Expedia removing checked baggage from booking & not honouring promised reimbursement.

RespectOneAndAll

Good afternoon all.

Has anyone experienced having your checked baggage removed from your booking without being advised as such, and then offered to be reimbursed after you paying the airline directly?
It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any contact details they could give me where this can be escalated to the point of Expedia making a full reimbursement.
Many thanks in advance.

Below are the details of my e-mail communication with Expedia, which started 20 days ago, and still haven't been replied to.

Following is the first email (redacted) that I sent to Expedia ( sent to: travel@chat.expedia.com):-

On X January, I made a reservation through your website for two return tickets to X. When making the booking, as has always been the case, I chose the option of checked baggage included and subsequently went through to make payment. On making payment, the subsequent webpage said the price had changed (without indicating the reason why) and asked me to make a reduced payment. I went ahead and thought nothing of it.

When logging into Expedia later, it became apparent that my details didn't contain the checked baggage that I had booked. On checking my Itinery, I noticed an entry 'Expedia discount -£XX.XX' . I am now thinking that this was likely the difference between the two tariffs of checked bags not included & checked bags included.

I subsequently opened a live chat and communicated with your representative X, who told me he could establish the fact that this was a complete error, to make payment with Lufthansa and forward the receipt and Expedia will reimburse my payment. He stated that for now, Expedia would reimburse for one person; given that this seems to have been an error with the booking system, I respectfully request that Expedia make a reimbursement for the full amount that I have paid to Lufthansa of £XX x 4 - a total of £XXX as per the attached receipt (which I received only yesterday).

Yours faithfully,

X .

Following is the second email (redacted) that I sent to Expedia ( sent to: travel@chat.expedia.com & travelteam@expedia.com ):-

It is now practically 10 days since I raised this issue and, while I've had a number of emails from Expedia regarding rating our booking experience, One Key members & Deals, I still haven't heard from the 'relevant team' about making a refund to my account. Given that I was told by your representative the fact that this was a complete error and an offer was made to reimburse payment for the checked baggage, I respectfully request that you rectify this complete error at your earliest convenience by way of a refund for the the full amount that I have paid to Lufthansa.

This particular trip is to see X, who unfortunately we need to go and help find a care home for due to X deteriorating health. When we booked with Expedia through the money saving expert website, we didn't envisage we would be having this added unpleasant circumstance to deal with. 

We look forward to your reply.

Kind regards,

X

Caz3121

Are you claiming the difference between what you had expected to pay for the fare including baggage and what you ended up paying for a hand luggage fare + baggage?
eg (made up numbers) if flights were originally showing £400 including baggage and then changed to £320 without baggage (with £80 reduction) and then you had to pay £160 for baggage...are you claiming the £80 or the full £160?
If the former then that would put you in the position if there had not been an error, you pay the £400 as expected for flight with baggage..which seems fair
If the latter then you would have financially benefitted by getting free baggage on a hand luggage only fare and may be more of a battle.

RespectOneAndAll

Many thanks for your response Caz3121.

I’d assumed the fare for ‘checked baggage included’ had reduced, so I asked Expedia to reimburse the full amount that I’ve paid to Lufthansa (as I mentioned in my first e-mail, no reason was given for the reduced payment I was asked to make).

If the reduction they applied was the difference in fares, I’ll be happy that they make a reimbursement for the difference between the two fares. It never entered my mind to financially benefit from their mistake. That said, Expedia needed to point this out at the outset and should do so now, rather than not reply at all.

I’ve subsequently sent the e-mail below to the same two e-mail addresses that I’d been given (and hope that Expedia reimburse honestly for whichever error they made).

Dear Expedia.

It is almost three weeks since I initially e-mailed Expedia, and I’ve had no response whatsoever to resolve this issue. Can you please contact me at your earliest convenience and clarify what the ‘complete error’ was that your representative told me had occurred at the time of booking.

If the tariff for ‘checked baggage included’ had simply been reduced by £AA.AA, then the reimbursement that you need to make to me would be £XXX.                     [This was the full amount I paid to Lufthansa]

If the Expedia discount of £AA.AA that was applied to my payment was the difference between the two tariffs of ‘checked baggage included’ and ‘no checked baggage included’, then the reimbursement that you would need to make to me would be £BBB.BB (£XXX - £AA.AA).

 

I look forward to your speedy reply.

Kind regards,

RespectOne&All.

Beany_May

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me! I’d added checked baggage to my flight pressed to confirm and then “Good News the price of your flight is cheaper”. I just thought the price of the flights had gone down. It was only on checking my itinerary with the airline did I notice that I didn’t have a checked bag for my outbound flight. I’ve called Expedia today and was told they can’t do anything without proof and I can buy extra baggage at the airport! Which is more expensive than what I was tying to pay to Expedia!! I’ve tried to escalate but the agent I spoke to couldn’t give me an email address and said he would send an internal email. Not sure if he was just trying to get rid of me. I’ll follow up in a couple of days and send an email. Good luck with your claim! Glad I’m not the only one