocket for a flight I'll not be taking (because I since booked my holiday with jet2 having failed the first time!)

I Look forward to a reply!

dj1471

Request a chargeback from your card issuer.

It's common for flight payments to be taken by the airline while hotel/other payments are taken by Expedia. It sounds like the Expedia payment was declined (not unusual, fraudsters seem to like it) while the airline payment went through. Expedia should not have allowed this to happen and it's clearly their responsibility to sort it out since you booked through them.

Carbonfrozenone

Thanks for the reply! I've been in touch with my card issuer and they are taking on the case. I agree it's down to expedia to sort it out but I'm getting nowhere with them or Thomas cook who refuse to cancel my flight and refund me. Fingers crossed I get good news soon!