Trying to get refund from Expedia

Peterstiles

I booked a Westjet flight through Expedia for departure in Sept 2020, and the flight was subsequently cancelled because of Covid. Initially i was given airline credit but just as I was about to use the credit to buy another flight, I was advised that a refund was already in progress. That was in Nov 2021. I waited the standard 12 weeks and contacted Expedia, who said "the ticket is already refunded at our end" and that as my credit card showed Westjet as the payee, I should actually be chasing them and that Westjet would be repaying me directly. I did contact Westjet who said they had "processed the refund" on 12 Nov 2021, meaning that it was now down To Expedia. 
So what I have now are two parties effectively blaming each other, meanwhile I have no refund and I do not know who to chase (or even who to sue!).
Strictly speaking I believe my only immediate recourse is to Expedia, although Westjet are ultimately responsible for refunding me.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Peter

Brie

I would have thought that if you paid Expedia your contract is with them instead of Westjet and so it's Expedia that needs to refund you.  Westjet needs to refund Expedia first perhaps but it sounds like that should have happened by now.

Westin

I would agree with Brie.

From what you describe it sounds like the refund might be back with Expedia, although the fact that your original cc statement showed a line payment to Westjet adds to the confusion.

This whole thing is a bit of a pickle in no part helped by the fact that Canadian airlines were indeed permitted at the time to not provide cash refunds on cancelled services - instead a credit note.  This subsequently changed as a condition of bail out money from their government. I expect your refund has been caught up in what must be a mess of paperwork.

As you are finding it is a mess to sort out.  I would be inclined to tackle from both sides. I would ask Westjet where they refunded on 12 Nov 2021 and see if they can give you something in writing to confirm the refund paid by them to Expedia.  With that, tackle Expedia.  Another avenue will be your credit card provider but it might be worth first getting something from WJ to show the refund trail. 

HampshireG

I am faced with an almost identical problem!  In February 2020, I too booked a Westjet  flight through Expedia for departure in June 2020.  All Westjet flights to Canada were cancelled from March 2020 and in May I was issued with Westjet flight credit vouchers via Expedia with an expiry date of June 2022.  In February 2022, I attempted to redeem the vouchers for flights in June 2022 but was advised by Expedia that they couldn't be used as a refund was in progress but could take up to 90 days before it appeared in my bank account. After waiting the 90 days with no further communication, in early April, I contacted Expedia again who informed me that a refund had been made to my credit account on October 29th!  This refund has definitely not been received!  An exchange of around 10 emails between myself and Expedia staff in which I attempted to extract information to aid in tracing the missing payment such as transaction ID got nowhere.  Expedia kept repeating that, as far as they were concerned, the refund has been processed - "please contact your bank for clarification" .   Not a lot of help! I have also tried to extract information from Westjet directly but they were even less helpful telling me to contact Expedia!  
So, I am in the situation that I have paid a significant sum of money to Westjet and have received neither flights nor a refund, a highly unsatisfactory situation.  Either Westjet/Expedia are lying about the refund being made or the transaction has become "lost" in the banking system, possibly due to an incorrect digit of my credit card account being mistyped into a computer somewhere.
As a last resort I have initiated a Section 75 claim with my credit card provider as it seems that they are the only party with the technology to sort this mess out.  I will update progress with my claim on this forum.

HampshireG

UPDATE.  I have now received a full refund from my credit card company, so this avenue of approach does work!  It took 5 weeks from submission of my claim but well worth the effort and would recommend  that anyone else who is still trying to extract a refund form airlines/travel agents  does the same.  The real losers are both Expedia and Westjet who I would never use again. I have now booked flights to Canada with a more reliable (British ) airline!